Arcade machines contained custom circuit boards, specialized sound chips, and unique graphics processors. As arcades declined in the early 2000s, thousands of these boards were destroyed, recycled, or lost. MAME works by emulating the hardware of these machines at a low level, allowing software (the game ROMs) to run as if it were on the original cabinet.
Games like Metal Slug or Marvel vs. Capcom require separate BIOS ZIPs to run.
Thus, an refers to a publicly accessible web directory that contains a list of MAME ROM files (usually archived in .zip format). For example, a URL might look like:
An index of MAME ROMs provides several benefits to users, including:
The most critical factor in a MAME ROM index is its version number. MAME is updated monthly, and ROM sets must match the specific version of the emulator you are using.
The MAME software catalog updates constantly. As hardware dumping techniques improve, preservationists discover that older ROM dumps were incomplete, corrupted, or missing data. Consequently, a ROM index that worked perfectly in MAME version 0.100 will be completely broken in MAME version 0.250.
The clone zip file only contains the data that differs from the parent. Pros: Saves a significant amount of storage space.
