How to Make MAME Work
MAME -- the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator -- is a free program that allows you to play thousands of different vintage arcade games on your computer using copies of the games' original ROM chips. MAME is a command-line utility, so you may find it difficult to get the emulator running if you are not accustomed to MS-DOS commands. Download a graphical frontend to give MAME a standard Windows interface and begin playing arcade games on your computer.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Open a Web browser and navigate to MAMEdev.org. Click the "Download Now" button on the right side of the page.
-
2
Click the "mame0143b.exe" link and save the resulting file to the desktop. Note that because the file name contains MAME's version number, it is subject to change.
-
-
3
Double-click the file "mame0143b.exe" on the desktop after the download completes.
-
4
Select the folder where you would like to install MAME, then click the "Extract" button. Open the folder when this process is complete.
-
5
Open the "roms" folder and drag all downloaded game ROMs to this folder. The official MAME website hosts several ROMs that have been released for distribution by their original creators. When you download a MAME ROM, it is generally compressed with the extension ZIP; extract the ZIP file before placing its contents in the "roms" folder.
-
6
Select and download a MAME frontend. MAME Player, Turbo MAME and EasyMAME are three free MAME frontends for Windows. MAME is a command-line utility; a frontend gives it a graphical interface for simpler navigation. Place the frontend in the folder that you installed MAME in.
-
7
Launch the frontend. After running, the frontend may display an initial configuration screen that requires you to select your video, sound and control settings. You may also need to point the frontend to MAME's "roms" folder so it can scan for games. After scanning, the frontend displays all of the games found in the "roms" folder.
-
8
Double-click a game to begin playing it. At this point, MAME displays a prompt requiring you to type "OK" to signify that you have the legal right to play the game -- you only need to do this once. After you type "OK," the game begins.
-
1
