I’ve been on a “MAME Quest” recently. This is a quest that might last for months. Maybe even years, if I’m lucky. Let me explain. MAME is an arcade game emulator. The first version of it was released in 1996 and it’s been evolving slowly over the years. MAME allows a user to run original arcade game software (ROMs) on whatever device you have the MAME program install on. There are MAME versions for PC, Linux, Android, iOS, and many other platforms, allowing users to play thousands of classic arcade games on just about every popular device and platform, including smartphones (Android and iOS) and consoles (Nvidia Shield, which runs on a fork of Android).

Nvidia Shield Pro is the platfom I run mine on, and the one I’ve had the best luck with, successfully running the most ROMs that I have found. It’s also key for me to be able to use a standard controller to play games instead of trying to use a PC keyboard or a cell phone touchscreen. I have to have that tactile control or I just can’t play a game. Nvidia Shield has some nice controllers that feel good in my hands and I feel very comfortable playing games with them, so this is a great fit for me personally.

Another key to the whole thing is the ability to FIND the ROMs you want to play. Fortunately, there are a lot of free ROMs and ROM sources out there though, so if you’re not too picky, it’s pretty easy to find a lot. But if you’re looking for something specific, it will most likely be much more difficult. Trust me though, there are tons of great games out there. I’m not saying it’s all legal and on the up-and-up though, because a lot of it isn’t. It’s a lot like configuring Kodi for the motherlode of “free” content consumption. You have to be very careful or you risk receiving warning letters to stop from your Internet provider, and possibly eventually losing your ISP and/or a serious legal issue with copyright owners and their lawyers. But that’s a whole other can of worms I’m not going to get into. MAME itself is free and legal and there are plenty of free ROMs out there, like I said. I have searched for most of the old arcade games I recall from my days in “Funway Freeway”, the arcade I grew up in when I was in my teens–the arcade that my old friend Hans worked at and eventually managed. That’s where we first met. But that’s a whole other story–one that might even already be published on this site somewhere. But as I was about to say, I’ve searched for most of the great arcade games that I grew up with just by searching Google using this format: “name of game MAME ROM” and I’ve had great results finding 99% of them as a simple link allowing me to download the ROMs. Some of these sites try hard to get you to click the wrong link or delay the actual download so you’ll get sucked into clicking elsewhere or view an ad, etc., but that’s par for the course these days, and I can always wade through the crap and get the actual download accomplished. Be sure you have some decent malware and antivirus protection while doing this, naturally.

I’m finding it very fun going through the list of thousands of games, looking for the true gems, and separating them out so I’ll have a pretty solid collection to enjoy in the end, hopefully playing my ass off living in the past until I’m much further into the future.