Apple's new hobby is being tailed by other hobbies, and the iPhone might be more the gaming platform than Apple would have originally conceptualized. A search at Google Code, a project site not very different from SourceForge, revealed a project entitled "iphone-sdl-mame," which was created to port SDL MAME to the iPhone.

 

MAME, or Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, provides a machine the capability of emulating arcade game hardware using just software. It has been ported to several platforms already, be it proprietary or open platforms. Personal computers are a favorite target platform, but even consoles have had their share of MAME ports.

But now, it appears even the multi-capable iPhone will get to emulate arcade games, although issues of control interfacing and performance will undoubtedly come to mind. Not to worry, however: the project hasn't touched that stage yet, and the MAME prototype is still 'coming out of its shell' - in a manner of speaking.

As of press time, only kasiersoze staffs the project. Here's to hoping other MAME encoders appear from the Internet undergrowth and lend a helping hand.