ARCADEEMULATORS

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 - very good)

Other useful emulation sites: Retrogames, Zophar's Domain, Jose Q's Emuviews. Also the latter has plenty of emulator-compatible rom images ;)

MAME
 
 
 
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.
...Play all your fave Williams arcade classics again with MAME.
 

Recommended
games:

  • Defender
  • Robotron
  • Stargate
  • Star Wars
  • Asteroids
  • Spy Hunter
  • Time Pilot
  • Galaga
  • Gyruss
  • Tempest
  • Ms Pacman
  • Mr Do
  • Bubble Bobble
  • 1942
  • Gauntlet
  • Er..loads really.
   
 
CALLUS


Capcom System One emulator. One of my favourite emulators, Callus runs almost perfectly many of the best Capcom arcade games of the late 80's and early 90's. The use of 16-bit colour is second to none, depicting Capcom's detailed background artwork in all its glory. Includes game state save/load, an excellent movie record option and even network play features!>>>>>.>>>>>.>>>>>>>>

Recommended
games:

  • 1941
  • Carrier Air Wing
  • Ghouls'n'Ghosts
  • Mercs
  • Strider
  • Three Wonders
  • U.N.Squadron
  • Varth
  • Final Fight
  • Street Fighter 2
  Lively and spectacular platform action in Three Wonders .
       
   
RAGE
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
games:

  In the Hunt - Submarine shoot-em-up with extremely smart graphics.
 
RAINE
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.

Recommended
games:

  • Bubble
    Memories
  • Bubble
    Symphony
  • Darius 1&2
  • Darius Gaiden
  • Super Space Invaders '91
  • Terra Force
  • Truxton (Tatsujin) 2
  (Above) Third in the Bubble Bobble series, Bubble Symphony. (Right) Darius Gaiden.
 


SPARCADE
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
games:

  Vulcan Venture, aka Gradius II.... Set your controls for the heart of the sun....
 
SHARK V3
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
games:

  • Flying Shark
  • Twin Cobra
  • Truxton
  • Outzone
  • Fireshark
  • Tiger Heli
  Flying Shark... Rock Hard Shooter.
 
 

Best of the Rest:
  • M72

    Gallop: Armed Police Unit - odd name..but good game

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		  
 
  • Sega16 Emulator

    Golden Axe: Fun with Orcs and Dragons...

 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		    

 
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