Why buy a board when you can mame??

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chubsta
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Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by chubsta »

Serious question as i dont have enough money to throw on individual boards when i can just play them via a pc in the cab and mame - why are people willing to shell out so much money for an origional board when they can play the rom for free?

I can almost understand the 'the mame version will never be 100% the same as the board' arguement until i consider that had the game developer made it exactly as mame plays it would you still love it so much...

opinions please...
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by DandySephy »

chubsta wrote:Serious question as i dont have enough money to throw on individual boards when i can just play them via a pc in the cab and mame - why are people willing to shell out so much money for an origional board when they can play the rom for free?

I can almost understand the 'the mame version will never be 100% the same as the board' arguement until i consider that had the game developer made it exactly as mame plays it would you still love it so much...

opinions please...
Mame has it's uses, but while lots of games run pretty much flawlessly, lots won't! mame has hundreds of games that don't work, or have major flaws (and thats without counting stuff that is only just starting to be emulated like Naomi)
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by Sinjd »

I'm new at all this, and wont be getting my first cab and stuff for another week or so, therefore I will no doubt get corrected by some of the more experienced members. But I assume part of it (in addition to Quality issues) is along the same lines as to why I collect Japanese Dreamcast Games when I could just as easily pirate them (being as the Dreamcast is so pirate friendly) and wouldn't have to shell out silly money for stuff like Ikaruga or Border Down (the price of BD on ebay makes me die inside :( ). Which is that there a certain "charm" (thats not really the word I'm after, I'm sure someone will come up with a better one :lol:) or something to owning the real thing, they are there they exist, you can touch them, handle them, display them proudly like badges of honour or some nonsense. Can't really do that with emulated stuff.

Having said that, if there was something I really wanted to play, and getting hold of the real thing was incredibly difficult or expensive I'd still take the easier route - piracy/emulation or whatever until such a time as I could get the real thing (owning rare stuff is great after all :awe:). Equally I have nothing against people who would rather use MAME or pirate old hard to get stuff (pirating readily available new games is not something I generally agree with), that's their choice I'm not going to call them a heretic, and chase after them with a torch and pitchfork or anything :awe:
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by Aypok »

The previous posters have pretty much summed it up, but I'll add my useless opinion because I've yet to post on this forum.

If you follow your argument to the logical conclusion, you'll hit questions like "Why pay for CDs when I can download them for free? Once I get them, I'll just rip them to MP3 anyway" and "Why go to the cinema when I can download films from the 'net and watch them in the comfort of my own home?" (not that I'm promoting such acts of piracy), etc, etc. Having said that, I see your point and agree with you to an extent; I still use MAME for the games I can't afford (read: anything from Cave) - although I would love to own the PCB for something like DoDonPachi. :)

My personal reason is that I'm a collector (in terms of console/computer gaming -- arcade gaming is a little pricey for that, so I stick to what I'll play for weeks -- but my point still holds). Although the collecting came out of the joy of playing the games on Real Hardware™ instead of emulators. If you look at it logically, it doesn't really make much sense, but I just enjoy the tactile nature of having to physically mess around with carts, discs, boards, wires, etc - having the original controller in hand (even if some older controllers are horrible). Nostalgia plays a pretty big part in that.

I'm sure you fully understand where I'm coming from, but I felt like clarifying my point for those that still think I'm a little crazy.

