OK so my deal is, I'm starting a project where I basically build a small HTPC-type box that has an insane amount of CPU power, adequate GPU, and say no more than 2-4GB of RAM needed. I don't need Crossfire GPUs or some $1000 video card, most emulators won't benefit from that. However an insane CPU will make a huge difference.

Basically the goal is to build a small box for emulation that looks nice and will last for years. I'll plug my X-Arcade tankstik into front USB ports and it'll rock!

But enough on that for now. First, I've gotta update my ROMs. Although it was relatively easy to obtain a full MAME set 10 years ago, these days MAME has a lot more data for all files- it's over 50GB.

Yeah I have Usenet and yeah, I can get cable access, but it's all about time for me anymore. Frankly, I'd rather just pay for a set.

But isn't that illegal?

Well... sorta. But there are outfits that charge minimal amounts. Like $5 a dvd or less.


http://www.mamedvds.com/
I pretty much ordered everything from here, the final order was around $90 IIRC. After a couple weeks I wound up getting a couple dozen DVDs in the mail, nicely printed and labeled, in sleeves.

There were just a few individual samples missing, and I think when I did a scan test maybe one small romset was corrupt. Within 10 minutes I had everything clear, and was definitely looking at a lot of full sets, but was actually still missing most of the laserdisc game video captures. Some of them are quite large- over 10GB single files. Stuff I really don't want to download.


So I also ordered from this person:
http://www.us-lazarus.com/rom-burner/sets/index.shtml

I basically ordered the whole collection on hard drive for $140. Not just MAME, but ALL of it, including the old Atari stuff , NES, et al. Again, within a few weeks I got a package containing the (Iomega 500GB) hard drive, the box it came in. Looked brand new, he probably just used it to add roms.

Is that a ripoff? Not really, considering you get a brand new 500GB external hard drive that's probably worth around $80 that is filled with everything and you start to think about the time it would take to find, download, and then verify each set.

It's got a lot of what I was after- sure, there are ROMs on there I didn't initially want, but it's not like it's hard to delete them.

Thought I would share. Both outfits were reasonable, although I liked the lazarus guy's service a little better. Both will send you very discreet notes about packages being sent (for obvious reasons).

damn thats a hella collection good stuff
I still play few old games

I pulled out my old console games (nintendo, genesis, super nintendo and atari) she looked at me like what the fuck is this daddy, considering the graphics of the xbox360, and ps3, I could not win her over.*LOL*

LOL I bet
do you still have the old pong console ? LOL I remember having that one when I was a kid
old black & white 2 lines & a dot haha

yep, even the old coleco.

I have an Intellivision packed away somewhere.

I was wondering how people actually managed to get complete sets of mame roms given the size.

I dream of one day building a mame cabinet but it's nice to know you can get the entire 137 romset. The upgrade packs from 137 to 138 are all over usenet already so this is cool.

I might order the full set myself. Thanks for the link.

I have 25 gig of mame roms. I've had old but at the moment only got a Amiga CD32 and a Panasonic 3D0 I used to have an atari ST and amiga A500 but they broke.

Atari 2600 FTW

I had an ST =)

FTFY

Now thats funny

Just one?

Friend of mine has 50+ old and new unique consoles...now that he's moving it out of storage he can hook up his wall of gaming systems again. Talk about a video switchbox...


ROMS, I'd just 'get' them, "its all about time" - 50gb only takes a day or two when you queue it up.

What kind of a/v switch box we talking here? Does such a beast exist? I'm hoping he's throwing in a transcoder / upconverter right at the end. Poor TV, it prolly hates him.

That would making an awesome Hack-a-Day project though.

Sadly not that complex =-- rf adapters are chained and boosted (lots of loss through lots)...and av switches are just ganged, 4x 6 port switches can handle 18 systems.