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The emulator supports over seven thousand unique games and ten thousand actual ROM image setsMuch like the name says, though not all of the supported games are playable. There are many MAME frontwas supposed to be for arcade machines like Pac-ends availableMan back when it was released in 1997. A similar project called [[MESS]] was a now defunct separate project made to create a [[multi-system emulator]] do essentially the same thing for home consoles and other esoteric devices that never got emulated, but it has since been merged into MAME, and now it supports ''a whole lot more'' than arcade machines. [[MAME compatibility list]]
Nicola Salmoria started MAME in 1997 as Go into the folder, select all the files, and add them to a Pac.7z archive using 7-Man emulatorZip.<ref name="worldofstuart">http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/mameover.htm</ref> Salmoria handed Assuming you've installed 7-Zip with the default settings on Windows, the project over to Mirko Buffoni in April 1997 because he had option to do his National Service in this should come up when you right-click the Italian armyfiles.<ref The name of the archive must be the romset's name=. The config screen may show an option to "worldofstuartdelete files after compression"/>. You can safely select this and, assuming you do, the archive will now appear in the folder (unless you've specified a different location):
==Overview== roms/MAME is very extensive (romset)/ (romset).7z Take the 7-Zip archive, with the majority of arcade system boards from move it into the 1970'sroms folder, 1980's and early 1990you can safely delete the romset's supportedfolder. It should look like this. roms/ (romset). Do not expect support 7z Rinse and repeat for more recent boards, such as atomiswaveany other romsets you want to do. MAME focuses on [[accuracy]] and archiving arcade games, which means should be able to read it does not always focus on usability for the end user. Only the most up to date romdumps will |-! Terminal|Something like this should work in the latest MAMEtheory. '''It has not been tested, so proceed with caution.'''
==ROM dumps==Due to the design of MAME, it is often confusing how ROMs work under it and what's needed 7z e (romset). A single game may require numerous files inside its zip, samples for missing sounds, CHD -o (Compressed Hunks of Dataromset), and BIOS. To help manage all these files, it is highly recommended to use / && 7z a ROM management tool such as RomCenter or clrmamepro. Without all the required files and file versions, the game simply will not work(romset).7z (romset)/*
When handling MAME files, do not rename Just make sure that you've installed 7-zip and it registers to the game files or unzip them. MAME requires each file to be named according to its databaseenvironment path, or else it wonthat you't know where to look. CHD files need to be re in your rom the folder in its own directory with , and that you substitute (romset) for the same name of the CHD such as C:/MAME/Roms/gamename/gamename.chdromset in the command.|}
MAME
,Copyedits and additions, the most important being two guides on how to convert Cues to CHDs and recompress zips into 7-zips for romsets. Hopefully they're useful.
|fifth = [http://mamedev.org/ MAMEDev.org]
|sixth = [https://github.com/mamedev/mame GitHub]}}
'''MAME''' (an acronym of '''Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator<u>M</u>ultiple <u>A</u>rcade <u>M</u>achine <u>E</u>mulator''') is an a cross platform [[Multi-System Emulators|multi-system emulator for arcade game systems]]. The aim of MAME philosophy behind the project is to be a reference to recreate the inner workings of the emulated arcade machines; through emulation, and thus the ability to actually play the games is considered "a nice side effect". MAME is incredibly large, [[MAME compatibility list|supporting thousands of machines and ROM sets]], though what is supported is not what's playable; your mileage may vary. In the event you don't like MAME's own interface, there are many alternative front-ends available.
