iMAME released for iOS

[norkusa]

A big heads-up for anyone using iOS. iMAME has just been released on iPhone & iPad for free. Comes with a few free games but apparently you can load your own .zip's on it too with a 3rd party utility like iExplorer without jailbreaking.

There's a good chance it'll get pulled from the app store soon, so grab it while you can:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imame/id485639079?mt=8

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

HOLY CRAP!

Downloaded and IMMEDIATELY backed up to iTunes on my PC to protect from the inevitable pull.

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!

I can confirm that iExplore works fine for installing extra game zips on iOS 5.0, just drop the files in iMame>Documents on the device.

[Oobgarm]

Don't have my iPod yet, but I made sure to grab this. I'm amazed that it's still up.

I imagine this in a iCade would be quite awesome.

[RCM]

This sounds neat, but I play iPad and iPhone for games designed specifically with those platforms in mind.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Here's a few screen shots of the interface. You can adjust button layout or do it full screen with buttons as transparent overlays.

Like all good MAMEs there are all measure of processor/clock tweaks that you can do per game.

FYI Paperboy fans, Paperboy doesn't slow drift to the right. *edit* actually it's temperamental but seems to straighten out if the deadzone is at maximum and you accelerate straight for a few seconds right at the beginning of the street.

sweet.

[norkusa]

Do the touch screen controls get any easier to use? Just got the 4S a few months ago and I find it really awkward playing games on the iPhone. Tried playing Kick on iMAME for a few minutes but trying to line up the see-saw underneath the jumping guy was impossible.

Seems like the controller would move all the way in one direction, or just nudge it slightly. Feels like there are no inbetweens.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Do the touch screen controls get any easier to use? Just got the 4S a few months ago and I find it really awkward playing games on the iPhone. Tried playing Kick on iMAME for a few minutes but trying to line up the see-saw underneath the jumping guy was impossible.

Seems like the controller would move all the way in one direction, or just nudge it slightly. Feels like there are no inbetweens.

There are control option settings that you can adjust, it's default on analog, you can adjust sensitivity, or perhaps try changing the setting to digital.

*edit* after trying some stuff like Kick that requires a dial or trackball control, I can confirm that it's pretty rough in this, like any MAME setup that translate those movements to a joystick be it digital or analog. However, X/Y flight yoke games like Star Wars Arcade are pretty okay with the analog joystick.

[davidbrit2]

FYI, you need ROM sets for MAME 0.37b5 for this version. Conveniently, those are the same ROMs you need for the Dingoo A320 port of MAME, so you can get some useful Google results that way.

Seems to work really well, but touch controls are just really sloppy for fast, accurate 8-way movement. I find 4-way and 2-way games are a lot more playable.

[norkusa]

Oh yeah, switching to digital feels much better.

Anyone try Neo Geo or CPS roms yet? I'm curious to see if those work at all.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Oh yeah, switching to digital feels much better.

Anyone try Neo Geo or CPS roms yet? I'm curious to see if those work at all.

Reports are that the ones in the appropriate rom set work.

[MarioMania]

Let ask why??

You could always get MAME for the PC or Xbox, Not for this Garbage

[davidbrit2]

Let ask why??

You could always get MAME for the PC or Xbox, Not for this Garbage

Yeah, because I always carry my XBox around in a belt holster so I have something to do while taking a shit.

[megasdkirby]

Downloaded it yesterday night.

Damn awesome that it's available. I will be backing this shit up pretty soon as well.

[Flack]

Let ask why??

You could always get MAME for the PC or Xbox, Not for this Garbage

How well does your Xbox fit in your pocket?

Does anyone know if this works with the iCade? If so, I'm ordering one tonight.

[megasdkirby]

How well does your Xbox fit in your pocket?

Does anyone know if this works with the iCade? If so, I'm ordering one tonight.

There is an option called CONTROL LAYOUT and there are two options: iCP and iCade.

So my guess? Yes.

[StealthLurker]

I tried it on my icade just for shits n giggles... works great but looks ridiculous with a tiny phone in the icade lol.

By the way, there's a sale on the iControlPad on ThinkGeek.com for $60. Normally ordering the iControlPad from Europe (where it's made) will run you about $100 shipped. Just ordered one.

Not the most elegant design for smartphone tactile controls, but small enough to pack in a bag for trips.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/eb2b/

To get the side clamps to give a much more flush appearance, they can be ordered from here:

http://www.icontrolpad.com/order/




.

