I was thinking about MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator) for iPhone OS, and in particular for the iPad. I've come up with a concept that I think might just work and -- more importantly -- be cleared by Apple for inclusion on the App Store. I'd really love to know what you guys think of the idea. If you want to cut directly to the meaty stuff, head down to the subheading entitled, 'Two possible solutions'. http://tinyurl.com/mameforipad Many thanks in advance!
I like the idea a lot (the second solution especially). I don't have an iPad, but would love to see something similar on the itouch if at all possible. Being able to run Mame on an idevice opens up a whole new world for retro gaming on the go. Keep at it!
another reason to jailbrake the ipad / iphone. Mame has been out on iphone already for JB users. Even Scumm VM where I played a whole game of indiana jones and the fate of atlantis.
The problem isn't so much Apple's policies (AFAIK no one has even tried submitting MAME to the app store, for the reasons that follow), it's CPU power, or lack thereof. It's simply impossible to get most games to run at any decent speed, try running MAME on a jailbroken iPhone to see what I mean. Even the PSP version isn't good for much. Which means of those two option, only the second one is feasible. And as it happens, it's a very interesting option indeed. People have been designing apps like this for a long time on the iPhone to play and stream music & movies that are in incompatible formats, or simply to be able to access to their entire media collection from anywhere they can get a 3G signal. There's actually a company right now called OnLive, who are doing this with PC games in an attempt to bring gaming to people who can't afford high-end gaming PCs. If all goes to plan, the service should be launching in parts of the US sometime this year, and that'll be the major test for this kind of system. If it works with PC games, I've absolutely no doubt it'll be workable for arcade games, NES games, or pretty much anything you can emulate on a PC. The big challenge is going to be overcoming latency. My experience with media streaming programs is that they're actually pretty seamless, even over 3G, but the problem is that in games even milliseconds make a difference, and any amount of lag can completely ruin things. My fear is that it'll end up feeling very much like online multiplayer did back in the days of 56k (for those of you unfortunate enough to have memories of that ).
A friend and I just the other day were brainstorming how to turn the iPad into a full blown arcade. I'm pretty sure I can use a keyboard to pass the joystick clicks. The issue really is just getting MAME running on the ipad. So the ipad can't handle running MAME even if by some miracle Apple ever allowed it?
Lions, That's the beauty of streaming the display from a PC/Mac. Even demanding games should run with ease on the iPad. Of course, it could work just as well on the iPhone and iPod Touch, but the extra display size of the iPad means that there is plenty of room for virtual controls of all kinds, perhaps even enough room for two sets of controls.
I had messed around with MAME on the iPad simulator for a bit. Zodttd has posted his code for MAME for the iPhone over at github. I played around with it a bit, but couldn't ever get a clean compile of it in Xcode and have been too busy with other products to get deeper into getting this running and updated to a newer MAME. Maybe someone else can take what zodttd has posted and run with it? http://github.com/zodttd/mame4iphone-private
yeah, I tried compiling it too but I think he must of used an older SDK or something. The code looked like he's just using the engine from the gp2x project. Of course all the emulator code is way over my skill level anyway. James, I like that idea. Wonder if an iPad connected a joystick(USB keyboard map) could send keystrokes back to the PC/Mac. Hmmm... Now if my iPad would just get delivered so I could start doing some testing.
Either that or the MAME OSX could be built for the iPhone OS/iPad so I think it's very much doable, just not sellable. It "should work" via the Camera Connection kit, which rumor is also works with iPhone OS 4. I plan on testing my PC/PS3/Xbox 360 USB arcade stick via that connector once I get it. It may be detectable, if not a mod would have to be made to act as certain keys.
I've built a custom arcade joystick with the I-PAC from Ultimarc. It's USB powered and both PC & Mac treat it as a generic USB keyboard. http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html
That may be an interesting test of that vs what I have, the Cthulhu/Chimp PCB in my arcade stick so it works on PC/Mac/PS3, and Xbox 360 soon, but it works as a USB Joystick not a USB Keyboard. I may have to splice the I-PAC in now as well...
Umm or people could develop it and distribute it for jailbroken devices (which is most people anyways, ignoring the rest of the Apple patriot idiots) like all the other emulators...?
I don't think CPU would be an issue. On Windows Mobile with far slower and less efficient CPU's, the MAME emulator port runs just fine. Even FinalBurn is able to run e.g. Metal Slug with flawless sound (!) and without any problems (!) on 800 MHz+ WinMo handhelds. Anyone to port FinalBurn, BTW?
I only care to run the early 80s games anyway. The problem with MAME is it tries to run games all the way up until like 5 years ago or something. Stick to the 80s games and it should run fine.
iPad 2 vs. Air for iMAME I have an iPad 2 (jailbroken) with iMAME (Reloaded) and it plays great, but some games are a little slow (like outrun). Has anyone used iMAME on an iPad 2 and an iPad Air? I'm curious if the Air is noticeably faster with iMAME. Thanks!
