Retro Arcade Games on Your Computer

Computer games have changed a lot since Pacman ruled the arcades. They've become epic timesuckers that include whole worlds for players to get lost in. Step back in time with the Mame32 arcade game emulator, and reacquaint your fancy modern PC with the vibrantly coloured world of those addictive retro games.

Mame32 isn't a game itself, it's a piece of software called an emulator (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, see?) It cleverly simulates the old hardware of the arcade machines using software instead of cogs and waterwheels (or whatever nasty old gubbins those coin-ops ran on) That allows you to run the actual original games from those machines on your modern PC. Mame32 is for windows machines, there's also one called MacMame for followers of the Cult of Apple.

Incidentally, Mame is an open source project. Yay!

Once you've installed the basic Mame32 program, you can use it to play just about any old arcade game that ever existed. All you need to do is to download the file for that game. These are called ROMs, after the ROM memory chips that they originally lived on inside the coin-ops.

One slight legal technicality exists, in that these ROMs are actually the original code of the arcade games, and are therefore probably still the intellectual property of the game's owners. Still, it's pretty unlikely that a bunch of helmeted stormtroopers from NAMCO are going to kick down your door for downloading a 25-year old game like Galaga. Copyright for most old games will have expired long ago. So, if anybody asks, say I said it was ok (sort of)

The real problem is not getting hold of the games, but deciding which ones you want. They're all there: Pac-Man, Defender, Double Dragon, Bubble Bobble. Don't go too crazy though, if you downloaded them all, they'd take a 40GB bite out of your hard drive.

So if you want to relive your misspent youth down at the arcade, check out our idiot's guide to the confusing array of websites offering shiny globs of Mame stuff.

The Spork Idiots Guide to Retro Gaming Heaven:

1. Download this >>> MAME32. You'll need to sign up for a free Fileplanet account, which only takes two minutes, and they don't seem to ever send out spam. Use the links for "Free Public Servers" towards the bottom of the page.
2. You'll get a installation file called Mame32b.exe. Run the file, and pick where you want to install it. It'll put a folder there containing all the game files. The main file will be inside and have an icon showing an old arcade game. You might want to make a nice little shortcut to that file that sits on your desktop. If it runs properly you can ditch the installer you downloaded (Mame32b.exe with the black and white icon)
3. Get your mitts on the ROMs for the games you want from here, here, here, and here.
4. Save the ROMs in the ROM folder inside the main Mame32 folder and unzip them as well.
5. When you fire up Mame32, it should notice the ROMs and you should be able to play those games.
6. Retrogasm!

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