Neo MAME32

Neo MAME32 is facelift for the ever popular MAME emulator that adds an easy to use graphical interface and a host of options.

The arcade age was a huge part of video game development and there's a lot of people who fondly remember heading down to their local arcade to spend their hard earned pocket money on devilishly difficult titles such as Contra, Donkey Kong and Asteroids. The world of gaming was a very different place back then and the emphasis was on production of arcade games aimed at getting your spare change so games were made around limited lives and paid continues. As such the nostalgic amongst us will remember fondly the crushing level of difficulty that our arcade classics had.

As consoles grew in popularity, many arcade games saw ports over to home devices but the focus was still very much on limited lives and punishing difficulties, only the most skilled of joystick warriors would ever see the final level of some games. Whilst arcades still exist around the world today you will often see the reverse of the good old days, console games that have been ported over to arcade machines.

With the birth and rise of emulation on PC, gamers are able to delve deep into nostalgia with most old consoles and arcade machines being emulated one for one on PC. MAME, or the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator, is premier amongst the arcade emulators and by far the most well known. It's been around for years now and the library of games it sports is near complete. If you can remember playing a game in the arcade, it's almost a certainty you'll be able to find it for MAME.

What Neo MAME32 does it update an already solid base program with a much more reliable and functional interface. MAME is a well crafted and impressively built program that emulates arcade machines with no lag what so ever and brings your arcade favourites back to life on your PC monitor. It is not without it's drawbacks though and whilst the underlying functionality is impeccable, the front end has always left something to be desired. Neo MAME32 goes a long way to rectify that adding a much needed, user friendly GUI to the whole process, allowing you to organise and play arcade classics in a much more sensible and flexible manner. One of the only drawbacks we can see if that the update schedule for Neo MAME32 is slightly behind the official release.

If you're looking to take a trip down memory lane then we suggest you give Neo MAME32 a try and enjoy the trappings of modernity that you miss out with on the official release.

Pros

• Brings the Arcade Back to Life
• Attractive New GUI
• 1:1 Emulation with No Lag

Cons

• Update Cycle Runs a Little Slower than the Official App
• You Will Spend Hours Playing Arcade Classics