KnoppiXMAME 1.0 Released

Ant writes "KnoppixMAME is a bootable arcade machine emulator with hardware detection and autoconfiguration. It works automatically on all modern and not-so-modern hardware, including gameports and joysticks. It is powered by Knoppix Debian GNU/Linux, X-MAME, and gxmame." Update: 06/19 23:18 GMT by S : Although there are earlier versions in the release directory, looks like V1.0 hasn't made it onto the FTP just yet. Meanwhile, Jim points out the AdvanceCD image, which is "..also a bootable ISO image of a minimal Linux distribution containing MAME, but weighing in at 16 MB rather than 200 MB so there is more room for ROMs."

Comments

Look to the past, the future holds nothing

[ObviousGuy]

Except for a very few gems, the current crop of games has been pretty lackluster.

It's like all the ideas for games has dried up and all that's left to do is rehash old tried and true ones.

Played Out.

Re:Look to the past, the future holds nothing

[heli0]

All the more reason to stop wasting $50 a pop for new games and instead building a stand alone mame machine to play those old tried and true ones.

Re:Look to the past, the future holds nothing

[Erik Hensema]

Except for a very few gems, the past crop of games has been pretty lackluster too. However, we have forgotten about them.

Same goes with music. The eighties brought us a whole load of crappy music, but I can remember only the good songs.

It only means one thing: we're getting old.

Re:Look to the past, the future holds nothing

[Hanno]

Check out some of those ancient Mame Roms. Back then, there were lots and lots and lots of pretty lackluster arcade games. We all just remember the good ones, but there were countless 1:1 space invader and pac man clones out there.

always wondered how to suck the roms off....

[Kaitiff]

Not being nasty, I just always wondered how to pull the roms off the old nintendo and sega cartridges. God only knows I have a buttload of them laying around. What about Sega CDs too? I assume since I 'own' the cartridges it's legal for me to 'make copies' if I don't distribute them, correct?

Re:always wondered how to suck the roms off....

[bedouin]

Save yourself the time and download them like everyone else does. Most of the Genesis games were what, 512kb? Hit up a ROM channel on IRC.

Re:always wondered how to suck the roms off....

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd need to desolder the ROMs from the cartridge and read them with an EPROM reader. The pinouts are often different from EPROMs, so that's another thing that needs to be dealt with. (with some wires and an IC socket or 2)

Sega CDs are just CDs. Really easy to copy these days, and I've heard the Sega CD console has no protection (so it can actually run games on CD-R).

Re:always wondered how to suck the roms off....

[selfabuse]

Back in the day.. in GamePro and the like, I kept seeing ads for a device for a genesis or SNES, that you would plug into the cartridge slot of your console, stick a floppy in to, and stick a cartridge into, and it would copy the cartridge to the floppy, and you could play it on the console, with the copier. IIRC (which I may not) several games spanned a couple floppies.. don't remember how you knew when to change, but I knew it worked. One of my friends came back from Japan with one for his SNES and it rocked.. so I grabbed my copy of gamepro, flipped through to the ad for the device, and saw the price tag.... nearly $300, which was a fortune for me at the age of 12 (and still is now, at the age of 21) Anyway, the floppies that these things wrote could be read in a PC. I recall that on some boards that had upload/download ratios, we always used to toss a couple SNES roms up for credits. Not sure if anyone else had the hardware to play them back, but it was fantastic.... until my friend took the gizmo back.

Re:always wondered how to suck the roms off....

[HungWeiLo]

I had one of these when I was young.

It's actually not a shady machine that pirates Nintendo gamez. Nintendo actually made a machine that runs 3.5" floppies (they're not exactly 3.5" computer floppies, but close), and also licensed them to be manufactured by other companies (or at least I think it was a proper license). Anyway, these machines were only sold in Asia, AFAIK.

To answer your earlier question, somehow, the OS will tell you to flip the disk to the other side (or insert a 2nd disk) when it gets to the point in the code where it ends abruptly (or maybe the copying program would be smart enough to insert some disk-swapping notify bit to do that). Anyway, I ended up selling mine (around the time SNES/Genesis was big) with 150 "questionable" games for $50 to a mom-n-pop's video game store (before there were Software Etc's and Babbage's)

Re:always wondered how to suck the roms off....

