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AtGames Legends Ultimate - Bring Your Own MAME ROMs too!!!

RetroRalph·video·13m 46s·analyzed·Nov 2, 2019
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

AtGames Legends Ultimate now supports custom MAME ROMs; early-stage feature with mixed compatibility.

Summary

Retro Ralph demonstrates AtGames' newly released MAME emulation core for the Legends Ultimate arcade cabinet, enabling users to load and play custom MAME ROMs via USB. He tests five games (X-Men, Punisher, Moonwalker, Donkey Kong, Captain Commando), documenting which work, audio/save state functionality, and providing step-by-step instructions for loading games. The feature is early-stage with known bugs (pagination limit of 10 games per screen, some audio emulation issues, save state incompatibility on certain titles).

Key Claims

  • AtGames released a MAME 2003 core that allows Legends Ultimate users to run custom MAME games via USB

    high confidence · Direct demonstration and testing of working MAME games on the cabinet

  • Current MAME implementation has a bug limiting display to 10 games per screen; pagination doesn't work with more than 10 games

    high confidence · Ralph explicitly states he made AtGames aware of this bug and they are fixing it

  • X-Men arcade, Punisher, and Moonwalker work with full controller mapping and sound emulation

    high confidence · Live gameplay demonstration of all three titles with no control mapping issues

  • Donkey Kong runs but has audio problems with the running sound effects

    high confidence · Direct observation during gameplay; Ralph notes this is early testing phase

  • Captain Commando does not work on this MAME core (produces black screen)

    high confidence · Attempted load results in black screen crash; listed as non-functional

  • Save states work on some games (Moonwalker, Donkey Kong) but not others (X-Men, Punisher)

    high confidence · Explicit testing of save/load functionality on multiple titles with varied results

  • AtGames may support additional MAME cores in the future, potentially improving game compatibility

    medium confidence · Ralph's speculation based on current MAME 2003 core limitations and how other multi-core emulators work

Notable Quotes

  • “If they would just stop doing stuff, I would have... I could go on to the next thing. But they keep on doing stuff! Who would have thought?”

    Retro Ralph@ 0:00 — Expresses appreciation for AtGames' continued feature development and updates

  • “X-Men the arcade... that big gigantic cabinet a freaking huge thing with like I don't know I think it was two CRTs... that thing was amazing”

    Retro Ralph@ 2:05 — Nostalgic reference to classic arcade cabinet experience, underscores appeal of MAME compatibility

  • “There is one bug in the software right now and actually I made them aware of it so they're gonna fix it”

    Retro Ralph@ 2:19 — Indicates Ralph has direct communication with AtGames developers and they are responsive to feedback

  • “Your mileage will vary though so you're just going to have to keep track of which games work and which ones don't”

    Retro Ralph@ 9:49 — Manages expectations about MAME core compatibility being incomplete

Entities

AtGamescompanyRetro RalphpersonLegends UltimateproductX-MengamePunishergameMoonwalkergameDonkey KonggameCaptain CommandogameMAME 2003productTechToyTVperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Ralph reports direct communication with AtGames developers who are actively addressing reported bugs (pagination issue)

    high · Quote: 'I made them aware of it so they're gonna fix it'

  • ?

    product_strategy: AtGames released MAME 2003 core for Legends Ultimate, expanding emulation capabilities beyond built-in games

    high · Direct demonstration of MAME ROM loading and gameplay on hardware

  • ?

    product_concern: Known bug limiting display pagination to 10 games maximum before navigation breaks

    high · Ralph explicitly states this limitation and notes AtGames is aware and fixing

  • ?

    technology_signal: MAME 2003 core has incomplete game compatibility with audio emulation issues and save state functionality gaps

    high · Multiple games tested with varying results: X-Men no save states, Donkey Kong audio problems, Captain Commando non-functional