Emulators and MAME are great and I don't begrudge anyone for choosing them over costly hardware - as mentioned earlier, I still use it on occasions - so it simply boils down to personal choice. If, to you, the cost of the hardware doesn't justify the sensation of playing it as it was intended, I'd say go with emulation.
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by Bingo83 »

I started off the Mame route but have reverted back to buying boards of the games that I really like or remember playing when I was younger in the arcades. The problem I had was that with Mame you have too much choice and you tend to play a few mins of one game and move onto the next. When purchasing the boards I feel I need to get my monies worth and tend to play them a lot more because of it.
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by jpj »

why play mame if you can afford the boards? ;)

i really love a toaplan shooter called fire shark, mainly cos i love the music. haven't been able to find a pcb for 18 months now. downloaded the rom. no sound... :roll:
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by jonny5 »

kernow wrote: Simple answer = its just better.
^^this
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by markedkiller78 »

chubsta wrote:Serious question as i dont have enough money to throw on individual boards when i can just play them via a pc in the cab and mame - why are people willing to shell out so much money for an origional board when they can play the rom for free?
IMO, less is more. I occasionaly try stuff out in mame, but the sheer number of roms encourages me to change game every 10 seconds never getting any better or enjoying them.
chubsta wrote:I can almost understand the 'the mame version will never be 100% the same as the board' arguement until i consider that had the game developer made it exactly as mame plays it would you still love it so much...

opinions please...
Most don't play 100% & it makes a difference for shmups. You also have all the games that aren't emulated.

I think the collector / rare / willy waving factors come into it too for a lot of people. It's easy to get caught up in the hype & you see a lot of people dabble in the hobby for 1-2 years, sell up everything & move on to something new. The Hardcore Otaku are here for the long hall :ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek: & a lot are into Mame so there is no right or wrong answer.
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by cools »

It depends what you want out of it. There was a thread on shmups recently regarding G-Net stuff that raised a lot of good points.

If you want to play a lot of different games at once, then MAME or console games are by far the better choice. Swapping boards is not exactly the most straightforward of exercises.

As far as my own experience with games in general, I started off with original tapes, then original cartridges, moved on to massive floppy disk piracy, continued with optical disk piracy, then slowly seemed to acquire original disks again (the GameCube was a sucker for this, I got one at the point where I had plenty of spare cash, and modchips weren't available - ended up with a few dozen originals). I picked up a cab with the firm intent of playing SF2 on it and not much else, then saw a friends MAME cab, sold the boards and got sucked into that.

But it turned out I spent more time messing around with setup and picking a game to play, then surviving a single life and switching to another, than actually playing games. Since I was still playing console games heavily it took a good few years for me to realise I was simply wasting my time with it. It probably helped that I was also getting sick of modern games too...

I missed the early days of my game playing. When I'd go with my parents to Toys'r'us every week with my pocket money and buy a new game based entirely on what the sleeve looked like and said, then wait five minutes for it to load every time I wanted to play. Then as things moved on saving and picking up Master System games in the same way, although not having to wait for loading was a boon. The C16 stuff was pretty disposable - I knew at the time the games were cheap but I still got plenty of play out of them. The SMS got played to death. It's the only system I've owned where I've physically worn out the controller (short of ultraviolence or mad waggle breakage). The day before Sonic 2 was released was particularly emotional - I've always hated asking for money but I was absolutely desperate to play it, having spent probably the best part of a year finishing the original over and over a few times a day.

The sheer value I got out of those games I doubt I'll ever get again, since I had the time to play them, but that's what I missed - having a small selection (I think I had two dozen or so after 4 years, maybe) meant I gave them all a lot of time. Some more than others. Some I found ridiculously hard and would use cheats, others not (go play Aztec Adventure for a good example of a brutally unfair game).

Regardless of how good or not the emulation is, having 3000+ games I've not paid for to choose from means I invest no time and effort into really enjoying a title. Hunting down a board, keeping money aside for it, paying market value or over the odds if it's a game I really want, installing it in a cab and setting the monitor up correctly might seem a pain in comparison - but I'm as close to that old feeling of personal investment as I'm ever likely to get.

The money aspect... I used to be able to buy a new game every few months or so. With my income now it's less of an issue. I could buy a few console titles a week if I wanted. Arcade stuff (short of new/old kits or Cave rarities) requires a bit more cash... Not enough that everything I have goes on it - but I've got bills to pay and food to buy nowadays :)

So yeah, for me it's about intentionally limiting my options and as a consequence getting a whole lot more value out of the games I have. Having multiple cabs is a requirement too, after all changing PCBs isn't like changing carts, and playing just the one title constantly has never been something I've done.