==Downloads==
*[http://www.t2e.pl/pl/466/134/466/Automatyczne-edycje?tsearch=mame,svn,not|plus,not|mameui,not|mewui T2E SVN BUILDS]
==HistoryOverview==MAME was first put out in 1997 by Nicola Salmoria as a Pac-Man emulator,<ref name="worldofstuart">http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/mameover.htm</ref> but before he could do any more work on the project, he handed it over to Mirko Buffoni in April 1997 after requiring to do National Service in the Italian army.<ref name="worldofstuart"/> Since then, even as early as 2003, the emulator has become very extensive, with the majority of arcade system boards from the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's supported. However... don't expect support for more recent boards like atomiswave; the project and its team focuses on [[Emulation Accuracy|accuracy]] (preferably cycle-accuracy) and preservation, which often puts usability at a much lower priority for end users. The program is also '''very strict''' about what components of a ROM dump it needs to even function, and it may tell you if something is wrong with the files (i.e. a failed checksum); once developers know more about a system, they'll often have to dump more components like ROMs and BIOSes if necessary, and obtaining newer dumps from the boards isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world for users who only have traditional desktops, and the same goes for anyone with the actual arcade boards. Something as popular as Pac-Man will probably never need newer dumps beyond the current ones because it's been continually researched, and the dumps have been pretty widespread, but other machines you've probably only seen once at an arcade will probably need new dumps for a reason. Only romdumps with all the newest information will work in new versions of MAME. Even then, programmers may not have everything implemented. The native interface will tell you about the emulation status of the chosen romset, and whether the one you're using is even emulated at the current time. ===ROM dumps===MAME either has lots of standardization on how to organize the ROM dumps, or it has very little, and sometimes the given information can be vague and confusing. A single game may need lots of files for the dump to even register, and separate folders for the BIOS files of consoles. For machines that use stuff like hard drives and optical disks to store its data, MAME has a special format called Compressed Hunks of Data (CHD) which uses a number of compression methods to reduce the size of a raw image file. It is highly recommended to use a ROM management tool such as RomCenter or clrmamepro. Without all the required files and file versions, the game simply will not work. ==How To=====Convert Bin/Cue files to CHD===Many emulators other than MAME are beginning to support Compressed Hunks of Data, mainly because compared to the alternatives, it offers compression (or ''better'' compression) on all fronts. [[Libretro]] is making an initiative to support them thanks to a successful bounties initiative, and in many cores such as their [[Mednafen|Beetle]] fork, they've begun rolling it out for certain platforms like Saturn and PlayStation so people can test it. If you're interested in trying this out too, a guide has been provided on how to convert to the format using MAME's very own tool called <code>chdman</code>. A small warning though; it requires just a small bit of knowledge on how to use the terminal; the developers of MAME seemingly don't have plans to give <code>chdman</code> an interface so if it scares you too much, you may have to wait. <!-- Maybe we can work around this with a batch/shell script that people can use? --> {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="width: 100%;"|+How To <small>(Terminal)</small>||-|:''Note: All the commands here work on Windows except <code>man</code>, because Windows doesn't have a system for manuals.'' Install the latest version of MAME. There should be an executable in the main directory called <code>chdman</code>. We're going to run it. Open up the terminal and navigate to the folder containing the BIN/CUE files. $ cd (location of folder) This is optional, but pulling up the manual will give us this information: $ man chdman (...) createcd -o filename (...) Create a new compressed CD image from a raw file. Using this, we can type this command in and substitute the placeholder with the name of your ROM. $ chdman createcd <abbr title="Notice how we're placing the output file before the input file.">-o</abbr> "test (!).chd" "test (!).cue" <code>chdman</code> will now compress the cue file, and it should complete with just one CHD for you to use, either in MAME or an emulator that supports it.|} ===Recompressing ZIPs to 7-Zip===:''Note: If you're confident, you can delete files immediately instead of sending them to the recycle bin or trash bin using the keyboard shortcut <code>Shift</code> + <code>Delete</code>. Always back up the files if you're worried you might do it wrong.'' MAME keeps a database of romsets including what each file should be named. If the romdump is obtained through a ZIP file, you can uncompress the files inside and transfer them to a 7-Zip file for better compression. The 7-Zip archive HAS to have the exact same name (not the same file extension obviously). In case you're wondering why 7-Zip is supported in MAME and not RAR, it's because the LZMA development kit that's developed alongside 7-Zip is in the public domain, and the MAME team uses it for CHDs along with FLAC for audio and data compression; RAR is a proprietary format that can only be decompressed by 7-Zip, not compressed to, as per an agreement with both development teams. {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="width: 100%;"|+How To| colspan=2 ||-! Graphical|Take the zip file: roms/ (romset).zip/ (game).(rom) (lle1).(rom) (lle2).(rom) And uncompress it to a folder of the same name. roms/ (romset).zip/ (game).(rom) (lle1).(rom) (lle2).(rom) (romset)/ (game).(rom) (lle1).(rom) (lle2).(rom) At this point, you can safely delete the zip file.
==List of Arcade systems emulated==
