Why Isn't MAME Anywhere Near As Emulated As Other Emulators?

[searles]

Nintendo 64, Playstation, NES, SNes, etc. All of these are emulated near perfect . So why isn't MAME? I've seen so many updates to MAME and so many roms that don't work. Why is it so hard to emulate MAME?

[azoreseuropa]

Really ? The many roms works fine on my mame without a problem. I have been update mame every time they are available. I had been around mame for over 7 years.. Yes, many roms work fine unless you are talk about marvel vs capcom 2 and other newer roms are not playable yet then they will when they crack the protection program in it or something like that.

[FatTrucker]

Because all the other emulators you mention only have to deal with a single system manufactured to a single standard. Mame emulates hundreds of different types of hardware ranging from the 1970's to the 2000's all with radically different architecture. Mame has probably the biggest most active development team in the emulation community and they're still working hard to get everything emulated.

Currently most of the things in mame that don't work very well or at all are systems that we simply don't have powerful enough PC's to emulate full speed so its hardly mamedev's fault. Then there is their code of ethics that prevent them from emulating systems that are still making money in arcades. There are also developers (like Cave for instance) who have asked mamedev not to emulate some of their titles. Lastly all arcade boards employ different forms of encryption. More modern boards need very specialist knowledge and/or equipment to be able to decript some of the chips and if no-one has the keys then they simply can't unlock them.

Its also worth noting that Mame is an archival project so they go for emulated accuracy rather than using hacks and workarounds just to get things working as is the case with almost all other emulators.

[JoshM22]

I haven't had many problems with my MAME. Really enjoy what people have made available to us. Just sucks that some of the cult favorites are not offered at most sites due to the fact that they are still making money off them. I would say screw the company, but i like to support them so they can keep these old machines running and so that i can still enjoy them when i go to a Putt Putt or a bowling alley that still has some old arcade machines around which isn't many anymore.

[Spellsong]

Doesn't MAME already support 1,000s of games already? The TC has to keep in mind that there are a ton of games yet to be emulated. Its a high complicated emulator like it was stated earlier. All these games use different CPUs and boards.

[cibomatto2002]

How can you say Nintendo 64 is near perfect. The last time I check it still has a long way to go. :)

[fabianscorpio]

How can you say Nintendo 64 is near perfect. The last time I check it still has a long way to go. :)

Ditto.

[Zach]

MAME is not a "system".. You don't emulate MAME either, as has already been pointed out. MAME emulates many different system, like it's name implies. Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. All the work that gets done by MAME Dev is nothing less than top tier professional programming and they have made great strides and improvements for many years. Considering the workload involved, and other legal and ethical issues, MAME is probably one of the most complete emulators in the world.

I would hardly call Playstation and N64 emulation anything close to perfect either.