Re:MAME is now Free and Open Source Software
by ZenoArrow on Friday March 04, 2016 @05:39PM
(#11227337)
It's also worth noting that the main goal with the MAME project is preservation, which means that the focus is on the accuracy of emulation rather than the speed of emulation. There are other arcade emulators that offer faster emulation speeds for the games they support, such as Final Burn Alpha for Capcom and NeoGeo arcade games.
In particular, some of the 3dfx emulating machines etc are absolutely brutal on the CPU for emulation
But beyond that, a commercial MAME cabinet would require ROMs. People have built unofficial cabinets of questionable legality incorporating a pile of ROMs, but a commercial cabinet would require actually licensing specific games.