Worlds Away From Everyday
Worlds Away From Everyday
Games for PalmOS Handhelds and Tapwave Zodiac
PalmMAME allows the arcade classic games to be emulated on any PalmOS5 device.

System Requirements

  • A PalmOS 5.x handheld computer
  • SD card
  • at LEAST 9M of free RAM

On PalmOS devices with low dynamic RAM the Unlimited Dynamic Memory Hack utility may be required as well. This utility allows storage memory to be used as dynamic heap memory.
PalmMame
PalmMAME 021
  • Now based on MAME 0.37b5.
  • Fixed startup crash for 700p.
  • Added more games.
  • Hiscores now saved (need hiscore.dat in your palmmame directory.
  • Use only sound option HI on new Treos.

Available StatusBar Skins (click to download)
Download PalmMAME source

Installing

The loader "PalmMAMELoader.prc" can either be put on SD card, or in regular memory. The modules can MUST be put on SD card in the directory /palm/programs/palmmame using a card reader they can not be hotsynced onto the card. Roms are NOT provided with PalmMAME, you must find them yourself and they MUST be in MAME 0.36 format. All roms must go on SD card in directory /palm/programs/palmmame/roms and they can remain zipped. Sound samples and artwork is supported! Images for the Status Bar must go on SD card at /palm/programs/palmmame/StatBar/

Summary of directory structure

  1. Modules: /palm/programs/palmmame/
  2. Roms: /palm/programs/palmmame/roms/
  3. Samples: /palm/programs/palmmame/samples/
  4. StatusBar: /palm/programs/palmmame/StatBar/
  5. Background: /palm/programs/palmmame/data
  6. Artwork: /palm/programs/palmmame/artwork

Artwork includes backdrops for a few games. Download supported artwork. Make sure you unzip the contents of artwork.zip and put the individual zip files in the artwork directory.

Playing

The PalmMAME launcher is called PMAME. Launch that and it will search for modules on your SD card and build up a list of supported games. If modules are found you will be presented with a list of games in red and green. Red roms are not found, green roms are ready to play, but first: Set up your controls. To do this drop down the application menu and choose Key Config. Set up your keys, only standard Palm hard keys will work. This means Treo keyboards are not fully functional yet. If you get get a number to appear in the key config then your key works. Once you are done go launch a game.

Top Three Frequently Asked Questions

Q: The screen says type OK to continue. How do I do that?

A: Left then Right will bypass this screen. Use whatever buttons you configured to left and right.

Q: Why did my game go straight back to the launcher?

A: Your romset is not found or is invalid. Remember ROM files MUST be in 0.36 format. If it works on the PC version of MAME 0.36 then it will work in PalmMAME.

Q. So what are those two boxes on the loader screen with numbers?

A. They allow you to underclock the emulated cpus. You see when you emulate a game like say PacMan, the emulated cpu is doing all the work the original would be -- and that includes sitting there idle waiting for the next piece of work to do! So the idea is to lower it so that the emulated chip is working harder and we end up with a faster game. Most games work fine with both CPU and Audio chips at 80% Some games work great even much lower. You will have to experiment to see what works fastest. Short Answer: Set them to 80 each to speed up the games!

Help!

PalmMAME (and the original MAME) are both complicated programs. For detailed instructions or help visit the forums. There are plenty of people willing to help there.
Links