The arcade-machines had often quite powerful computers in order to run the games and make them attractive, so people would spend their hardearned money on them. I know one game, that I have spent quite some money on. That game is Golden Axe. I have the emulator for it, but I haven't put it on this site, because I haven't got so much web-space. (That emulator is called system 16, and it's also supporting games like shinobi and shadow dancer). However, if you compare the game commando (the game where you are a soldier, running around killing other) on the Vic64 and on the arcade version, you'll see quite a difference. The MAME-version, which you can se a screenshot from on the MAME-Rom page, has a graphicresoloution of about 640 * 480, and the sound is much better than on a vic 64. I don't even think that this is a good comparison anyway. When the Video-game consols appeard, they also tried to imitate the feeling of a arcade machine.

Well, MAME is a "emulator". It imitates the processor of the arcademachines so your computer is able to run the "ROMs" or games from the arcadehalls. It can do so, because the computer-processor is now much faster than the one on the arcades. There are many other emulators, like Nesticle (emulates Nintendo 8-bit), C64S (emulates Commodore 64), UAE (emulates an Amiga).

Of course, the computer can't emulate the newest games in the arcade halls, like virtua-fighter 3 and such games, but it doesn't need to anyway. The computers are developing so fast, and they have now very fast 3D-fx cards, so it's become a little competition between the computer and the arcade machines (and the videogames of course). The arcademachines of today often has very fast processors made by Silicon Graphics, so it often has a stunning graphic. One other thing are the simulator (I don't know any other name for it), where you are sitting and running a car in a stunning 3D-enviroment. You have pedals and gear on it, and sometimes you can race against your friends.

However, let's get back to the time, when the C64 ruled the computermarket and when it was REALLY fun to play games like scramble. The computers and arcades of that time had to be enjoying in order to sell. It couldn't, like many of the games made today, hide behind 3D-rendered graphic. The game was made by one or maybe up to five or ten programmers (not like today, where the Japanese put 100 of guys to work for a year and finally come out with a game like Final Fantasy VII).Download the MAME-emulator and dream away to a time, when a computer was something for most of the people.

Written by Morgan Johansson