Then let me repeat my suggestion: Go to http://www.mamedev.org, download MAME, find a ROM site*, download whatever game you want**, extract MAME, put the ROM file into the “roms” folder, open the command shell, type “mame <romname>” and play the game.
And if it doesn’t exist for MAME, then Internet Arcade will never have it because their program is also just a modified MAME, using the exact same ROM files.
If the ROMs there are outdated, download a version of MAME that came out when that site uploaded their files.
** Some games are revisions/clones of each other, so you’ll always need the main version as well. For example, if you want to play any American verion of “Street Fighter II - The World Warrior”, you need “Street Fighter II - The World Warrior (World 910522)” (ROM name: “sf2”) plus whatever version you want to play because that’s the base archive while all other ROMs only include the different files.
I have mame now. That isn’t the issue. This is a website that does that shit without the need for extra fucking work. I commend them for that, and would like to see them advance it to the point where I don’t need to download any programs, and can just plug in a stick, and load a website, and play online to boot. Learn to read, please.
Yeah, and when that site gets pulled from the net, you’re screwed. But nobody can take the files away from you that you downloaded to your hard drive.
I read what you wrote. And I didn’t say anything against you playing the games online. I didn’t compare that website with MAME per se.
I just find statements like “I wish they had this and that game as well” stupid. Because it’s not like you can’t get these games. Sure, you have to download them. But what’s better? Downloading a program and spending a one time 15 minutes to configure it so you can get it started? Or not playing the game at all and hoping that a certain website will maybe host it some day?
Sure, but this option is not part of the current debate because it has nothing to do with the availability of certain games on the Internet Arcade website vs. the availability for MAME.
I’ve been wondering why people are so excited about the internet archive arcade when game-oldies.com has been around for a while. They have way more games. Even cps3 games as well as almost any retro console. The only real problem with it is that you will need a key mapping program for controller functionality. Otherwise the emulation is just as good and the game selection is far greater.
The conversation was about the availability of games on the Internet Arcade web browser. Your bringing MAME into it has about the same relevance as bringing in the original hardware.
Firstly:
The Internet Arcade is MAME. They did nothing else but creating a MAME derivate that runs in a browser. Press the Tab key and you will even see the typical MAME user interface menu.
So, all I said was: Whatever this thing can do, it’s already available in a similar form with a more complete library of games.
Secondly:
Even if it was not MAME, the comparison is still justified: Both, Internet Arcade and MAME, are programs that a person can use here and now on his PC for free.
So, answering the statetement “It’s a pity that they don’t have “Street Fighter”” with the statement “Why don’t you get MAME? There you can play “Street Fighter”” is a valid suggestion. However, saying “Why don’t you go to an arcade and play “Street Fighter?”” would not be a corresponding alternative in this context because it’s a totally different category.
The only difference between MAME and Internet Arcade is that one runs locally and one runs in a web browser. So, the practical difference is a bunch of minutes to download and configure MAME, afterwards you’re free to do the same as you do with Internet Arcade. The difference between using a PC program and going to an arcade is huge.
Well another key difference is one I can play on any pc with a browser and internet connection with minimal set up, while the other takes time. Being able to fire up a game at station that isn’t mine is pretty god like, and Something mame on its own can’t do.
It’s mame, anywhere with minimal to no set up. You’d have to be trying to miss the point to not see why people like the idea of that, and wish it had a better library selection.
Still, the difference is minimal. (Unlike going to an arcade.) And the advantage to play pretty much every arcade game with MAME compared to a bunch of selected titles in Internet Arcade far outweights the fact that you can play Internet Arcade on any browser. Get a USB stick for two dollars, put MAME and 1000 games on it and you can also play it almost everywhere, but with more games.
Seriously, since when has the ability to play a game in a browser become such a high priority?
MAME doesn’t need to be “installed”. It’s not an installer setup that creates registry entries, shortcuts etc. For playing MAME, you only need the mame.exe.
And MAME saves its configuration files relative to the exe’s directory. MAME never writes anything into “System32” or some other global folders (unless you specify these paths in the options). It doesn’t create any dependencies whatsoever. That means, you don’t even need specific access rights on the PC that you’re using. As soon as you have configured your stuff, you can put your MAME folder anywhere, be it your desktop or “My Documents” or whatever.
I think you are totally missing the point. Someone created something plug and play that requires almost zero effort, and is made more for people that want to have fun. Sure for someone like you who enjoys downloading games, configuring stuff, and all that having MAME on your system is a great idea and worth the effort because it brings you fun. But for someone who doesn’t find any of that fun or would have trouble figuring things out, who just wants to click on a link and play a old ass game for a few minutes, then this is better. Stop being such an elitist. It’s 90% why this community is ass, every time someone shares something new here, there is the wave of people who trash it because it isn’t the way they would do it.
I’m not. If you look back at my posts, you will see that I never directly compared MAME with Internet Arcade per se.
For example, I never said: “Meh, why do you want to play “Paperboy” on Internet Arcade if you can have it on MAME?” I never said anything like that.
The thing I said was: Why do people say stuff like “I really wish I could play SF2 there. Let’s hope they’ll add it” if all they need to do was get MAME if they want to play it so bad?
I was not comparing playing MAME with playing Internet Arcade.
I was comparing “playing a certain game in MAME” vs. “not playing a certain game in Internet Arcade”.
You see the difference?
If Internet Arcade does have the game, I would never say “Take MAME instead.” I only suggested MAME as an alternative to not playing the game at all. But somehow, people still criticise me for it.
So, you really wanna say that not playing a specific game in Internet Arcade and instead waiting and hoping that they might add it to their library is a better alternative than simply setting up MAME? Really? That’s what you want to imply?
Well, if that isn’t elistist (“I want to play the game on Internet Arcade and nowhere else. If they don’t have it, I won’t look for an alternative. Instead, I will wait until they have it.”), then I don’t know what elitist means.
Apart from the fact that you could still download MAME directly at your work and wouldn’t need to bring it with you on an USB stick (and if you will now tell me that you’re not allowed to download it, then you’re obviously not allowed to visit Internet Arcade either), let me just say this:
Fine. I told you an alternative for games that Internet Arcade doesn’t have. If you prefer to not play the game at all instead of finding ways to play it anyway, then why do I even care?
I didn’t compare Internet Arcade with MAME. I just told you a way to play games that Internet Arcade doesn’t have. If you think this is worthy of an objection, then have fun with not playing certain games and waiting for them to come to Internet Arcade. If you like this better, why not?
Man no one said any of that shit, They simply said “I wish x platform had x game” I can play SFII 5 different ways in my home right now and none of them require fiddling with mame or using internet arcade, but it would still be cool if internet arcade had it.