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How to Make Your Laptop a MAME

MAME, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, is a program that emulates the inner workings of more than 1,000 arcade machines. The arcade machine MAME can emulate reaches as far back as the 1970s. A free download, MAME can turn any computer, including a laptop, into your own portable arcade machine. Making your laptop run MAME is not difficult, as the program does not need any additional configuration once it is downloaded. However, knowing where to put your games and the command line prompt needed to run MAME can confuse new users.

Instructions

- 1
  Navigate to the official MAME website on your Internet browser.
- 2
  Click "Latest Release" under "Downloads" on the left side of the screen.
- 3
  Click the link under "Official Windows Binary Packages" that corresponds to the version you wish to download. For example, if you are running a 64-bit version of Windows 7, select the 64-bit binary download.
- 4
  Double-click the downloaded .exe file and extract the MAME files to any location on your hard drive.
- 5
  Place any game files you have in the "roms" folder in your "Mame" directory.
- 6
  Open the "Start" menu and select "All Programs," followed by "Accessories." Click "Command Prompt" to open the command prompt.
- 7
  Type the following phrase into the command prompt and press "Enter":
  
  cd directory\mame
  
  Where directory is the name of the directory your "Mame" folder is in and mame is the actual folder.
- 8
  Type the following phrase followed by "Enter" to begin Mame:
  
  Mame <game>
  
  Where <game> is the name of the game you wish to run. You must specify a game for MAME to start; it will not start on its own. Depending on the version of MAME you have downloaded, the .exe file may be different. For example, on the 64-bit version of MAME the .exe file is called Mame64 instead of just Mame; you would need to write Mame64 <game> to run MAME.
- 9
  Press the "Tab" key on your keyboard while in-game to bring up the options menu. Here, you can customize your controls, video settings and other options.
- 10
  Press the "Esc" key on your keyboard to exit MAME and return to the command prompt.

Computer Games