MAME: Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator – Download to Live Your Gaming Childhood
MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is an game emulation package that allows one to play legacy games from their childhood days. You must first download (install) a few things to get it to work. The mainstream versions are for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. We will focus on the Ubuntu/Linuxmint version.
First, go to the MAME download page and setup to get the MAME binary for your distribution. You will need to scroll down a bit to see the binary section. I will use the Ubuntu MAME repository since I use Linuxmint. Choose your version of Ubuntu/Linuxmint and follow the instructions below. Basically, you will add the repository and install the SDLMAME application using APT (Advanced Package Tool).
Once installed you can run MAME from your system menu after you create some needed directories. MAME was in my menu listed under games.
Next, create some needed directories.
mkdir -p $HOME/mame/{roms,artwork,cheats,crosshairs,samples}Notice the dot (.) in the second line. It’s a hidden folder and will already exist after installing the MAME binary
mkdir -p $HOME/.mame/{nvram,inp,sta,snap,dif,comments}
Download a ROM game file (.zip file) from here and put it into your $HOME/mame/rom folder. There is no need to unzip the ROM file. Some games require various other BIOS files. Those BIOS files go in the same folder as the ROM files.
I don’t have or store any game ROMs or BIOS files at this site. Do a Google search if you want more ROMs or need certain BIOS files.
Start MAME from your system menu and choose a ROM game file after selecting the “Available” menu item at the left side.
To insert a coin press the 5 key. To press start press the 1 key.
To leave MAME press ESC (escape key).
People use MAME when making their own custom arcade game machines. Neato Keen!
For more information about MAME go here. Have fun!