Calling all mame users

MonsieurEvil · August 2002

If you love MAME games (and I love them enough to have over 4000 ROMS on 7 CD's), you will love this site. It allows you to setup client-server versions of MAME32 and play head to head over the Internet or a LAN. We played Baseball Stars 2 and HAt Trick for a few hours today at work, totally destroying all semblence of productivity. But our boss was so into his game of MAME Metal Slug 3 he didn't care <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'> .

<a href="http://www.mamenet.com" target="_blank">Kaillera</a>

pielemuis · August 2002

aren't roms considered illegal ?

DOOManiac · August 2002

I don't like Kaillera as its based on a very old version of mame32 that doesn't have proper video support like the newer versions of mame32 have. Also the joystick support seems a bit fickle.

That and last time I tried it it didn't even work :(

Banan · August 2002

hmm, I don't think it's illegal if the file is a couple of years old or something,

MonsieurEvil · August 2002

None can be sold, but abandonware can be had without cost unless the copyright is still intact. Since most ROMS (at least the ones I have) are usually decades old, there is no longer any source to give revenue to to or claim ownership of the game.

Otherwise, FilePlanet would not host the Gamespy site www.classicgaming.com, which has thousands of ROMS. They are a legit network, and do not allow 'warez' of any kind.

The only company to ever get in a tizzy over ROMs was Nintendo some time back, and a judge told them their games were years out of print and no longer available anywhere, ending their ability to charge for it. Most of the other games' manufacturers ceased to exist years ago, and can no longer enforce their trademarks and copyrights.

MonsieurEvil · August 2002

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (DOOManiac @ Aug. 01 2002,16:27)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I don't like Kaillera as its based on a very old version of mame32 that doesn't have proper video support like the newer versions of mame32 have. Also the joystick support seems a bit fickle.

That and last time I tried it it didn't even work <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
The version I downloaded today was the exact same version as the current MAME Win32 binaries. We had it working in 5 minutes. You might want to take another look, as we had a blast playing.

Right_Behind_You · August 2002

I always wanted to say this to MonsE... Edit: Shove a sock in it MonsE, You know i won. <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

Relic25 · August 2002

Suhweet! I just have to lament for a second though. My favorite site for that stuff (mame.dk) removed all their ROMs due to a copyright problem. :/

Dunsby · August 2002

what the hell is a mame

MonsieurEvil · August 2002

That sucked. Although they still listed lots of useful info about their ROM's in their database, until recently. I got my collection from there, as well as from classicgaming.

Silent: Mame can be located <a href="http://www.mame.net/" target="_blank">here</a>. It is an emulator program that allows you to play old video games from, I am presuming, before most board members were born. There is a very well maintained FAQ on it <a href="http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html" target="_blank">here</a>. And here is a <a href="http://www.mame.net/gamelist.html" target="_blank">gamelist</a>.

And here is perhaps the greatest FAQ entry in computer history, from the site:

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">G13. Why don't the devs fix old games instead of adding new ones?

Simple. Adding new games is both relatively easy and relatively interesting. Sometimes, as soon as a dump becomes available, all one has to do is add the game info and ROM names to the proper drivers, recompile, and the game works perfectly. By contrast, fixing the existing games is usually both tedious and difficult. Often this requires that the dev play the game through to the point where the bug occurs, then step through the disassembled machine code line by line. Repeatedly. Ad nauseam. Once the error is understood, the dev has to write good, clean code that will correct the problem without breaking anything else on any of the hardware platforms that MAME runs on (which is often harder than you'd think).

Sometimes, despite their best efforts, it turns out that there's nothing they can do:

Fix the sound in Asteroids? Not doable unless you intimately understand discrete circuitry as well as the inner workings of a $5000 piece of modeling software that you'd better have a copy of lying around.

Add the voice to Wizard of Wor? Not unless you can emulate a chip that's been out of production for 20 years, for which the only known documentation is an old, threadbare data sheet written in Japanese and cribbed from a former Sanyo employee.

Fix the colors in Pig Newton? Not unless you can track down one of the fewer than 10 remaining existing boards and dump the color PROM from it.

Fix the graphics glitches in Mole Attack? Well, the game is interacting with some protection device that's totally unknown because we have no boards, no schematics, nothing. What values is the device looking for? Golly, I wish we knew!

Fix the cocktail mode in game X, Y, or Z? Hmmm...let's play blindman's bluff with the DIP switches and go hunting for the proper background and sprite registers. Is that it? Noooo... How about that one? Noooo.... Hey, two down, only thirty more to go for this particular DIP-switch setting...!

A recommendation: If you want a bug in your favorite game to be fixed, report it at MAME Testers and try to characterize it as specifically and with as much relevant detail as you can. The devs will get to it eventually, really they will. If they don't get there fast enough for you, well, you'll just have to learn C and wade in there yourself. Then maybe you'll find out what a pain in the neck maintenance and repair can be.

<b>The cry goes up, "But I'm not a programmer!"

Sorry, but if you aren't willing to wait and yet aren't willing to learn, then stuff a sock in it. </b>

</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>

Dunsby · August 2002

what emulater do i get?

MonsieurEvil · August 2002

It depends on what kind of game you want to play, Silent. There are multi-game emulators (like MAME, for old arcade games), as well as emulators for other systems like Commodores, Atari home systems, and so on. I would start

<a href="http://www.classicgaming.com/vault/emulate.shtml" target="_blank">here, at the classicgaming.com emulator download page</a>

Dunsby · August 2002

i wanna play online games <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

<img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/asrifle.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':asrifle:'> <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/turret.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':turret:'>
the gun was busted... im just "fixing" it

MonsieurEvil · August 2002

Well, that's what this whole thread was about. Playing MAME games online against other people.

Dunsby · August 2002

yeah but what do i download to play them and where do i get the roms from <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

<img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tiny.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':tiny:'> <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/pudgy.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':pudgy:'> <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/bob.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':bob:'>
"the hive"

MonsieurEvil · August 2002

You've got all the links above that you need to get started. I can't help you the whole way - get out there and learn, or don't. I am just disseminating information.

Calling all mame users

Comments