Old Computer Games

[Redsteve]

Hello Guys.

I hope you all had a nice Christmas and I wish you all a good New Year.

This is a bit of a long shot but I was wondering if anyone on the forum knows anything about MAME (faithful reproductions of the old arcade games)?

Recently the hard drive in my PC fried itself and I had to have a new one. While the guy that did it got most of the stuff off the HD he didn't manage to get the bit of MAME which runs the games. I have the games on discs but without the missing files they won't work. A friend that I am no longer in touch with installed it on my PC a few years ago and now I don't know exactly what I am looking for to replace it.

I thought that someone out there might know where I can get the files I need and then, what to do with them (I am no computer expert).

I hope someone can help me.

Thanks in advance.

Steve.

[Steve ( West Mids )]

I expect it's the emulator you are missing, if so try here:

My link

[steve2006]

That looks like the right place for the software.

Talking of classic games,I had a Nintendo N64 in the other day for repair.

I couldn't even remember this model but it had a detachable power supply and I was able to get it all working again.

[Redsteve]

Thanks for the response Guys.

I have followed the link to the MAME site and downloaded the relevant emulator. Now I have it the games still don't run. I am sure I have to do something with it or the game files. When my friend installed it on my PC many years ago it took him several hours of moving stuff about. As I said in the original post, I am no computer expert and I really don't understand the dark art of telling one bit of the PC to talk to another bit.

If there is anyone out there that can talk me through it in idiot proof instructions I would be most grateful.

Thanks once again.

Steve.

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Never used it myself, but I would guess that the apps ( "old games" ) need to be in a subfolder of the folder for MIME on the c: drive.

Looks like the programs go on "roms" subdirectory. samples in the samples subdirectory

Have a read here:

http://mamedev.org/devwiki/index.php/FAQ:Setting_Up

[Redsteve]

Well chaps,

I have spent God knows how many hours trying to sort this out.

I have been to the sites which you have suggested and downloaded the relevant bits and pieces that I seem to need but all to no good.

I found a How To section on one of my discs hich I have followed to the letter but it still doesn't work.

I am downloading the relevant emulator and then putting the game Roms into the emulator Roms folder but when I go to play the game all that happens is a new window opens up for about a quarter of a second and then closes itself.

I have been looking on gaming forums for help but the people on them don't seem to want to help, they just keep directing me to the FAQ pages of other sites. None of the FAQs seem to cover my problem.

I think I am just going to have to admit defeat.

Steve.

P.S. Happy New Year. :D

[Alcoholx]

your probably trying to use a command line version of mame (dos).. i have a dedicated mame arcade cabinet but havnt alterd it for years so iam very rusty. if i can help i will..

if you not very techy then you might find it easier using a frontend/gui for mame instead of a command line

try this one

http://www.mameui.info/

or this

http://easymame.mameworld.info/

these programs list all the roms in your rom folder and allow you to run them by just selecting them in the program,you will need to put the roms in the roms folder... do not unrar them, you may find some games dont work if you havnt got the latest rom set and latest mame... but try the programs it should make life easier

hope thats helped, good luck :)