If you are like me, you grew up on classic arcade video games like Shinobi, AfterBurner, Space Harrier, etc. You may have thought there would never be a chance to return to these old classics outside of usually poorly-done home system translations. Fortunately, there is a way to play these classics without spending thousands of dollars on bulky arcade equipment.

The Mulitple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) is software that does exactly what its name suggests: emulate an impressive number of classic arcade machines. The software is available for both PC and Macs (though the Mac version has not yet been updated for Intel-based Macs, so may run a bit slowly on these machines). To play a specific game, you will need to download the “ROM” for that game, and a large number are available at ROM World, along with links to even more emulators.

Tip: if you experience “tearing” (visual artifacts that cause distortion of the screen) on the Windows version, try running running MAME with the -waitvsync option on.