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ARCADE GAMES

How To Run Them On Your Computer - In 4 Easy Steps

    There are many different versions and ports of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME), first released by Italian programmer Nicola Salmoria in 1997, and updated countless times. We will be dealing here with the most recent GUI (graphical user interface) version, which is regarded as the easiest to deal with all-around, as the raw MAME program is a command-line program best left to the tech-savvy. Incidentally, MAME does not emulate Laser Disk arcade games like Dragon's Lair or Space Ace. For Laser Disk games, you need Daphne (tutorial coming soon), a different emulator. See the LINKS OF INTEREST page for more options. (This tutorial is for Windows PCs. If you have a Mac, check out this Mac Tutorial.)

 

(Would you rather play arcade games online with no downloads? Click here.)

 

STEP #1: Download the emulator to your computer:

 

  • Go to this website: http://www.mameui.info and download the file: MAMEUI64 .154 (or latest version)

  • You should end up getting a file called "MAMEUI64.7z". This is a zipped file that contains the MAMEUI64 folder and most of what you need already in there. (If you need a program to open 7z files, get 7-Zip here. It's Free!)

  • Extract the contents of the MAMEUI64.7z to the location of your choosing. For this tutorial, we'll assume you extracted it to "C:\MAMEUI64\", but it doesn't matter, as long as you know where it is.

 

 

 

STEP #2: Prepare MAME for use with some game ROMs:

 

  • Navigate to your new MAMEUI64 folder and open the file: "MameUI64.exe".

You should see this:

     On the left is the FOLDER LIST, in the middle is the GAME LIST and on the right is the SNAPSHOT window (more on that later). By default, the FOLDER LIST is set to ALL GAMES. The FOLDER LIST is handy for browsing full genre lists of compatible games, but it makes more sense to browse games you actually have, so in the FOLDER LIST select "AVAILABLE", which will empty the GAME LIST, showing you what games you actually have...which is none so far.

 

     Now you can really clean the view up by clicking the "FOLDER LIST" button on the toolbar or clicking "FOLDER LIST" in the "View" menu and the FOLDER LIST will disappear, leaving only the GAME LIST and the SNAPSHOT window.

You should see this:

STEP #3: Download a game ROM:

 

     There are tens of thousands of arcade game ROMs out there all over the internet, but most of them are protected under active copyright and therefore illegal to download, though there's not much to prevent a potential pirate from using a search engine to search the terms "MAME", "ROMS" & "game title" after studying the supported MAME games database or a Top 100 Arcade Games list. In this tutorial, we will use Robby Roto (Bally/Midway, 1981), a game whose developer, Jamie Fenton, allowed free proliferation by the Mame developer's site.

Disclaimer: It's not legal to download or store a ROM file you don't' own. Some game ROMs are what is called "abandonware", which means the copyright was held by a company that no longer exists. No legislation is in place to regulate so-called copyright infringement on abandonware. "Homebrew" games are made to work in emulators and are usually freeware that is completely legal to download. Licensed permissions are granted in some cases, like the example in this tutorial.

 

  • Go to the Roms For Free Download page at "http://www.mamedev.org/roms/."

  • Scroll down to the Robby Roto link, which takes you to a download page with a link to get "robby.zip".

  • Download "robby.zip" to the ROMs folder inside your MAMEUI64 folder. (Don't rename the file. MAMEUI64 will display the proper name.)

  • Open MAMEUI64.exe and press the F5 button on your keyboard to REFRESH the GAME LIST. (This takes about 20-30 sec.)

You should now see this:

     Sometimes, after refreshing the view, a result for a non-playable BIOS file may appear in the GAME LIST. This annoyance can be removed by right-clicking in the GAME LIST and selecting "CUSTOM FILTERS" and in the little window that appears, click "NON-WORKING" and then OK. That will remove any non-playable items from the list and leave it to just show playable games only.

 

STEP #4: Play your game and get a SNAPSHOT for display in the list:

 

     With Adventures of Robby Roto now added to your GAME LIST, you can either double-click it or just press ENTER if it's highlighted to start the emulator and run the game. You may get a few messages and game info right before the game actually starts running. If this is annoying (it is), you can get rid of it before running a game by checking the "Skip Game Info" checkbox under the Miscellaneous tab in Options>Default Game Options.

