Here is a brief rundown of
some of my favourite arcade emulators along with listings
of some of the best games you can play on them. You can't
really go wrong with any of these, whether you are new to
emulation or a long-time emu fan. The best place to get
hold of either the emulators themselves or any related
info is at Dave's Classics. (Also try the Multi game
emu section at Emu24X
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very good) |
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The
big one, obviously. MAME, or Multi Arcade Game Emulator,
to give it its full moniker, is an awesome emulator
capable of running, at the last count, some 1100+ (!)
games. Virtually all of the more popular arcade titles
from the 70's and 80's are catered for, far too many to
go into detail, but classics from Williams, Namco, Atari,
Sega and Konami amongst others abound. Vector games are
one of MAME's strengths, and there are notable versions
of Star Wars , Tempest, Battlezone and Asteroids
available, as well as plenty of more obscure fare for
Arcade junkies. Neo-Geo support, including sound, was
recently added to much acclaim meaning titles such as
Metal Slug are now fully playable. Mame is an absolute
goldmine of arcade history at your fingertips, and if you
are new to emulation, this is the best place to start.
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Recommended
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Recommended
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| Lively and spectacular platform action
in Three Wonders . |
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RAGE stands
for 'Real Arcade Game Emulator', and pretty much lives up to its name with excellent emulations of many of the best games from arcade legends Irem, the creators of R-Type. One word of warning though...these games are some of the hardest ever created and will test your skills ruthlessly.. don't say I didn't warn you! Also emulated are a few older Capcom games including 1943 and Gunsmoke. |
Recommended |
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| In the Hunt - Submarine shoot-em-up with
extremely smart graphics. |
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RAINE is another high
quality arcade emulator which focuses mainly on Taito and Jaleco titles. Some unfortunately do not as yet have full sound emulation but the fact that relatively hardware intensive games such as Bubble Symphony, Darius Gaiden and Tatsujin 2 can be emulated as well as this is a staggering achievement.
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Recommended
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| (Above) Third in the Bubble Bobble
series, Bubble Symphony. (Right) Darius Gaiden. |
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Sparcade is
a great emulator, very easy to use and providing pixel
perfect renditions of three of my fave shooters of all
time, namely Nemesis, Salamander and
Vulcan Venture. The latter particularly is fantastically
well emulated in full screen with spot-on sound FX and
music. Also emulated are many older classics eg. Pacman, Pengo, Galaxian, Moon Cresta, hey, even Space Invaders gets a look-in. |
Recommended
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| Vulcan Venture, aka Gradius II.... Set
your controls for the heart of the sun.... |
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Anyone who
remembers shoving stack-fulls of ten pence pieces into
Taito's extremely difficult shooter Flying Shark will
appreciate this fine emulator which has been re-released
recently and now runs some 9 games. Other games running on Shark V3 are Twin Cobra, brilliant Space shooter Truxton, Outzone, and the sequel to Flying Shark, Fireshark. All these games can be run full screen with the monitor on its side a la arcade if you wish... just be careful if you try this at home..!! |
Recommended
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| Flying
Shark... Rock Hard Shooter. |
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Best of the Rest: |
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Covers similar ground to
RAGE, emulating some of Irem's classic arcade games, but
worth getting for the sake of two games not covered by
RAGE, namely R-Type-alike X-Multiply, and Gallop:Armed
Police Unit, which are both classic shooters from the
Irem stable. Oh and the new version of M72 includes a
rather nifty 'movie' record option with which to show off
to your friends! M72 Homepage |
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A very good emulator
which runs many of Sega's model 16 arcade board titles
from the late 80's to mid 90's including Golden Axe,
Alien Syndrome, Alien Storm, Altered Beast, Outrun, Space
Harrier and Afterburner. Sega16 Homepage |
