[Link] FMame

[Squize]

I've just posted about this over and the blog and thought I should share here too.

Mame has been ported to Flash.
( Even just writing that makes me giddy )

At present it doesn't have any sound support, but it's not exactly a deal breaker. There's a healthy clutch of games to go with it, and it's just sex really. There's no point me writing anything more, it's Mame and it's in Flash. It doesn't get any better.

http://yvern.com/fMAME/fMAME.html

Squize.

[WilloughbyJackson]

[renderhjs]

quite nuts,- but nice that it even runs that well

now I only have to wait till they port duke nukem 3d to flash ^^

[5TonsOfFlax]

Nice. That was one of my longshot projects to tackle in the future. Good on them for getting it done.

[Ray Beez]

Awesome. Slow but awesome.
(They aren't doing frame skipping, which means slow gameplay rather than choppy motion).

[.hooligan]

Cool, It actually ran pretty good for me, only tested green beret though.

Edit:

Actually reminds me of nintendo8.com NES java emulator

PS - Remove the link if you think its not appropriate.

[mr_malee]

holy holy

i'm speechless.

[ImprisonedPride]

Lots of fun. The initial loader could use some love, but it works great. Can't wait for sound.

[Ray Beez]

Sound. Yikes. They'll have to revert to earlier MAME builds where games used sound samples. Otherwise, how to render sound waves in Flash??

[lesli_felix]

Yes! GnG runs a treat. Though it does suffer without sound...

Ray, hasn't andre michelle taken care of that one?
http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tag/audio/

[Sietjp]

Yes you can render audio waves in Flash 9 but this was a hack. They will wait F10 and the new sound API to do this I guess.

[RipX]

This is awesome...

Makes me think about the fact that I was meant to release my z80 emulation core so i'll dig it out and add it here when I get time, I was working on the Sega Master Systems I/O and VDP emulation, think the I/O was nearly 100% done and the VDP about 20% emulated so i'll add those too and anyone who fancies it can pick it up!

RipX

[tomsamson]

While i have high respect for the technical achievment i don´t see why this is a great thing in general. I see some game developers one day *****ing about their own games getting stolen and the next day they cheer and dance for an emulator whose only reason for existance is of course to run copied games on it.
Yes, we´re all like that, we have different moral stances for ourselves than for what others do, but yeah, in this case it seems extra weird to me
Also as web game developer, isn´t any of you guys worried that soon many sites would just run an emulator like this instead of paying you any money for your games?
Also even if bigger portals wouldn´t do something like that for fear of legal punishment, even just few sites doing something like this (few as in around 10k-100k sites) could be enoough to make a big part of online/casual game players play such classics instead of playing your stuff.
Anyway,just some of the things i wonder about

[Squize]

In defence of emulation, for the most part it's just as much a historic project as a collection of "copied" games.

There are a lot of games that are only available via emulation, and although the legal side is a grey area, I think most people would agree it's better to have something which may be infringing copyright ( Although in the official Mame builds you have to enter OK to show you own the actual board, I imagine the same will be coming to FMame ) than let some great games just die away forever.

As to it affecting us as Flash developers, there's been a Java version of Mame for ages and it's not affected anything. Most online gamers have no interest in perfect ports of retro games ( Check out the poor reviews the really accurate ports get on places like newgrounds ) as:
* They're too young to remember the originals
* Arcade games are really hard. There's no easing the player in, they're brutal. Not many people having a browse around for games want to play something that spank their arses.

Squize.

[tomsamson]

If it´d only be about keeping a game alive that isn´t avilable in legal form in any way then i´m fine with that, also with emulation for reasearch/learning purposes, or emulation by people who are really so poor that they couldn´t even afford a 5 bucks game.
But yeah, to be honest many of the games most played on the emulators and mame are available in various other legal ways and most people could afford buying em but would rather just play em for free.

I think comparing a good flash online emulator to a java emulator is a bit like saying hey, there was always piracy and all was good, why is iit such a bad thing now that its done via the internet?.
Its the dimensions/volume there mainly, way more millions of files get copied via torrents etc today than back in the old days when someone had a 2 deck cassette recorder and copied a music casette for him and his 10 budies of course.
And likewise even if java is considerably widespread its of course nowhere near as widesparead as flash (Especially regarding browser content/playback).
So yeah, a really accesibility focussed well done flash based web emulator would have a much bigger impact than a java one in my eyes.

And yeah, true, many young guys don´t know the classics, are also not used to the tougher difficulty (though there one can get around with unlimited credits easily) and maybe aren´t especially attracted by the artstyle either.
Though yeah,many probably will be and then the mass will maybe make the difference again. I imagine it sure is teasing for many to have x hundred games available,you know, even if he doesn´t like this one he can still try x hundred-1 others.
Well, we will see once such things evolve some more.
I think one of the posts on the site of that emulator is a good indication though. There a dude said he wants to have such an emulator for his portal and asked if the developer could help him with that.
Go figure, one of the first reply posts when the thing gets released in first version.
I´d imagine wouldn´t take long till all the minijuegos there and not just those have something like that going.

[Squize]

I started to do a reply, and you know what, I really can't be bothered.

So much time and energy on this board is spent with people arguing their views, and I'm just a bit bored of it today I guess.

Let's agree to differ on this one.

Squize.

[renderhjs]

So much time and energy on this board is spent with people arguing their views, and I'm just a bit bored of it today I guess.

I just scrapped a long reply myself as well,- to tired

[tomsamson]

ok, cool (personally i don´t see much of a sense in bringing up topics if all one wants is people replying who have the same view as oneself anyway, but yeah, anyway).

[chriserrorplain]

the real interesting thing will be if someone officially licenses ROMS to be emulated through a Flash emulator.
ChrisError x

[Squize]

"i don´t see much of a sense in bringing up topics if all one wants is people replying who have the same view as oneself"

Ha, it's hardly that, but what's the point of me writing what I disagree with in your posts in this thread ( Again ) ?

We could swap a 100 posts here and neither of us change our minds, so I'm just skipping the next 97 or so posts.
We've both said what our views are, and I disagree with some of what you've written, and I assume you have with what I've written so there we go. Life's like that.

It's not a case of not wanting a debate, it's a case of not being drawn into another on-going debate that won't go anywhere.

Squize.