Cloud-based MAME

[crtrrss]

Hi! Would it be possible to host a server of some sort with all of the MAME games and CHDs to be accessed through the MAME program? Could two people access the same game at once and stuff? If someone put all of the games on a single server system, that would remove almost 300GB of data from everyone's HDDs.

Also, could multiplayer for games work with this?

[Malenko]

Itd "work" for local storage like on a NAS/Fileserver, but I couldnt imagine the lag if trying the same thing with an internet based cloud, espcially for games like Killer Instinct or any other CHD based game.

[Slippyblade]

Not to mention the legalities of such a setup.

[yotsuya]

---fudgesicle--- this forum. I'm out. No more posting here

Change your mind? 

[ChanceKJ]

Hey man, props to him for lasting a year. I can't go an hour... 

(You ---daisies---, look what you did to me!!)

[pbj]

Not to mention the legalities of such a setup.

Will you please buzz off? 

Multiboards are openly available at all online retailers.

ROMs can be downloaded off mainstream archive sites.

Nobody cares.

[Haze]

lol.. cloud..

the most stupid idea the industry has had in recent memory.

local storage is cheap, fast (latency and transfer rate), private, and dependable.

so let's try convincing everybody to replace it with a system that is none of those things.

I'm happy to say we have no intention of ever integrating any kind of 'cloud services' into MAME.

yes, it's a popular buzzword, no, it is not a good idea.

[jimmer]

Not to mention the legalities of such a setup.

Will you please buzz off? 

Multiboards are openly available at all online retailers.

ROMs can be downloaded off mainstream archive sites.

Nobody cares.

Some people care. I'd like to see a US citizen try this from a base in USA.

[Malenko]

lol.. cloud..

the most stupid idea the industry has had in recent memory.

local storage is cheap, fast (latency and transfer rate), private, and dependable.

Cloud as an offsite backup isnt a terrible idea. Having it as the only back up is.

[Xiaou2]

 The Cloud,  is just a way for the controlling forces / industry ...to try to take away your personal computer, and personal data storage capability.

 It makes hacking into your data a Dream come true.  Anytime, anywhere.. someone can spy on your new ideas, steal them, and produce them.. before you even gather the capital to attempt it.

 They can threaten and or just turn off / erase your years of data.. in the blink of an eye.  This includes.. precious photos, resume info, years of work / research, contacts of importance,  and even important records.

 It all starts with a buzzword, hypnotic advertising, and some form of small benefit...  then some attacks on current methods...  then some social engineering psychology, to get youngens to defend it in the name of their "time".   And or some Phear mongering,   and finally monetary bribing and or forced govt. policies pushed.

 The game is Tired...  and foul...  but it keeps working...  and it even advances..
Years and Years of  mind-destroying / controlling   programming, have Zombified the masses...

[Slippyblade]

Will you please buzz off? 

Multiboards are openly available at all online retailers.

ROMs can be downloaded off mainstream archive sites.

Nobody cares.

Whether "nobody cares" or not does not change the fact that it is, in fact, illegal.

[pbj]

Yes, and you're the clown that thinks multiboards are "amazingly illegal" IIRC.

My, what a sheltered life.


lol @ haze thinking cloud computing isn't 50+ years old

[DaveMMR]

lol.. cloud..

the most stupid idea the industry has had in recent memory.

local storage is cheap, fast (latency and transfer rate), private, and dependable.

so let's try convincing everybody to replace it with a system that is none of those things.

I'm happy to say we have no intention of ever integrating any kind of 'cloud services' into MAME.

yes, it's a popular buzzword, no, it is not a good idea.

Cloud storage has its usefulness.  For example, I have all 40+ Gigs of music on Apple's "Cloud" through iTunes Match which means I always have access to my music on my phone/tablet without worrying about space.

Also, at my company we use an online storage system as one of three backups in case something ever happens to our building (without having to schlep hardware offsite constantly.)

But otherwise, I do agree with you.  People take to storing things on the cloud when there's no conceivable need for it. The amount of data the average home user needs to "protect" can all go on an SDCard that's fits in a wallet or a thumb drive that can go on a keychain, both costing less than $10.

[Haze]

lol.. cloud..

the most stupid idea the industry has had in recent memory.

local storage is cheap, fast (latency and transfer rate), private, and dependable.

so let's try convincing everybody to replace it with a system that is none of those things.

I'm happy to say we have no intention of ever integrating any kind of 'cloud services' into MAME.

yes, it's a popular buzzword, no, it is not a good idea.

Cloud storage has its usefulness.  For example, I have all 40+ Gigs of music on Apple's "Cloud" through iTunes Match which means I always have access to my music on my phone/tablet without worrying about space.

