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This is a quick run-through of how I installed MAME on my 4G EeePC, running advanced desktop, stock Xandros operating system, with 1GB RAM.

This worked for me but no guarantees or warranties, and I'm not responsible if you try it and it screws up your Eee!

All the information comes from a post by Von Floppy, many thanks to him.

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=19596

It's possible to run the Windows version of MAME under WINE - however I found the performance hit to be unacceptable, and most games were unplayable. So the ability to run a version of MAME under the default Xandros operating system was preferable, and this method works, although the actual ROMS that work are a bit hit and miss, due to the version of MAME being a bit old. Hopefully someone with more ability than me will be able to find a more recent version of MAME that will run on the Eee.

With your browser download the following Debian packages from your nearest mirror site:

• Package xmame-common

http://packages.debian.org/etch/all/xmame-common/download

• Package xmame-sdl

http://packages.debian.org/etch/i386/xmame-sdl/download

The packages should be the following sizes:

Package xmame-common (xmame-common_0.106-2_all.deb) 203.1kB

Package xmame-sdl (xmame-sdl_0.106-2_i386.deb) 10,625.1 kB

Start up a terminal, browse to My Documents, and install the packages:

sudo dpkg -i xmame-sdl_0.106-2_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i xmame-common_0.106-2_all.deb

If you have difficulty because they are dependent on each other, try installing them at the same time:

sudo dpkg -i xmame-common_0.106-2_all.deb xmame-sdl_0.106-2_i386.deb

You will now need to get hold of some MAME ROMS. Do a search on Google if you don't know where to find these. You don't need to unzip them, just remember where you put them when you download them to your Eee. Also bear in mind that you are only legally allowed to use most of these ROMS if you already own the arcade machine.

Run xmame by typing at a terminal:

xmame.SDL -rp <path to roms> <rom name>

e.g.

xmame.SDL -rp /home/user/MMC-SD/partition1/MAME/ROMS robocopb.zip

This runs in a tiny window on my Eee, if you don't like postage-stamp gaming, you could try:

xmame.SDL -rp /home/user/MMC-SD/partition1/MAME/ROMS robocopb.zip -fullscreen -ef 1

The -fullscreen parameter itself runs fullscreen, but still tiny, you need to set -ef to 1, which is effect 1 - double scaling.

Accept the into screens by pressing keys O and K as instructed, insert coins with '5', select number of players with '1' and '2' - default controls are cursor keys for directions and Ctrl, Alt, and SPACEBAR for fire buttons. Esc to exit MAME.

So far I have tested:

• Robocop works fine fullscreen (average 55fps)
• R-Type only appears to work in a window (average 54fps)
• Vendetta works fine fullscreen (average 34fps)
• GoldenAxe doesn't appear to work
• Pang works fine fullscreen (average 54fps)

• StarWars (vector graphics) works in a window (average 55fps) - you may want press TAB to change controls and flip y-axis controls though

• Edit Golden Axe requires a .chd file to work (average 32fps).

Download the gxmame front-end debian binary to “My Documents” via the following link:

http://surfnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gxmame/gxmame_0.35beta2-1_i386.deb

Start up a terminal, browse to My Documents, and install the package:

sudo dpkg -i gxmame_0.35beta2-1_i386.deb 

Run gxmame with the following command:

gxmame

The first time you run gxmame, it will complain you have no gamelist available, click OK to this error, then on the Option menu, select Directories, select the 'Xmame basic paths' tab, enter the location of your MAME ROMS in the Roms Paths box. Click Add to add the path.

You can do the same for the path to your sample files and artwork files if you like.

Click OK.

On the File Menu, select Audit All Games.

Wait a few minutes while your ROMs are checked.

— Alan Brown 2008/05/13 16:49