MAME Classic

MAME Classic is a classic M.A.M.E front-end for Windows. A front-end is an application that provides a graphical user interface for command-line programs.

M.A.M.E (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator), an emulator for old and some recent arcade games, is one of those programs. It can be run from the command line, but MAME Classic was developed to make it easier for average users to use M.A.M.E.

It was one of the first front-ends to be released. Back in 1999, it was the best, but now it is just an outdated application. Don't get me wrong. I have used this for countless hours, but the developers have simply failed to see where the world is heading to. To get MAME Classic to work, you have to download the M.A.M.E binary file from another site and install it to your computer, and then tell MAME Classic where it is. It will then have you point it in the direction of several configuration folders that are necessary for MAME Classic to work. So you have to bypass several error windows to simply get the application to launch (only the first time you run it). After that, you can simply run the ROM image files you have in your ROM directory. But it would be nice if the application was smart enough to bypass senseless errors for you. Maybe a wizard or some help would also be productive.

Feature-wise, MAME Classic offers support for individual Raster and Vector settings. And it duplicates most M.A.M.E features quite right. The interface is old-looking as well. It forces you to open menus to toggle between installed games and the complete list of games, and to access some features that are easily accessible with other front-ends. The games work great, but that is because M.A.M.E is a beast emulator. It really saddens me to see one of my favorite childhood applications showing no progress in so many years.