went to a christmas party tonight, and played a M.A.M.E.

kerri369

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went to a christmas party tonight, and played a M.A.M.E.

although i had a good time scrolling through the seemingly endless selection of games, when it came to actually playing some of the games, they were a little disappointing. to make matters worse when i selected the games i own, it got even worse! was it the awkward controls? giant screen? standing off to the left? couldn't get into it. am i being too hard on mame? or just a spoiled purist?
 
Like many, my first "venture" into arcade games at home involved converting an empty cab into a mame setup... and while it is a decent substitute, that's exactly what it is... a substitute. Nothing can duplicate the real experience of interacting with a true classic, except the real hardware. the monitor burn in, The hum of the speaker, the sloppy joystick, and the beautiful, cheesy art. I think one of the biggest benefits to playing an arcade game, is getting to use the interface the game designers meant for you to use, instead of a generic controller (Like MAME or a console). I think, just like any hobby, it is a personal passion, that imitations simply cannot satisfy. From the hunt, to the satisfaction of diagnosing and fixing problems, to watching people's eyes widen as they exclaim how they "loved" that game, and haven't seen it in years. While I, myself am only 4 cabs deep, this is surely a hobby that will drain my wallet for many years, and I'm ok with that.

But you've been here longer than I have, so i'm sure you know that.
 
Mame is good if it's set up right and used to play games that don't require speciallized controls or a specific cp layout. It helps if you can compare a game to it's mame counterpart and adjust the mame version accordingly - I had to adjust the speed of the trackball input on Crystal Castles because it was far too slow in the standard mame setup. I also got rid of hundreds of roms and just stuck with around 150 classics. That being said, you just can't beat a game being played in it's dedicated cab.
 
One of the things I'm realizing (as I get back into the video side) is that the artwork is what really draws me to a game. And there is a "pride of ownership" that goes with owning a restored original, that you'd never get with a generic cab.

I think there's a place for MAME, just like Visual Pinball. Great for checking out gameplay, but they don't compare to the real thing.

John
 
One of the things I'm realizing (as I get back into the video side) is that the artwork is what really draws me to a game. And there is a "pride of ownership" that goes with owning a restored original, that you'd never get with a generic cab.

I think there's a place for MAME, just like Visual Pinball. Great for checking out gameplay, but they don't compare to the real thing.

John

yeah. the only real good thing for mame is that it's a great way for me to build robotron and joust till i can open the box containing my jrok board from 'santa' on christmas morning.
 
although i had a good time scrolling through the seemingly endless selection of games, when it came to actually playing some of the games, they were a little disappointing. to make matters worse when i selected the games i own, it got even worse! was it the awkward controls? giant screen? standing off to the left? couldn't get into it. am i being too hard on mame? or just a spoiled purist?

I think it really depends on the games you chose. Some games just don't represent well in MAME, there are others I don't think you could tell from the real thing on a cab with a proper monitor. I did separate vertical and horizontal cabs and also chose my controls to try and limit weaknesses for various games.

MAME got me back into the dedicated stuff, and those cabs would also be the last games back out if I decided to quit the hobby. I also see them as perfect fill-ins for someone tight on space.
 
Like many, my first "venture" into arcade games at home involved converting an empty cab into a mame setup... and while it is a decent substitute, that's exactly what it is... a substitute. Nothing can duplicate the real experience of interacting with a true classic, except the real hardware. the monitor burn in, The hum of the speaker, the sloppy joystick, and the beautiful, cheesy art. I think one of the biggest benefits to playing an arcade game, is getting to use the interface the game designers meant for you to use, instead of a generic controller (Like MAME or a console). I think, just like any hobby, it is a personal passion, that imitations simply cannot satisfy. From the hunt, to the satisfaction of diagnosing and fixing problems, to watching people's eyes widen as they exclaim how they "loved" that game, and haven't seen it in years. While I, myself am only 4 cabs deep, this is surely a hobby that will drain my wallet for many years, and I'm ok with that.

