Anyone in here built a MAME machine / enjoy classic arcade games?

[DaPerformer]

I'm a bit of a classic arcade junkie... will prefer Asteroids over Call of Duty any day...

 

[Eric B]

I have a whole bunch of MAME games, from years ago (before they cracked down on the rom sites. Now, romnation is the only one left!)
Have not only most of the Pacman series (which I run with a separate emu called "PacMame", but also a lot of the hack versions, and even some made up for the emulator. Another gem is the arcade version of Super Mario Bros. (which actually contains six of the so-called "lost levels"). Now, I'm seeing there is a special version of MAME made to import the game to the Wii! (Needs a GameCube controller).

I always envisioned a cabinet with an LCD screen as the marquee, which would display the original marquee artwork for each game being run. (Most of them are available om the MAME sites!)

I have seen MAME arcade machines in places like laundromats a few years ago. It was called something like "Ultra arcade 2000" or something. Of course, it had its own marquee artwork.

 

[rhinosaur]

Yeah, I used to have a bunch of MAME roms on my old computer. Galaga, Centipede, The Simpsons... I don't even remember what else. I kept track of my high score in Galaga, and got pretty good. I also had NES and SNES roms.

 

[DaPerformer]

I have a whole bunch of MAME games, from years ago (before they cracked down on the rom sites. Now, romnation is the only one left!)
Have not only most of the Pacman series (which I run with a separate emu called "PacMame", but also a lot of the hack versions, and even some made up for the emulator. Another gem is the arcade version of Super Mario Bros. (which actually contains six of the so-called "lost levels"). Now, I'm seeing there is a special version of MAME made to import the game to the Wii! (Needs a GameCube controller).

I always envisioned a cabinet with an LCD screen as the marquee, which would display the original marquee artwork for each game being run. (Most of them are available om the MAME sites!)

I have seen MAME arcade machines in places like laundromats a few years ago. It was called something like "Ultra arcade 2000" or something. Of course, it had its own marquee artwork.

Excellent! I have an old Defender-clone cabinet that someone gave me because the game didn't work, that I gutted and put an old PC and 19" CRT monitor in. I hacked an IBM keyboard and set up a 2-player controll panel with nice commercial cherry-switch buttons and 8-way joysticks. I built this beast over 10 years ago, and I am now about to start working it over to upgrade both the computer hardware in it and make the cabinet look a little nicer. I need to move away from the hacked keyboard to something USB-based too... the hacked keyboard works OK, but sometimes if two people are playing and the right combination of keys hit, it will wig out.

I dream of some day opening a retro arcade in our area featuring all games from about 1977 through 1986 (dream on...lol)

 

[Eric B]

Hey; with MAME, you could have an entire arcade in one cabinet!

 

[md5fungi]

MAME is pretty sweet. Have a bunch of roms and one client I used to use even had an add-on client for internet play which was SWEET.

So tempting to hold down the key that puts in quarters...

 

[DaPerformer]

Hey; with MAME, you could have an entire arcade in one cabinet!

There is something about the old arcade experience that really reaches me on some inner level. I've even gone so far as the record about 2-minute samples of different games and mixed them all together in a loop of arcade "ambient sound" to pipe into the rec room. That coupled with low light, just the light from the marquees, some neon and maybe a mirror ball, and some 80's music in the background... [sigh]

 

[Mad Hatter]

MAME is great once it works, but a lot of the roms you get don't run :/
Asteroids (deluxe) is great; I also like R-Type and Arkanoid. At least those are the games that work.

But when it comes to classic gaming, I prefer a Genesis emulator.