Your GF was doing that really doesn't change what's going on today. Back in 90's I was able to download FULL mame without writing and begging on strange forums to find out what's needed for the particular game. It is a gatekeeping community and hard to play mame games today. I bet your GF cannot download a single game by googling today and can start to play from scratch within 1 hour after downloading mame. Or not even the same day. It takes time to find these things today.