[Zenki]

All of the pins on the cartridge have a purpose. Some are for addressing and some are for data. There's probably a grounding pin and a power pin. Anyhow, go to a website like www.gamesx.com or google.com :P and look for the pinouts online.

You'd need the know how to write a program to use a parallel port to drive the important pins (basically start addressing from the base address of the cartridge and save the data that comes back over the data bus. Keep going until it fails.) and you can build yourself a dumper. At least that's how the smarter people used to do it in the day before companies would just sell you the stuff.

Of course, you're going into problems with carts that do funky tricks like memory mapping and such, but the info above is about all that i understand on the subject.

As for Sega CD's, if they are just standard ISO9660 cds, you can dump them using any decent cd writing software.

Re:always wondered how to suck the roms off....

[drinkypoo]

I have one of these called a Multi Game Hunter. Amazingly enough, it works on both Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. It has a 2.0MO (2 megabyte unformatted capacity - what we call 1.44MB in PC-land) floppy drive in it, which I actually had to replace, unfortunately breaking the little tabs that hold the floppy module together in the process. The floppy module unplugs from the unit itself, so I guess they were planning either to be able to replace them when they broke, or to be able to upgrade to some other form of storage.

The multi-platform capability is provided by the use of two different cardedge sockets on the base of the unit, and two different adaptors; One fits into any version of sega genesis (US, UK, JAP) and the other fits into any version of super nintendo. I don't know if the units change their language based on the language of what you plug them into.

The top of the unit has two slots, one for super famicom games and one for any type of genesis games. It also comes with an adapter to allow you to plug super nintendo games in. The whole thing runs off an original sega genesis/mega-drive power supply, not the later-model one which also powers the game gear and nomad.

The machine will read MS-DOS formatted 720k and 1.44MB floppies, as well as writing its own format which is somewhat higher-capacity, I seem to recall the high density format being around 1.7 or 1.8MB. If a game will not fit on one disk it will break it up into two equal-size parts. There are assorted utilities around the 'net which I have downloaded which will convert between the most popular emulation formats and the MGH format, and split the files if necessary.

While mine is somewhat damaged (the floppy drive case is, as I said, broken) I would be willing to sell it... for about $300. :) I also have a shitload of game floppies, which it is illegal for me to provide you with, but you can always download illicit rom images and convert them. I can, at least, provide you with the conversion utilities. In any case you can use it (when coupled with the appropriate system) to copy games onto floppies, and then transfer them to your PC; it also makes dandy backup copies of your games. The machine also emulates various forms of SRAM, allowing you to save games to floppy on games which normally have battery-backed memory to save them.

Where's the source code?

[Matt Ownby]

Maybe I am missing something but I don't see source code for this available to be downloaded. I'd be interested in using what he has done for another certain emulator. A bootable linux CD that has support for most modern hardware is something I've longed for but haven't bothered putting together.

Re:Where's the source code?

[fireboy1919]

Source code would be nice. Knoppix seems to be doing a good job in hardware autoconfiguration, and like most other good projects, Gentoo is stealing it (in fact, there are three different hardware detection libraries available in Gentoo right now). :)

Seriously, when one project manages to get something Right, shouldn't everybody benefit from it? I'm quite sure that any improvements they've made in either MAME or hardware detection can benefit the entire OS community - or at least the part of it that has a flexible enough distribution to absorb it.

With every new Linux innovation I'm always thinking, "GREAT! Gimmie source! I want that it my distro!"

Re:Where's the source code?

[Mortice]

Erm, well according to the freshmeat page, it's licenced under the GPL. So presumably the source code is available somewhere.

Perhaps they haven't modified the source code for any of the software they're using, in which case the source code can be found in the appropriate place for each piece of software.

Re:Where's the source code?

[GammaTau]

Erm, well according to the freshmeat page, it's licenced under the GPL. So presumably the source code is available somewhere.

