Play Old Arcade Games with MAME (Page 3)
Just like you did with the previous games, go to ROMNation.net, look for zaxxon.zip, and download the file, save it to your roms folder, then launch MAME. For some reason, RetroRoms version of zaxxon.zip doesn't work, but the one from ROMNation.net does work. When you go to play the game, you'll discover that it's missing something; sound! You can still play the game in its entirety, but what good is it without the full experience?
Because neither of the two primary sites that I use have these samples, a quick Google search yields positive results; http://www.arcadeathome.com/mamewav.phtml, and http://mirrors.xmission.com/mame/samples/current/. Clicking either link will open the site in a separate window. You can look through the list and get a glimpse of what games require samples. Zaxxon requires all samples used, but other games use a combination of electronic sounds and recorded samples.
Which ever website you choose to grab the samples from, save them to your computer, but remember to move them into the "Samples" folder located in the MAME folder instead of the "roms" folder. The game requires the folder to use the same name as the game. Because of this, it's not a good practice to download both ROMs and samples at the same time, because your computer may overwrite the earlier file with the newer file of the same name.
With the samples downloaded and in the correct folder, relaunch MAME and load Zaxxon. Even as you insert a quarter you'll start hearing sound, but press the start button and you'll hear the "Whoosh" of flying in space. Don't forget to fly slightly above the ground to avoid turret fire, and keep shooting at the force fields to find the safe zone...
Which ever website you choose to grab the samples from, save them to your computer, but remember to move them into the "Samples" folder located in the MAME folder instead of the "roms" folder. The game requires the folder to use the same name as the game. Because of this, it's not a good practice to download both ROMs and samples at the same time, because your computer may overwrite the earlier file with the newer file of the same name.
With the samples downloaded and in the correct folder, relaunch MAME and load Zaxxon. Even as you insert a quarter you'll start hearing sound, but press the start button and you'll hear the "Whoosh" of flying in space. Don't forget to fly slightly above the ground to avoid turret fire, and keep shooting at the force fields to find the safe zone...
A Word About Williams
Some games by Williams (Defender, Robotron 2084, Sinistar, Joust) restore some factory settings when you boot them up for the first time. You'll see a two-part graphics test filled with multicolored pixels across the screen, followed by, "Initial Tests Indicate All Systems Go", then followed by "Factory Settings Restored". Pressing Fire, Insert Coin, Start Game, or other buttons does nothing to get the game going past that point. In order to get past this, simply press F2 on your keyboard. Atari's "Food Fight" also has a similar scenario and displays the message, "NVRAM FAILED" followed by a list of parameters. To get past this point, press the fire button (Control) on your keyboard and the game will load entirely.
Using More Artwork
As you have already seen, you can play almost any older video game in MAME, but you have the back background (blackground?) all the time. Here's a shot of Burgertime:
It looks great, and it plays great. But what would be better is if we had the actual bezel to go around it; the actual artwork from the factory that shows the designs, playing instructions, and more. Mr. Do's Arcade has a great little FAQ about it found here, and the actual artwork for a majority of the games can also be found on their site by clicking here (http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame_artwork_ingame.php). Click on the link to get the actual artwork and you'll see the following:
Similar to the sound samples and ROMs, the bezel for Burgertime and other games will have the same file name as the ROM. Download it, but this time, save it to the "artwork" folder located in the MAME folder. By default, MAME will load any additional artwork found in the artwork folder for the game, so playing Burgertime with the additional artwork now shows this:
Want further proof? Here's a bland shot of the super-awesome game Discs of Tron:
After downloading the bezel and backdrop (one file total), moving it to the artwork folder and relaunching the game; now you're presented with this masterpiece:
More to come soon!