Probably the trickiest part of the whole deal is finding the games. The QMC2 arcade interface is shown at the top of the article. The more business-like QMC2 front-end for the MAME arcade emulator. Initially, you must point the QMC2 to the MAME directory and its subdirectories, but that’s a relatively simple task. I opt for QMC2 because it’s cross-platform (like MAME: Windows, OS X, Linux), updated regularly (the MAME catalog and ROMs change frequently), and easy on the eye. MAME has its own rather primitive GUI that appears if you run it on its own, but there are more pleasant-looking and easier-to-use front-ends. Emulating everything that’s ever existed in the gaming world, from Pong, to the Atari 2600, to the Amiga and beyond, is a daunting task. At the time of this writing, the latest version was beta 0.184, but don’t let the not-finished status throw you off-this is a project that’s likely to be in beta forever. MAME is available from the MAME Development Team's website. The arcade version of Atari’s Centipede playing inside MAME on a PC. Can you imagine that happening in this day and age of release-it-before-it’s-ready, user-tested software? Believe it or not, a bug in your code used to be a mark of shame.
Yes, software once came hard-coded in chips and in the form of a cartridge. These are now actually files that contain dumps of the code or data in the chip/chips from the original console or cartridge. The program supports literally thousands of arcade and gaming console titles by emulating their hardware and loading their ROMs (Read-Only Memory). [Have a tech question? Send your query to Put the blame on MAMEįor emulating arcade games, there’s nothing remotely as competent as MAME, or the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.