games/mame/README



Note: I'm aware that this isn't the latest version of MAME. However,
it's the latest version that will compile with Slackware 14.2's gcc or
llvm (even llvm-8.0.1 from /extra).

MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.  When used in conjunction 
with images of the original arcade game's ROM and disk data, MAME attempts 
to reproduce that game as faithfully as possible on a more modern general
purpose computer.  MAME can currently emulate several thousand different 
classic arcade video games from the late 1970s through the modern era.

MESS (Multi Emulator Super System) is the sister project of MAME. MESS
documents the hardware for a wide variety of (mostly vintage) computers,
video game consoles, and calculators, as MAME does for arcade games.

Modern versions of MAME now include MESS, so there's no need for a
separate MESS build or binary.

This build requires around 2GB of storage in /tmp (or whatever you set
TMP to in the environment).

Optionally, MAME can be built with a debugger for emulated ROM
code. You don't need this just to play the games; it's mainly useful
for developing MAME itself. To build the debugger, first install qt5,
then set QTDEBUG=yes in the environment before building mame.

Optionally, MAME can be built with the GroovyMAME patch. See
README_groovy.txt for details.