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MAME 0.205 With Christmas just over, it’s time for the final MAME release for 2018, and what a year it’s been! Before we move on, let’s pause and recap some of the significant milestones from the past twelve months: We’ve emulated a steady stream of hand-held games from Nintendo, Tiger and others. Our Tiger Game.com emulation now runs all released games. Acorn computer emulation improvements have been too numerous to count. In particular, MAME now supports a huge array of peripherals. Emulation for home systems based on the SSD XaviX, SunPlus µ'nSP and V.R. Technology VT platforms has really advanced, bringing a generation of TV games to life. MAME now runs CLIX on InterPro and HP-UX on HP9000/300, both with graphical desktop environments and networking. MAME will also run SunOS with the SunView desktop environment on some SPARC workstations. Additionally, the SGI Iris Indigo R4000 shows its boot menu. Long-standing graphical issues have been fixed, including priorities in Pac-Land and Moon Patrol, row scroll effects on Capcom CPS-3, and numerous glaring errors on Tatsumi games. Hit detection on the now-infamous helicopter in Time Crisis has been corrected, rear-view mirrors work in Ridge Racer 2, Rave Racer and Ace Driver, track mirroring works in Rave Racer, and graphics have been improved across all Namco System 22 games. Taito C-Chip emulation finally allows Bonze Adventure to play as intended, solving all the persistent gameplay issues. Games with Capcom QSound and Taito Zoom ZSG-2 hardware now provide a far more enjoyable auditory experience. Rare arcade systems keep getting dumped and emulated, including Tom Tom Magic, the original Gigas Mark II, Last KM, Night Mare, El Fin Del Tiempo, a prototype of Led Storm Rally 2011, and the Pac-Man hack Titan. Some of these were thought to be lost to time. MAME 0.205 is no different. Newly supported arcade systems include Unico’s Magic Purple, and Visco’s never-before-seen prototype Pastel Island. The latter ties in nicely with improved video emulation for the SSV platform (yes, this fixes other long-standing glitches, too). Newly playable machines include Konami’s Tobe! Polystars, Evil Night and Total Vice. Yes, Konami M2 emulation is finally here! Be aware that there’s still a lot of room for performance optimisation on this system. Putting arcade systems aside for a moment, this release includes support for Dance Dance Revolution Strawberry Shortcake, and the Nintendo Game & Watch titles Oil Panic and Squish. Interestingly, there are no other emulators or simulators for Squish, and it hasn’t been included in any of Nintendo’s Game & Watch collections. It seems to draw inspiration from the Famicom game Devil World. There are hundreds more Commodore 64 cassettes in the software list now, and quite a few more BBC ROMs as well. Software lists have been added for the Nascom computers, along with updates to the boot ROM choices and better keyboard emulation. We’ve also created a skeleton driver and documented the known software for the Chinese Monon Color console. In a last-minute addition we added support for new version 2 .WOZ floppy images on the Apple II family. Of course, there are lots more additions and improvements that you can read about in the whatsnew.txt file, or you can get the source and Windows binary packages from the download page and try it out yourself. Enjoy the rest of the year, and all the best in 2019 from all of us at MAMEdev!
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MAME 0.201 It’s the end of another month, and time for your scheduled MAME release, with more of everything we know you love. In a last-minute update, we slipped in a major performance for bgfx video output. It’s particularly noticeable when using cropped artwork, and there’s no longer a big performance penalty for bringing up the menu over the emulation on macOS. Another core improvement is support for TAP/TUN networking on Windows, providing a big performance improvement when connecting an emulated system to a network on the host machine. From the department of things considered lost to time, MAME 0.201 allows you to play as Chuby the octopus, in the incredibly elusive Spanish game Night Mare. Unfortunately the sound ROMs were missing, so you won’t be able to hear Chuby speak, and we still need to be on the lookout for the export version known as Clean Octopus. And speaking of rare games from Spain, two more Magnet System titles have been dumped: A Day in Space and The Burning Cavern. Newly dumped versions of supported arcade games include prototypes of Halley’s Comet (Taito) and Dog Fight (Orca), a newer version of the original Master Boy (Gaelco), and the Korean release of Raiden II (Seibu Kaihatsu). A redumped ROM allowed Psychic Force EX to run correctly. The vgmplay logged music player has had a big update in this release, with support for several more sound chips and a comprehensive software list. And this brings us to audio improvements, which seem to have all crowded their way into this release. We have fixes for long-standing sound bugs in Twin Eagle, Targ and Spectar. Sound in Amazing Maze is no longer cut off after thirty seconds or so. There are some big changes for QSound and Taito Zoom ZSG-2 that should make things sound nicer. There’s also preliminary support for the NEC PC-FX’s HuC6230 SoundBox, but be aware it has a DC offset so you’ll hear a big thud when you start or stop it. Recent improvements in NEC PC-98 emulation have seen dozens of titles promoted to working status, and we’ve added another batch of dumps from Neo Kobe Collection. There are a number of fixes that improve TI-99 floppy and cassette support in this release. InterPro systems can now be used via a serial terminal in configurations without a video card or keyboard. At long last, the Apple //c Plus can boot from its internal floppy drive. Other improvements to computer emulation include better keyboard support for Amiga systems, and improved GPU emulation for the HP Integral PC. Of course, you can get source and Windows binaries from the download page.