 

Some default GAME CONTROLS for MAME are as follows:

  • 1 = Player 1 Start

  • 5 = Player 1 Coin

  • Arrow Keys = Player 1 Joystick/trackball/spinner

  • Ctrl = Player 1 Button 1

  • Alt = Player 1 Button 2

  • Space = Player 1 Button 3

  • Shift = Player 1 Button 4

  • Z = Player 1 Button 5

  • X = Player 1 Button 6

  • Tab = MAME Config Menu

  • P = Pause/Unpause Emulation

  • F12 = Take Snapshot of Game

  • Esc = Exit Game/Emulation

 

     Controls for any game can be adjusted (or learned) by pressing TAB button during gameplay and accessing the MAME config menu. You can navigate this menu with the Arrow Keys, Enter & Esc buttons. (See TWEAKS below for more info.)

 

Default MAME controls for Robby Roto:

  • Start your game.

  • Press 5 to add coins,

  • Press 1 for Player 1 Start

  • Arrow Keys to Move

  • Ctrl (left) for Magic.

  • DURING GAMEPLAY, PRESS F12 TO GET A SNAPSHOT FOR YOUR GAME LIST.

  • When done playing, Press Esc button to exit game and go back to the MAME window.

You should now see something like this:

     You made it! That's about it, in a nutshell. Of course, there's plenty more to know, so I've left some important hints below in TWEAKS. Check the info on the HISTORY file (see TWEAKS below), which shows you info about the game in the snapshot window.

 

A few more secret facts about ROMs:

  • There are often MANY versions of a single game ROM (the definitive or Parent ROM and it's clones) and MAME will only acknowledge a game's presence if it is the Parent ROM or the Parent ROM is already present. EmuParadise usually lets you know if the file you are downloading requires anything else to run in MAME, like a Parent ROM or a BIOS ROM that helps emulate the original machine.

 

  •  After adding new games to your ROMs folder, make sure to Refresh the view (press F5) in the MAME window.

  • When using MAME, you are looking for MAME or M.A.M.E. ROMs and not any other kind. Keep in mind, many of the ROMs offered under the heading "MAME" are actually pinball machine ROMs that actually do not work in MAME. To know for sure the proper file name of the game you're looking for, you may want to check the official developer's database of supported arcade games. That would be: http://mamedb.com/, a fantastic reference! Read on for more hints!

 

  • As stated above, some Parent ROMs just won't work, but sometimes their clones do. This has definitley been found to be the case in various releases of MAME with several games in the past. Examples are Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Vs. Capcom & the original Street Fighter, with analog (parent) and digital (clone) button versions. In these games, MAME will play a clone, but not the Parent ROM, though the presence of the Parent ROM is required to play the clone. One frustration of MAME users of late is that recent releases of MAME have broken previous support of a few games, like Gaplus (Namco rev. D) (aka: Galaga 3), the sequel to Galaga (Namco rev. B), which was a sequel to Galaxian (Namco set 1).

 

  • Some clones had unique hacks like Galaga, which has a fast shoot hack version that removes the 3-shot-onscreen limit to the player's weapon, allowing players to send a constant stream of projectiles at the oncoming aliens. The Parent ROM for Galaga is called "galaga.zip" and the fast shoot clone is called "galagamf.zip"

MORE GAMES:

MAME ROMs for Free Download at MAMEDEV.org

Top 100 Arcade Games at Arcade-Museum.com

Top 50 Arcade Games at MAMEDB.com

12 Best Arcade Games Nobody Played at ToplessRobot.com

Startpage - the world's most private search engine

TWEAKS:

 

Set Your MOUSE Controls: 

One thing you need to do before you get too deep is adjust some of the default controls like setting up the mouse to cover controls like paddles, dials, lightguns & trackballs.

  • While running MAMEUI64, go to: Options>Default Game Options>Controller Mapping tab

  • Set all of the following to MOUSE: Paddle Device, Dial Device, Trackball Device, Lightgun Device.

  • Now all your trackball/spinner games will be controlled with the mouse, like Centipede, Millipede, Tron, Golden Tee, Breakout, etc., as well as the aiming in lightgun games like Area 51, Time Crisis, Chiller, Lethal Enforcers, etc.

