Ok, I promise I'm not stupid... I just don't understand Arcade emulation.

[SkyHighGam3r]

Ok... I'm sure you've seen me on the site, so you know I'm not an idiot when it comes to emulation.
I'm pretty well versed in all of this.
There's one... big... glaring... MASSIVE exception though...

The realm of the Arcade...

I've never been interested in Arcade stuff before. I was practically born with an NES controller in my hand, and I have TOUCHED a physical arcade machine... maybe 5 times in my entire life? All of it before the age of 12.... I'm now 28... for perspective here.

I've setup the Neo-Geo AES via RetroArch's Final Burn Alpha core, but that's the closest I've gotten to an arcade really.

Where on earth do I start? There are SO many different arcade systems, and MAME seems so complicated with it's romset versions... I tried it out in RetroArch, but I wasn't happy with how the results played havoc with my control setup...

I want to stress that I have absolutely NO desire to have 'every arcade game ever' as seems to be the norm. I will be putting games in as I decide they are worthy.

So far?
The Real Ghostbusters
SegaSonic the Hedgehog
Metal Slug 6
X-Men
and some Spider-Man game I remember playing one time...
Maybe some iconic classics like Galaga and Asteroids.


Where do I start?
What emulator should I use?


Also, if anyone knows of an online resource where I can find games that were ORIGINALLY in the arcade, and then ported to consoles, that would be cool. Also maybe a list of arcade exclusive video games, ones that were never ported? I know these are unlikely given the length, but you never know...

[ninja2bceen]

Just set up mame and you will have all of those

[Suhrvivor]

Just download MAME and the games you are interested, it's really easy to setup.

[Agrajag]

It's usually recommended to download the full romset for the practical reason of keeping it updated to match the current version of the emulator. However, to only show your personal choice of games in HyperSpin you can use the Wheels Only filter in HyperHQ and just download and add the desired wheel images.

[ci2own]

Ok... I'm sure you've seen me on the site, so you know I'm not an idiot when it comes to emulation.

I'm pretty well versed in all of this.

There's one... big... glaring... MASSIVE exception though...

The realm of the Arcade...

I've never been interested in Arcade stuff before. I was practically born with an NES controller in my hand, and I have TOUCHED a physical arcade machine... maybe 5 times in my entire life? All of it before the age of 12.... I'm now 28... for perspective here.

I've setup the Neo-Geo AES via RetroArch's Final Burn Alpha core, but that's the closest I've gotten to an arcade really.

Where on earth do I start? There are SO many different arcade systems, and MAME seems so complicated with it's romset versions... I tried it out in RetroArch, but I wasn't happy with how the results played havoc with my control setup...

I want to stress that I have absolutely NO desire to have 'every arcade game ever' as seems to be the norm. I will be putting games in as I decide they are worthy.

So far?

The Real Ghostbusters

SegaSonic the Hedgehog

Metal Slug 6

X-Men

and some Spider-Man game I remember playing one time...

Maybe some iconic classics like Galaga and Asteroids.

Where do I start?

What emulator should I use?

Also, if anyone knows of an online resource where I can find games that were ORIGINALLY in the arcade, and then ported to consoles, that would be cool. Also maybe a list of arcade exclusive video games, ones that were never ported? I know these are unlikely given the length, but you never know...

 

 

 

I would setup MAME. You have near all with it and is "very" easy to setup:

 

1 Download MAME from here (for example): http://insertmorecoins.es/mame-mameui-0-176-32-64-bits-no-nag-including-mess/

 

2 Download Complete Romset and bios or just the one you wanna play and place it in the ROMs folder on your MAME Emulator. There's a lot of sites to download it but send me a PM is don't found.

 

3 Configure MAME through MAMEUI (MAME User interface)

[adamg]

MAME really is one of the easiest systems to setup.  Additionally many of the games that you may have played on NES are significantly better in the arcade (in my opinion).  I understand not wanting all of the games but in totality I think the most recent romset is around 50 gigs (without CHD) so you can have all of the games that you want and everything else and not take much space.  That is the easiest way but finding specific games could work too.  It is similar to any other emulator in that you download the rom file, open the emulator and launch the game.  MAME though has the added benefit of being able to press the TAB key and set everything up in a great GUI.  Make configuration a breeze.

[SkyHighGam3r]

I guess 50GB isn't TOO bad... I could keep a database on my generic file-drive, and just transfer what I need to my game cartridge...

What is "CHD"?

How can you tell if the rom you are downloading is from the correct set?
It's my understanding if you download a rom from a set that is too old, that it will not run on a newer version of mame?

Also, I remember looking at the stand-alone MAME's control options once and being completely confused because it says "button 1" all the way through like "button 20"  I'm mapping this all to, lets just say this for simplicity, Xbox 360 controllers. So I don't know how that would co-respond.