But you've been here longer than I have, so i'm sure you know that.

This is one of the best explanations I have ever read regarding MAME vs. dedicated classis. Well done, sir!
 
Well, of course the screen will be bigger. Sure the controls won't be original. Obviously, if it's a 2 or more player cab, you're not going to get to stand dead center to play.

What'd you expect?

MAME won't duplicate the experience of playing dedicateds no matter how well it's set up, unless you load it into a dedicated cab, of course! And even then, if you have the intimate knowledge of a game that comes from the countless hours you've already spent with the original, you will probably notice some graphical or timing differences. It shouldn't be anything major - just redraw lines, maybe a little slow down or speed up where it shouldn't be. But it's just enough to remind you that you're in the Matrix. You're NOT playing the REAL thing!

But with the RIGHT controls (and modest expectations), I think it can be a passable alternative in situations where you just can't have the original.

It works much better for later games, when they were all conversion kits anyway. You know - when they had no soul?
 
Another way to look at it...

To me, Mame is amazing in that we can play games, many we've never heard of much less played or will never own the original. We can do it with reliable parts we can get anywhere. It also turns our small home arcade into one that boasts more games than the big commercial arcades. Amazing!
 
i definitely get the whole space issue. the host of the party had it in his den next to his fireplace and there was no way he could have more than one machine. don't get me wrong, it was really well built. two bat sticks, spinner, track ball six buttons on each sides, (i've seen worse) and he couldn't be happier with it, but robotron was odd to play with the sticks so far apart, tempest wasn't even close to the same, and donkey kong and rolling thunder fell flat for me, i lost interest fast.
 
If I get a cabinet that doesn't work when I get it and I can't make it play on original equipment, I will do a dedicated mame until I can make the game real. There are many, many flavors of mame. What version you use depends on what games you want to emulate and what equipment you have at the time. In my experienece, it is much more difficult to make a cab into a dedicated mame than restore it to original but it can be much faster and sometimes cheaper.
A good example is Stargate. Stargate is my favorite game of all time and I am completely familiar with how it should look, feel and play. An OLD version of mame, tweaked and tweaked to perfection over months, I got Stargate to play perfectly, absolutley perfectly. But I really wanted it to be real, so i hunted down a WG4900 and now it's a real game and the only difference is the way the game looks on a real arcade monitor. There are very cool strobing effects on a real WG 4900 arcade monitor and the fact that my HS are not saved due to battery acid damage.
Emulating vector games is another animal all together and an interesting, ongoing topic at byoac. OK let the mame slamming continue...
 
mame is more than fine for most games if you have the proper equipment
I use scart rgb crt tv with a special software 15khz and the resolutions are the same with an arcade monitor
original joysticks and buttons are everywhere to buy and you can make artwork as you like and a cab from scratch

some games though cant be emulated as in original hardware due to special controls and screens like vector games,many racing games,lightguns,unique joysticks etc
but for all other games,mame is awesome
 
I get the whole not enough space and Mame is good for people like that. I have limited space at th moment and for some reason I seem to prefer the multi boards to a computer running Mame. For whatever reason it seems real to me when I see a 60-in1, arcadeshop board, jrok board etc then seeing a little pc tower inside or beside a cabinet.
 
I like mame because I can play the obscure titles that I will probably never own like Pengiun-Kun Wars, etc. And I do not even have it in a cab, just all my computers.

But back in the day, before I got into owning multipule cabs, mame with an X-Arcade Stick was the only way I could play the classics. And it was great back then; now, not so much, for the classics.
 
I like mame because I can play the obscure titles that I will probably never own like Pengiun-Kun Wars, etc. And I do not even have it in a cab, just all my computers.

But back in the day, before I got into owning multipule cabs, mame with an X-Arcade Stick was the only way I could play the classics. And it was great back then; now, not so much, for the classics.

Dude, Penguin-Kun Wars is an AWESOME game!!!!
 
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