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.041

0:00
Yup, another AtGames video. If they would just stop doing stuff, I would have... I could go on to the next thing. But they keep on doing stuff! Who would have thought? What? They keep doing stuff, and kinda cool stuff. So, last week, or earlier this week, or whatever the heck, it's been such a frenzy, it's been like, bleh, like all stuff all over the place. but earlier they gave us access to some core emulation software that allowed us to run Genesis games that we could bring ourselves. And now, there's a core package to do MAME! all right well we should get right to it right so same usb as we used before pretty much the same process except they gave us a maim 2003 core that we could work with here And by using that core, we can then run main games. Now, keep in mind, this process is brand new, and there's some kinks in it, because not all games are going to be supported. So I've started to kind of keep track of the ones that work and the ones that don't work, but I haven't gotten that far. But a couple of the ones I really wanted to play do work, and I was really surprised. So in some of the games, the core software on the AtGames works. You can do your save states and loads and things like that, so kind of cool. But I'm going to pop this in and you'll see what we're going to get.
1:41
Alright, so that game is booted up. Putting in my USB stick. Again, we're going to see that add-on folder pop up here. We're going to navigate to that.
1:52
And then you'll see I've got... I'll give you guys a closer look in a second. I've got Donkey Kong. I have Captain Commando. I put it on there. It's an example of one that doesn't work.
2:02
Moonwalker. The Punisher. and x-men i love x-men guys x-men the arcade that big gigantic cabinet a freaking huge thing with like i don't know i think it was two crts i don't even know that thing was amazing but anyways all those can be played on here so there is one bug in the software right now and actually i made games aware of it so they're gonna fix it but uh if i populated this with with the five games on the top and five games on the bottom that fills a page if I put more than those 10 games on here and I try to navigate over the c button to page over doesn't work so they're aware of it so really today you could only put 10 of them on this screen and then you know but they're about to fix it so I was talking to the guys over there they're going to fix that soon so I'll give you guys a closer look real quick and you can see the gameplay but I mentioned Donkey Kong yeah I'm playing Donkey Kong on the AtGames cabinet. It's kind of cool. But anyways, I'll bring the camera down here so you can take a closer look, but it's pretty exciting stuff. Okay, so we're directly in front of the cab, and you can see exactly what I was talking about. Donkey Kong, Captain Commando, Moonwalker, Punisher, and X-Men. We're going to start with X-Men, but I just want to let you know that Captain Commando does not work and Donkey Kong although it works has some sound issues So let start with X I didn see anything really particularly wrong with X It seemed to play great And all of these that I tested the controls seem to map 100 I didn't have to do any mapping, although the software does give you a chance to map it. So if you press start and write, it actually lets you map the controls the way you need to. If for some reason something's not mapping, but I haven't run into that issue yet. This main ROM takes a bit longer than some of the other ones to boot but there it is so I'm gonna play Colossus because I like when he goes put the sound up a little bit
4:11
but I didn't see any noticeable issues with this game seems to run seems to run really well I didn't really notice any screen tearing or anything like that it is using the main 2003 core which which is a pretty decent core so most of the time you know it does have its own support so the thing is because right now I'm using main 2003 there are other cores that have a little bit more support so the thing is if this thing ends up supporting multiple cores then you could have you know games that may not work in this core may work in other ones and so that will be nice to be able to have that that choice I haven't messed with other ones to compile them. But I'm going to leave in the description a link to the core that I used here so you guys can just get going. So I'll host it for you on a Dropbox.
5:03
I love that. Okay, so that's X-Men. I want to show you real quick, I believe this is one of the games where the save states do not work. So if I go to the save state, I think it just ends up knocking me out. The scan filters do work, however. So if I do that and go back to the game, the scan line filter is actually on and applied, which you probably can't tell that well from the camera there, but it looks surprisingly good. So I'm going to go and take the scan filter off. I'm going to show you, if I go to save state, it's actually going to knock me out of the game. It's not supported on that game. Anyways, alright, let's go over to Punisher next.
5:39
Punisher is another one of those games, the buttons seem to map no problem for me, which is really cool, so I didn't have any issues with that. Sound emulation seems to be working great on this game too. So I know this one was just released on that, you know, the Marvel cab that 1UP just put out. It's actually a game that I didn't realize that not that many people played, and I actually don't remember playing it in the arcade, but how I got introduced to this game was it was on a Pandora's box, one of those two-stick Pandora's boxes. I bought one, I don't know,
6:14
maybe three years back or so, and it was on there, and I was like, wow, this game is really cool. It's surprisingly kind of violent, but it is the Punisher, so, you know, what do you expect? But anyway, sound sounds good.
6:28
And if you haven't played this game before, it's a really, really cool side-scroller. A lot of things in the environment are interactive, like you can pick this thing up, this barrel up, and you can throw it at dudes. You can't do anything with the dog, so, but whatever. He's got a special move if you hit both action buttons. He does this little spin kick thing and if you actually holding next to someone he pick them up and do it so kind of cool House will think that like the character sprites are really cool in this game There actually a lot blood Like I said, it's a fairly violent game, but anyway, it plays really well, too So that's two two for two on the games. I think this one lets us do save states. Let's see No, it does not okay. No save states on this one. So this one you don't get that luxury. Let's go over to moonwalker