As far as Knoppix is concerned, this issue was recently discussed on debian-legal list. See the answer from Klaus Knopper. I don't know the details of this modified version, though.

Not quite yet.

[mcgroarty]

To save people some frustrated hunting, it's not available just quite yet, but will be soon.

Be patient, unlike certain slash editors, who should have made sure the file was actually in the directory they were pointing to. :-)

Anti-whore Article Text in case of slashdotting:

[Anonymous Coward]

About: KnoppixMAME is a bootable arcade machine emulator with hardware detection and autoconfiguration. It works automatically on all modern and not-so-modern hardware, including gameports, CowboyNeal and joysticks. It is powered by Knoppix Debian GNU/Linux, X-MAME, and gxmame.

Changes: ROMs can now be put on the CD ISO without having to remaster/recompress Knoppix. /ramdisk/home can also be copied to the root of the ISO to make configuration changes persistent. Networking support is now enabled and supported with xmame and gxmame. XMAME has been updated to 0.69 and gxmame to 0.33. Xv is now the default display mode; it can be changed by using the "dga" option on the boot commandline. The ISO is now 100MB smaller, at 200MB.

Re:But does it...

[Aliencow]

The install it on your computer and be done with it? I don't see any reasons to use the CD other than the convenience of popping it into any machine..

well

[freedommatters]

looking for the download was a great waste of 5 minutes of my life. can i have a refund please? john

nice, how about one for Apache?

[imag0]

I was thinking a while back how cool it would be for a bootable Apache on cd... Boot the target box up, loads and runs Apache.

You can change the /htdocs to an nfs mount elsewhere on the network or have it on a local drive (in case for dynamic sites, like using a Wiki, that need to write stuff to disk), configuration changes can be saved and loaded from a floppy as well.

Would make a nice secure apache install and easy to setup as well.

All I got. Run with it. Thanks Knoppix guys!

Re:nice, how about one for Apache?

[Gherald]

Hmmmm, I could maybe use a copy for my coffeemaker... I always did want to http:// to it.

Re:nice, how about one for Apache?

[sexecutioner]

Have you looked at ADIOS??

These guys are doing some amazing stuff far and beyond what I was after, but their current release for a bootable Linux system is tops! I can walk up to the "secure" DELL WINNT machines at my university and do something useful with them (write and test PHP code on a local apache server).

Here

Re:nice, how about one for Apache?

[Ramses0]

Already on the knoppix CD's... but it's not enabled by default. All you have to do is "su - ; apachectl restart", and you're good to go. Play fun games with mount, and make sure you understand what you're doing so you don't get haxored.

--Robert

Re:Anti-whore Article Text in case of slashdotting

[mcgroarty]

I'd lurve to see it support DVD media so you can actually put a reasonable collection of ROMs on the disc. Does anyone know if this is doable with the current version?

Nah... I'll stick with gamebase

[acid_zebra]

While I'll probably get shot in the head for this, I don't like this overspecialization.
Why run just mame when with gamebase (http://www.gamebase64.com/gb64v2.htm) I have a frontend that will happily organize ALL my emu collections, including N64, SNES, atari c64 and god knows what else. (yes, arcade roms too).
It provides screenshots, categories, favorites, alternate configs and god knows what else. It runs on windows 98/2000 but it might run under wine or whatnot.
Now to finish building that arcade cabinet I started 3 years ago... *sigh*

Linux MAME vs DOS Mame vs Windows MAME

[AtariDatacenter]

Is there anyone who publishes a good general speed comparison between these? There are some games that I'd like to play, but they're just too slow to be bearable with my hardware. I'm wondering if the Linux version is, generally, any faster?

Re:Linux MAME vs DOS Mame vs Windows MAME

[angle_mark]

Well, on my laptop dos/windows mame is a lot faster than the linux version. Its a celeron 433 and I can play neo-geo games at full speed under dos or windows but can only manage 15fps using the xview video driver under linux. Of course its probably just the unoptimised trident cyberblade xfree drivers holding performance back. Haven't had time to other methods. Also I have a nice big powerful (at least in comparison!) Athlon desktop system with Radeon 9000 pro. Linux mame rocks in that :-)

Re:Anti-whore Article Text in case of slashdotting

[lmfr]

I have a Knoppix DVD disc, along with other live-cds. (And a RH 9 + Mandrake 9.1 install DVD, if anyone is interested.)

