Classic Old Arcade Games
Do you have fond memories of hours wiled away in the local Arcade parlor, putting in thousand and thousand of coins just not beat a Fighter shooting game or discover a secret fighter? Well I have, when I was young I used to save up all my coins and sneak in to the dark, smoky, filthy arcade (which is full of middle age guys gambling their way through the horse racing game). Anyhow, if only I’ve known about MAME earlier.
M.A.M.E (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is an emulator (derrr) for arcade game. The emulator itself are perfectly legal, however the emulator itself are useless, you will need the ROMS files for each different game or BIOS (like winamp, legal but useless without the mp3 files). Well, ROMS files are the illegal part, which mean it is not legal for an individual to have ROM images that aren't either legitimately bought or from a game they own. Okay we all know that one.
Get a copy of mame32 here (Mame32_Binary.exe). There is the other version of MAME (mame084.zip), but I suggest you use mame32 because of the easy Windows graphic user interface. Double click on the setup file it will prompt you for the location to unpack the file, do it. (Please, look for a location that can be easily found).Now you need some ROMs, there are a few legal ones in www.mame.net, or try the following sites:
www.oldgames.co.uk – my favourite, you will have to register as a member (free), get the access password from the forum, and then login to their MAME direcoty (ftp or http) to get the ROMS.
www.mamerom.net – easier, but the site went down quite often.
Do a search in Google or Yahoo for other site; let me know if you found a good one. Now, after you get the ROMs, put it in the roms folder (which is quite obvious isn’t it).
Now go to the Mame32 folder, look for Mame32.exe (make a shortcut and put it on your desktop will be a good idea), run it.

All the games titles are there, but the little black square means that you do not have the ROMS. Highlights the AVAILABLE on the left side, you will see all the ROMs that you currently have. In the future, after you put in some new ROMs in the folder, click F5 to refresh the list. If any of the games are not working, go to FILE -> AUDIT ALL GAMES, do run through then you will get some information there. The common problems are either the corrupted ROMs or you do not have the BIOS. What is BIOS? Is too hard to explain, download the file, put in the roms folder, that’s all you need to know. These are the few main ones:
Cpzn1.zip, Cpzn2.zip, Cvs.zip, Konamigv.zip, Konamigx.zip, Neogeo.zip, Psarc.zip
If you encounter any problems or missing BIOS, leave a comment or contact me through email.

Personally i don't like to run the game in fullscreen, go to PROPERTIES -> DISPLAY and check on RUN IN A WINDOW. A gamepad or joystick would be nice. To enable it, PROPERTIES -> CONTROLLERS, and check the box of ENABLE JOYSTICK, this includes LightGuns as well. (for games like Time Crisis or Virtual Cop) Run the game, press TAB on your keyboard, then change the default control buttons.

Finally, the specifications. I am running on an Intel P4 1.8 GHz, 512MB DDR, mobile ATI 7500 32 Mb, 20 GB Toshiba laptop HDD. The performance is good enough for the old games, but not quite for the new ones. (Street Fighter EX2, Soul Calibur and etc) I'll recommend an ATI 9500 graphics cards and get as much RAM as possible for the latest titles. Of course if you are only interested in those old classic games (like me), such high end PC components are not needed.
It has always been my childhood dream to own an arcade machine, and it is very possible to do it with MAME. Try this link, which brings you a guide of making your own arcade cabinet at home. The other option will be buying an arcade control keyboard (1 joystick plus 6 control buttons + 2 additional buttons). I am not sure if you can get it in Malaysia, but in Australia a decent arcade joystick's price range around AUD $180 - $200Enjoy your game!