Mame (standing for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is an emulator able to load and run classic arcade games on your computer. In the late 90s, one was able to download arcade game's board numerical images (like a backup of the game program, called 'Rom files') from a set of websites. Arcade game lovers were trying to find as much as possible old game's boards in order to extract ROM programs from the physical board and make them available within the MAME emulator (which drives the emulator to support more and more games, by adding more and more emulated environments, as running a game within MAME is like switching on the original game, you have to go through ROM and hardware check like if your were in front of the original game hardware). One of these well none web sites was mame.dk.
While, for years, no one seems to care about those forgotten games brought back to life for free, classic arcade game's owners start to re-distribute their forgotten games on console like XBox or PS (re-discovering that one may be able to make money with those old games), and start to shutdown MAME based web sites, suing them for illegal distribution of games (obvious violation of copyright laws when freely distributing game's ROM files). Nevertheless this copyright infringement issue, MAME community has performed an impressive work of archive, saving thousand of vintage games that would have disappeared otherwise.
So it is quite a good news that many of those old games seem to be available again through this javascript version of the MAME emulator, being able to run and play those cute old games from within a simple web browser.
For those who care, enjoy!
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The Internet Arcade is a web-based library of arcade (coin-operated)
video games from the 1970s through to the 1990s, emulated in JSMAME,
part of the JSMESS software package. Containing hundreds
of games ranging through many different genres and styles, the Arcade
provides research, comparison, and entertainment in the realm of the
Video Game Arcade.
The game collection ranges from early "bronze-age" videogames, with
black and white screens and simple sounds, through to large-scale games
containing digitized voices, images and music. Most games are playable
in s
ome form, although some are useful more for verification of behavior or
programming due to the intensity and requirements of their systems.
Many games have a "boot-up" sequence when first turned on, where the
systems run through a check and analysis, making sure all systems are
go. In some cases, odd controllers make proper playing
of the systems on a keyboard or joypad a pale imitation of the original
experience. Please report any issues to the Internet Arcade Operator, Jason Scott.
If you are encountering issues with control, sound, or other technical problems, read this entry of some common solutions.
Also, Armchair Arcade (a video game review site) has written an excellent guide to playing on the Internet Arcade as well.