As long as you have internet access, which isn't always a given*.  Also it depends on the level of integration, 'cloud' typically seems to be used for something far more overbearing these days - applications and storage you basically have no final control over, integration into applications that REALLY don't need it, geo-locking and other nonsense over things you think you own.  It's just a way of trying to push a rental / subscription model onto people.

I'm aware that the idea has been around for a lot longer, but it was buried for good reasons.


* I just helped a guy I know move house, he has no internet access (and won't for another month) so he decided to whip out his laptop and listen to music instead only to realise none of his music was actually on his pc, he didn't even realise that was what 'cloud' meant because it was integrated with his desktop. (not the smartest of guys I'll admit)

[nitrogen_widget]

Storing my Roms on my media server increased load times of the front end and ROM launching a little.
Wasn't horrible but really busy layouts had some lag when loading artwork every time you cycled through the Roms.

I'm sure if you tried it from online storage it would be really bad if you didn't prefetch the artwork.
 

[kahlid74]

There are many types of "Clouds" in the IT world.  To say they are foolish or a gimmick is to not truly understand them all.  Some make sense, some don't.  Cloud processing for MAME would be an interesting idea and based on what can be compartmentalized might work quite well.  The challenge is that older versions of MAME run on low level hardware, which takes away from the most powerful thing you gain in the cloud, processing.  From a business perspective it just doesn't make sense.

[DaveMMR]

Cloud processing for MAME would be an interesting idea and based on what can be compartmentalized might work quite well.

Exactly what benefits would grabbing MAME data off "the cloud" serve though?  If MAME can just grab the ROM off a remote server on-demand, isn't that more-or-less the same thing as packaging MAME with the ROMs which is a violation of their license?

[pbj]

MAME is an illegal product, the terms in their license are meaningless.  Try calling the police next time you get ripped off in a drug deal.

 

[DaveMMR]

MAME is an illegal product, the terms in their license are meaningless.  Try calling the police next time you get ripped off in a drug deal.

 

Irrelevant - I'm just wondering the benefits considering the MAME devs wouldn't want to contradict themselves by adding a feature that would make the roms ostensibly available to anyone without having to obtain them "legally".  Honest question - there could be benefits I'm not thinking of.

[Malenko]

Use the Cloud for MAME? Overkill??? probably so!



sry couldnt resist.

[Dawgz Rule]

 

Now that was ---smurfing--- funny. 

[MTPPC]

I can see where having the complete ROM set on the cloud would be great if there was a nice front end manager that would download the appropriate ROM and update your xml file so that the game was automagically added or deleted from your cabinet.

As far as MAME terms go, all emulation is questionable so their licensing is nothing more than a CYA for the primary developers. It's really meaningless. I'm sure we could get Kim Dot Com to host the ROM set if he saw some sort of a profit in it. He probably already does!

[yotsuya]

The **only** benefit I see to having MAME be cloud-based would be to share high scores (Driverman, anyone?).

If you want MAME on the cloud because you're out of hard drive space, then you're doing it wrong.

[crtrrss]

I thought that a mame cloud would be beneficial because not everyone would have to store the multiple terabytes of ROMs in existence and the highscore/account integration thing would be pretty cool. It would be nice to have a steam-like client for mame.


--- Also, to everyone who thinks this is wrong in terms of legality, this isn't a problem. Sure, it's illegal. So is every other ROM site on the internet. The only difference would be that games are temporarily stored instead of permanently and high scores would be recorded

[SavannahLion]

*someone* has to store those ROMS *somewhere*.

If I had ROMS I would rather it be under my control rather than some faceless entity that could potentially pull the plug as they please. In the same vein, I can attach the storage to my auto's network and my kids can do everything in the car they can do at home. No network required.

[crtrrss]

*someone* has to store those ROMS *somewhere*.

If I had ROMS I would rather it be under my control rather than some faceless entity that could potentially pull the plug as they please. In the same vein, I can attach the storage to my auto's network and my kids can do everything in the car they can do at home. No network required.

First of all, the point is that only one server has to store it instead of the thousands of computers that could potentially use the service. Also, the ROMs would be read-only of course. Do you think random fileservers allow people to edit their junk?

[ark_ader]

* I just helped a guy I know move house, he has no internet access (and won't for another month) so he decided to whip out his laptop and listen to music instead only to realise none of his music was actually on his pc, he didn't even realise that was what 'cloud' meant because it was integrated with his desktop. (not the smartest of guys I'll admit)

* Was it R. Belmont by any chance?  I could understand it if it was. 

We have Mame in the cloud anyway.  It is stored in the In****** Archive, besides what about those games Norbert Kehrer put in his website?  CHD files would not be feasible, but with fibre you can get the rest of them pretty damn quick.  Cloud is the biggest con of this century, and if you are stupid enough to use it, then you deserve all the grief when it all goes tits up. 

