Where do you get the MAME software? I'd like to try it out on my PC first before I go building a cabinet.
Someone else answered where to get MAME software. See
http://www.mameworld.net/easyemu/ for how to set it up. The bigger problem is MAME is pretty useless without the game ROMS (files) and they are copyrighted. There are links to a few ROM sites on
www.mameworld.net, or try searching the internet or the newsgroups. Again, don't ask in public forums, though.
NOTE: Admins - feel free to edit the above out if it's inappropriate. I don't want the board getting in trouble.
What kind of computer skills do you have to have to make this thing work? I'm no hacker by any stretch of the imagination
MAME32 is easy to set up, especially following the guides at easyemu. MAME is easier to set up if you have a DOS or command line background.
What kind of electronics skills do you have to have? Do you have to be able to read circuit diagrams? This is the scariest part for me. All those damn wires. Are you all computer programmers or in electronics?
To bang around on the keyboard, you don't need any electronics skills. If you want to use real arcade controls, you will want a keyboard encoder, preferably either the KeyWiz from
www.groovygamegear.com, the I-PAC from
www.ultimarc.com (several variants), or the MK64 from
www.mk64.com/ron. These work for joysticks or buttons. For trackballs and spinners, you will need a different interface. See the main page of this site for all the info you need.
What does the MAME interface look like and how do you get around the 4,000 games and choose one to play with your joystick?
MAME32 has an interface. MAME is commandline only. You will want a frontend (software). Good choices are
www.mameworld.net/emuloader or MAMEWAH (don't have the link). There are other ones as well.
Lastly, I have an older HP Pavilion that I was thinking about getting rid of until I found out about MAME last night. These are the specs:
600 MHz Intel Celeron processor
64 MB SDRAM
Max 256 MB
10 GB hard drive
Not really sure what else you would need to know. Based on that information, is this PC strong enough to run MAME software on it?
That should work fine for the 80's and early 90's games. Keep in mind some of the games like the Cruisin' series won't run (at playable speed) on a 4 Ghz processor, so upgrading wouldn't help you. When you learn more about MAME you might try dropping back to MAME 0.36 Final, which was faster than the current version.