Arcade Emulators

[DemonEyeX]

Does anyone here use MAME or other arcade game emulators ?

For those that don't know, an emulator is a program that uses the roms of the original games to let you play them on your PC or console.
You can emulate most consoles & computers, but i'm mainly interested in arcade games.

MAME is the main program to use, other essential arcade emulators are Daphne (Dragons Lair, Cobra Command), Model 2 (Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2), Supermodel (Scud Race, Virtua Fighter 3, Star Wars Trilogy), Demul\Makaron (Marvel vs Capcom 2, Crazy Taxi, Metal Slug 6), Dice (Pong, Rebound), e.t.c.

With these emulators you can play almost every arcade you can remember, I have an arcade cabinet in my living room running these emulators & it is an awesome thing to have.

You can run most older classic games on any old PC, but you need a fairly powerful rig to run more modern games.

Anyone here using it ? I'd like to hear peoples discoveries\recommendations !
If anyone isn't using it but would like to I will happily help you out.

[Avahi1057]

Re: Arcade Emulators

Sure do. I have a dedicated computer for playing mame and a complete romset. I bought an x-arcade tankstick and built a DIY cabinet (not a refurb, just cut some wood myself) around it which is currently sort of permanently half-finished now. Not much too look at but it plays games and people who see it like it so I'm happy with it anyway.

The main problem I find with MAME is that it doesn't seem to play 'chd' files (which rules out most of the 'newer' mid-90s game). If anyone could recommend a program that loads them then I'd be interested to hear.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Arcade Emulators

The main problem I find with MAME is that it doesn't seem to play 'chd' files (which rules out most of the 'newer' mid-90s game).

Any recent version of MAME should be able to play CHD games.
Most CHD files have a corresponding rom file, you need both to run these games.
Also you need to make sure that your romset version matches your MAME .exe version. (The current MAME version is 0.145u5.)
If your roms work, & you have the matching CHDs, then there shouldn't be a problem.
I'm currently running MAME 0.145, all roms & CHDs are working fine here.
Get back to me & we'll try to find out exactly what your problem is.

[jason h]

Re: Arcade Emulators

I use the SDL version of mame on my Mac which I compile myself - just run it straight from the Mac. Dont really get involved with the CHD images as I prefer to play the games up to the mid nineties. Never heard of Dice though.. Is it used to play very early non-Jamma arcades?

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Arcade Emulators

Never heard of Dice though.. Is it used to play very early non-Jamma arcades?

DICE only plays three games - Pong, Gotcha & Rebound.
All three are non cpu games which use discrete circuitry.
These games have no actual roms to speak of, so can't be added to MAME.
DICE is the closest you can get to playing the original games, however, emulation is far from precise.

[mrgreedy]

I wouldn't mind getting one of the new Raspberry Pi computers and setting it up as a portable Mame box. That would be great.

[baggi]

Re: Arcade Emulators

I wouldn't mind getting one of the new Raspberry Pi computers and setting it up as a portable Mame box. That would be great.

I've been using mame since it first arrived... i used to fix/install real arcade games... and so when PC's became a little more powerful not only did it kill off the real gaming arcades it gave us emulations to... as well you know.... and so i thought about building a mame-box myself, never got around to it... but i had an old Universal cocktail cabinet which i converted into a modern system using the best little multi-arcade board ever called 'ArcadeSD' (don't touch the cheap Chinese knock-offs, go for the American board) great system, perfect for my project... and so i completed it and it's superb, i still play mame, i wrote some code i do my bit, i help some developers, i have helped beta test 'supermodel 3' which is a sega model 3 emulation kit, plays beautifully on my super fast PC and has some great games like Star-Wars Trilogy, Jurrasic-Park etc... Arcade-SD & Supermodel 3

[xmark1234]

Re: Arcade Emulators

i use emulators for most of the retro games i have them all from zx81 emulator to mame every emulator i have have loads of games with them its great fun i loved roadrunner in the arcades and all the remakes are no where near as good when i got my hads on the mame emulator it was there and had go out to get a joystick to play it keys was hard lol

[sixtyten]

Re: Arcade Emulators

I just about to buy a Raspberry Pi

[Moondog]

Re: Arcade Emulators

i've tried MAME for PC but i had an issue with it where out of all the roms i had it would only recognise Narc, so i was able to play Narc, but that was all lol, never really looked into getting it to work but i'm very familiar with emulators and have emulated a fair few consoles etc.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Arcade Emulators

i've tried MAME for PC but i had an issue with it where out of all the roms i had it would only recognise Narc, so i was able to play Narc, but that was all lol

That's a common problem, and it's easily sorted out.
PM me if you need a hand.

[sixtyten]

Re: Arcade Emulators

Sounds like you have the wrong Rom set for the version of Mame you have.

[darren]

Re: Arcade Emulators

hey mate.
would not rather play the proper games and play them on a speccy etc.
just buy the original cassette game.

i can understand doing it if its a game you cant find to buy from various retro game sites.

or perhaps people do it as they want to keep the original games from getting damaged.

just never got why people use emulators.
what advantages have they mate.

i use emulators for most of the retro games i have them all from zx81 emulator to mame every emulator i have have loads of games with them its great fun i loved roadrunner in the arcades and all the remakes are no where near as good when i got my hads on the mame emulator it was there and had go out to get a joystick to play it keys was hard lol

[Moondog]

Re: Arcade Emulators

just never got why people use emulators.
what advantages have they mate.

- being able to save anywhere you want, even on games that normally didn't have saves.

- being able to take screenshots.

- having hundreds of games taking up only virtual space, instead of cluttering up your home.

- frameskipping past long-winded RPG stories that you've seen a hundred times.

- no chance of your old school console breaking down and having to buy another one.


as for MAME i think it's pretty obvious why people emulate it, are you gonna buy the arcade cabinet for every game you want? lol

[xmark1234]

Re: Arcade Emulators

ii totally agree buddy i aint got any old consoles left so have to play emulators lol

- being able to save anywhere you want, even on games that normally didn't have saves.

- being able to take screenshots.

- having hundreds of games taking up only virtual space, instead of cluttering up your home.

- frameskipping past long-winded RPG stories that you've seen a hundred times.

- no chance of your old school console breaking down and having to buy another one.


as for MAME i think it's pretty obvious why people emulate it, are you gonna buy the arcade cabinet for every game you want? lol