MAME is a multi-purpose emulation framework.
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.
The MAME project as a whole is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, 2 (GPL-2.0), since it contains code made available under multiple GPL-compatible licenses. A great majority of files (over 90% including core files) are under the BSD-3-Clause License and we would encourage new contributors to distribute files under this license.
Please note that MAME is a registered trademark of Gregory Ember, and permission is required to use the "MAME" name, logo or wordmark.
MAME 0.142u5 is now posted to the
Latest Updates page.
Notice that for some HLSL effects you need to download and unzip this file
inside your artwork folder. This file will hopefully be inside the full package when it'll be released.
MAME 0.142u4 is now posted to the
Latest Updates page.
This release features a shiny new HLSL post-effects Shader Engine
(written by Bat Country Entertainment), which allows those using a
Windows OS and a decent video card with proper driver support for Pixel
Shader 3.0 to display many interesting and authentic looking effects.
Also, this release introduces a new toolchain which contains the required
additional headers needed for you to use this new feature. Obtain these
new packages from the Development Tools page.
MAME 0.142u3 is now posted to the Latest Updates page.
MAME 0.142u2 is now posted to the Latest Updates page.
MAME 0.142u1 is now posted to the Latest Updates page.
After 6 years of coordinating the MAME project, it is time for me to step aside and let someone else handle day-to-day management. It has been an honor to helm the project for so long, and even though I won’t be handling the regular releases and top-level coordination anymore, I do hope to continue working on modernizing the core, so we are not left with a half-finished effort.
With this changing of the guard, I am pleased to announce that Angelo Salese (aka Kale) has volunteered to step in and take over coordination of the project going forward. Angelo has done a great job improving many drivers over the years, and I am confident he will be an excellent project leader going forward.
MAME 0.142 is now available.