I thought this day would never come, but today MAME — the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator that would let you play retro games — is available for free in the iOS app store. Not only that, but it’s compatible with iCade.
My life is now complete.
Of course, MAME doesn’t come with any retro game. That would be illegal. And this app is completely illegal. There’s no reason to ban it (Apple, please take note and don’t remove this app from the store).
If you want retro games, you will have to download those and copy them to your iPad or iPhone using an utility that allows you to browse the file system, like Phoneview. It’s easy, just locate your favourite game, select iMame in iPhone view, drag and drop the zipped ROM file into the iMame documents folder. No jailbreaking required.
If you have an iCade, this will turn your iPad into an arcade mini-me, complete with hardcore ball joystick and buttons. It’s a joy to play on this thing.
It works perfectly. Now, excuse me when I go back to play Burger Time.
Johnny P
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 9:08 AMI am skeptical. We all know roms are illegal and I can imagine someone tracking what roms get installed on your iDevice. Not saying it isnt a good app….
Ash
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 9:22 AMRoms aren’t illegal, giving them to someone else to download is. There isn’t anything wrong (afaik) with me playing a game that I own on cartridge on an iThing
wiz1974
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 10:36 AMyes roms of games you own are perfectly legal I believe, roms of games you dont own are not. With that said many of these games are probably considered abandonware anyway.
light487
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 11:30 AMNot sure… surely there would be a license agreement in place for the end-user to be able to use the software on the particular system it was designed for. Morally acceptable maybe.. but legally? I’m not so sure.
Penmonicus
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 10:56 AMHow am I supposed to get ROMs onto it without jailbreaking – which would have given me this years ago, anyway?
Penmonicus
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 10:58 AMI… must have missed that paragraph. Sorry =\
Stew
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 10:59 AMCan probably drag & drop them from WinExplorer (or Mac equiv) into the App section in iTunes, same as some media players like Buzz Player.
Stew
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 10:58 AM“That would be illegal. And this app is completely illegal. There’s no reason to ban it.”
I think you meant “is completely legal” :)
Sam D
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 11:24 AMDoesn’t this go against the app store rules about letting apps run other software? I can’t imagine it’ll be around for long.
Nate
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 3:36 PMits kinda a grey area, I can’t see apple keeping it long. Copying roms is easy you just drag and dr.. oh wait no that’s Android, good luck with that