Hack25.Buy Legal MAME ROMs

Hack 25. Buy Legal MAME ROMs

Put some money into the pockets of classic game publishers .

Let's face itas fun as Gridlee [Hack #24] may be, what you really want to do with MAME is play the arcade games you remember from your misspent youth (or, depending on your age, satisfy your curiosity about what us geezers used to think was high-tech). You want the real thing, but if possible you'd prefer to do it without running afoul of copyright law. In that case you'll want to visit StarROMs, Inc. (http://www.starroms.com), which at the time of this writing lets you legally download twenty-seven different Atari arcade titles.

There are a few different web sites and online auction sellers who sell CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs containing every ROM known to work in MAME. Bear in mind that these are not in any way official products.


The web site claims that the games cost "as low as $2 each," but there is a catch. You don't purchase the games directlyinstead, you buy packages of "download credits" which are then redeemed for games. The current price structure is 40 credits for $9.95, 100 credits for $19.95, 200 credits for $34. 95, 400 credits for $59.95, and 800 credits for $99.00, the latter representing a 50% savings over the base price.

Games cost between 8 and 24 credits each. Do the math and you'll find that an 8-credit game purchased from the pack of 800 credits does indeed effectively cost $2. (Of course, you should bear in mind that if you purchased every ROM on the site as of this writing, it would cost a total of 452 credits.)

Sounds a bit like the tokens used in lieu of quarters at many arcades these days, doesn't it? And of course it has the same effect: since you have to buy a bundle of credits, you're sure to end up spending more money in the long run. There is a bit of good news in all this: you get 15 free credits for signing up. Of course, this means you won't be able to download the good stuff (e.g., Asteroids or Tempest), for free since they cost over 15 credits, but here are the ROMs from which you can select one effectively for free:



8 credits

Atari Baseball, Atari Football, Atari Soccer



10 credits

Avalanche



12 credits

Lunar Lander, Qwak, Red Baron, Super Breakout



14 credits

Black Widow, Cloak and Dagger, Cloud 9

Listed next are the ROMs that, one way or another, you will have to pay money for. I recommend visiting the informational page on each, then calculating how many ROMs you want to buy before signing up for a package of credits (and remember that you have those 15 free ones coming to you rather than downloading a free game you don't want, it may be better to put those towards the purchase of a more expensive ROM you know you'll get more enjoyment out of).



16 credits

Battlezone, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Liberator, Monte Carlo, Peter Packrat, Quantum, Space Duel, Warlords



20 credits

Major Havoc



22 credits

Tempest



24 credits

Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Centipede, Millipede, Missile Command Phew! Now, what to do with these other 363 credits?

3.6.1. Capcom Coin-Op Classics

StarROMs' 800-credit pricing deal actually makes this next item seem like a downright bargain. Since 1999, HanaHo Games, Inc. has been selling its deluxe PC joystick called the HotRod (http://www.hanaho.com/products/HotRodJoystick/). This beautiful and gigantic piece of machinery mimics a classic two-player Street Fighter six-button arcade controller setup, and doesn't even require a joystick port. Instead, you plug it in your PS/2 keyboard slot, then plug your keyboard into the stick. The buttons on the HotRod will then mimic the default MAME keyboard inputs.

The controller costs $99.95 plus shipping, but to sweeten the deal it includes a disc called Capcom Coin-Op Classics, featuring sixteen of Capcom's best-loved arcade titles. Included on the disc are 1941, Block Block, Commando, Exed Eyes, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Magic Sword, Mercs, Section Z, Side Arms, Son Son, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting (a.k.a. Street Fighter II Turbo), Strider, U.N. Squadron, and Varth.

There is, of course, one caveat: Capcom fans thinking of purchasing this stick just to play their favorite games may want to know that the company has announced that it will bring a collection of its classic arcade games to game consoles [Hack #16] in 2005.

Advertisements for a competing arcade-style PC joystick, the X-Arcade [Hack #27] , effectively promise that buying its product will let you play thousands of arcade games. A page on the product web site, after some legal caveats, then links to other sites where you can buy DVD-ROMs full of MAME software or download ROMs individually. Although the page states that the makers of X-Arcade are currently "coordinating an effort to provide access to thousands of arcade classic games," as of this writing, the ROMs on the sites linked to are not being sold legally.




Retro Gaming Hacks
Retro Gaming Hacks: Tips & Tools for Playing the Classics
ISBN: 0596009178
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 150
Authors: Chris Kohler

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