7:17
I haven't had any problems. The scan lines seem to work on everything. Alright, let's get going. If any of you didn't play this game in the arcade, this is a fun game to check out. It's one of my favorite arcade games of this era, for sure.
7:41
As you know, if you've played it before, the special move is you basically dance people to death. Which is kind of cool. The objective of the game is to save children.
7:51
And if those of you who have watched my channel, you know I just did a collaboration with TechToyTV, and we actually looked at his arcade one-up mod around this game, and it was really good. This one, I think, has some slight audio emulation problems, but it seems okay. There's no screen tearing or anything weird that I'm catching on to. But yeah, again, pretty cool stuff. The second players do work on these too, so if I go over to the second player, you can use the second player too. So far I've seen everything mapped correctly for the games that I have that work and that are tested. So I'm going to break out of this. I don't think this one does save states, but we'll check. Actually, it does. Let's see. I'm going to move around. I'm going to move up here and we'll see if that save state resumes.
8:37
Oh, that's not how you do it. Sorry. You go to save, and then you go to B for load. Yep, put this right back. There's also a rewind function, which is kind of interesting. So if you put the characters there, say you're in a boss and you didn't beat them you can
8:50
Rewind your game. It's pretty neat So if the save state function works usually the rewind function works, too. I'm gonna break out of this one and We'll go to I'll show you captain commando this won't work So if I hit it it'll go to a black screen and I'll just come back so
9:07
There you go and last one is Donkey Kong so like I said Donkey Kong has some audio problems But it does work and it's save state function does work as well you'll notice that the running, the sounds when Mario is running, they don't work.
9:25
And again, I'm still in the early testing phases, so I'm sure over time I'll button things up a little bit. I'm going to actually leave the instructions in the description of how to load the games on, at least from, you'll have to refer back to my first video, because that gave you the instructions of how to do it for Genesis. it's a little bit different but um but fairly the same like i said your mileage will vary though so you're just going to have to keep track of which which games work and which ones don't okay guys so i decided that it'd be easier to show you so basically you take your um your usb stick and you put it in just like you would any other usb stick but what you're going to do here is you're going to navigate to the usb stick and i actually created a test files for the video folder and in that test file for this video I have the box art which is a PNG file so keep in mind you download the box art for whatever game you want yeah it more likely gonna be a JPEG and then you got to convert it to PNG but like I said there a bunch of websites that do that you're gonna need the main core which this is the main 2003 plus core and you're gonna need your game ROM so what you're gonna do is you're gonna go to that same Windows add-on tool and you're gonna launch this up Once it's on you're going to give it a title. So this game is called the Punisher so we're just going to put Punisher here. The box art, because I don't actually have it downloaded, I'm going to do that test box art file just so you see it there. So if I go to here you're going to go to test files for video, that's the folder I named it, and there's my box art. So because it's a PNG file it shows up. I'm actually going to call this Punisher. Well, it's fine. You can call it whatever you want. And then the emulator core. And choose file. And there is my emulator core. So I'm going to actually give you guys a Dropbox link to this just so you don't have to search for it. And plus you'd have to compile it and all that stuff. So here it is. It's all ready to go. Keep in mind, like I said, your mileage will vary with what games are going to be supported. For right now, that's the only core I have to work with. And then the game ROM is going to actually be. Here's the one trick. So you're going to go to game ROM and you're not going to see anything there because this tool defaults to bin files, which would be typically the format you'd find on Sega Genesis titles. So we're going to have to do this drop down and hit any file and now you'll see the Punisher pop up because it's actually a zip file and then you hit open. At this point it's going to allow you to build the package that's compatible with the Back Games Arcade. So you hit build package. Make sure you point this to your USB drive. Now for me, I have to change this file name to Punisher 2 because there already is a Punisher there. I'm just doing it for purposes of this. And then you hit save. And now you'll see it'll build that package onto the USB. Now the games I have showcased in the video, I all know work. I don't know about these other ones. So that's it guys. It's that simple. You can then once the package is built, take this thing out and stick it right in your USB slot on your AtGames Arcade. Okay, we'll go back to the regular video now. Some of the ones don't.
12:37
That was lame. I'm trying to play it through the camera, so there's a little bit of delay through the camera, so it doesn't work that well. Anyway, so that's what I wanted to show you guys for today. I wanted to show you that MAME absolutely works. Obviously, it's early days for this, and it's all done via the USB stick. So I don't know if they're going to change that in the future, but that's how you do it right now. and the only core that I've used and tested is the MAME 2003 core. So, with that said, guys, I hope you enjoyed this. If you did, please consider liking the video and subscribing to the channel. Turn on notifications so you can be informed of future updates. And, guys, thanks for watching. I want to hear your comments, so please put them below. We'll see you on the next one. Take care, everybody.
13:32
Outro Music