As far as Knoppix is concerned (or any other program), there is no difference in media but the size. The filesystem is, as in a CD, ISO9960 with rock-ridge extensions. (Normal video DVDs also have an UDF filesystem, but it isn't required nor does it conflicts with the ISO9660 one.)

Re:But does it...

[selfabuse]

I can't say that this version does (Haven't DLed the whole thing yet) But I've never had a problem running standard issue Knoppix in VMWare ..download the ISO, tell VMWare to boot off it, and away you go

Can I buy ROMs?

[akvalentine]

Is there any one out there that sells ROM collections? I would be interested in buying some, but I can't find any.

If nobody does sell them, why do the copyright holders care if they are traded, since they aren't losing any revenue?

Re:Can I buy ROMs?

[tmasman]

Mame Rom Burners
But you didn't hear that from me...

~ tmasman

Re:Can I buy ROMs?

[Eil]

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT buy any rom collections. Almost without exception, anyone that you might find selling emulator roms is doing so illegally. Especially the dimwits on eBay. Full and complete MAME romsets are available on the net if you look hard enough. There are several highly active newsgroups where complete romsets are posted regularly for almost every system imaginable. I know of at least one IRC channel where a few weeks' worth of downloading can get you just about every game released for every console, computer, and arcade game that existed. (Even a few newer ones like PSX, Dreamcast, and PS2.)

If spending all of your free time downloading isn't your style, then you might look for someone who will burn you a copy of their collection. This is especially prevalient within the online MAME community.

Happy hunting!

Re:Anti-whore Article Text in case of slashdotting

[jesse.k]

Mame currently supports games like King of Fighters 2001 (60mb), Area 51 (which has a 300mb HDD image file) and several other more modern games.

It's true Pac-Man is only a few KB, but if you want to play some of the more current games, you'll appreciate DVD media.

Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

I sure hope you have the original games for all those ROMs you play.

Oh, and this purple shit hurts my eyes.

Re:Yeah

[jesse.k]

or you could download Mame32 and be playing that in windows and actually be on topic.

Seriously though, the Knoppix boot cd isn't too hard to configure.

Re:ROMs

[Ryan Amos]

Actually some of the neo-geo roms are huge.. 64 and 128 megs each. MAME also supports a lot of newer games, which are significantly larger than Ms. Pac-Man. MAME also supports some 5000 or so games, so even if they were all less than 256k, that's still much larger than the size of a CD.

Seek no more. MoviX is what you are looking for.

[Mensa Babe]

While we're at it, I'd like to see a linux distro (possibly based on Knoppix) that boots into Freevo automatically... (or whatever media player/jukebox, as long as I can hook my PC to a TV)

'The MoviX project is a series of three different tiny Linux CD distributions containing all the software to boot from a CD and play multimedia files through the MPlayer, the best multimedia player in the Unix world:

• eMoviX: a micro Linux distro meant to be embedded in a CD together with all video/audio files you want, so that the CD will be able to boot and automagically play all files;
• MoviX: a mini CD Linux distro able to boot directly from CD and load in RAM a console interface to MPlayer. From the interface you can easily play DVDs, VCDs, audio/video files Audio CD, internet radios, TV, you name it!
• MoviX2: same as MoviX, but it makes use of X and makes use of the nice MPlayer GUI.

Supported formats are all formats supported by MPlayer, most noticeably DivX but more in general any AVI, MPG, QuickTime, MP3, OGG/VORBIS and a few others'.

Thank you.

[Mensa Babe]

Thank you, I will. By the way, are they expensive? I'd like to build a huge collection, so the prices will add very quickly. I'd like to know in advance how much money do I need.

Re:Okay, for use Windows users....

