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The MAME Project: Arcade EmulatorMAME Faithfully Recreates Arcade Games for Posterity
MAME is a freely distributed trademarked arcade emulator that faithfully recreates classic arcade games for use on modern platforms such as the personal computer.
MAME, short for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, is one of the most popular arcade simulators available today. It is free to own, as is the C-based source code the emulator is written in. The MAME website states that: “MAME's purpose is to preserve these decades of video-game history. As gaming technology continues to rush forward, MAME prevents these important "vintage" games from being lost and forgotten.” To date, MAME Project contributors have successfully emulated thousands of arcade titles, spanning the history and geography of the video game. From early classics such as the 1972 Pong by Atari, through Japan's adult mahjong titles, to more recent games such as Neo-Geo's 2003 King of Fighters, MAME has catalogued them all. Arcade Game ROMSTo play an emulated video game on MAME requires a game ROM. The ROM is a file or set of files that contains the game data. Many of the emulated games also require a BIOS ROM, which acts as an interface between the computer hardware and the video game data. For example, the King of Fighters game ROM and the Neo-Geo BIOS ROM would both be needed to play Neo-Geo's King of Fighters on MAME. The MAME User InterfaceMAME did not originally include a graphical user interface. Rather, it was operated from a system command line. However, many frontends have been developed, such as the popular EmuLoader, which provides a Windows-like interface that makes indexing and navigating through game ROM collections easier. MAME and Copyright ViolationIt is perfectly legal to own MAME in any country, as it is simply an emulator application. US case law established that simulating an existing platform for use on another platform is legal in Sony vs Connectix. What is more legally contentious is distributing ROMs for use in MAME. The game data included on video game ROMS remains copywritten material unless the owner of that data has otherwise released the copyright and allows the data to be distributed. Currently, only 14 such game ROMs are available for MAME. ROM game licenses can be purchased from some of the original vendors of a given title, but for the most part, ROM data remains outwith the public sector. However, there are many sites dedicated to distributing video game ROMS compatible with MAME under the pretext of several conveniently misunderstood copyright laws. The Digital Millennium Copyright ActThis act serves to protect copyright of works being circumvented by technological means. The MAME application has a legitimate exemption to the DMCA ruling due to the following exemption clause of the act: “Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive.” MAME seeks to preserve vintage arcade games as part of an ongoing archive. However, distributing video game ROMs does not conform to the rulings of the exemption clause. This means that in any country that subscribes to a form of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, distributing arcade game ROMs is considered a breach of copyright. The MAME Project is a worthwhile endeavour, and any fan of classic arcade games with a keen knowledge of console emulation can contribute as a developer by helping to simulate and archive vintage video games. More details about the MAME project can be found on the MAME website.
The copyright of the article The MAME Project: Arcade Emulator in Video Game Simulators is owned by Nicolas McGregor. Permission to republish The MAME Project: Arcade Emulator in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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