Welcome to 2019 – we’re starting the year with a bang! MAME 0.206 is an absolutely huge update when it comes to new dumps and newly working software, especially when it comes to TV games. As far as we know, MAME is the first V.Smile emulator with working controls and the most compatible, with almost all dumped titles fully playable for one player (the second joystick isn’t working yet). A number of JAKKS Pacific games based on similar technology are also working in this release. And from Japan, you can now play the Popira and Dance Dance Revolution Family Mat rhythm games, as well as Super Dash Ball. The Namco Nostalgia and Taito Nostalgia games are now playable, too. Game & Watch coverage is steadily expanding, with Black Jack, Lifeboat, Manhole (new wide screen), and Rain Shower added in this release. Black Jack is particularly notable as it hasn’t seen re-issue or emulation before now.
On the arcade side, San Francisco Rush 2049 and its Special Edition have been promoted to working, and we’ve added alternate versions and bootlegs of several supported games. Heihachi_73 has tested the Aristocrat Mk V slot machines, and dozens have been promoted to working. If you enjoy spinning the wheels, why not give some a try?
If you’re aware of the effort to preserve original Apple II software in the new low-level WOZ disk image format, it should come as no surprise that MAME is on board. We’ve started documenting these dumps in a software list, and we’ll continue to add dumps as they become available. If you’re a fan of Acorn computers, you might want to try some of the newly supported BBC Micro ROM slot expansions, including banked ROM devices, RAM expansions, and real-time clocks. A few additional Electron expansion devices have been added, too.
Of course, these are just selected highlights, and there are plenty more bug fixes and emulation improvements in this release. There are also some incremental improvements to MAME’s system and software selection menus. You can read about everything we’ve been working on in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and Windows binary packages from the download page.