January 16, 2026
Arcade archeology meets comment chaos
Bringing the Predators to Life in MAME
Fans resurrect a lost arcade—then fight over builds, links, and titles
TLDR: A fan tried to revive the lost arcade game “The Predators” in MAME, sparking cheers and groans over old builds, MediaFire file drops, and missing gameplay details. The community debates preservation vs. practicality, proving that saving arcade history is epic—and messy.
A holiday hacker tried to revive a long-lost Williams arcade game called “The Predators” inside MAME—the fan-made emulator that lets old cabinets live again—only to discover that building ancient versions is like wrestling a grumpy time machine. The crowd applauded the passion, but the mood turned spicy fast: one commenter cheered the persistence while warning that old MAME runs are a pain, especially when chasing replays from the Donkey Kong gods. Another side-eye’d the file drop on MediaFire, asking why not a proper git repo on Codeberg or GitHub. Meanwhile, newcomers just wanted the tea: what does this mysterious four-player space shooter actually play like? The post, they say, left them hanging.
The community split into camps—nostalgia engineers vs modern platform police—with a bonus round from the grammar patrol debating whether it’s “The Predators” or “the Predators.” One old-school dev shared a wholesome memory of hacking saves for Zelda back in the day, reminding everyone that the retro world is equal parts heart and headache. A helpful voice pointed to Gremlin’s 1981 Eliminator as a playable cousin in MAME, while others memed the vibe: “Predators found, support lost.” The consensus? Preserving arcade history is thrilling—getting there is a chaotic boss fight.
Key Points
- •The author discovered a pull request to identify “The Predators,” a four-player Williams arcade game resembling Sinistar.
- •The game had been added to MAME earlier in the year as an unidentified gambling title by developer Mark Beckford (Osso13).
- •An old C source file claiming to be a MAME driver, previously worked on by Angelo Salese, David Haywood, and Philip Bennett, was provided.
- •Comments indicated the driver targeted a MAME version about 10–15 years old, prompting selection of MAME 0.140 (2010) to build.
- •The author reports challenges building legacy MAME versions due to official support focusing only on the latest release and limited external guidance.