MAME

We’re happy to announce that MAME 0.270 is ready! A lot of work has gone into a lot of different areas of MAME throughout September. One very interesting addition is the “Zoomer” PDA. Built by Casio and marketed under ... [More] multiple brand names, this PDA ran MS-DOS 3.3, GEOS 2.0 and the PenRight user interface. It was one of the first PDAs to include software developed by Palm Computing. Other exotic systems include the Sony NWS-3270 workstation and 68000 development boards from Marion Systems and Motorola themselves. The Hitachi Basic Master Jr. is now working, giving a glimpse of the Japanese home computer market in the early 1980s. UMC’s attempt at taking on Sega and Nintendo in the mid-1990s, the Super A'Can, is in a much better state than it was previously. Although it still isn’t considered working, numerous issues with graphics and sound have been addressed, and battery-backed cartridge memory is now supported. Several more Apple II input peripherals are now supported. Support for hard-sectored floppy disk formats has been added, which should open up storage options for computers from the S-100 era. The effort to understand the IGS027A CPUs and dump their internal programs is paying off. Over a dozen slots, mahjong and card games from IGS are now playable. If you’re a fan of these games, you can now play them in the comfort of your home with no risk of blowing your paycheque. That’s all we’ve got time to cover here, but you can read all the exciting (and mundane) tales of development in the whatsnew.txt file. As always, you can get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

It’s almost the end of August, which means it must be time for MAME 0.269 to be unleashed on the world! The widely-used Zilog Z8410 DMA controller emulation has had an overhaul this month. In concert with the recent Z80 CPU ... [More] work, this allows more realistic I/O timings for numerous systems. If you’re curious about unreleased prototypes, BASIC is starting to show signs of life on the Commodore 65. Two additional Japanese releases of Capcom fighting games on CPS-2 hardware have been found this month: a more recent version of X-Men Vs. Street Fighter than any previously dumped set, and a version of Hyper Street Fighter II released a bit over a week before the latest known update. The microcontroller for Irem’s Gallop on M72 hardware has been dumped, allowing simulation code to be removed. Thanks to Peter Wilhelmsen and XingXing, the pace of dumping internal ROMs from IGS027A ARM CPUs has picked up, so we might see more progress on IGS games soon. Of course, there’s lots more to enjoy, including an 8085-based prototyping board, more chess computers, and improvements to MAME’s debugger. You can read all about it in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

We’re pleased to announce that MAME 0.268 is available for your enjoyment. This release adds support for Au, an almost forgotten four-way shooter released by Tehkan in 1983. Two IGS redemption games, Fearless Pinocchio and ... [More] Super Kids, are now playable and have working sound. Speaking of IGS, the Super Poker games were also made playable this month. After many years, the last major issues in Merit’s Match’em Up have been resolved. The quiz game Revelations has had its LaserDisc dumped, and the game is now emulated. Several more Apple Macintosh models are now working, including the high-end IIfx, Quadra 900 and Quadra 950, the Macintosh Portable, and the PowerBook 100. Three 68k-based workstations made by Hewlett-Packard in the early 1980s, the HP 9826A, HP 9836A and HP 9836C, have been added in this release. Speaking of Hewlett-Packard, the HP9133 external disk interface is now supported, giving you more storage options for the HP 9000/200 and HP 9000/300 series computers. This release adds the original release of Pop’n Music Animelo 2, the Konami release of Guttang Gottong, and quite a few chess computers. Sanyo’s PHC-20 8-bit home computer and Thaler’s MPS-65 and CT-65 6502 development boards are now supported. Software list updates include a more complete collection of NV Magazine disks for MSX 2 computers and the latest clean cracks of Apple II software on floppy disks. You can read about all the work that went into this release in the whatsnew.txt file. The source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages are available from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

Today’s the day for MAME 0.267, our midyear release. This month, we’ve got a brand new Z80 CPU core. It’s going to help us support more of the extensive family of Z80-like CPUs and also allow more precise control over bus ... [More] timings. Speaking of CPU emulation, there are some nice fixes for long-standing Motorola 68k floating point unit bugs. They’re particularly noticeable in classic Mac applications whenever trigonometry is involved, but they also help some arcade systems. The Tomy Prin-C children’s sticker designer system has come to life this month, with inputs and video output, and enough bug fixes to the Fujitsu F2MC-16 CPU core to get the software running. The printer isn’t emulated, but you can still have fun experimenting with this unique system. If you want something a bit more grown-up, some DMA fixes allow the MIPS-based Sony NEWS workstations to boot the earlier NEWS-OS 4.1R, and there’s a new software list with installation media to get you started. Of course, there are far more improvements in this release than we can list here, but you can read about all the exciting updates in the whatsnew.txt file. The source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages are available from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

