Newbie in planning stages - looking for input

[99marko]

I've been dreaming of having my own stand-up arcade machine ever since I saw one on some TV show depicting luxury homes.  Now that I've found this site, I discovered I can build my own without paying the $10,000 price tag for the one on the show.

SO.  I've been lurking, reading the guides, doing some research, and I have some questions.

Building a cabinet. - No problem.
Buying computer parts. - No Problem.

Software.  Problem!
I understand what an emulator does.  But it appears that I must have ROM's of the games before the emulator does anything.  However, it also seems that ROM's have to be stolen or blackmarketed.  The rules for posting on this forum say you can't even give hints on where to get this stuff.   

This leaves me with a sense that in order to build my dream, I'm going to step into a shadowy world of back alley deals with some drug-pusher.

SO.. let's say I would love to have a console set that had.... Donkey Kong, Galaga, Burger Time, Ms Pac-Man, Frogger, Golden Tee, Mario Bros, Centipede, Spy Hunter, and Crazy Climber.  Is obtaining all these legally out of the question?

I did buy one of those cheapy joy stick things from Walmart that you plug into your TV and it runs Pac-Man, Rally-X, Dig-Dug and something else.  Since I legally own this, can I burn a ROM from it?  (If I even knew how to do that...)

Did my dream just die?

[Bones]

Go build your machine and I am quite sure the ROMs supply delima will sort itself out by the time you are finished.... 

[sidekick]

THe more you research the more it will make since... it's all confusing at first and then BAM one day it hits like a ton of bricks....

but like bones said start you design process and the build... ROMS will eventually fall into your lap.....

[tommy]

I was under the impression that if you own the original game rom or CD, downloading the rom or iso file is legal. Make sure you have the game your downloading and you should be safe i think.

[sidekick]

I was under the impression that if you own the original game rom or CD, downloading the rom or iso file is legal. Make sure you have the game your downloading and you should be safe i think.

not necessarily.... for example if I have some music still in 8-track or album format that doesn't give me the right to download it in MP3 format....


it's still wrong, but we still do it....

[saint]

Build it, there's no shortage of legitimate software to play on it.  Check out:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=7479

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=50047.0

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=1136.0

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=7052

I've been dreaming of having my own stand-up arcade machine ever since I saw one on some TV show depicting luxury homes.  Now that I've found this site, I discovered I can build my own without paying the $10,000 price tag for the one on the show.

SO.  I've been lurking, reading the guides, doing some research, and I have some questions.

Building a cabinet. - No problem.
Buying computer parts. - No Problem.

Software.  Problem!
I understand what an emulator does.  But it appears that I must have ROM's of the games before the emulator does anything.  However, it also seems that ROM's have to be stolen or blackmarketed.  The rules for posting on this forum say you can't even give hints on where to get this stuff.   

This leaves me with a sense that in order to build my dream, I'm going to step into a shadowy world of back alley deals with some drug-pusher.

SO.. let's say I would love to have a console set that had.... Donkey Kong, Galaga, Burger Time, Ms Pac-Man, Frogger, Golden Tee, Mario Bros, Centipede, Spy Hunter, and Crazy Climber.  Is obtaining all these legally out of the question?

I did buy one of those cheapy joy stick things from Walmart that you plug into your TV and it runs Pac-Man, Rally-X, Dig-Dug and something else.  Since I legally own this, can I burn a ROM from it?  (If I even knew how to do that...)

Did my dream just die?

[99marko]

Okay.  I've done quite a bit more research on the mame emulator.  I figured I needed to master this software stuff first, since there's no point in building a cabinet if I can't get the guts to work.
I downloaded MAME and a ROM which I believe to be legit.  But I get all sorts of errors when I try to run it from the command line.
So now I could use some help on getting it together.  Is there a "Dummies guide to Mame"? somewhere on the net?   I saw a page that had screen dumps showing exactly in what directories to put what files. But of course, that was early on in my research and I can't find it now that I need it.

Links appreciated.

[Bones]

Get yourself a copy of mame32 for now. It is just about the easiest place you can start...

[shardian]

Bones,

Please tell me those are your kids in your avatar. I get cracked up every time I see it. I would LOVE to see the actual video.

[Bones]

Please tell me those are your kids in your avatar.

My gene pool could never create such magnificence.