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MAME 0.200 Todays MAME release has two consecutive zeros in the version number! The only other time that happened was over twelve years ago! Although MAME version numbers are are just an incrementing number, by a series of coincidences, MAME 0.200 delivers several major changes. First of all, if youre building MAME with Microsoft Visual Studio (MSVC), youll need Visual Studio 2017. Weve dropped support for Visual Studio 2015. Starting this month, were building the official Windows binaries with GCC 7.3 this probably wont affect you (we still support building with GCC 5 and up). Were mirroring tagged releases at GitLab (source only) and SourceForge (source and binaries), so if for some reason youre unable to access GitHub, youll still be able to download official MAME releases. MAME 0.200 includes replacements for the memory system and callback API. This will enable new functionality and make MAME development more straightforward. The artwork layout system has also had an overhaul which opens new possibilities. Weve tried our best not to break things, but if you do find something wrong, let us know at MAME Testers, or on our IRC channel #mame on the freenode network. In arcade emulation this month, we have a number of new versions of supported titles, including a very rare prototype of Led Storm Rally 2011 and three more Street Fighter II': Champion Edition bootlegs. Dreamcast/NAOMI colours are greatly improved thanks to snickerbockers, and cam900 fixed some graphical effects in Gals Panic 3 and Billiard Academy Real Break. Enik Land improved emulation of the Sega Master System, Game Gear and Mega Drive VDPs, covering more corner cases. The really exciting emulation improvements this month are on the computer side. There are lots of improvements for UK home computers, including better Camputers Lynx tape support (with lots of additions to the software list), re-worked Acorn System emulation, and support for Acorn Bus slot devices. Weve got a brand-new modernised Apple IIgs driver, with improvements in just about every area. Also, Wayder updated the Sharp 68000 software list, correcting and organising the entries and adding the latest clean dumps. But even more exciting is the fact that, thanks to Patrick Mackinlays gargantuan effort and persistence, the CLIPPER-based InterPro 2000 workstation now works well enough to install and run CLIX (a UNIX operating system). As far as we know, this is a first for MAME. The improvements to SCSI, CD-ROM, and serial emulation also benefit other emulated computer systems. Instructions are on the MAMEdev wiki if you want to try it out. As usual, you can get source and Windows binaries from the download page.
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This is an informational post concerning MAMEdev's increasing community and social media presence. == FORUMS == For decade now (since June of 2007), MAME has not had an official forum dedicated to the project and its community. There are some boards moderated by MAME developers at bannister.org covering focusing on the former sister project MESS, and the former derivative build SDLMAME (both of which have since been integrated into MAME). Both boards are still active, as they have been for a very long time, but they were never really MAME's "project home". Of course, we cannot forget the MAMEWorld forums where the frequent MAMEdev presence has given some users the impression that it was MAMEdev's official forum, while in truth it never was. Long story short, we have been quietly running a forum which has been open to the public for a few of months now. You can now visit and sign up for an account at MAMEDEV Forums. Please note that all new accounts must be approved and activated by an administrator, which currently takes hours or days, so don't panic when you find you can't post immediately after registering. Secure your handle now! == IRC == In case you missed the the announcement we made alongside the release of MAME 0.173, MAMEdev now has official presence now on IRC. In the past, many MAME developers could be found on the EFnet channel inherited from the former sister project MESS. As we've switched to a completely Free and Open Source license, freenode is a natural home for the MAME community. The freenode network has been supporting Free and Open Source communities since the late 1990s, so we're in good company there. Freenode provides features like IPv6, SSL transport, nickname registration and SASL login, cloaking and channel services. Unlike EFnet, freenode isn't arbitrarily blocking large ranges of European IP addresses, and isn't as prone to netsplits. Most IRC clients come pre-configured for the freenode network. If you're manually configuring your IRC client, the server is chat.freenode.net on port 6667, or port 6697 with SSL. Freenode also provides a web-based interface to their IRC network if you want to chat without installing a dedicated IRC client application. We have two public IRC channels: #mame for general discussion with the MAME developers and community, and #mame-dev which focuses on discussion related directly to MAME development. Both channels are open to anyone interested, but #mame-dev requires you to register on freenode and authenticate with SASL or NickServ, help at this LINK. MAME developers frequent both channels, and with our global reach, you'll likely find at least one of us online at any time of day or night. == SOCIAL MEDIA == MAMEdev also has a few other official communication channels including: * Twitter * Facebook * Imgur * Instagram We encourage anyone who follows the project or would like to get more information to subscribe or follow us on one or more of these channels.