[agrippa_cash]

Yes, it is that simple. And if you want to install it on your HD, it is quite easy. Especially compared to getting MAME to work on my Linux box (ARGH). The only downside to Knoppix is that you don't know any more once you are using Linux than before you started. Then again, that could be a plus.

How to get KnoppiXMAME 1.0

[drfreak]

Hi everyone, I'm the author of KnoppiXMAME. The file wasn't available yet on ibiblio when I updated the project status on freshmeat. I didn't think it would generate an announcement on the main page, and I certainly didn't think it would be slashdotted!

I've mailed the ibiblio maintainers and am waiting for a response on the status of the ISO file I uploaded about three days ago. In the meantime you can grab the ISO directly from me by opening an ftp session to yummy.dyndns.org. It's only 128K up, so whoever gets it first please put some mirrors up!

- Daniel R. Tarsky

Re:How to get KnoppiXMAME 1.0

[drinkypoo]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to set up a bittorrent link next time :)

Don't feed the scammers

[dq5 studios]

There are many many sites out there charging US$100 or more for MAME sets. It is in direct response to their actions that the Tombstone Group was formed. Due to some provider problems they were shutdown for a time. To keep the scammers from taking over during their absence, Lazarus and FreeMAMERoms took over.
There maybe other burning groups, these are just the ones I am aware of.
If you want to know what I mean by scammers do a Google for "Emu on CD" for a Brazillian site. (Please don't give them any money)

easy products to rip roms with

[mushroom blue]

for cartridge games, you can find a rom dumper do do that. no need to desolder chips or anything. every cartridge system has a dumper made for it. a company named BUNG tends to make a lot of them. I have one of their N64 dumpers, and it works almost flawlessly.. except for needing a few bios flashes due to new protection schemes. note: rom dumpers are apparently semi-legal, but being I was only using it for my personal collection, i'd love to see someone bust me. :)

for CD-based systems (TG-CD, Sega CD, Playstation), you can simply dump iso images of the files using your PC CD-ROM.

fair use is a fun thing. it'll probably be harder to find a rom dumper due to the DMCA, but I'm sure a quick scour of the alt.binaries.emulators newsgroups will pop up a few people selling them.

Writing games with knoppix

[dew-genen-ny]

I've been thinking recently, that a really good way to get people into linux would be to have a couple of really decent games for the platform.

The trouble being that we're in a chicken-egg senario right now (the chicken did btw...) - no killer linux only games exist, and because mostly only geeks are using linux at home right now, no (killer) games are written for linux.

So how about using knoppix as the answer - basically, if you want to play our game, you have to put the disk in and reboot.... a knoppix like distro could boot, and then the game could automatically load on top of that. No doubt performance would be better since you're now not likely using 500megs of ram on all the quickstart agents that inevitably seem to load up on boot...

You could also include a way of just booting up into a normal kde system by hitting the right key on loadup - the kids would absolutely love the new/coolness factor of it, and voila! 10 years from now we'll have kids remeniscing how the first time they touched linux was when it came distributed with XYZ linux.

Plus linux can get some great press because it's suddenly a gaming platform as well!

Re:Anti-whore Article Text in case of slashdotting

[lmfr]

The how-to will have to wait, as I currently don't have the time.

1. rh+dvd-isolinux.tar.bz2, the isolinux directory, 9.3Mb.
2. make sure full Mandrake 9.1 is in /mandrake91 and full RedHat 9 in /redhat9
3. change redhat9/.discinfo, line 3, to 1,2,3
4. for Mandrake, execute gendistrib --noclean --distrib path_to_/mandrake91 (gendistrib is in rpmtools-4.5-9mdk
5. burn: growisofs -Z /dev/recorder -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -J -pad -r -T -V "Mix" -v -f full_dir/

Re:How to get KnoppiXMAME 1.0 (New Official Site)

[drfreak]

A kind soul at PlanetMirror is now hosting KnoppiXMAME 1.0. I'll be updating the freshmeat page today.

Here's where you can grab the files:

http://planetmirror.com/pub/knoppixmame/
ftp:// planetmirror.com/pub/knoppixmame/

Share and Enjoy!

- Daniel