Remember Megaupload and it's legitimate customers? 

[Xiaou2]

*someone* has to store those ROMS *somewhere*.

If I had ROMS I would rather it be under my control rather than some faceless entity that could potentially pull the plug as they please. In the same vein, I can attach the storage to my auto's network and my kids can do everything in the car they can do at home. No network required.

First of all, the point is that only one server has to store it instead of the thousands of computers that could potentially use the service. Also, the ROMs would be read-only of course. Do you think random fileservers allow people to edit their junk?

 Whats the benefit?  A few dollars in space?    Is that worth the risk, of some copyright lawyers shutting down the only mame rom servers in the name of trying to force you to buy new games that you just dont want or care to play?   Is it worth the risks of the easier tracking of your data download to one centerally logged machine?...  where there can be one mega lawsuit and or hefty fines, extortion, and blackmail... possible even worse... ?!!!

 Easily and infinitely the resounding answer is No.

 The data is far safer on my personal backed-up equipment.   I also Trust the safety of My own data preservation, than someone else whom I know Nothing about.   Do you trust your treasured photos in some strangers hands and equipment?

 Its also safer as a whole... that MANY people in many different global locations own the data... so that should some catastrophic event happen... history isnt erased.

 Its safer from a legal stand point.   And its safer for the Historical protection, from the greedy Soul-Less, Passionless, money grubbers.

 Just like a REAL cloud... the virtual cloud WILL vanish, in a time when you are least expecting.  When your most reliant and trusting of it.  And you will be
left with Nothing but an empty sky.

 
 As for the whole Music thing...  its a poor example and excuse.   You could just as well use other streaming methods that link back to your home PC...
With said music and media,  whos quality can be far more controlled and at much higher standards.   For example, ripping your own CDs in a higher bitrate and depth... that isnt available on the generic (all seeing) EYE-SITES.

 BTW - Gota love that digital backup crap on the Blurays.   An Expiration date?!   And why is that?  You bought it.. and its rightfully yours to view, own, backup at ANY point in time.  Whether your HDD fails on or after the purchase.  Whether you had even owned a PC at the time or not.   I have to install your bloated content spyware?  Possibly Police-ware...   Nah, No thanks.

[yotsuya]

*someone* has to store those ROMS *somewhere*.

If I had ROMS I would rather it be under my control rather than some faceless entity that could potentially pull the plug as they please. In the same vein, I can attach the storage to my auto's network and my kids can do everything in the car they can do at home. No network required.

First of all, the point is that only one server has to store it instead of the thousands of computers that could potentially use the service. Also, the ROMs would be read-only of course. Do you think random fileservers allow people to edit their junk?

 Whats the benefit?  A few dollars in space?    Is that worth the risk, of some copyright lawyers shutting down the only mame rom servers in the name of trying to force you to buy new games that you just dont want or care to play?   Is it worth the risks of the easier tracking of your data download to one centerally logged machine?...  where there can be one mega lawsuit and or hefty fines, extortion, and blackmail... possible even worse... ?!!!

 Easily and infinitely the resounding answer is No.

 The data is far safer on my personal backed-up equipment.   I also Trust the safety of My own data preservation, than someone else whom I know Nothing about.   Do you trust your treasured photos in some strangers hands and equipment?

 Its also safer as a whole... that MANY people in many different global locations own the data... so that should some catastrophic event happen... history isnt erased.

 Its safer from a legal stand point.   And its safer for the Historical protection, from the greedy Soul-Less, Passionless, money grubbers.

 Just like a REAL cloud... the virtual cloud WILL vanish, in a time when you are least expecting.  When your most reliant and trusting of it.  And you will be
left with Nothing but an empty sky.

 
 As for the whole Music thing...  its a poor example and excuse.   You could just as well use other streaming methods that link back to your home PC...
With said music and media,  whos quality can be far more controlled and at much higher standards.   For example, ripping your own CDs in a higher bitrate and depth... that isnt available on the generic (all seeing) EYE-SITES.

 BTW - Gota love that digital backup crap on the Blurays.   An Expiration date?!   And why is that?  You bought it.. and its rightfully yours to view, own, backup at ANY point in time.  Whether your HDD fails on or after the purchase.  Whether you had even owned a PC at the time or not.   I have to install your bloated content spyware?  Possibly Police-ware...   Nah, No thanks.

I was with you completely until you started invoking Big Brother.

[lamprey]

Hi! Would it be possible to host a server of some sort with all of the MAME games and CHDs to be accessed through the MAME program? Could two people access the same game at once and stuff? If someone put all of the games on a single server system, that would remove almost 300GB of data from everyone's HDDs.

Also, could multiplayer for games work with this?

I think it's already been covered and an answer is probably not. I don't see why someone couldn't put the roms/chds in "the cloud" and then you can map a drive to that and there no need for the mame devs to change anything.

