Best MAME Emulators and Where to Get Free ROMs

Jeff wrote in, "Saw the show with the large MESS/MAME archive download. I downloaded it! Now what? What software should I use? Do need to un-zip all the secondary zip files within the 44G zip file? Could you refer me to a tutorial on how to make these, or maybe you could do a simple walk-through." We've got one for you in the video!

[Buchoass]

When I was a kid, I stole quarters from my moms piggy bank to supplement my video game addiction, I mastered Galaga but I eventually got caught so I drilled a little hole in a quarter and tied a string to it and used that to get free credits, now, I have little time to play games. )-:

[branina]

Guys it's really easy to get Mame to work. First go to official website to download the latest version of mame for the appropriate operating system. Once you do that, install mame. Then you need the rom pack for that version of mame...for example...mame 1.49 (means you need the mame rom pack 1.49). If you get 1.48 pack some of the games won't load or work but some will as well. Put the game rom pack into the ROMS folder of the mame installation. Load the mame program and search for games. It'll search the roms folder for the games and finds the ones u put in there. Then click on the game u want to load and it should load fine. It's real easy. Been doing it since the 90s.

[chrisarcade]

typed in archive.org and I don't get the screen they show

[Stonerman]

Hyperspin is but a frontend, is it not?

[jhodson]

wish Roger would go deeper on the Mac side of MAME and the roms that are compatible with SDLMAME. More please! Thanks.

[eddiemuise]

i was looking for something like this too play bubble bobble again, and other classics.is it hard too set up.

[alkohallick]

Only there's different ROMs for different emulators.

[ChildOL]

With NES/SNES/PSX/NeoGeo/MAME emulators and ROMs you would have more games than you could ever play and master in an entire lifetime

[jaidenannells]

Still too hard to get to work only want to play 1 game which is the final round tried downloading that but final burn doesnt seem to recognise it

[jaidenannells]

All 3 emulators do not work cant use the main one you talk about as I'm running 32 bit win7 the other 2 cant load any of the 42gb of games. Where am I going wrong. Your walk though doesn't state where to put games on these other 2 emulators do i need a 64 bit PC to run these im at a loss sooo annoying

[robert]

I've been using Mame for years.. Every UI, and every version including the ones for Android and PAP KIII+.. I know that it has a learning curve, but youre best bet is to have someone help you, because these guys may confuse you.. Good luck..

[joshbeats]

Could this be done all on androids? If so could some TELL ME. I have the mame4droid(.139u1) and idk where to DL some Roms to worksl with it. I'm trying to play metal slug mostly!

[ChildOL]

Seriously though, this is totally awesome!

[dpw]

Can anyone suggest which is the best hand held device to use that play all these classic games? Or a website that I can just buy the device which already has the games uploaded so I don't need to make the necessary download and configure changes etc...

[lordevyl]

I love mame for arcade machine emulation, and for some obscure consoles, but MESS has always been meh to me, even before it was part of MAME. I rarely use MAME/MESS for microcomputer emulation unless I'm trying to emulate an obscure microcomputer that already doesn't have a dedicated separate emulator. The more popular 80s micros like the Amiga, Atari Computers, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, C64, etc. already have really good separate dedicated emulators that work much better than the MESS emulation.

[MayeurDonz]

Can anyone tell me if you think Freeroms is a safe site to download from? I keep hearing different opinions.

[BritishFoodGuide]

I downloaded it and got a rom it doesn't work.

[ifeelawfulfalafel]

Ya got all that All i want is a config where it says this button means start.. instead all it has MAME64 is Button 1 ... :| How the hell am i going to know what button I set Start ... Select and so on to  I mean put beside the damn thing oh button 1... is start.. That'd help! UGH-! Really ... I mean you can make these things program them but forget to put hey this button here can be config as the start button on your control.. It's easy put START and so on next to the button layout config. At least it's like this in MAME64 :P anyway. I would like an easy layout where the buttons are clearly mark start, A, B, so on....

[TitanIsBack]

As it says when you boot up a rom, it is illegal if you do not own the original game.

[RetroHamer]

Great program but a little to demanding for my old dual core system