MAME 0.266 is ready just in time for the end of May. The first thing you’ll notice is that Taito F3 video emulation has been reimplemented, fixing numerous long-standing graphical issues. The dynamic range compression used by ... [More] several Yamaha synthesisers seems to finally be understood, fixing audible distortion. Speaking of sound, a previously missing Game Boy Advance sound channel is now emulated. Several additional members of Nokia’s MikroMikko 1 line of 8-bit business computers from the 1980s are now supported. In PC emulation, S3 ViRGE video accelerator emulation has been simplified and improved. A couple more cartridge types have been added for MSX home computers. This release also adds plenty of software list items and arcade bootlegs. Lots of code has been cleaned up and modernised, with various bugs fixed along the way. We’ve also added a workaround for the regression in clang 18 that was causing build failures. As always, you can read about all the changes in this release in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

It’s time for our very special MAME 0.265 release! April has seen development across numerous areas. MAME now has support for touch screens on Linux and Windows 8 or later, opening up new possibilities for interactive artwork. ... [More] If you have a suitable multi-touch screen, you can now play chords on systems with on-screen piano keyboards. Check the documentation for specifics on how touch differs from mouse control in menus. You’ll need to turn on the enable_touch option to use touch screen support on Linux. A pair of 1970s portable computers from IBM are now emulated in MAME: the IBM 5100 and IBM 5110. Based on a heavily microcoded 16-bit architecture, these systems ran APL software by emulating a System/360 mainframe and BASIC software by emulating a System/3 business system (ancestors of IBM Z and IBM i, respectively). Prior to the introduction of the IBM 5100, APL was exclusive to large mainframe computers. A self-contained 25 kg system running APL as well as BASIC was revolutionary. You can now plug a virtual Super Game Module into your emulated ColecoVision, adding more RAM and better sound output. Many titles from the vibrant ColecoVision homebrew development community require or make use of the Super Game Module. There’s also a big update to the ColecoVision software lists, including lots of homebrew software to try out. Other software list additions this month include one of the remaining Bandai RX-78 game cartridges, two more GameKing III games, a batch of MSX2 floppy disks, and the latest Apple II floppy disk dumps. Of course, we haven’t stopped working on arcade game emulation. For the first time, you can play Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial Oshiete Your Heart games. These spin-offs of the popular dating simulation series used heart rate and galvanic skin resistance sensors and printed the results from your game. What appears to be an early version of Visco’s Kokontouzai Eto Monogatari drop puzzle game has been found and dumped. This version has much less content in the data ROM and a smaller program. Another rare find dumped this month is a production version of the CES Galaxy Games StarPak 4 multi-game cartridge. Other improvements this month include serial console support for the KIM-1 hobbyist computer and an option to use one binary file per track when extracting CHD CD-ROM images. You can read about everything that happened in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

We’re soon going to start requiring newer versions of some tools and libraries to compile MAME. The oldest versions of tools and libraries we will officially support will be: GCC 10.3 clang 11.0 ... [More] SDL 2.0.14 Qt 5.15 GNU libstdc++ 10.3 LLVM libc++ 11.0 Some older versions of clang, Qt, GNU libstdc++ and LLVM libc++ may continue to work for a while, but no effort will be made to maintain support. The oldest supported tools and libraries are approximately three years old. Examples of environments that provide sufficiently up-to-date tools and libraries include Ubuntu Linux 22.04LTS, Fedora Linux 33 and macOS 11.0 “Big Sur” with Xcode 12.5. [Less]

MAME 0.264 is ready right on time! Before we get to emulation improvements, there are some changes to the debugger that may affect you. The debugger’s printf and logerror commands now support more formatting conversions and ... [More] options, including NUL-terminated strings from emulated memory, hexadecimal numbers with lowercase digits, and left-aligned fields. This may change the behaviour of some debugger scripts. In other general changes, MAME now supports saving compact cassette images in compressed FLAC format, so you can save some disk space. Thanks to new contributor Enzo Lombardi, Dribbling now has emulated sound! This classic twin-stick top-down football game was once a common sight in Italy’s numerous arcades. Sound effects make for a much more authentic experience. Robin Sergeant, another relative newcomer to MAME development, has been putting in a lot of work to improve the state of the Research Machines RM-380Z family, and it’s really coming together. This release adds sound, graphics, 8" disk drives, and more. The very rare arcade game Vampire from Entertainment Enterprises has finally been dumped and emulated. A rare sight in ’80s arcades, it wasn’t known for being a great game. In a way, this makes it more interesting, as we’re more often reminded of successful games and more likely to forget the failures. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can use the newly emulated Visual Technology XDS-19P as a graphical terminal for a modern Linux system running X11 applications. It requires setting up BootP and TFTP servers, as well as configuring the host system so it can connect, so be prepared for a challenge if you decide to try it out. Of course, there’s much more, including working controls for Tomy Plarail and Tomica TV games, fixes for audio CD playback, and dumps of the few remaining EC series Japanese e-kara cartridges. You can read all about it in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

