Yet Another Newbie Question

[Andrew McVinnie]

Hello all,

Hope you had a nice 4th o' July.

I have been downloading a few things, and I've noticed that files with 
i386 in the file name never seem to install, having broken dependancies. 
 Is this because the app was compiled on a Intel machine?  

If so, how does one complie the source code manually ?

I ask becuase I would like to use XMAME for playing arcade games, but 
there are only i386 downloads, however there are source code files 
available.

Thanks
Andrew McVinnie