[norkusa]

Does anyone know if this works with the iCade? If so, I'm ordering one tonight.

It does. This was posted on Mac Rumors by the guy who created iMame4all, which is what iMAME is based on:


Hi all,

This app is based on my iMame4All Xcode project, which in turn is based on Seleuco's iMame4All for iOS devices port. To find out what works and doesn't work go to my website here: http://www.lesbird.com/iMame4All/iMame4All_Xcode.html but to sum things up:

1. WiiMote's don't work. They require chip level access to the Bluetooth chipset which will only work on jailbroken devices.
2. You need the ROMs for iMame4All for the GP32X (MAME v37b5). If you can find them they should work.
3. When I created the iMame4All Xcode project I included all of the sound samples for the iMame4All ROM set.

I did not submit this to the App Store, that was done by Jim Van who used my iMame4All Xcode project as a base starting point then trimmed out anything that was not App Store compliant.

For controllers there are 2 options - iCade and iControlPad. Let me explain the difference between them. When you connect your iControlPad or iCade a window will pop up asking which mode you want to use. I highly recommend choosing iCade mode for both controllers (put the iControlPad in iCade emulation mode). The reason is that in iControlPad mode it expects the controller to be in special packet mode. This will allow you to use the dual nubs on the iControlPad to play games like Robotron, however the downside is that there is a lot of data being transmitted over the Bluetooth and iPad 1's and anything less will have a hard time keeping up.

Hope this clears some stuff up.

- Les

[StealthLurker]

It does. This was posted on Mac Rumors by the guy who created iMame4all, which is what iMAME is based on:


Hi all,

This app is based on my iMame4All Xcode project, which in turn is based on Seleuco's iMame4All for iOS devices port. To find out what works and doesn't work go to my website here: http://www.lesbird.com/iMame4All/iMame4All_Xcode.html but to sum things up:

1. WiiMote's don't work. They require chip level access to the Bluetooth chipset which will only work on jailbroken devices.
2. You need the ROMs for iMame4All for the GP32X (MAME v37b5). If you can find them they should work.
3. When I created the iMame4All Xcode project I included all of the sound samples for the iMame4All ROM set.

I did not submit this to the App Store, that was done by Jim Van who used my iMame4All Xcode project as a base starting point then trimmed out anything that was not App Store compliant.

For controllers there are 2 options - iCade and iControlPad. Let me explain the difference between them. When you connect your iControlPad or iCade a window will pop up asking which mode you want to use. I highly recommend choosing iCade mode for both controllers (put the iControlPad in iCade emulation mode). The reason is that in iControlPad mode it expects the controller to be in special packet mode. This will allow you to use the dual nubs on the iControlPad to play games like Robotron, however the downside is that there is a lot of data being transmitted over the Bluetooth and iPad 1's and anything less will have a hard time keeping up.

Hope this clears some stuff up.

- Les

Been following the iMAME4ALL thread on toucharcade for a while and I believe you posted this there as well. Do you know if Jim is taking a look at the bug some iphones/ipads experience in the options menu? Works on my 4S but not on my iPad2. I was thinking it was because my iPad was jailbroken, but some non-jailbroken iPads are experiencing the problem also.


.

[dgdgagdae]

I tried this with a few of my roms, and most didn't work. I see now from the thread that I need an older version of the roms. Between that and the inherent problem with using touch controls, this just doesn't seem to be worth the trouble.

Not to mention that I had to install QuickTime to use iExplorer to get the roms onto my iPad. I couldn't uninstall it fast enough when iTunes stopped requiring it recently.

[norkusa]

I tried this with a few of my roms, and most didn't work. I see now from the thread that I need an older version of the roms. Between that and the inherent problem with using touch controls, this just doesn't seem to be worth the trouble.

Not to mention that I had to install QuickTime to use iExplorer to get the roms onto my iPad. I couldn't uninstall it fast enough when iTunes stopped requiring it recently.

It's just the v37b5 rom set. It's the same set used for just about every portable version of MAME out there, so it's not that hard to find. Loaded about 20 different roms so far and they all work.

Yeah, the touch controls kinda suck but doing what davidbrit suggested by switching the controls to digital + sticking with 2 & 4-way games make it much more tolerable.


Sorry Stealth, I just saw that on Mac Rumors and posted it here. Don't know anything about toucharcade.