Are you all ready for MAME 0.263? This release has some big changes that are going to affect everyone: several default UI control assignments have changed, including pause and save/load state. The changes will hopefully make ... [More] life easier for people emulating computers. After updating, please check the User Interface input assignments and make any changes necessary for your setup. We’ve fixed some long-standing bugs this month. Issues affecting large hard disk images (tens of gigabytes) have been fixed, and chdman will now report more invalid combinations of options rather than just producing invalid output files. Crashes or hangs when emulating systems that use discrete sound circuitry simulation on multi-core ARM systems should be fixed, as well as occasional bad sound output from the discrete circuitry simulation. Thanks to recent work reverse-engineering the K052591 chip, this release features improved protection simulation for Hexion, S.P.Y. and Thunder Cross. Newly supported systems include a few computers from the former Yugoslavia, two more Tiger LCD games, and several more chess computers. The ROMs for the unreleased Deluxe Color Computer have been dumped recently, allowing emulation to be completed, and there’s a big update for the Apple II software lists this month. As always, the whatsnew.txt file tells you about everything that’s changed in this release, and you can get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]

After two long months, we’re back with MAME 0.262! Of course, it’s full of exciting work on multiple fronts. In core media support, MAME now supports FLAC compression for compact cassette images, and Zstandard compression in ... [More] zip archives and CHD disk images. For maximum compatibility, chdman won’t use Zstandard compression by default, so you’ll need to enable it if you want to use it when creating or converting disk images. For your convenience, unidasm now allows you to specify offsets in hexadecimal or octal. Three LaserDisc games designed by Rick Dyer are now working: the Japanese version of Time Traveler, the console-to-arcade conversion Thayer’s Quest, and Don Bluth’s Dragon’s Lair. It’s very exciting to see multiple LaserDisc captures combined to eliminate all dropouts from disc degradation and pressing faults for Dragon’s Lair and Thayer’s Quest. Following up on work in the previous release, MAME now supports Sega’s TV Ocha-Ken system, based on the same technology as the Advanced Pico BEENA. It’s a far simpler system designed for young children, using barcode cards to trigger mini-games. Also from Sega, initial support for the AI computer has been added. No, this isn’t related to the current artificial intelligence craze; it’s a rather obscure system from 1986 featuring a pen tablet and using cartridge and compact cassette media. Two more Casio Phase Distortion synthesisers have been added: the CZ-230S keyboard and the rare SZ-1 sequencer. The CZ-2230S lacked sound editing features but added a programmable drum machine (using PCM samples) and sequencer. Also in synthesiser emulation, MAME’s Wave Blaster host driver now supports multiple synthesiser modules from Casio, Samsung, and Yamaha. In other musical news, the original version of the very obscure Shamisen Brothers rhythm game from Kato’s has now been fully dumped and emulated. The microcontroller program for Taito’s KiKi KaiKai was recently extracted. This contains a substantial amount of game logic, allowing the simulation code previously used by MAME to be retired and giving more confidence that the emulation is accurate. Improvements to our Fujitsu MB8841 emulation have fixed persistent issues in Arabian from Sun Electronics. HT1130 microcontrollers are now supported, allowing cheap hand-held “brick games” to be emulated, albeit without sound for now. This is a big release for chess computer emulation. There are lots of newly supported chess computers from the brands you love, like Hegener + Glaser, Novag, and Saitek, as well as more versions of systems that were already supported. There were also a couple of backgammon computers added, from Saitek and Tryom. There’s inevitably far more than we have time to talk about here, including an Arabic version of the Mattel Aquarius, an 8" floppy drive controller for the Apple II family, numerous Aristocrat Leisure gambling systems promoted to working, some big software list updates, and lots of code modernised. You can read about all the two months of development in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page. Read the rest of this entry » [Less]