Arcade

Arcades are where video games first met the public. Computer Space came out in 1971 and Pong in 1972, and through the late 1970s and 1980s Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and later Street Fighter II made the arcade the centre of gaming.

Arcade games ran on hundreds of different boards, many made for a single game, so each one has to be dumped and documented before the hardware fails. This section covers arcade machines in general and the later SEGA boards that have their own emulators. SNK’s Neo Geo has its own section.

Arcade Machines Emulators and more ›

MAME, started in 1997, has spent almost three decades preserving arcade machines and now covers tens of thousands of them. FinalBurn Neo focuses on the most popular boards, such as Capcom’s CPS systems and the Neo Geo, and is known for low input lag and good netplay.

SEGA Model 2 Emulators and more ›

SEGA’s Model 2 board, from 1993, ran some of the first great 3D arcade games, including Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2 and The House of the Dead. ElSemi’s Model 2 Emulator plays them on PC.

SEGA Model 3 Emulators and more ›

The Model 3, from 1996, powered Virtua Fighter 3, Scud Race and Daytona USA 2. Supermodel runs most of its games.

SEGA NAOMI & Atomiswave Emulators and more ›

NAOMI, from 1998, was SEGA’s arcade board built on Dreamcast hardware, and it ran games such as Crazy Taxi, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Ikaruga. Sammy’s Atomiswave, from 2003, used similar hardware. Flycast runs both, as well as the Dreamcast.