Does anyone use MAME?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

MAME.

I was always curious about how to use it, because some of those games I am just dying to play again, but they don’t exist in any other form anymore.

Can somebody clue me in? Thanks.

2

It’s not too hard. You must have the game files unzipped and saved in the ROMS folder. Run MAME. Scroll down until you find the game and double click it.

You should have to confirm that you own a copy of the game. (It’s been a long time since I open it) 5 and 6 are add coins. 1 and 2 are player starts. TAB brings up the help menu and you can use it to assign controls and adjust certain things.

Is that what you wanted?

3

Well, MAME itself is legal to own (the emulator), and is free.

To legally own the ROMs, or game files, you are supposed to own a copy of that game on some platform already.

There are some ROMs out there, from a variety of sources, that you can legally own without having to have a copy of the game. Some are from now-defunct companies, some were given the green light for free distribution from their companies.

4

I was just sort of l0ooking for the nuts-and-bolts explanation of how the ROMs and the emulator interact to allow you to play the game.

But…

Now that I see this may be a case of infringement upon some copyrights, I’m going to ask that this thread be closed so as not to cause any trouble.

Thanks for the responses, and sorry if this broke any rules.

5

Two points, Airman:

  1. Quick and dirty nuts-and-bolts:
    MAME creates a virtual machine on one’s computer that emulates the computer that originally ran the ROMS. Part of the virtual machine instrction is to look for the programs that were originally burned onto the ROM chips on the game’s board. MAME then searches for the ROMS, loads them into memory, and runs them within the virtual machine. VERY quick and dirty.

  2. Ownership of MAME is not illegal, as all it is is an emulator. Nothing wrong there. Where the question arises is when one downloads the old ROMs and uses them. This is likely copyright infringement, and that’s why the old ROM sites have dried up and blown away - the game makers recently discovered the value of nostalgia. You can buy CDs from several of the old game companies that are little but stripped-out emulators and ROMS. Under some (even most) interpretations of the Fair Use Doctrine, downloading a ROM to a game you already own should be OK - as legal as copying songs from a CD to a cassette. Of course, how many of us actually own an arcade game (well, OK, I do, but that’s beside the point)?

IANAMod, but I didn’t think it was against the rules to explain the use of a product that is not inherently illegal on the boards, only to explain how to use them illegally (much like it is OK to discuss gun ownership, just not instruct on how to convert single-fire rifles to automatic). If I’m wrong, I’ll happily and publicly apologize, etc. I know it’s hair-splitting, but after all, I am a lawyer…

6

Since this thread is still alive and kicking, I just wanna jump in with a link to a cool custom-case mod-- This fella jammed some new hardware into an old “cocktail” style video-game cabinet, hacked the keyboard apart to use proper arcade-style buttons & joystick. (He didn’t use the coin-switch-- I think I’d have kept it and used the machine as a piggy-bank.)
[ul]LINK[/ul]
(Vetted for legally dodgy links – 's cool.)

You know I want one. Soon. 'Cuz I can’t set a glass of beer on my P.C.

(The neat thing is that many of the games come with “dipswitch” settings, faithfully emulated, that allow you to run in “cocktail” mode – so the image turns upside down when it’s time for “player 2” to take a turn.")

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna play a quick game of Tapper and then go to bed.

7

Done.

Cajun Man - SDMB Moderator