 

Customizing Game Controls: 

The best thing to do is get a PC gamepad (controller) or if you have an XBOX 360 or PS3, you've probably already got one! (All Windows operating systems that came out after the XBOX 360 have the driver for the 360 game controller built in.) Sometimes you can find a USB adapter for controllers like Gamecube, Xbox or PS2 (PS3 has support in the form of downloadable drivers. Your local superstore, game shop or electronics shop probably has at least a few controller types to choose from starting around $5-10, with really good stuff starting around $20-25. Anyway, even if you don't have a game controller, using the keyboard or mouse on your PC can still be lots of fun. It's really easy!

  • Start a game with MAME (as outlined in the tutorial above).

  • Press TAB on the keyboard to access MAME's configuration menu.

  • With Arrow Keys select either Input (General), for all games, or Input (This Game), for only the game that's running (best).

  • With Arrow Keys, select the control you want to change and press ENTER button. This will empty the assignment.

  • With the control assignment blank, press the new key (or controller button, stick direction, etc.) you would like to use.

  • After you have customized the game's controls to your taste (BTW: you can use many different buttons for the same control assignment, which is handy for making left and right-handed setups on the same game. Just repeat the above steps, or Esc out of the TAB menu and come back in to start over), press Esc until the menu disappears. MAME will remember these new input (control) assignments until you alter them again.

 

USB Game Controllers:

USB Adapter for PS2, Gamecube & XBOX controllers

USB Adapter for PS1/PS2 controllers

How to Setup a PS3 Controller on a PC

How to Setup an XBOX 360 on a PC 

By the way, many controllers from old console systems are being reproduced and are available now with a USB connector. Just do an internet search on "USB controller" and the system name and you will probably find a result. See the LINKS OF INTEREST page for some links to popular controllers at a real store near you or an internet store.

 

 

Samples (Audio Samples): 

A few older 1980's arcade games always needed audio samples in earlier versions of MAME. Many of those problems have been resolved by now, but there are a few stragglers. If one of your games is missing sound, check this MAME SAMPLES page to see if audio samples exist for the game. If you find samples for your game, download/put them in the SAMPLES folder inside your MAMEUI64 folder. That should get the sounds running in your game!

 

Arcade BIOS Files: 

Many arcade game manufacturers had unique computer boards that must be accounted for in emulation with BIOS files that you just put in the ROMs folder in your MAMEUI64 directory. EmuParadise is known to list any additional needed files to run games on their ROM info pages.

 

Adding Artwork: 

Artwork files can add another level of arcade realism to your MAME experience. Some old arcade games were projected in reverse onto a reflective piece of glass through which artwork could be seen, providing a sense of depth to the game (Space invaders, Discs of Tron and Frogs are perfect expamples of this.) Artwork files have their own folder in your mame directory and this is another easy upgrade to make on a per-game basis at your discretion. The best source for these artwork files is MR. DO's ARCADE. You will also find preview snapshots that show what these artwork files add to the game's presentation in MAME. In some cases, there is bezel artwork that helps vertically oriented games fill the screen without changing the screen dimensions of the actual game. The difference can be quite dramatic. Here's an example of Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) with and without artwork added to the Artwork folder in the MAMEUI64 directory:

     To make changes to these artworks (and there are usually many options and variations in the menu), just start the game in MAME (as described in the tutorial above), press the TAB button on the keyboard to access the MAME configuration menu, highlight the VIDEO OPTIONS using the Arrow Keys and press ENTER. Now that you are in the Video Options, you can select any of the various versions of onscreen artwork you can display for the game that's running. Highlight one and press ENTER to see how it looks. (You can also edit the ".lay" file in the given artwork to change resolution sizes,  etc.) If you don't like it, try another one. You can always go back to the way it was, or simply delete the artwork file from the ARTWORK folder in your MAMEUI64 directory.

 

Fixing Bad ROMs: 

Sometimes certain game ROMs are judged by MAME software to be "non-working" and just simply will not run in your emulator. Why is this? Because the database in MAME tends to change with each release, sometimes affecting games that worked perfectly in previous versions of MAME. Sometimes this is because something within the file is missing or somehow corrupted. Though you can try to download every version of a ROM file from the many websites that offer them, it might be simpler to actually fix the ROM yourself with a program called ClrMamePro. See the link for download and tutorial.

 

History File for Info on Snaphot window:

Just add "history.dat" to your MAMEUI64 directory (the same folder as MAMEUI64.exe). You can find the latest version here. This will add lots of great info for each game to the snapshot window of MAME. This is great for knowing all the trivia and history of a game, including cheat codes, if there are any, hi-scores and more.

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