It certainly sounds like MAME is the best option, since that's a 5 to 0 vote haha.


So, is there any arcade systems that mame WONT do? I see a list like THIS and wonder:
 

Arcade Systems:

Capcom Play System 1 / CPS1 ROMs
Capcom Play System 2 / CPS2 ROMs
Capcom Play System 3 / CPS3 ROMs
M.A.M.E. Roms
Modeler
Namco System 12
Namco System 22
Neo Geo (Arcade) Roms
Raine
Sega Model 2
Sega NAOMI
Zinc Roms

 

 

I have no desire to have seperate wheels or anything, it will ALL be listed under "Arcade Games".... though I am struggling with what I am going to do about wheel-art 'cause I use box-art in my build hahaha.

[rastan]

mame is the easiest emulator there is... the only pain in the ass is making sure you have the right rom set for the emulator. if you can find a full rom set (which isn't hard at all) just download it and get the emulator that matches that set and you're pretty much good. 

[adamg]

 

I guess 50GB isn't TOO bad... I could keep a database on my generic file-drive, and just transfer what I need to my game cartridge...

What is "CHD"?

How can you tell if the rom you are downloading is from the correct set?

It's my understanding if you download a rom from a set that is too old, that it will not run on a newer version of mame?

Also, I remember looking at the stand-alone MAME's control options once and being completely confused because it says "button 1" all the way through like "button 20"  I'm mapping this all to, lets just say this for simplicity, Xbox 360 controllers. So I don't know how that would co-respond.

It certainly sounds like MAME is the best option, since that's a 5 to 0 vote haha.

So, is there any arcade systems that mame WONT do? I see a list like THIS and wonder:

 

Arcade Systems:

Capcom Play System 1 / CPS1 ROMs

Capcom Play System 2 / CPS2 ROMs

Capcom Play System 3 / CPS3 ROMs

M.A.M.E. Roms

Modeler

Namco System 12

Namco System 22

Neo Geo (Arcade) Roms

Raine

Sega Model 2

Sega NAOMI

Zinc Roms

 

 

I have no desire to have seperate wheels or anything, it will ALL be listed under "Arcade Games".... though I am struggling with what I am going to do about wheel-art 'cause I use box-art in my build hahaha.

 

A CHD is a hard drive file that is required for some of the newer mame games.  Sounds like you are not interested in keeping those so you could just ignore.  

 

Sites that you would normally download the files from will tell you usually BUT if you are looking for the full set, there are torrents that would be right up your alley.  One way you could check is set up MAME in rocketlauncher, add the game to the folder, audit it and then launch the game you added.  9/10 times it will work fine.  Otherwise it is a long process of explaining CLRMAMEPRO which I can do but the other way is just so much easier.

 

Ignore the buttons that you cannot assign.  What arcade game have you ever played much less seen that required 20 buttons (minus Japanese Mahjohng games of course).  I tend to only setup 6 buttons for player 1 and 2 and a start/coin for each.  8 buttons total for both players.  You could even use the extras for save stating

 

MAME is the only option honestly

 

Oh...well I take that back, there are some other options as some of the systems that you mentioned run so much better on other emulators.  They can run in MAME but you really would rather that they didn't.  I am no expert on these matters though.

[32assassin]

 

I guess 50GB isn't TOO bad... I could keep a database on my generic file-drive, and just transfer what I need to my game cartridge...

What is "CHD"?

How can you tell if the rom you are downloading is from the correct set?

It's my understanding if you download a rom from a set that is too old, that it will not run on a newer version of mame?

 

 

 

 

let me expand the explanation of CHD for you

 

Most old school Arcade games run on Jamma boards

 

roms are saved in one of those DIP packages,  At some point the code/ memory got too large for those Dip packages and they started to add Hard drives to the Jamma boards.

 

Killer Instinct Jamma Board with a Hard Drive

 

 

 

 

 

A CHD (Ccompressed Hard Drive) is simply a file that contains all the information found on that hard drive.  

 

 

And their is no such thing as a correct rom set. Look around this forum.  You will find some people using 3 year old versions of MAME.

MAME roms should be download as complete sets,  not individually.

First download the version of MAME you want to run;  after you have your MAME version,  download a complete set of roms that mach the MAME exe you are using.

[Dime333]

Actually CHD is Compressed Hunks of Data. They can be CD images as well as hard drive images.

[Metalzoic]

Roms is easy. Of the latest Mame versions 175 is pretty rock solid so I say grab a MAMEUIFX 175 download from here and then go grab the matching MAME 175 Roms (split-torrentzipped) set from the usual place.

Plug them together and BOOM! Arcade games.

Just MAME (with no CHD's) should be enough for you, but if you decide to grab the CHDs too then make sure they are MAME 175 CHDs (merged-torrentzipped) also from the usual place.