But, my question is which set of roms/chds? I must have at least 6-7 sets because of all the differences/breakages/stuff that is different between mame versions. Do I *need* that many, no. But, I realistically need 3-4. So, I don't think it's that simple, unless it's only the latest major version or the last N-number of versions.

[Malenko]

Whats the point of blocking him if you guys keep quoting him?

If you dont have at least 2 copies of your data, its not that important to you. If you just use the "cloud" as your only backup, then you are stupid.  Anyways, why basically re-download a ROM every single time you want to play it when most PCs nowadays have multiple terabytes of storage? Go buy a residential NAS, put your ROMs on it , and share it over the network (map a drive). I don't understand wanting to pull data in from the internet when you can store it on your local network.

"Awww man I cant play Street Fighter, my internet is down" 

[leapinlew]

As for the whole Music thing...  its a poor example and excuse.   You could just as well use other streaming methods that link back to your home PC...
With said music and media,  whos quality can be far more controlled and at much higher standards.   For example, ripping your own CDs in a higher bitrate and depth... that isnt available on the generic (all seeing) EYE-SITES.

The cloud does have it's advantages and uses. If you didn't like his example, you can easily find another. Being able to pull down contacts & programs to a new phone is a great convenience. Uploading pics as I take them directly to some cloud storage is a great backup option. I think everyone agrees that using the cloud as your primary storage for vital things isn't a great idea, but I'd bet most people here have moved their email to the cloud and let gmail, yahoo, etc. manage it.

btw, mame in the cloud? I can't think of any reason this would ever be a good idea.

[dkersten]

I figured I would throw my 2 cents in here..

First off, for decades when you draw out a network infrastructure on paper or with visio or something, the internet was always depicted as a cloud.  This has been "industry standard" since the internet has been a part of business.  The term became commercialized a couple years ago to mask that it is not any kind of new technology.  I think of the "cloud" as a joke.. an example of successfully relabeling and marketing to the ignorant.

Second, the "cloud" as a medium for storage has some benefits to business and to a lesser degree, home users.  When you want to share files across multiple locations, multiple "outside" employees (ie road warriors), and keep ONE master file of anything, and keep it secure, a "cloud" based solution can be great.  Not every company can afford to have secure access for employees using public internet (ie random IP addresses) back to their own servers.  And even big businesses should have some level of geographical redundancy with their data, so a "cloud" based backup at least on a weekly basis is prudent..  The modern "cloud" services fill these niches for businesses.  For home users, being able to access your files from your mobile devices securely can be tricky.  Most off the shelf devices have adequate security, but people don't usually have a network engineer setting things up at their house.  It is all too easy to leave your network very vulnerable.  At least with web based "cloud" services people aren't messing with opening ports in their home network to the public internet... 

Third, I can understand the idea of having one working set of roms and CHD's for each version of Mame that anyone could connect to and use, but between the copyright infringement, performance issues, and just the fact that you would have to convince people who are getting roms for free already to pay for a service to not even own them (and have to put up with performance issues), it just wouldn't work out..

I CAN see how if this could be a HUGE benefit to me IF it could work, which I don't think it could in any realistic capacity.  So the question is a legitimate one.  I have my mame machine, one at my brother's house, and soon one at my mom's house.  In the next few months I will have 3 more out there at various friend's houses.  As time goes on I improve on my files.  I refine control panel graphics, fill in missing artwork and videos, update the controls.ini and colors.ini (for LEDblinky), tweak the mame.xml file, and even recompile mame to add new features I hadn't messed with before.  If I want to add those changes to other machines, I have to go to each and update them manually.  It would be pretty cool to have them all running off a single source in "the cloud" and have them all work off the same set of roms and other data.

As for just using it in your own home, throw out the term "cloud" and ask about using a NAS device (or just file sharing with a basic server in your home network) to host all your files for multiple mame machines.  This I can see working.  Sure it would be a little slower to load, but nothing major at all, and you wouldn't have to replicate all changes to each machine.  But the economy of it makes little sense unless you personally have a LOT of machines in one location.  Maybe if you already had a media server set up in your home and wanted to be able to access the roms and CHD's from all your devices (HTPC, mame cab, gaming computer, tablets, smartphones, etc) so you can game from anywhere in the house on any device.  But in reality even that is just a case of doing it because you can, not because there is some kind of benefit..

I will take this one step further though.  Add this idea just for hiscore files and apply it to Yotsuya's digital high score board.  Imagine if we all used a "cloud" based hiscore file and could access it through a web portal that we could display on any computer or TV.. Take it a step further and have mame access a shared, cloud based hi score file for each game so that we have a high score list on certain games that is based on the whole community, real time and live.  THAT would be cool..  Never going to happen, but it would be cool.