# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
My Recommended 3D MAME Games
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Since bewildered newcomers often ask me what MAME games I would recommend to them, I wanted to make a place where they can get a wide range of answers.
The goals of this thread are;
- to foster the sharing of game knowledge between MA (MameAddicts) members and broaden our information base.
- to build a list of recommended games that not only encompasses the most popular games in MAME, but also those games that may be less well known yet are still worthy of attention.
- to create a resource for newcomers and veterans alike that helps give some guidance through the maze of the thousands of games available in MAME.
- most importantly, to have fun exploring that vast maze with each other and hopefully uncover some hidden gems along the way!
NOTE: Read all rules and guidelines before posting in My Recommended MAME Games (AKA Rec Games). This is a continually evolving project so check back here occasionally to keep up to date with the do's and don'ts.
TL:DR? Don't blame me if you post something sub-standard in here and it gets heavily edited or removed.
DON'T post any comments here! This thread is strictly for MAME game recommendations only and comments will be deleted without notice. Failure to abide by this condition will result in a warning, or a ban for repeat offenses. Ignorance is no excuse. This thread is left open in good faith for the convenience of the authors involved. Please post comments in the Recommended Games Discussion thread instead.
SPOILER ALERT!!! Obviously there may be spoilers contained in the recommendations. If you wish to avoid any spoilers it may be best to go to the Index first to get the names of any games you might want to try, then read the reviews later after you've had a chance to play the games for yourself.
Please be patient while these pages load as there are many images posted here. Even after a page has finished loading it may sometimes be necessary to refresh the page to bring back any images or vids that might not have made it on the first load.
"My" recommended MAME games doesn't mean only this author, but anyone who wants to contribute, so feel free to post your own recommendations. To stay on topic please keep to the following rules and guidelines:
- DO make a separate post for each individual game.
- DO put a heading with at least the correct name for each game entry to make it clear which game you're talking about. A game's heading must normally be for the original parent rom version. Other versions (clones) with significant differences can be referred to separately within the content of the recommendation. For games with alternative headings just use the primary English heading, which is usually to the left of the forward slash. Alternative headings can be mentioned in the review's content if desired. The recommended game headings are kept to a uniform format and include name, company, year, and category. I use MAME itself to check for any necessary corrections to headings when new posts are submitted. If you want to do the heading format yourself, use the following code (Jump to Index code also included for convenience) and add in your material:
Code: Select all
[color=#004080][size=200][b]Game name goes here[/b][/size][/color]
[color=#004080][size=150]Company, Year, Category goes here[/size][/color]
[url=http://www.mameaddicts.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=324]Jump to Index[/url]- DO try to avoid double posting a game that has already been entered. Check the Index. I'll do my best to keep the Index updated, but it may be necessary to scan the thread manually for recent additions so that you don't waste time and effort writing up a recommendation for a game that's already been entered. Check the Discussion as well to see if any other authors have already called their next project. First come, first served, so be quick to get your faves in!
- DO include YouTube videos of gameplay demos, game music, etc, if you wish. Try not to swamp the thread with vids though; one or two per game is plenty. Keep in mind that the spoiler rule (see below) applies to videos as much as anything else, so please use common sense. For gameplay demos, what's generally required is a stage 1 play through and boss kill. That may apply differently depending on the type of game, though. For example, with a versus fighting game you'd generally just beat up the opponent in the first battle and stop there. Gameplays must represent the games as they are in MAME as best as possible, with no overt modifications to the in-game graphics and audio.
- DO include at least two screenshots per review as a rule, one title screen and one gameplay screen is the acceptable minimum. A picture is worth a thousand words to readers who might be skimming the thread looking for games to try out, etc. At the other end of the scale, try not to be too snap happy. If I deem that there is a disproportionate ratio of snaps to written material then the snaps will be trimmed down to a sensible amount.
- DO scan the thread and read at least one review to get an idea of the minimum standard that has been set for what constitutes an acceptable submission. I won't have the hard work of regular contributors undermined by sub-standard submissions, and as such they will be either moved or deleted. See my Dungeon Magic review for an example of a recommendation that is short, but sweet, and meets minimum requirements.
IMPORTANT! Regarding screenshots, keep in mind Chris's warning about hotlinking (hotlinked images will be removed), and please keep the image dimensions reasonably small. I recommend using MAME's inbuilt snapshot function, which by default is press F12 during the game. I remap mine either to spacebar or a spare controller button which makes it really easy to take rapid fire snaps on the fly. With this you can send as many PNG screenshots as you like to MAME's snap folder and upload your final selection to your image hosting provider. Very convenient! The images you get with MAME snap are a nice preset size for posting, and much sharper than a full screen prt scr that's been shrunk down. Another thing to keep in mind about images is that the forum only allows a maximum width of 700 pixels and maximum height of 1,000 pixels.
- DON'T include major spoilers. It's virtually impossible to write an informative game recommendation without including some minor spoilers, so that's perfectly fine. However, major spoilers such as last boss screens, game ending screens and the like are a disservice to readers and will be removed.
- DON'T make joke or bogus submissions; eg., posting a recommendation for Pit Fighter; and absolutely, definitely none of the MAME "adult" games, either. This will be considered as hostile to the purposes of Rec Games and the post and it's submitter will be dealt with accordingly. This thread is for genuine recommendations of popular or well rated games at least. If you're seriously unsure about a game's general critical reception then check gamefaqs, metacritic, wikipedia, etc.
- DON'T bother covering any games for the PlayChoice/Nintendo Vs. System series/Nintendo Super System or Mega-Tech/Mega Play systems. Even though they are playable in MAME these are not proper arcade games. They are basically direct ports of NES/SNES/Mega Drive games and are therefore deemed not worthy of coverage here. The same goes for all of the fruit/slot/poker machine gambling games that are now part of MAME.
- DON'T recommend games that are not fully playable in MAME for the majority of people. Fully playable means a game is generally capable of 100% FPS during gameplay with no use of frame skipping on an average PC. This means that practically any game with 3D polygon graphics rendered in real-time is not acceptable for recommendation here as, performance wise, MAME is generally not very friendly with 3D game emulation. So while Carnevil, Gauntlet Legends, etc. might be very good games, they are not suitable for this thread. Use the My Recommended 3D MAME Games section instead.
- DON'T plagiarise. If you want to add any quoted material to augment your recommendation then acknowledge the source. In any case, it is the author's original content that is valued here, not the ability to copy/paste from wiki, etc. Any post found to contain large amounts of plagiarised material will be promptly deleted.
- DON'T attach forum signatures (untick it in post options before submitting). I don't want people's sigs distracting attention away from the games.
(See my first game recommendation below, Alien vs. Predator, for an example of how to use the above rules and guidelines. You can use the Quote function to preview it and use the same layout for Game Heading and Jump to Index, delete everything else and copy/paste your material in from a Word doc.)
Post in the Discussion or send me a PM if you want to contribute your recommended MAME games and need help or clarification with any of the above points. I will cross-reference each recommended game with the Index. I reserve the right to edit Recommended Games posts for the sake of organization, format, accurate information, major spoiler removal, etc, but as far as possible without compromising the author's original content.
Good luck and have fun!
Hiero
