Emulation of Video Games with MAME

The main attraction at the local Arcades has been its Arcade video games. I'm sure many of you wont forget classics like Galaga, Gunsmoke and SlapFight. Unfortunately these games and Arcade cabinets have pretty much disappeared these days. Computers are now getting so powerful with its CPU, graphics and online gaming capability as well as consoles that Arcade gaming is considered retro. But for many of us the old Arcades are still not forgotten. MAME is an emulator where one can play classic Arcade games. Right now there are more than 1500 games emulated. The Arcade emulation is near perfect as the roms are downloaded from the real arcade chips. The emulator is not only available for PC but also the consoles, one being the XBOX.

There is a large interest and community that appreciates being able to play their favorite games, just as in the old days. Still many will agree its not the same excitement with a keyboard or joy pad. However with a MAME Cabinet it can be very authentic. A MAME Cabinet is like a real Arcade. You have the main components like Arcade controls, arcade monitors and the coin doors. Most of the time people use a computer but hidden inside the cabinet and there are even ways to hide the Windows user interface. There are a decent amount of frontends to choose from. A frontend is a piece of software which helps you start the games. With the correct setup, you can program them for other emulators too. Maybe you want to play games for C64, Amiga and Nintendo or would want to install a Jukebox with your favorite tunes. Whatever you like its all up to you! It is quite some work building a MAME cabinet. You can try you're luck and find an old Arcade machine to build on, maybe keep some of the parts too. Don't worry, there are lots of online stores for the parts if you were to build a cabinet from scratch. Just search on eBay for example, there are good deals. As for the display you could easily use a PC monitor, still better would be to use a graphic cards s-video output connected to a TV. To play the games at their native resolution you would need an Arcade monitor. There is one exception if you are based in Europe where there are CRT Scart screens you can use this together with an ArcadeVGA graphics card via the Scart cable, this combination turns your TV into an Arcade monitor. Still no matter what, there is always the MAME emulator where we all can load up all the best Arcade games.

About the Author

Article by Koral Wilkins. Look here to see details regarding my Arcade MAME cabinet