So you want to play arcade games on your PC? Getting started with MAME is not easy for the average Joe. There is a lot to learn. Where do you put the game files? What commands do you use? How do you get the joystick working? Here’s a mini guide for those that just want to quickly get up and running with MAME for Windows.
- Download MAME Binaries.
- Extract the files. When prompted for a directory, provide a folder you wish to extract the files to. In this example, we use “C:\mame“.
- You will want to download roms to use with MAME. You can search roms for almost any arcade game, however it may not be legal for you to use many of them. You can always get legal ROMS like we did.
- When you download MAME Roms, they come in ZIP format. You do not need to extract them. Leave them zipped and place them in the “C:\mame\roms” folder.
- Bring up a DOS command prompt. To do so click “Start” > “Run” and type “CMD“.
- Type “cd\” to go to the root directory.
- Type “cd mame” to go into the “C:\mame” folder.
Now to start mame, you type mame, then a space, then the game file you want to use:
- Example: mame robby
If you have a joystick or gamepad you wish to use, you have to use the -joystick switch:
- Example: mame robby -joystick
Now the game rom should run.
- To insert a quarter, press 5.
- For 1 player, press 1. For 2 players, press 2.
- P pauses the rom.
- You can press Tab to access the options in MAME.
Will says
August 27, 2018 at 12:54 pmMarc says
December 10, 2016 at 1:18 pm
“You guys might need to type “mame64” if you installed the 64bit version of MAME.”
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That worked for me. Thank you for that. ;>)
However…
Why do you have to do the long way ’round, with cmd, just to open mame? All you need to do is click on the mame64,exe. [or mame32.exe] in the mame program folder. lol
And I cannot get a single game to load. I keep getting this text pop-up that says…
[The selected machine is missing one or more required rom or CHD images. Please select a different machine. Press any key to continue. The list of games is massive but the rom folder is empty.
But I loaded the folder with two dozen games and I still get the same msg.
So the hunt for help continues…
Noah says
November 7, 2017 at 5:45 pmMy command prompt says A required privilege is not held by the client.
AceHigh says
July 1, 2017 at 10:14 ami downloaded Mame64 on my flash drive forme the LPL because my pc at home dos not have enternet and wehen i installd mame all the game were ether red or grey and sead no at the end
and are no workinig waht shold i do?
jon says
June 8, 2017 at 9:47 pmI keep getting “(name of game)” approximately matches the following supported games (best match first)
And then its lists them i retype mame and then one of the games listed and OT gives me mpr- not found error: required files are missing the game cannot be run.
Marc says
December 10, 2016 at 1:18 pmYou guys might need to type “mame64” if you installed the 64bit version of MAME.
TNC says
July 5, 2016 at 6:08 pmSame error as TIM above — “mame” not a recognized command etc
Tim says
April 29, 2016 at 12:07 pmInstalled and placed rom in Roms folder, but keep getting – ‘mame’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. – error message
yenin says
January 13, 2016 at 2:22 pmCan’t get it to work in windows 8
Abdul Fahad says
September 3, 2015 at 2:33 amTo the mark..Thanks a lot,, it works now, but i need more resources for good games, where can i get them?