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.
Latest release is now available.
You may also notice a new page over on the left: MAME Licencees. We have been working to come up with a set of guidelines to allow arcade hardware manufacturers to include MAME plus some legal ROMs with their hardware. Read this page to find out the details and which manufacturers have already agreed to work with us.
Latest version is now available.
A new update to 0.100 is now available.
Now that 0.100 is behind us, I've made some changes and updates to the site. First, I've rearranged the links to the left into more groups with fewer items; hopefully it will be easier to quickly find links that way.
There are also several new pages. First, I added a page explaining how you can help us out if you're interested. We often get questions about this and I figured it was time to spell out the best ways of helping out the MAME development effort.
If you're a coder and are looking to contribute source code changes, there is also a new page documenting the submission guidelines. Make sure you read this before sending in source updates. It also has a section giving some ideas for those who are just getting started and want to know how to make a difference.
There's also a new ROM and Image File FAQ that I've added to the legal section. I've seen numerous threads on message boards with tons of flat-out-incorrect information about the legality of buying, selling, and using ROM files. This FAQ attempts to address most of the common questions.
Finally, I've updated the Links page with pointers to some recently-added WIP pages and other resources.
As typically happens, after a big release a whole bunch of stuff shows up that didn't quite make it in time. Hence 0.100u1.
At long last, MAME 0.100 is now available.
A few too many bugs still in u9, so we have u10. Once again, make sure you report bugs in this version to MAMETesters ASAP.