It’s a bit late for Christmas, but MAME 0.193 is ready today. First of all, let’s get the disclaimers out of the way. We’ve switched to GCC 7 for Windows binaries, and started requiring SSE 2 (Pentium 4, Opteron, Athlon 64, or equivalent) for 32-bit Windows binaries. In the unlikely event that either of these changes causes issues for your use case, you’ll have to build from source. There’s currently an issue with overlay artwork not being displayed when using bgfx video output. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to address this in time for the release. As a workaround, we recommend using Direct3D or OpenGL video output for systems that use overlay artwork (this includes many handheld/tabletop games, Space Invaders, and the Vectrex console). You can track progress on this issue at MAME Testers.

And now, the stuff you’ve all been waiting for: the highlights. We’ve added support for a whole lot of Tiger handhelds based on licensed IP in this release, including the unmissable MC Hammer, Batman Forever, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Robocop 2. We’ve also added some of Tiger’s handheld renditions of popular games from other platforms, like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II, Battletoads, and Space Harrier II. On the arcade side, newly working games include prototypes Calcune and In Your Face, a location test version of Teki Paki, PGM2 titles Oriental Legend 2 and Knights of Valour 2 New Legend, and a number of beatmania IIDX titles.

Computer fans don’t need to feel left out this Christmas, either. The Agat-7 floppy drive emulation has been improved to the point where it’s considered working, and the internal HP-9845 printer is now supported. If you’re at all interested in the FM Towns, you need to give this release a try, as r09 has made numerous improvements to sprites and scrolling, and greatly improved keyboard behaviour. There are also some big software list updates across a number of systems.

Of course, there are plenty more improvements you can read about in the whatsnew.txt file, and as always, you can get the source or Windows binaries from the download page.