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I apologize if this is way off topic. Can someone point me in the right direction to learn MAME? Its a way to download video games we played in the 80s onto a computer. I would like to gut a video cabinet and install my own computer, monitor and controls. I want to download MY favorite games, not someone else's idea of popular games. Besides those consoles on Craigslist pre-loaded with 60 games are so expensive! MY problem is, I am of the generation (57 yrs old) that missed out on learning computer-ese. I'm not to intelligent when it comes to downloading stuff onto a computer. I realize there will be a learning curve. I don't expect plug n play. I just need somewhere to look to educated myself. Oh, my list of games I'd like is around 100 games.
Thank you.
Terry B.

I would give a shout out to RayG.  He's helpedme with my EM, video  and  mame setup. And a very patient teacher

I built my own MAME cabinet a few years back (wow 11 years ago now - time flies).  It was a really fun project.   Honestly, it is just a PC with an interface that takes the place of the keyboard.  It isn't as daunting as you might think.   :smile:  My biggest challenge was building the cabinet and control panel, I built mine from scratch instead of sourcing a used video game cab and re-working it.  That gave me the flexibility to have lots of buttons, a trackball and a spinner.

I'm happy to help, PM me or shoot me an email direct:  jholmgren at gmail dot com.

Here's some pics I took during my build:
http://www.littlebluespitfire.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2245

Jim

These guys should have some pretty good info.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/

I had a GUI version of MAME that made it easy, I don't remember the name but it was for a Mac.

For windows 7 I found this:
http://www.mameworld.info/easyemu/mameguide/mameguide-choice.html

The hard part for me was finding the ROM's, sometimes you find a package, other times you find them one at a time.

I wish I could be more help but I don't have that machine anymore and didn't save any of the ROM's.

I also found this:
http://www.freeroms.com/mame.htm
Search MAME ROM's in google.

Remember to scan everything you download from these sites with a good virus checker. Sometimes the ROM is infected so instead of a good old game you get load of headache!

Terry,

 I build my windows MAME machine (MALA for the interface and MAME 0.149) using  a I-PAC2  as the interface and it worked great with all the arcade controls even a trackball (I converted a cabaret Centipede game with a bad MPU). My next upgrade was to remove the PC  and replace it with the Raspberry PI (as $35 credit size computer running a version  of Linux and MAME. Both had there Pros and Cons,  the biggest Con was the bootup and windows/Linux elements.  I then cut the Centipede  over to a "60 in 1"  board due to the easy of operation and playability .  I currently have the MAME  running off my pc and a panel of arcade controls  

The 1st pic (mala1) is a out of the box MALA interface menu the 2nd pic (mala2) is more of a customized one that came later.

 I have over 100 working ROMS (they are free but there a lot of badly compiled ones out there) with artwork.

Let me know if you have any questions.

http://malafe.net/

http://mamedev.org/

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Ray
 

You just added another reason I need a raspberryPi.

Raspberry Pi is a cool little computer... here's a link to download the OS with MAME already installed, it also got a helpful discussion forum

http://pimame.org/

Note:they did change the name from PIMAME to PIPLAY

Let me know if you have any questions

Ray