MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat

> This doesn't apply to Mame. The MameDevs only code the emulator of the hardware of
> the game. If this Super Pacman game ran on a x86 platform with some off the shelf
> chips, then there is not much there to emulate.

But MAME would emulate it "the hard way" anyways, regardless if there is much to emulate.

Also if you accept "MAME knows the checksums of the ROMs and other dumps of the game and has them entered into the sourcecode" as "documentation" and "being in MAME"... then that still won't be done, even if the game is dumped, until the time delay is expired.

> Most modern arcade games run off windows right?

Many do.

> Remember the leaked BlazBlue Continuum Shift?

Oh, I see. People shouldn't confuse "being emulated in MAME" with "being hacked to be able to play on a user's PC".

Original poster asked "would it be included in MAME" and I responded "even were it not for the age, it would likely not be playable at a decent speed."

Your response is "if it's PC based, then emulation in MAME is not a requirement, and speed is not an issue."

But my reply is "the original poster asked, 'would it be included in MAME?'"
And I gave the reasons as to why not.

If the original poster meant "can I play it on my PC", wouldn't he have asked that?

Mind you, some people think MAME is the only way. (and for a future-proof solution, maybe it will be eventually.)

Remember, MAME will only allow certain kinds of speed improvements. Straight execution of x86 (ie. "virtualization") is not acceptable (yet, if ever - doubt that it's planned, but you never know).

Secondly, MAME methodology would be to emulate the x86, and emulate the off-the-shelf chips as well, for preservation purposes: basically, just in case the CPU architecture of the future isn't x86-compatible.

This won't stop the people who just wanna play free games, some hacker will figure out how to hack it to run on the native platform (if it is indeed PC-based) like BlazBlue. And if that were ever published, then people will get confused and asked "why can't we play it in MAME?"

They're confusing "emulator" with other things.

> So it doesn't matter if the companies are alive or dead.

... well, it won't stop the pirates, I suppose...

> I agree with the five year
> rule. It makes sense on a development level.

Like I said, it's informal, and it's a hard line to draw. It may as well be 5 years anyhow, for all the good MAMEDEV will be at emulating modern systems. Hitting the limits of what information is available about the hardware, and the requisite performance needed for "true" emulation... I don't expect emulation of any current arcade platforms for many years.

> You have games that are twenty five years old that you are still trying to fix (!!),
> or save from oblivion - to worry about up and coming releases.

Well, the good (or bad) thing about that is there's always going to be some new MAME developer to whom the old games, the old bugs, don't interest them, and they just want to work on the newer stuff (for various reasons). You can't force people to work on what you want, else you could lose them as a developer - "it becomes a job".

> Besides most of the popular recent arcade games end up as console releases anyway.

Good point, I just saw that Pac-Man game available as a demo on the iPad.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pac-man-battle-royale/id404706110?mt=8

- Stiletto