MAME: 0.265 - Released: 2024-04-23T21:34:29 - Machines: 46750 - rom: 351491 - disk: 1325 - Lists: 714 - Software: 137832 - rom: 233686 - disk: 11065
MAME-AO is
officially recommended, by Spludlow MAME, as the simplest and easiest way to
run MAME.
See the official
MAME-AO page on GitHub
https://github.com/sam-ludlow/mame-ao
History of MAME-AO
I’ve been collecting MAME ROMs for a while now. It’s a hobby
in its self, every month ensuring your ROM collection is complete and up to
date.
I created my own web site (mame.spludlow.co.uk) and rom
management software (MHS) so I could pursue this endeavour on my own terms.
Has to be said having all the ROMs local ready to play
anything in seconds is nice. But the hassle of keeping it up to date makes you
wonder, is it worth it?
Also, most normal people don’t have the time or patience to
learn and perform all this ROM management, they just want to play.
I’ve known archive.org is a good resource for ROM collectors
for a while, but it wasn’t until the end of 2022 I noticed there are complete
and, most importantly, kept up to date MAME ROM sets on there. Some decent
chaps must have some automated uploading going off.
Got me thinking. Do I need to bother with all this ROM
collecting shite? I could develop something that grabs and places all the
required files automatically.
MAME-AO was created in the last day of my 2022 Christmas
holiday.
Most of the code technology I had already used in my MAME
web or MHS. Getting the MAME data into a relational database, handling ROM
management, and providing searchable machines and software.
Thought it was time to put everything together, totally
self-contained program with few dependencies, put it on GitHub with a
permissive licence.
As the months went by I continued to add functionally, had
no idea I would add a web UI, never used the C# HttpListener before, but when I
did I liked it (just like node.js). Built an API and my usual questionable JS
front end.
Oh, and I know, now, that archive.org is actually called
“Internet Archive” so I named it wrong, but after realizing I think AO is a
better name.
Is anyone else going to using it? Well it’s never stopped me
working on something before.
Cheers
Sam