Video game enthusiast [NEIN] loves MAME. The one thing he doesn’t like much about MAME is moving large heavy MAME cabinets around. So what do you do if you want to take your games on the road? [NEIN] decided to come up with a portable MAME solution that includes everything all in one box so there is virtually no set-up time to get playing. He calls it ‘The MAMEFrame‘.
It may appear that this is a standard 2-player DIY controller, however, it is anything but. The display is housed inside the encloure — a video projector that connects to the Raspberry Pi via an HDMI cable. [NEIN] opted to use a Raspberry Pi instead of a large PC to help keep things light and samll. It’s almost like the two were made for each other. The projector has a built in battery and USB port. The Raspberry Pi is powered by the 5 volts supplied from the projector’s USB port making this unit completely portable and wireless. Just plop it down on a table, point it at a wall and you’re ready to guide Pac-Man to level 256!
Did you know one of the very first Raspberry Pi hacks ever was a MAME build?
“Did you know one of the very first Raspberry Pi hacks ever was a MAME build?”
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/210/119/9b3.png
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Whilst a Pi is small and cheap, it’s not a great MAME platform as none of current builds will run on it satisfactorily so you are stuck with using older builds and ROM sets(in some cases >5 years), The MAME devs aren’t particularly interested in supporting the Pi any time soon.
Pains me to see people spending so much time and effort then ‘cheaping out’ by using a Pi. The Pi is great for some applications but I’m afraid MAME just isn’t one of them :(
So what would you recommend for someone that doesn’t want to use a standard (micro/mini) PC motherboard then?
BeagleBoard Black might yield better performance, it boasts a higher clock than the ARM on the Pi. Not sure how that stacks up against Pi2 though.
Really nicely done project.
I think an Intel NUC would do the job nicely. There’s also the Compute Stick that’s supposed to be out soon. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883800003
Bit more expensive though, and for only marginally better performance than a Pi2.
Either a gutted laptop that’s within a few years old, or a Pico/Nano ITX PC mobo.
One of the advantages of using a laptop MB is that it already is intended to use batteries.
when i got into mame 15 years ago, i was only interested in playing ‘old’ arcade games. not recent. i use mame 0.84b and have a 0.84b rom set that took forever to download. every game i want to play works in 0.84b. i was under the impression that most ‘mamers’ fall into this category. they’re just interested in playing the games that were in arcades when they were in their teens or early twenties.
or they classics like pac-man, galaga, etc. that awed and amazed me when i was 12 and under.
Ooh, should have installed lighted buttons!
s/samll/small