2Player Management
Many people save space by making their MAME cabinets with only enough controls for two players. But there are many 3-player and 4-player games which can be utilized on such a system, either by changing a software setting, using a mame rom clone, or by simply ignoring the extra player features. The following is a list of games that can be utilized in such a way.
Note: All these games are current as of MAME version .142. Future versions may change clone names, add in new options, etc.
No changes needed
Some 3P/4P -capable games default in their dip switch / service menu settings to 2-player mode. These games require no changes to work as intended, and are only included here as they are listed in data files (such as nplayers.ini or controls.ini) as having more than two players, and therefore may come up in, say, a RomLister search.
- 2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge
Dip switches
The Dip Switches menu in mame represents physical toggle switches in a real arcade cabinet, which the owner could gain access to by opening a panel. To change dip switch settings, simply hit Tab in MAME, and use the arrow keys to navigate to the Dip Switches menu.
The following games can be put in a two-player mode by using this menu:
- B. Rap Boys
- Blazing Tornado (must choose 'vs.' mode or 'team' mode)
- Bomber Man World
- Bucky O'Hare
- Crypt Killer
- Desert Breaker
- Dynablaster / Bomber Man
- Grudge Match
- Hit the Ice
- King of Dragons, The
- Knights of the Round
- Mercs (Also need to set coin chutes to 1)
- Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
- NBA Jam
- NBA Jam TE
- NFL Blitz '99
- NFL Blitz 2000 Gold Edition
- Paddle Mania (Set 'match type' to 'A to C')
- Revolution X
- Rim Rockin' Basketball
- Snow Bros. 2
- Stone Ball
- Super High Impact
- Super Slam
- Trog
- Turbo Force
- U.S. Championship V'ball
- Warlords
- Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa
- WWF WrestleFest
Service Menu
The Service Menu can be accessed by hitting the F2 key in most games. (Some newer games require you to hold F2 for several seconds.) This brings up the game's configuration screen, where game options can be changed, as well as performing input and output calibrations.
The following games can be put in a two-player mode by using this menu:
- Arabian Fight
- Armored Warriors
- Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
- Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom
- Dunk Mania
- Gauntlet Legends
- Gauntlet Dark Legacy
- Knuckle Heads
- Muscle Bomber Duo
- Numan Athletics
- Ring Rage
- Saturday Night Slam Masters
- Spider-Man: The Videogame
- Super World Court
- Warriors of Fate
- Wayne Gretzky's 3d Hockey
- World Beach Volley
2-player Clones
If no Dip Switch or Service Menu changes enable a 2-player mode, your next recourse is use a clone of the game that is a 2-player version. Remember that for the game to work, you'll need roms for both the parent and the desired clone.
| Game | 2-player clone | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| All American Football | aafbd2p | |
| Crime Fighters | crimfght2 | |
| Cyberball | cyberbal2p | |
| D. D. Crew | ddcrew2 | |
| Gauntlet | gauntlet2p | |
| Gauntlet II | gaunt22p | |
| Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road Trackpack | offrdtp2 | |
| Main Event, The | mainevt2p | |
| Punk Shot | punkshot2 | |
| Quartet | quartet2 | Parent has unemulated protection, so a clone would be needed anyway. |
| Simpsons, The | simpsons2p | |
| Sunset Riders | ssridersubc | |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | tmnt2po | Using the Oceanic version instead of the UK version because the UK version substitute the word 'hero' instead of 'ninja'. |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtles in Time | tmnt22pu | |
| Vendetta | vendetta2p | |
| X-Men | xmen2pa |
No Other Options
Sadly, there are a few games that have no decent 2-player. Most of these are 3-player games with no 2-player cabinet versions built. For these, you can only ignore the third player's GUI and play as normal. This will also usually mean that if there are multiple 'characters' that the cabinet will assign one per control set, and not let you pick it yourself, as with 2-player cabinets. So if, for example, you want to play the Wolf-monster in Rampage, you will need to remap some controls and decide which of the other two monsters you don't want to play as.
- Alien Storm
- Beast Busters
- Bishi Bashi Campionship Mini Game Senshuken
- Brute Force
- Car Polo
- Checkmate
- Danny Sullivan's Indy Head
- Dunk Shot
- Embargo
- Escape Kids
- Gain Ground
- Got-cha Mini Game Festival
- Hard Yardage
- High Impact Football
- Hoops '96
- Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road
- John Elway's Team Quarterback
- Judge Dredd
- Laser Ghost
- Oriental Legend
- Pig Out
- Pit Fighter
- Power Drive
- Rampage
- Rampage: World Tour
- Rampart
- Star Guards
- Super Sprint
- Tecmo Bowl
- Three Stooges in Brides Is Brides, The
- World Soccer Finals
- Xenophobe
