Why buy a board when you can mame??

[emphatic]

None of my favourite arcade games have dedicated machines. JAMMA conversion kits all the way, baby. I would love to have an armada of generic cabinets for them though.

[strykr]

I I'll also throw into the mix that I like buying stuff too !

I walk down a high street and dont have the urge to spend anything, I see a FS thread on a forum and a large part of me is WANT WANT. Maybe this is how the ladies feel about shoes n ****.

[rugdoctor]

I think to setup emulation properly is vital too. But the temptation to skip a game 5 minutes in is too great for me, thats why I stick to a board and play that game only. It is only recently I cleared hyper anniversary on default settings with ken, the last time I dedicated that much time to a game was sf2:ww on the sfamicom with ryu and no k.o loss/level 8 difficulty on a standard pad with access to 4 attack buttons only. In both cases, the clearing process was full of dramas and split second decision making, definitely not a cake walk for me but the conclusion was euphoric. I think the moral of my story is its not what you have but how you use it...que dick jokes NOW!

[kazuo]

Because MAME doesn't emulate everything with 100% accuracy, or simply doesn't support certain titles, and it is a pain in the **** to get a good setup going.

Playing on PC is also ****.

MAME's only use at this time, IMO, is for preservation. Unfortunately, there is less of an emphasis on perfect-as-possible emulation and more on piracy.

[strykr]

I think to setup emulation properly is vital too. But the temptation to skip a game 5 minutes in is too great for me, thats why I stick to a board and play that game only. It is only recently I cleared hyper anniversary on default settings with ken, the last time I dedicated that much time to a game was sf2:ww on the sfamicom with ryu and no k.o loss/level 8 difficulty on a standard pad with access to 4 attack buttons only. In both cases, the clearing process was full of dramas and split second decision making, definitely not a cake walk for me but the conclusion was euphoric. I think the moral of my story is its not what you have but how you use it...que dick jokes NOW!

lol, no man pole jokes from me, but there is definitely something more infinitely rewarding about learning a game inside out to the point of excelling rather then a quick mame blast and onto the next.

[pubjoe]

kazuo, to be fair Mame extremely favours accuracy over playability, and the team endures no end of grief about it.

[rugdoctor]

Does non-mame based console ports (like the ones on NTSC saturn/dreamcast) fare better? It has been something on my mind for ages now...

[Firepro4life]

I can see the pros and cons, but for me, I love my Emulator setup. I own a few PCBs, but the emulator rig gives me the convenience of having many games readily available, without having to swap any boards. It's also significantly cheaper than buying boards. Yes, it took a lonnnng time to configure and there is the temptation to switch to a new game every 5 min, but overall it's the right thing for me. I don't think one is better than the other though, and both have their place in this hobby.

[arcnl]

Whats this stuff about it taking a long time to configure ? Are you talking about frontends? Because the default stuff incl arcadevga or crtemudriver and Windows install takes an afternoon?

[joeblade]

MAME's only use at this time, IMO, is for preservation. Unfortunately, there is less of an emphasis on perfect-as-possible emulation and more on piracy.

You can't have been keeping tabs on mame or emulation in general lately then...
A LOT of the emphasis of emulation now, not just mame, is on accuracy and as pubjoe says most of the devs get **** for it everytime they release a new update!

Having said that I would say that nothing will ever beat owning the original pcb and playing it in a cab.

Funny thing is, particularly with console gaming (I know the threads about mame!) I've found that when I had a large collection of the actual consoles and games I played them less than I play some of the titles now...go figure...won't stop me from probably rebuying a few of those consoles though at some point im sure!

Horses for Courses as always!

[Firepro4life]

Whats this stuff about it taking a long time to configure ? Are you talking about frontends? Because the default stuff incl arcadevga or crtemudriver and Windows install takes an afternoon?

I'm talking about setting up not just MAME, but the other emulators on my setup as well as hyper spin, shelling windows, gathering all the correct roms, hyperspin art, gameplay video, etc. then time testing and troubleshooting it all. Plus it was my first time, so there was a learning curve.

