Welcome to The Official Site of the MAME Development Team

As lunar new year draws near and we approach a quarter of a century since Nicola Salmoria released MAME to the public, it’s time for MAME 0.240 – the first release of the 2022 calendar year. Wait, what was that? A quarter of a century? Yes, on 5 February, it will be twenty-five years since MAME 0.1 was released, supporting just five Z80-based games. MAME is coming up to its silver jubilee! And what a long way we’ve come…

This month, we’ve added support for dozens more versions of the Igrosoft five-reel slot machines. But buried in there are the remaining versions of Nintendo Game & Watch series games (rare versions of Helmet, Judge and Mario’s Cement Factory), two more Elektronika games based on Nintendo programs, a German version of Exidy’s Mouse Trap, and the incredibly rare Mahjong Block Jongbou 2 from SNK.

In the software lists, there are a whole pile of recently dumped prototypes of console games, and some homebrew titles for the Bandai RX-78. That’s on top of the steady stream of Apple II floppies, Commodore 64 cassettes, FM Towns CDs, and newly supported NES and Famicom cartridges. Building on the work last month, the CD-i has received a few more fixes that improve performance and add support for more discs.

You can read about everything we’ve been busy with all month in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

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Did you think we’d let 2021 finish without a parting MAME release? MAME 0.239 is here, just in time for the new year. This release includes a fix for many subtle and not-so-subtle sound and music timing issues in games using Yamaha FM synthesis chips. The frame rate for Gaelco games has been adjusted to satisfy some wily protection checks, fixing crashes when continuing in Thunder Hoop and graphical issues in Squash. A big update for Philips CD-i emulation just made it in for this release, greatly improving the experience in a lot of games. Nintendo Famicom Disk System emulation has also seen some improvements this month.

This release is packed with even more Soviet re-skins of the Game & Watch Egg program, the latest Apple II dumps and cracks, another batch of Commodore 64 cassettes, and more exotic NES and Famicom cartridges. Milan Galcik, who’s been busy with the Elektronika hand-held games, has also completed a Slovak UI translation and updated the neglected Czech translation. Both genuine and cloned Apple II systems have had emulation updates this month, with a number of unique VTech Laser and Franklin ACE features now supported, and performance improvements for the Apple IIgs.

Of course, there’s lots more than we have time to talk about here, and you can read all about it in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

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You know what time it is? It’s time for MAME 0.238, our November release! After many years of waiting, the rare space shooter Monster Zero from Nihon Game is now playable. Despite the title, this game does not feature a three-headed space dragon. This release adds support for Fowling and Monkey Goalkeeper, two more Elektronika hand-held games built around the Egg/Mickey Mouse Game & Watch program.

There are a few changes to MAME’s UI and the debugger this month. Firstly, MAME is now less eager to reset your input configuration if you run it without connecting a game controller. Analog inputs support a few more configuration options, and we’ve added some (long overdue) documentation for the input configuration process. The timecode logging feature (used by people making gameplay videos) has been moved to a plugin, and debugger memory views now support octal data display, and octal or decimal address display.

Support for several Famicom controllers has been added or fixed this month, including the IGS Tap-tap Mat, Bandai Family Trainer, Bandai Power Pad, Bandai Hyper Shot, Konami Doremikko Piano Keyboard, and Konami Exciting Boxing air bag. Also involving peripheral support, the Acorn Archimedes drivers now support podule expansions, the Econet module slot, serial/parallel ports, and extension ROM sockets.

You can read about all the development activity this month in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

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For everyone who’s waited patiently all month, MAME 0.237 is out today! As well as the updates to the UI and debugger that we’ve already announced, there are several updates to the included plugins:

• A brand-new input macro plugin.
• The data plugin can now show text from the Japanese command.dat file (or a Chinese command.txt file if you rename it to command.dat).
• The location the hiscore support plugin uses to store its data and configuration has changed. You won’t lose your high scores, but you need to move the .hi files from the hi folder to the hiscore folder in your plugin data (homepath) folder.
• The configuration format for the autofire plugin has changed. Unfortunately, you will need to add your autofire button settings again.

Interesting machines added this month include a Mexican TRS-80 Color Computer clone, Tronica Thunder Ball (a re-skin of Space Rescue with a nautical theme), the original version of Pengo that the widespread bootlegs seem to be based on, the original hardware revision of the Laser 128 (Apple II clone), and a slightly older version of Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha for Asia.

