MAME – Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, re-live the retro arcade games from the past

Hardware emulation isn’t a new thing nowadays, and as PC’s have got more powerful you find more game systems are getting emulated even so close as to be just one generation behind the current game consoles.  Well the real big name in emulation for me is MAME which stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and it first appeared back in 1997.

So if you have a classic arcade game you used to play (or perhaps not such a classic more a guilty pleasure) then short of digging out an old arcade which still has the game, then MAME is your best bet for getting to relive those gaming memories.  The amount of Rom’s (games) that MAME actually supports is mind boggling, and the basic rule applies if its more than 6 or 7 years old, MAME will probably play it.  Of course there is some legal stuff going on here, you are only legally allowed to have the rom is your own the origional game itself i will say this doesn’ t stop most people but you should be aware of it.

Depending on how technical you want to get you can download the command line version of MAME or opt for the more user friendly MAME32 (this is the one I use ) which has a prettified front end.  You can also get lots of add on user interfaces for the command line version which make it much friendlier to the MAME newbie.  Once you have got your MAME Installed and ready you can source yourself some ROMs and get cracking on working out which games you remember from the 80s and 90s still stand up as playable today.  I found plenty of old games are still as addictive today as when I first played them, with the game play being just as addictive and moreish as I remember from 15 years ago, some however have not aged quite as well but rose tinted glasses tend to do that to some games.

So here the useful stuff, we have all the useful links for you to get your retro gaming fix on.

Official MAME homepage link here for general info and you command line lovers.
MAME 32 homepage here if you require a more user friendly MAME experience.
mameworld.info a whole host of MAME related news, info and downloads, well worth taking a look here.