I was first introduced to arcade game emulation in 1996 when I discovered a gem of a computer game collection titled "Williams Arcade Classics" sitting on a shelf in a computer store. The box described how you could play six original Williams arcade games on your PC through the use of an arcade game emulator program. The word "original" instantly caught my eye. These weren't remakes or clones, but the actual program code that existed in the arcade machines. Being a huge Williams game fan, my Visa card was instantly swiped and the "real" Defender was in my greedy little hands. I know owned a piece of arcade history.
After installing the games on a 33mhz 486 computer, I was facinated at how accurate the games looked, sounded, and played to their original stand-up arcade machines. They played exactly like I remembered them back in the 80's. I soon realized however, that the only thing missing from the experience was the feeling of standing in front of a full sized machine, with lights blaring away, sounds filling the room, joysticks and buttons rattling away, just like in my arcade days of the past. At that point I just knew that I had to build my own full-sized arcade machine.
All arcade machines have one thing in common - they have a specialized computer inside that is dedicated to playing an arcade game. The actual arcade game is basically a computer program that is stored in a special computer chip called a ROM. If you copy the game program from the ROM, and store it in a file on your computer, there is a way to play it. These ROM files are widely available for download on the internet.
An arcade game emulator is a program that runs on your computer. The emulator is able to read the original game program from a ROM file, and trick it into thinking that it is running on it's original dedicated arcade computer.
I don't mean to scare you here, but there is something you should be aware of with regards to copyrights. Arcade game programs (ROM files) are copyrighted, so unless you've paid the game company for the right to use the game program, you're probably violating copyright laws. For example, you cannot legally have a Pac-Man ROM file in your possession unless you own an original Pac-Man ROM chip. One way to keep the arcade machine perfectly legal is to either buy the original arcade ROM chips for every game in your arcade machine or only use games you have bought. Williams Arcade Classics, which I'll talk about soon, is a perfect example of legally ownable emulated versions of some classic Williams games.
Click the continue button and I'll show you how you can quickly play many of the William's games I've mentioned (yes they're legal!).