Master of multi-memory controllers kmg is still on a roll broadening NES/Famicom and clone cartridge compatibility. Highlights of the month include:

• Railway management simulator A Ressha de Ikou.
• Recent NES/Famicom games released by Ancient to promote Gotta Protectors (Minna de Mamotte Knight). NES development is still alive over two decades after the last licensed title was released in 1995.
• The two Korean Brilliant Com (영재컴) edutainment games.
• Some multi-game cartridges featuring the ambitious Titenic game, inspired by a highly successful James Cameron film.
• Kart Fighter – using the engine from an unlicensed NES port of Street Fighter II, and unlicensed depictions of the character roster from Super Mario Kart, this is almost a premonition of Super Smash Bros. It even features Yoshi’s tail smash, and depicts Kinopio (Toad) as a bare-knuckle brawler long before the Mii costume was available for purchase.
• Well-known low-effort Mario-themed hack 7 Grand Dad. PUSH ↑ START BUTTON. GET ADDITION GAME. AND NOURISH THE BLOOD

Amiga software compatibility has been improved this month, the NEC PC-6001 family has gained a cartridge software list, and another batch of Commodore 64 cassettes has been added. An issue was identified with “fake E7” Apple II cracks that could prevent them from working if they were written out to disks to use on original hardware. Although this didn’t prevent them from being used in MAME, disk images with the issue fixed have been added to the software list. Over a hundred Apple IIgs cracks have been added, too.

You can read about all the exciting developments this month in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

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We’re well on our way through the current development cycle, and MAME 0.237 is going to have some significant changes, not just in terms of emulation, but in the user interface and debugger. Don’t worry, no functionality has been removed. In fact, we’ve added several features. It just might take a little while to adjust to the differences.

First of all, we’ve added support for localised system name files, as used by front-ends like Retrofire, MxUI and MAME Plus! Popular files include mame32j.lst (Japanese) and mame_cn.lst (Chinese). You’ll be able to put your preferred system name file in the DATs (or “history”) folder, and select it in MAME’s UI customisation settings menu. UI localisation support is more complete, and MAME 0.237 will include high-quality Chinese and Greek translations, thanks to YuiFAN and BraiNKilleRGR.

Mouse/trackball navigation has been improved (you can even click DIP switches to toggle them), and the system and software selection menus have been tweaked to include more information and make better use of space.

Lots of debugger commands have been enhanced to work better with newer memory system features. We’ve also updated and expanded the debugger documentation, both on our web site and for the built-in help command.

If you’re compiling MAME yourself, Python 2.7 will no longer be supported: compiling MAME now requires Python 3.2 or later (this won’t affect you if you just use MAME, Python isn’t required to run MAME). Most operating systems have included Python 3 for years, and our MSYS64/MinGW build tools for Windows already include Python 3.8 – as long as you have a python3 command, you should be good to go.

Read on for a more complete list of changes.

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The big event of the day is here! MAME 0.236 is ready for your enjoyment! Sadly, this month marked the passing of Sir Clive Sinclair, who it could be argued did more to put computers into the hands of everyday people than anyone. There’s a small update to MAME’s ZX Spectrum software list in this release.

The effort to dump and preserve protection microcontrollers is still going well. This month’s additions include Juuouki and Wonder Planet. Protection simulation has been removed for Wonder Planet and Space Harrier. Remember, this is a worthy cause that provides multiple benefits: it improves accuracy by taking guesses out of emulation, helps people maintain and repair ageing arcade boards, and simplifies MAME’s code.

MAME’s NEC PC-8001 now supports floppy disks. The PC-8001 and PC-8801 software lists have been reorganised to match, and a big batch of items from the Neo Kobe collection have been added. MAME continues to improve its NES/Famicom cartridge coverage. There are a whole lot of games you can play now, including Chinese RPGs, fighting game bootlegs, and pirate multi-game cartridges. Experience a parallel universe of software of such inconsistent quality that you can’t stop going down the rabbit hole! Saturn emulation has seen a few improvements, with several games that didn’t boot previously reaching playable status this month.

As you might expect, the FM Towns, PC-98 and V.Smile software lists have been updated as usual. A couple of recently dumped prototypes have been added to the SNES and Game Boy software lists. The SpongeBob SquarePants Jellyfish Dodge game has been dumped and emulated, and a Korean version of Sotsugyo Shousho known as Jor-eop Jeungmyeongseo has been found. More pleasant surprises include working emulation for the IDE protection dongle included in Killer Instinct 2 upgrade kit, and some fixes for Atari 8-bit home computers using the ANTIC video chip.

For people with more exotic tastes, MAME has added its oldest working software list additions: Munching Squares and Punchy for the MIT TX-0. There’s also a new disassembler for the DEC VAX architecture. In more mundane news, you can now reduce the proliferation of duplicate ROM sets for families of similar keyboards and other devices.

Of course, there’s lots more going on, and you can read all about it in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

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What’s in store with MAME 0.235? First of all, the lost unencrypted version of Rafflesia has resurfaced, ending a long saga! A genuine copy of Bubble Buster, an early North American version of Puzzle Bobble, has been found, and a prototype of Tecfri’s Sauro known as Sea Wolf has been dumped. This release includes an update to BGFX and fixes for the long-standing issues with YUV decoding, so LaserDisc games can be played with BGFX shaders.

Konami Viper emulation now has sound support thanks to Windy Fairy, and a big batch of unlicensed multi-game cartridges for NES/Famicom are now playable. As usual, the Apple II, FM Towns and PC-98 software lists have been updated with the latest dumps.

You can find out about all the updates in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

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