iPhone MAME... Getting There

MacRumors · Aug 17, 2007, 10:11 PM

Work is being done on a MAME port for the iPhone. MAME is the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator that allows you to run old arcade games (provided you have the proper ROM)

The project appears to remain very much a work-in-progress:

Quote:

Project to port SDL MAME to the iPhone. The main cool feature I want to add is configurable layouts for touchscreen controls and crazy gesture based inputs. Whether MAME will actually be playable from a performance and control perspective remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, at this time, while it appears to have been built, controls don't work yet.

Article Link

crees! · Aug 17, 2007, 10:59 PM

This is truly a sign from heaven. Galaga is my favorite arcade game of all time. 4 years ago, before I bought my Powerbook, I had MAME on my PC and played it all the time.

Rock on.

Now I just need an iPhone.

needthephone · Aug 17, 2007, 11:08 PM

Imagine playing Robotron or Defender (THE best games ever conceived) on an iphone, I can see a touch screen being great for Robotron especially !

mkrishnan · Aug 17, 2007, 11:14 PM

Very impressive.

I was trying to get some perspective from Geekbench... the iPhone Geekbench scores generally place the iPhone around the 80-100 range. For reference, a P4/1.5GHz is about 500 and the iBook G4/800 is about 430. The oldest G3 Macs listed performs at 177 (400MHz G3).

I know MAME was able to play 80s arcade games on my Pentium 150MHz notebook circa 1997. I would guess that its Geekbench, were it available, would also put it around the high double digits.

The iPhone might just be able to play one or two games.

aristobrat · Aug 17, 2007, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crees!

This is truly a sign from heaven. Galaga is my favorite arcade game of all time. 4 years ago, before I bought my Powerbook, I had MAME on my PC and played it all the time.

Same here. I LOVE GALAGA!

It's about the only video game I can play.

DoFoT9 · Aug 17, 2007, 11:42 PM

this is truely amazing!!!!

bring on metal slug!!!

HiRez · Aug 18, 2007, 02:26 AM

This is awesome news, I can't wait for Donkey Kong Jr.! Anyway, what's up with the performance issues? Does SDL not use OpenGL? Seing Cover Flow in action on the iPhone I find it hard to believe it would have a problem with a few sprites on these old games (most of which could be done in < 24-bit color). Or is it the CPU running code that's the bottleneck?

invalidname · Aug 18, 2007, 07:57 AM

What about MAME for the Mac? MacMame.org shows no updates since early 2006.

rickbdotcom · Aug 18, 2007, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiRez

This is awesome news, I can't wait for Donkey Kong Jr.! Anyway, what's up with the performance issues? Does SDL not use OpenGL? Seing Cover Flow in action on the iPhone I find it hard to believe it would have a problem with a few sprites on these old games (most of which could be done in < 24-bit color). Or is it the CPU running code that's the bottleneck?

http://www.mamedev.org/devwiki/index...AQ:Performance

starwa314 · Aug 18, 2007, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by invalidname

What about MAME for the Mac? MacMame.org shows no updates since early 2006.

Check out MAME OS X.
Also check out Emuscene for the latest in Mac emulation.

yoman · Aug 18, 2007, 10:09 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C25 Safari/419.3)

This looks promising. Hopefully, we'll see more optimization to make it more feasable.

raggedjimmi · Aug 19, 2007, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoFoT9

this is truely amazing!!!!

bring on metal slug!!!

LOL.

Metal Slug is a powerhouse, it'd be like running a 2D N64/PSX game compared to a NES game (Galaga).

I commend all these efforts to get games on the iPhone. But there's a line between playable and ¨it sorta runs¨. I'm more interested in seeing new games developed for the iPhone that are built for the limitations and benefits of such a system.

DoFoT9 · Aug 19, 2007, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raggedjimmi

LOL.

Metal Slug is a powerhouse, it'd be like running a 2D N64/PSX game compared to a NES game (Galaga).

I commend all these efforts to get games on the iPhone. But there's a line between playable and ¨it sorta runs¨. I'm more interested in seeing new games developed for the iPhone that are built for the limitations and benefits of such a system.

hahaha a man can dream cant he??? i thout iphone had a 800mhz processor...... u could get somewhere close i spose.

donlphi · Aug 20, 2007, 01:33 AM

WOW, NOW I CAN PLAY AMAZING GAMES ON MY IPHONE. I just can't imagine installing something like that into my $600 phone

Anybody get a version of OPEN OFFICE working yet?

Aug 17, 2007, 10:59 PM	#2
crees! macrumors 68000 Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Springfield, VA	This is truly a sign from heaven. Galaga is my favorite arcade game of all time. 4 years ago, before I bought my Powerbook, I had MAME on my PC and played it all the time. Rock on. Now I just need an iPhone. __________________ The only thing that seems to increase over the years is that nonsense multiplies. NOSOCIALISM NOBAMA

Aug 17, 2007, 11:14 PM	#4
mkrishnan Demi-God (Moderator) Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA	Very impressive. I was trying to get some perspective from Geekbench... the iPhone Geekbench scores generally place the iPhone around the 80-100 range. For reference, a P4/1.5GHz is about 500 and the iBook G4/800 is about 430. The oldest G3 Macs listed performs at 177 (400MHz G3). I know MAME was able to play 80s arcade games on my Pentium 150MHz notebook circa 1997. I would guess that its Geekbench, were it available, would also put it around the high double digits. The iPhone might just be able to play one or two games. __________________ Mohan

Aug 17, 2007, 11:42 PM	#6
DoFoT9 macrumors 601 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: NSW, Australia	this is truely amazing!!!! bring on metal slug!!! __________________ MBP CD2.16ghz, 500gb, 2GB Ram, X1600 OC'd, 19" iMac24" 2.8ghz 750gb 4gbram Hackintosh E4600 3GHz 10.5.4 8500GT MozyMac

Aug 18, 2007, 02:26 AM	#7
HiRez macrumors 68020 Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: San Francisco, CA	This is awesome news, I can't wait for Donkey Kong Jr.! Anyway, what's up with the performance issues? Does SDL not use OpenGL? Seing Cover Flow in action on the iPhone I find it hard to believe it would have a problem with a few sprites on these old games (most of which could be done in < 24-bit color). Or is it the CPU running code that's the bottleneck? __________________ Go outside, the graphics are amazing!

Aug 18, 2007, 07:57 AM	#8
invalidname macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2003 Location: Marietta, GA	What about the Mac? What about MAME for the Mac? MacMame.org shows no updates since early 2006.

Aug 17, 2007, 11:08 PM	#3
needthephone macrumors 6502a Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: sydney	Imagine playing Robotron or Defender (THE best games ever conceived) on an iphone, I can see a touch screen being great for Robotron especially !

Aug 18, 2007, 10:09 PM	#11
yoman macrumors 6502a Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: In the Bowels of the Cosmos	Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C25 Safari/419.3) This looks promising. Hopefully, we'll see more optimization to make it more feasable. __________________ My first computer was an Apple IIGS at the meager age of 6 1/2 years. I was raised with an APPLE and I will die with an APPLE.

Aug 20, 2007, 01:33 AM	#14
donlphi macrumors 6502 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Seattle (M$ Country)	WOW, NOW I CAN PLAY AMAZING GAMES ON MY IPHONE. I just can't imagine installing something like that into my $600 phone Anybody get a version of OPEN OFFICE working yet? __________________ 8Mhz Mac Classic, 933Mhz PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, 2.33Ghz Macbook Pro, 2 x 2.8 Quad Core Mac Pro, Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh, Slingbox Pro, AppleTV, 32GB iPhone 3g S⃣

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