Video Game Emulation Wiki
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MAME (an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is an emulator for arcade game systems. The aim of MAME is to be a reference to the inner workings of the emulated arcade machines; the ability to actually play the games is considered "a nice side effect". The emulator supports over seven thousand unique games and ten thousand actual ROM image sets, though not all of the supported games are playable. There are many MAME front-ends available.

MESS is a related, but separate project to create a multi-system emulator for consoles.

Downloads[]

Review[]

MAME is very extensive, with the majority of arcade system boards from the 70's, 80's and early90's supported. Do not expect support for more recent boards, such as atomiswave. MAME focuses on accuracy and archiving arcade games, which means it does not always focus on usability for the end user. Only the most up to date romdumps will work in the latest MAME.

ROM dumps[]

Due to the design of MAME it is often confusing how roms work under it and whats needed. A single game may require numerous files inside its zip, samples for missing sounds, CHD (Compressed Hunks of Data), and bios. To help manage all these files it is highly recommended to use a rom management tool such as RomCenter or clrmamepro because without all the required files and file versions the game simply will not work.

A couple of important notes when handling MAME files do not rename the game files or unzip them. MAME requires each file to be named according to its database else it wont know where to look. CHD files need to be in your rom folder in its own directory with the same name of the CHD such as C:/MAME/Roms/gamename/gamename.chd.

List of Arcade systems emulated[]

  • List of arcade games that DON'T work This list is one year old, so it may be outdated. Don't expect most recent games (like Naomi ones) to run at fullspeed, MAME is very resource intensive.
  • Cave SH3 (Mushihime-sama and other Cave shmups). This driver was removed from recent versions of MAME due to complaints from Cave. There are some custom builds that add it. (someone should upload one to MediaFire).
  • NonMAME This is a list of arcade systems that currently are not emulated by MAME or are emulated better by other programs.

Frontends[]

MAME uses many front ends. Please expand this section.

M+GUI[]

M+ GUI

MAME UI 32[]

MAMEUI32

MAME UI[]

MAME UI

No longer maintained.

Emu Loader[]

Emu Loader

MEWUI[]

MEWUI

MEWUI is an extension of the internal interface of the MAME / MESS with additional features.

Features[]

  • Display full list of games
  • Display snapshot, cabinets, etc... in game selection menu
  • Display history, mameinfo in ingame menu
  • Options to filter the list of games

Versions[]

GroovyMAME[]

It's a fork of MAME made to support arcade CRT monitors

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,128879.0.html?PHPSESSID=domm2c4q77esu0j9uohc5vrqn5

NetPlay[]

Downloads[]

Review
PROS
  • Support for up to 4 simultaneous people playing
  • No fiddling with router settings and port forwarding
  • Despite being old, many consider it being able to handle Kaillera the best
  • Netplay traffic is handled by a central dedicated server that helps keep things synched
  • Robust library of games
  • Extremely configurable
  • Private game chat support and public chat to speak people outside your game room
  • Being able to drop out of a game at any time without disrupting (much) your teammate(s).
  • Kicking/banning/muting people from your room
  • It's a matchmaking service where you can join other people's rooms, too
CONS
  • It's slightly (significantly still) prone to freezing
  • Mapping controllers and binding keys can only be done in-game, which might be confusing to first-timers
  • Incorrectly emulates many games, while outright not being able to emulate others
  • Random, inconsistent FPS drops due to the server trying to keep everyone synched, sometimes stuttering. It's annoying, but rarely does it make it unplayable
  • Everyone needs to have the exact same ROM version or Netplay won't work (if it somehow does, it'll desynch rather quickly)
  • Everyone needs to have the exact same save file, or no save file at all. Else, it desynchs
  • You need to constantly switch focus back and forth between chat and emulator window in order to chat.
  • You will hear no sound while the window is unfocused.
How to
  1. Replace the kailleraclient.dll inside the "kaillera" folder in the emulator directory
  2. Place your game(s) ZIPPED inside the "roms" folder in the emulator directory
  3. Run the emulator, then press F5 to refresh your ROM list
  4. Go to file, click Kaillera Netplay...

In order to configure your controllers, you need to press TAB once the game is running. Clear every key for Player 1 using "Esc", and only map the directional buttons, and buttons number 1 through 8, which should cover most standard games.

You may also chat in-game by pressing Home twice.

Also, you have to restart the emulator EVERY TIME you load a new game, or attempt to restart the current one. Else, you'll get a black screen.

8876086C Error[]

The 8876086C error is a issue with MAME's connection to Direct3D (Because of MAME's config). To solve this, open mame.ini, go to WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS and change d3d to direct3d. this should allow mame to run.

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