Modern gaming and MAME

[APFelon]

I worked at the Playland Arcade at the Minnesota State Fair this year as a tech. I was amazed that so many newer games use a PC or a modified PC at the core... Star Wars Starfighter, Target: Terror, Beachhead 2000, Outrun 2,  Ring Riders, and the incredibly cool Ballistics to name a few.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when MAME gets around to these. What will need to be "emulated"? Just the dongle? Will MAME just be a glorified front end to launch some of this stuff? It'll be interesting to see...

APf

[paigeoliver]

Well, if history is any judge mame won't emulate them. It certainly doesn't emulate any of the other arcade games on x86 hardware. Games have been coming out on PC hardware since the 386 days. Like Tournament Solitaire and Solitaire Challenge, which used a 386 amd processor on a PC motherboard with a rom boot card.

[APFelon]

That may be true, but it hasn't been as dominant as it is now. Most of the old games used propriatary hardware and didn't simply shove a cased PC in the back of a piece of furniture to create an arcade game. I didn't get a good look inside any of the modern Kanomi stuff, but I believe Warzard has a PC in it as well.

However, if MAME will never run x86 stuff, and since (I would argue) the majority of new games are coming out on x86 hardware, the promise of having a "final" MAME might be realized.

APf

[paigeoliver]

I do know the solitaires have cased PCs. I have one of them, mobo has battery acid damage. Game will boot and play on other ISA based systems though.

Technically the x86 based stuff doesn't need to be emulated so much as cracked. Some of that stuff even runs on windows. I once saw a boat game crashed out to the windows desktop at dave and busters.

[Gunstar Hero]

Alot of those "PC Arcade" games are/were available on PC anyways. I know I've seen Beachhead 2000 and Crimson Skies in the arcades and on the PC shelves. SW Starfighter is available on PC already too. In fact, I think those games are usually avaiablle on the PC first!!

As for Outrun 2, that runs on Sega's Chihiro hardware, which is just an XBOX based arcade board, so the PC conversion should be pretty much dummy proof. In fact, since you can already get other Chihiro games (like Crazy Taxi: High Roller) on the PC it might just make it's way home too.