MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. MAME's purpose is to preserve decades of software history. As electronic technology continues to rush forward, MAME prevents this important "vintage" software from being lost and forgotten. This is achieved by documenting the hardware and how it functions. The source code to MAME serves as this documentation. The fact that the software is usable serves primarily to validate the accuracy of the documentation (how else can you prove that you have recreated the hardware faithfully?).

Over time, MAME (originally stood for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) absorbed the sister-project MESS (Multi Emulator Super System), so MAME now documents a wide variety of (mostly vintage) computers, video game consoles and calculators, in addition to the arcade video games that were its initial focus.

What's New

After two long months, MAME 0.278 is finally ready. Of course, the big news is that the new sound system has arrived! The benefits it brings include:

  • Native WASAPI support on Windows and PipeWire support on Linux.
  • Support for sound input for emulated systems that have microphones or other audio capture hardware.
  • Support for multi-channel input and output.
  • Built-in effects, including a parametric equaliser and dynamic range compressor.
  • Better quality sample rate conversion and mixing, and lower latency.

As this is the first release of a major new component, it's going to be rough around the edges in some ways. But we're already thinking about some of the ways we can improve it further over the coming months.

We've been busy with the sound system, but we haven't stopped working on emulation. There are some nice fixes for graphical issues in 3D systems, including Sega Model 2 and Taito Type Zero. But it doesn't stop with 3D – the 2D classics are still getting love. Quite a few Konami games are looking nicer, including often-overlooked cocktail mode support, and all the missing graphics in the iconic IGS mahjong game Long Hu Bang are finally fixed.

There's a long list of newly supported systems this month. We've got Exidy and Taito arcade games from the 1970s, LCD games from behind the Iron Curtain, and a whole pile of recently dumped TV games. On top of that, numerous additional versions of Gaelco arcade games have surfaced from the archives. In between, you'll find rare Capcom arcade releases, music workstations and sequencers, game watches, casino games, and more. If you do play casino games, please be aware that some of the default input assignments for gambling games have changed in this release.

There's lots of fun to be had with the computer emulation updates in this release. The Victor 9000 has had its floppy support overhauled and SASI hard disk support added. There's been a bit of a flurry of updates for the Sanyo PHC-25. The POKEY's serial communication support used by the Atari 8-bit computers has finally been implemented properly.

MAME Testers bugs fixed

  • 01768: [Crash/Freeze] (sony/zn.cpp) bldyror2: The emulated game may freeze during attract mode or test mode. (smf)
  • 05614: [Crash/Freeze] (sony/zn.cpp) primrag2: The game fails to boot. (smf)
  • 07698: [Crash/Freeze] (sony/taitogn.cpp) kollon: The game fails to boot. (smf)
  • 08116: [Sound] (dataeast/dec0.cpp) baddudes, drgninja: Audio volume balance is incorrect. (hap)
  • 08391: [Sound] (konami/battlnts.cpp) battlnts: FM music has regressed and sounds incorrect. (hap)
  • 09076: [Interface] (netronics/elf.cpp) elf2: It is not possible to enter data. (hap)
  • 09093: [Interface] (amstrad/amstrad.cpp) cpc464, cpc464p [technocp]: No need to be marked unsupported. (Barry Rodewald)
  • 09100: [DIP/Input] (midway/vegas.cpp) gauntleg, gauntleg12, gauntdl, gauntdl24: Button labels are incorrect. (mmarino4)
  • 09102: [Sound] (atlus/ohmygod.cpp) ohmygod, naname: [possible] The ADPCM sample rate is too low. (hap)
  • 09104: [Media Support] (sinclair/spec128.cpp) spec128: The emulator crashes when loading TAP format tape images. (holub)
  • 09114: [Debugger] SH2 disassembly: Operands for MAC.L instructions are exchanged. (Vas Crabb)
  • 09122: [Sound] (success/othello.cpp) othello: The music tempo is too fast and the PSG sound pitch is too high. (sasuke)

New working systems

  • Aero Fighters Special (VER 1.00G) [smf]
  • Apple Computer Macintosh PowerBook Duo 270c [R. Belmont]
  • Apple Computer Macintosh PowerBook Duo 280 [R. Belmont]
  • The Block Kuzushi (VER 1.10G) [smf]
  • Brave Blade (VER 1.40G) [smf]
  • Casio WK-1800 [Edward d-tech, Devin Acker]
  • CXG Systems / White and Allcock / Intelligent Software Computachess II [hap, Sean Riddle]
  • Elektronika Basketbol (Elektronika) [hap, Milan Galcik, Igor Nys]
  • Fighters' Impact (VER 2.10G) [smf]
  • Flame Gunner (VER 1.40G) [smf]
  • G-Darius (VER 2.70G) [smf]
  • Mawasunda!! (V2.08J 2000/02/01 11:02:54) [twistedsymphony, buffi, rtw, ekorz, hammy, smf]
  • PAiA Electronics midi2cv8 [m1macrophage]
  • PAiA Electronics midi2cv8 V/Hz [m1macrophage]
  • Ray Storm (VER 2.60G) [smf]
  • Shanghai Matekibuyuu (VER 1.20G) [smf]
  • Taito G NET (COH-1002T) [smf]
  • Tronica Space Adventure [Milan Galcik, algestam]