---> Arcade Games <--- Ahhh...the Arcades. The dim lights, the funky cabinet art, and the sounds...the unforgettable sounds. The early '80s was the golden age for Arcade Games, and now you can re-live the real experience at home. [For some computer fun, listen to "the Pacman theme" (PACMAN.WAV)] MAME is the preeminent emulator to play arcade video games. In the past I offered dumps of the Read-Only_Memory which contained the code for the games. However, the latest versions of MAME only works with the most recent dumps, and it has become difficult to keep up with the constant changes (even very old games are being updated). For this reason, I will no longer offer a full set of arcade game ROMs. ========== UI Folders MAME has now added a graphical front end that allows the display of Images and Infos. I have encased in ZIP files some of these categories of Images and Infos. Just extract the directory encased in these ZIP files into the root of your MAME directory. Note that you -may- have to associate the "snap" directory manually. IMAGES -> The images I am including are Marquees, Cabinets, Control Panels, Control Instructions (HowTo), and In-Game Snapshots. Although the User Interface will display other types of images, the ones I am ofering are the most useful for both identifying a system you remember, and understanding how the systems controls were originally laid out. Note that some games still lack a few of their image types. Cabinets = cabinets.zip Control Panels = cpanel.zip HowTo = howto.zip Marquees = marquees.zip Snapshots = snap.zip ---------- INFOS -> These are descriptions that better help you understand the games. The infos I am including are History, MAME Notes, System Information, MESS Notes, Button Functions, and Initialization Proceedures. Although the User Interface will display other types of info, the info files I am offering are the most useful for operating the system. Note that info is incomplete for some systems. Command = dats.zip (file: command.dat) Gameinit = dats.zip (file: gameinit.dat) History = history.zip Mameinfo = dats.zip (file: mameinfo.dat) Messinfo = dats.zip (file: messinfo.dat) Sysinfo = dats.zip (file: sysinfo.dat) ---------- Filters => The UI has built-in filters that sort the rom listing by various methods. The "Category" filter is special, in that it reads INI files that you can add to your "folders" directory, to sort the rom listing by any method you can devise. You must first select the filename, then select the sorting filter contained in the INI file. Note that every time you exit and re-enter the Category filter, you must re-select your filter method. Category = folders.zip ==================== PROGRAM Folders Calibration -> Some video games required calibration to align hardware components. These calibration settings are stored in a directory in the MAME root directory called "nvram". I have included the necessary analog gun calibration file for the game "Terminator 2 - Judgment Day (rev LA4 08/03/92)" in the ZIP file "nvram.zip". Extract the roms directory encased in the ZIP file roms.zip into the root of your MAME directory. ---------- Sound -> Due to technological limitations, the sounds in some early video arcade games were not all digital. To hear the analog sounds, recordings had to be made of the sounds, which MAME will play at the appropriate times during the game. These recordings are stored in a directory in the MAME root directory called "samples". I have included the necessary samples for all games supported by MAME (as of version 174) in the ZIP file "samples.zip". Extract the samples directory encased in the ZIP file samples.zip into the root of your MAME directory. Do NOT extract the ZIP files contained inside the samples directory. ---------- BIOS -> Some arcade video games use a supplementary BIOS on their mainboard that allowed a single game cabinet to be used to run different games. I have included the necessary BIOS files in the ZIP file "roms.zip" (note that both BIOS roms and game roms go into the "rom" directory). Extract the roms directory encased in the ZIP file roms.zip into the root of your MAME directory. Do NOT extract the individual ZIP files contained inside the roms directory. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The information in this file is good for MAME64 0.174. Under this version of MAME, you can add ICONS to the UI if you create a folder called "icons" off the root directory, and place your icons there. ---------- There are several special hardware controllers designed to work with arcade video game emulators. One example is the "X-Arcade TankStick". Mame includes a directory called "ctrlr", in which you can place a text file that maps the controllers output to the MAME inputs. MAME comes with map files, which you can edit in your favorite text editor, for several popular controllers, such as the X-Arcade (in MAME, this file is one labeled "xarcade.cfg"). I for example created a custom *.cfg file in which I swapped the joystick controllers on my TankStick (so I can play right handed). To tell MAME which ".cfg" file to use, you must edit the MAME file "mame.ini", that is located in the root of your MAME directory. I suggest you clone and rename any *.cfg file before doing any edits. Note that MAME expects files to use a DOS "8.3" naming convention. For example; to use xarcade.cfg, you would open mame.ini in a text editor, and look for the section called "# CORE INPUT OPTIONS". Underneath you will see an entry called "ctrlr", which will probably have a blank entry to the right of it. In that blank space (line it up with the other entries above and below for visual sake), you would add the text "xarcade" (note the lack of ".cfg", and that the name is case sensitive). Save the mame.ini file, and you are done.