Bit of an essay...

Mark just raised a good point while I was typing - the unemulated stuff. I've sunk months into Raiden DX (awesome, awesome game) and it's not playable in MAME. I'm caning Psyvariar Revision too, which up until I bought the board was also unemulated - and it's not going to be perfect for a good while from the sound of it.
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by LoRez »

I read this somewhere:

A supergun is like a beautiful woman
A cab is like her more desirable sister
An emulator is like their brother who has had a sex change
Something's not quite right.

concise,I thought :)
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by Devil Soundwave »

Mame:

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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by yosai »

cools wrote: I'm caning Psyvariar Revision.
*cough*

As well as the points mentioned I like the fact that I can switch the machine on and by the time I've walked round and sat down it's ready to go... Coin in, play. No messing around.
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by Nightstalker »

LoRez wrote:I read this somewhere:

A supergun is like a beautiful woman
A cab is like her more desirable sister
An emulator is like their brother who has had a sex change
Something's not quite right.

concise,I thought :)
:lol:

I think its also nicer to own the original if they include any Art and goodies with them, I enjoy the memorabilia that come with certain games. I think everyone who owned an Amiga was a pirate back then too, I was in Infant School so my dad would bring the latest disks home from work once in a while i remember having loads of those Amiga disk holders full with all sorts of games.

Theres always something satisfying about owning the original of anything. Certain copies of games may do exactly the same thing as the original but they're still just on a blank disc and you dont give a crap about it. I guess i care more about something I have paid for, I know have purchased the original of games I have had copies of in the past. I definitely feel strong about older games being avaliable to download, Especially rarer games or games/Versions that never surfaced in this country. I have quite a few PSX titles that I have never even seen for sale that are backups, If I cant buy them anywhere in the first place surely it isnt a bad thing to obtain them another way?
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by jpj »

Nightstalker wrote:
LoRez wrote:I read this somewhere:

A supergun is like a beautiful woman
A cab is like her more desirable sister
An emulator is like their brother who has had a sex change
Something's not quite right.

concise,I thought :)
a supergun is like **** a beautiful woman
a cab is like her **** her older sister, who's seen better days
emulation is like **** your own sister:
illegal in most countries, and not something to brag about
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by Nightstalker »

What if your own sisters really hot? :awe:
Im so damn sexy!
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by yosai »

and where is it not illegal?

:awe:
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by penrhos »

MAME is great for try before you buy and for stuff you can't be arsed to track down. I've got a large collection of MVS carts (100+) and although I could play them all in MAME there's something about selecting the right combination of 4 carts to go in the NEO-19 that the 100s of MVS games in MAME doesn't match.

I'm lucky so I can afford to buy most of the games I want so I'm not stuck with the MAME or nothing option.

But Turning on an arcade cab, watching the PCB POST and then the game start is better than watching a PC boot and MAMEWAH (or other front-end) start up.

The first time I downloaded MAME it only supported a dozen or so games and Sparcade was better - Now look its become the Microsoft office of the emulator world - huge, bloaty, resource-hungry and overkill for most people.

Raine still runs better on slower kit and if you want CPS2/3 or Model2/3 emus the dedicated ones work better with less horsepower.
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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by Devil Soundwave »

Nightstalker wrote:What if your own sisters really hot? :awe:
It must be a debacle. Jim Corr, world's unluckiest man - in a band with three smoking hot babes, and you can't touch them as they are all your sisters. :lol:

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Re: Why buy a board when you can mame??

Post by jpj »

they also say emus are a guilty pleasure ..... :?

true story: jim corr married a woman who looked *exactly* like his sisters.
they got divorced and the band split up. i don't think they talk to jim much

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