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Archive.org Hosts Massive Collection of MAME ROMs
An anonymous reader writes to point out a giant gift to the world
from the Internet Archive: a massive collection of MAME ROMs, playable in your browser using Javascript Mess. From the blog post announcing this extension of the already mind-blowing Internet Archive: "Like the Historical Software collection, the Console Living Room is in beta – the ability to interact with software in near-instantaneous real-time comes with the occasional bumps and bruises. An army of volunteer elves are updating information about each of the hundreds of game cartridges now available, and will be improving them across the next few days. Sound is still not enabled, but is coming soon. Faster, more modern machines and up-to-date browsers work best with the JSMESS emulator."
Excuse me if I'm just not getting it but isn't this copyright infirngement?
Unfortunately, the only format they released the ROMs in is one huge ZIP file. Even the torrent, where torrent software might have allowed picking-and-choosing individual ROM files, is only the ridiculous 42.8GB ZIP.
I'm still looking for a list of files, but for that size, it might be EVERY MAME ROM in the MAME database of over 7000 ROMS.
On one hand, it's copyrighted content, but on the other, it's ~20 year old content, and not freely available in the public marketplace (or at least, not very affordably). Most manufacturers have chosen not to pursue copyright claims against anything that is not current-gen.
And this reader has been crossposting in how many threads already?
Democracy is for the people; you only vote once per season and we'll do the rest of the work for you don't have to.
Look at the stuff in the "MESS and MAME" collection. There's PSX dumps, there's Saturn dumps, and there's a whole bunch of arcade games that I know for a fact cannot be legally distributed (Raiden, Raiden Fighters, a couple of CAVE games, etc). I'm not even sure how legal those ROM dumps are even if you own the original arcade boards- almost all arcade PCBs have hardware protection on them (think of DRM, but a billion times worse), and in order to dump the ROM contents properly and/or run them you'd have to crack that protection first.
I mean, shit, this is basically a ROM hoarders wet dream. I have never ever seen that stuff hosted anywhere other then torrent websites. I'm honestly surprised that archive.org allowed this to be posted and I'm surprised the mamedev guys haven't freaked out over it, because this could potentially attract a lot of negative attention (and mamedev is very, very prone to sudden outbursts of illogical drama).
Even better if the entire Internet is shut down, not just the Archive.
Too bad there's no good, modern MAME client for Linux. Or for the Mac for that matter (last version was 2009)
PEX tells me there are at least 36k peers already, and it is going up as the USA wakes up... slashdot effect, probably. It is climbing fast, more than 2k peers every 10 minutes.
This little freeware program allows you to not only see what's in an archive shortly after you begin to D/L it, you can prioritize individual files inside it or pick and choose any number of them to D/L or not. Also to get bits and pieces of the archive in truncated form, still retaining the format container. I haven't used it but maybe 3 times, but these situations are perfect for it: this huge-ass, inconvenient HTTP grab of over 40 damn gigs. There's a portable version available somewhere but I can't locate it ATM.
http://www.loadscout.com/index.html
If [the current owners of copyright have] a problem they can say something to IA.
They would likely say it RIAA style: by suing for a large amount and, along with the service of the suit, offering to settle for a far smaller amount.
it's no less 'legal' than the archive.org copy. That said, I've seen Capcom take down MAME arcades so it won't be up there long I'm sure...
There is no way whatsoever for me to download that file to my Nexus 16GB, especially since I can't seem to get USB OTG working.
Go to Google Play Store and download Rhythm Software File Manager to your Nexus device. While you're doing that, download this file on a desktop computer. Once the download finishes, possibly months later if your connection is metered, unzip this file to a folder and share the folder using FTP or SMB. On your Nexus device, open Rhythm Software File Manager, tap Network, scan your subnet for shared folders, and copy the ROM from the shared folder to the device.
pacman -Si sdlmame
But does it run Pac-Man?
Here you go: https://ia801001.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/26/items/MAME_0.151_ROMs/MAME_0.151_ROMs.zip
Us pinfans have been happily using VisualPinball & PinMAME for ages now. The VP team negotiated terms of usage with the owners of pinball ROMS (Stern, Bally, and other defunct-ish companies) which included a flatout promise not to design or publish pinball sims for games less than a year old. It seems to have worked well, in the sense that I know of no attempt either to ban distribution of the ROM files or to sue any designer or user of VP files.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Ahh, gotta love non-free software... https://github.com/jsmess/jsmess/blob/no_cothreads/mess/docs/license.txt
And no one ask me for permission to copy my work. This is a fuck you to creative people who actually spent time in their lives to realize a new idea.
unless you want to reboot.
Javascript?!?!?!
No thanks. I'd rather emulate an emulator using javascript whilst emulating windows, just to be on your level.
I love the youth of today for taking priceless optimized stuff and waving your "i'am a lazy fuck, who pisses on hard work" in its face. Nice job.
As has previously been explained, a DMCA exemption allows you to bypass the DRM on something you legally own. You still have to abide by copyright law.
Also the exemptions are re-assessed annually and they decided not to keep the DMCA exemption in place for old computer games.
As you can be fined for each violation, downloading individual games lowers your risk considerably. Someone who downloads 7000 games is a much more attractive target for a lawsuit.
And 0.152 was released a couple of days after they uploaded 0.151, so it's already out of date.
When they add the hard drive and cd images for the games that use them it will add another ~300gb.
I don't expect they'll still with a single zip file for too long (if they survive that is).
Should we expect all news to be 35 days late?
timothy, you're a fucking idiot.
The "massive collection of mame roms" has been there for a month, and is NOT what their blog post is about.
The NEWS is them hosting the jsmess emulator.
Do you even read the pages that you link?
From Other Files -- torrent, or the generated Magnet
It's still One Big File, but at least you might reduce the load on archive.org. Neighborly, y'know?
Or you could always donate (3 to 1 match until EOY) to help with the upcoming lawsuit. (Oh there'll be one, well, just because. These bits USED to be owned, and I'm sure there are some people who still think they are -- whether they truly are or not.)
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Yeah, I think plenty of people would say that 20Mbps IS fast, or at the very least decent. Plenty of us are stuck with 3Mbps or slower DSL.
I've been piecing the Mame ROM collection together from Alt.binarier.emulators.mame
I admit I haven't worked on it for a year or so, I have 26 Gigs worth of ROMS, and
my UseNet isn't that quick. The version I was working on was 37 Gigs, this at 43 Gig
has grown a bit.
I like Moon Patrol if your my age it's one of the popular stand up arcades of the time
a moon buggy you jumped craters and boulders then the addition of space craft you shot at.
It's got four keys forward, backwards, jump, and fire. So would work an just about any
phone like my Nokia 3650 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3600/3650 -you really need
to see the key lay out.
I've got the ones that count for me Mr Do, Bubble Booble, and as mentioned moon Patrol.
I'd like to say !Score! but this Torrent could take a very long time, I'm uploading 31 KB/s .5 to 1.1 K/s we'll just download it and see what's there. I knocked the upload
downloading
down to 5 KB/s could be a junk file.
As you can clearly see on Archive.org, this has been up there since July. I've been referring people looking for a MAME romset to this torrent for months.
Well...I don't know if I'm just a damned fool, but how do I open a single one of these things? All I've got is a mess of files with "crystal" in the name (i want to play "Crystal Quest", with no idea what software I need, if I have to install this JSMESS as a plugin, what to open these bizarre files with...I am lost!
Anyone have a list of the ROMS contained within the ZIP file?
It's your name on that game. Stand tall or shut the fuck up.