[TadCool]

What if changing games weren't so easy?

Setting up to start the one game you want on your cab, and not been able to access the front end just by hitting 'esc' via cp, would be a good start to avoid the overwhelming/mind numbing effect caused by those thousand of games available.

A small but meaningful selection of roms can be a good idea too. Choose your top ten and stick to it. If you want to add a game, other must go.

I used to think that mame was only good to try out some 'new' game you've never played, but seems like it can back fire you if the emulation is not accurate.

[geotrig]

I dont have a mame setup ...i must have dropped it about 6-10 years ago now, I might load it up ever now and again if i need to check something out ,but then again if its just for a look ,youtube is there and does me fine.
I did find I would load a game play a credit and then would switch i can be guilty of doing that with pcbs at times as well...it also didnt feel all that authentic to me either but that really has no base's as its just psychological.

It has always been about the hardware for me, do i like that games are on gd not particulary its a cd/gd its not interesting
Do i want to own every game in the world ,no ,it would be great if i could afford to but again just mainly games i like.

Thinking back to the snes days and when sf2 came out ,it was great to have that fix at home but it just didnt compare to the real thing ,all it was for me was a stop gap till i got back to play a game in the arcade....

[Ex_Mosquito]

It doesn't need to be a big hassle setting it all up. I did all mine in a night after work. I don't care about having jingles, artwork and movie clips playing for every rom, I just wanted to play the game. I think people take Mame for granted sometimes. With a decent GroovyMame+CRT_Emudriver set-up on a 15khz arcade monitor the results are almost too good to be true, it's leagues ahead of an Xbox1 set-up or compilation disks. It's truly amazing that pretty much every game I have played in the arcades growing as a kid/teenager I can just play whenever I want, it's crazy. I know that hardware nuts say there's something missing, but gameplay wise it's purely psychological imo, if set-up right that is. I'm not a hardware guy, I couldn't care less about flyers and boxes, but as long as there is no lagg and it's the same resolution as the original PCB (no horrible filters...Xbox) then I'm good to go It's all about the gameplay from now on. A few years ago I was the opposite.... :/

[monouchi]

Every time i have played a game in mame and got the original pcb....I have been blown away how much better the pcb runs/looks.

For me, a big part is the hunt.

[TadCool]

It's all about the gameplay from now on. A few years ago I was the opposite.... :/

The right kind of maturity right there, as opposed to "I'm too old for this kind of shizz".

[Ex_Mosquito]

Monouchi: You havnt played a Groovymame+CRT_Emudrivers set-up then? It's a totally different beast from your usual laggy screen tearing Mame experience. I have a few pcb's left and if I was playing Daimakaimura and I were to go out of the room and someone swapped it over to GrovvyMame I honestly wouldn't t tell the difference. It's that good. And I can complete the game with 1-life, so I can spot differences pretty easily if there were any difference in performance. Its a beautiful thing!

[goatboy]

Monouchi: You havnt played a Groovymame+CRT_Emudrivers set-up then? It's a totally different beast from your usual laggy screen tearing Mame experience. I have a few pcb's left and if I was playing Daimakaimura and I were to go out of the room and someone swapped it over to GrovvyMame I honestly wouldn't t tell the difference. It's that good. And I can complete the game with 1-life, so I can spot differences pretty easily if there were any difference in performance. Its a beautiful thing!

Yes, Heard about groovy mame doing a nice job capturing that vintage CRT look. Still, Knowing that it's emulation spoils the experience for me. Also, Couldn't be bothered to look into all of that mame stuff again. Not saying i do not like emulation though. Just sticking to a few original PCB's myself.

[goatboy]

For me, a big part is the hunt.

+1

[geotrig]

Actually mame gets you thinking outside the box and gets you all creative on how best to utilise ,time ,space and game play

just look at all the great results in the mame thread http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19"