MAME The Xbox
By Jeffrey | July 23, 2007
In my ongoing expedition of tweaking, modifying, and sometimes even playing my Xbox I always seem to come across something new to contribute to it.
In this case, it’s the arcade emulator MAME, and more specifically, MAMEoX in its Xbox-ported form.
So far it is running like a charm, but there are some drawbacks to its PC brother.
Let’s continue…
Before Getting Started
MAMEoX128 can be found from the usual sources - Xbox-Scene should be able to help you there - and you’ll need some arcade ROM files to use it with.
Get them copied over to your Xbox, then it’s fairly simple to get it up and running.
The Cons
The amount of faults with MAMEoX are surprisingly limited, but the ones that exist may hamper your gaming ability.
When it comes to classic - read: old - games MAMEoX works like a charm. Ms. Pac-MAN, Frogger, Space Invaders, 1943, etc. all ran like a charm and looked great as well.
But newer games, such as Street Fighter: 3rd Strike, and Striker 1945 III both ran sluggish at times - the former refused to load completely due to a memory shortage.
Which leads me to the next fault: low memory.
Running MAME on a PC usually never hits this fault, as most modern PCs worth their chips running games will have at least a gig of RAM available to them.
We don’t have that luxury on the Xbox. The console is limited to a meager 64mb - or 128mb if you’ve got yours upgraded.
Because of that, any game requiring lots of memory will flat out refuse to run, and other games will run too sluggish to be worth your time.
There are exceptions, though. Street Fighter Alpha 3 works perfectly, for example.
But in general, your time is better spent running MAME on your computer with newer games.
The Pros
Simple: it’s an arcade on your Xbox.
Imagine any arcade game you’ve ever played - Rampage, Asteroids, Centipede, etc. - and it will generally run it perfectly. Nostalgic gaming from the days when people still went to arcades can come back in a flash by loading this up.
I can sit and play some of these games for hours because I grew up on them. Younger kids just look at the screen with looks suggesting thoughts of “That’s supposed to be a gorilla?” or “That looks nothing like a tank.”
On top of that, MAMEoX lets you use up to 4 controllers for multi-player. No solitary demolition runs in Rampage, or single-player missions in Double Dragon, nope, this has got you covered.
It is an absolute blast to have 3 or 4 friends sitting around playing through the arcade version of Turtles In Time again.
And although the faults above can be a hindrance on loading some old games I once played, in general it’s the best way I’ve found to relive popping in a quarter and wasting my allowance trying to escape from 4 ghosts in an endless maze.
Final Thoughts
So if you’re into arcade games, or grew up on them, or just now want to get into them, then check out MAME or MAMEoX. The few flaws and minor hiccups are a shadow to the fun that is available.
The best part? No allowance money necessary.
Topics: Guides |
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