Ipodmame brings Pac-Man to the iPod

Love it or hate it, you've got to admit that the iPod would certainly be a lot more fun if you could play Pac-Man on it. And now, thanks to the ipodMame project, you can. A subset of the iPodLinux project, iPodMame aims to bring the MAME game emulator to iPods, allowing owners to play classic games on their audio players. Currently, the emulator is confirmed to be able to run Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man on the nano and iPod with video. Other classic games supported by MAME are also supported, so you should be able to play Pengo and -- yes! -- Joust on your iPod.

[Steve Jobs @ Mar 8th 2006 11:50AM]

But the battery only lasts 20 minutes. Who cares.

[Joe Smith @ Mar 8th 2006 11:51AM]

woooooooooooooohooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Poringo @ Mar 8th 2006 11:53AM]

yay! i don�t really like the games included in the nano, so i�m gonna look for it and hope i don�t render my nano useless in the process...

[Tom @ Mar 8th 2006 11:56AM]

But surely a version of The Tempest would be a better use of the scroll wheel?

[marisa @ Mar 15th 2007 9:48PM]

like y do we have to pay for ipod nano games y can't we just download rhe into our ipods like so much easier.

[ChillyWilly @ Mar 8th 2006 12:15PM]

pengo was a cool games. I have it on my N-Gage via MAME

While i never plan to load Linux on my iPod, I still think this is a cool project.

[Gavin Wjhite @ Mar 8th 2006 12:24PM]

Will it be able to play Chuckie Egg? - Now that was a game and a half!

[Gman @ Mar 8th 2006 12:37PM]

http://www.umlautllama.com/gallery/ipl/IMG_0623

Think of how awesome would Tempest be if you could use the scroll wheel to control!

[Dito @ Mar 8th 2006 12:42PM]

i'm curious what exactly the control setup is for these games on the nano, i'm trying to imagine using the slide wheel to control Pacman or Joust and not coming up with great schemes

[PodMonkeys @ Mar 8th 2006 12:47PM]

I've gotta try this again. My last ipollinux attempt didn't go over so well.

[PDubNYC @ Mar 8th 2006 12:50PM]

#7, umm, for PacMan, how about Up, Down, Left and Right clicks? Revolutionary! For Joust I see a whole lot of repeated button pushing, with periodic direction changes. Personally, I see playing Joust putting more wear and tear on my iPod than seems worth the fun. wow, nice grammar huh? well you get what i mean.

[BDC @ Mar 8th 2006 12:59PM]

Gman,

Tempest IS cool on my Mac with MacMAME and the Griffin PowerMate

[TZK @ Mar 8th 2006 1:00PM]

How difficult is it to install ipodlinux on the nano? Anyone around here have experience?

That might be a nice "how-to" hands on for ENgadget :) Show us how its done every step of the way! Yay :-P

Kind of like mythbusters, but, sure it works.. haha.

[Galls @ Mar 8th 2006 1:27PM]

Uhhhh, rockbox.org I have pac man and super mario bros and joust and lemmings on my iriver h120 becasue rockbox has a GB emulator.

And that is out for ipod as well.

[Timbuck @ Mar 8th 2006 1:50PM]

Yeah Rockbox is awesome. Gameboy emulator, gapless playback, highly customizable while playing screen, replaygain, pretty much every codec except wma, the list goes on... Can't wait to get a Nano to go with my Rockbox'd H320. Would have never bought one otherwise.

[Zilla @ Mar 8th 2006 2:41PM]

If only it had potman:

http://www.weedcollege.com/potman/

[Aaron @ Mar 8th 2006 3:24PM]

That looks like fun. I know it's mainly for music, but the games that come with the iPod are a little dull.

Can someone tell me why people keep complaining about the battery? I've owned two iPods so far, and they've both had very reasonable battery life. I watched a two hour movie on it once and then tried to use the rest of the battery up by listening to music, and I actually got tired of the music long before the battery gave out.

[r3p1v @ Mar 8th 2006 3:46PM]

Thanks for the crediting me on the tip guys, I appriciate it ;)

[Kos @ Mar 8th 2006 3:49PM]

More like iPac-Man or Mac-Man...

[ElCapitanAmerica @ Mar 8th 2006 10:21PM]

Does it play the original sounds or is it soundless?

[Flashman @ Mar 9th 2006 3:29AM]

Here's a photo of it running on my 5G iPod, in full resolution:

http://www.electronsoup.net/?q=node/271

[Curious George @ Mar 9th 2006 2:20PM]

#1 is right-it seems like the battery would run out so fast, it wouldn't be any fun! My battery only lasts a long time if I just put it on shuffle and stop messing with it. If I *dare* to play around and look through my music, it only lasts like an hour.

[Smarty Pants @ Mar 12th 2006 11:43AM]

I am with ChillyWilly.I would not put that stuff on my iPod.If it tears up you could not sew because MAME is an illeagle document.If you did sew you would get a fine because you downloaded MAME.I think it is a cool project... but not enough to sew and get a fine or have to pay 200-350 dollars on a new iPod.

[Clayton @ Apr 4th 2006 7:06PM]

24: Dont be ignorant. Please.

It is "sue" not "sew" in this context.

Also, MAME is not illegal at all. Nor is it really a document.

If you have any questions, please just google MAME. It really is not illegal in any sense, so please don't write like a 12 year old.

[Daviel @ Apr 18th 2006 4:05PM]

Ummm.... is there ANYTHING like this for the Creative Zen Micro Photo??????? If so, please tell (give link).

[hilary @ Nov 17th 2006 9:17PM]

does anyone know how to get FREE games like pacman and such on my nano..? :o) thanks much

[Alex @ May 6th 2007 10:19AM]

I wrote a little blurb about the development of ipodmame, if anyone is interested.

http://www.martini-design.com/blog/ipodmame-the-story-behind-the-c-code/

[melly @ Jun 11th 2007 5:07PM]

hey um can y ou play and games on the ipod nano 4gb...cuz its only second generation but like they just came out so they are fairly new i have the pink 4gb nano please if someone knows...by the way wooot go pacman!