What is MAME?
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 calc…
What is MAME?
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.
License
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 0.284
31 Dec 2025
MAME 0.284 is ready just in time for the end of the year! Two interesting arcade prototypes have turned up this month. One is Saurian Front, an early version of what became Strike Force, developed at Williams before they acquired the Midway name. The other is a completely unreleased Atari game called Jammin’ that runs on Donkey Kong hardware. There are a few more Sega Model 2 fixes this month, helping Virtua Cop 2 in particular.
The Brainchild PLS-1000, a hand-held educational device from the ’90s that you may not even have heard of, is now emulated. You can now use various replacement keyboards for early Apple II computers, some of which had advanced features like macro recording. There were some big software list updates this month for quite a few computers. The floptool disk image utility included with MAME has improved usability. You can even simulate receiving a Sega Channel broadcast on your emulated Sega Genesis.
Of course, there’s far more in this release than we can talk about here, and you can read all about it in the whatsnew.txt file. The source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages are linked from our download page. All the best in the new year from MAMEdev!
MAME 0.283
29 Nov 2025
With the end of the year barely more than a month away, it’s time for MAME 0.283! As you may be anticipating, there are even more Sega Model 2 fixes this month. Trilinear luma filtering should be working now, and some glitches in tilemap layers are fixed. Microtexturing, used to good effect in The House of the Dead, is emulated for the first time. Some of the tilemap layer fixes have spilled across into Sega System 24 as well.
Several Ensoniq synthesisers have been promoted to working in this release. The Sequential Circuits Six-Trak analog synthesiser has also been promoted to working, with improvements there benefiting the related Bally/Sente 6VB sound board. There’s been quite a bit of work on NEC computers this month, and there are some new software lists for Sharp home computers. MAME now emulates all supported (and some unsupported) video modes on the IBM PCjr.
To find out about everything else that’s happened in MAME development this month, you’ll have to read the whatsnew.txt file. As always, you can get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.
MAME 0.282
31 Oct 2025
Today, we have a very spooky surprise… Oh wait, no we don’t. But what we do have is MAME 0.282! If you want to get into a haunted mood, you might want to try playing Beast Busters: Second Nightmare, because Hyper Neo Geo 64 sound is way better than it was a month ago. Just a friendly reminder, MAME still runs plenty of other ghastly classics, like Laser Ghost, Splatter House, Monster Bash, Haunted Castle and Ghouls’n Ghosts. And speaking of sound, XaviX sound emulation has just had a major overhaul, so you might want to give some e-kara cartridges another listen. Also, if you’re musically inclined, remember to keep an eye on MAME’s synthesiser emulation, because it just keeps getting better!
Sega Model 2 emulation is noticeably better again, with improved graphics and a number of logic bugs fixed. Speaking of 3D graphics, the severe graphical issues plaguing ARM users playing Namco System 22 games have been corrected. Apple II users can enjoy more accurate emulation for software that pokes dark corners of the hardware, including Zip Chip accelerators, interrupts and model-specific functionality. There’s also new D13 disk image write support for people using Apple DOS 3.1 and 3.2 disks. There’s been steady progress on emulating more features of the graphics chip used by the Minitel 2 terminal.
That’s all we’re going to talk about here, but as always, there’s lots more to enjoy, including better Namco System 23 performance, an overhaul for Mega Drive cartridges, plenty of software list additions, more features for the floppy disk image utilities and some additional functionality exposed to Lua scripts. You can read all about it in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.
MAME 0.281
26 Sep 2025
After what felt like a few short weeks, it’s time for MAME 0.281! First of all, with the proliferation of ARM-based notebook computers, we’re going to try offering binary packages for people running 64-bit ARM versions of Windows 10 or later. Please be aware that most MAME developers are still using x86-64 systems, so you may encounter issues specific to ARM systems (this goes for people running MAME on Apple M series CPUs and ARM-based Linux systems as well). When reporting issues, remember to specify the operating system and CPU family. And speaking of ARM CPUs, we’ve fixed a few lurking bugs in the 64-bit ARM recompiler back-end and improved performance a bit more. Emulated systems with Hitachi SuperH and Hyperstone E1 CPUs should benefit.
There are some big software list updates this month, with lots of original floppy and cassette dumps and modern homebrew releases added. More Sony NEWS workstations are now running. If you want to play with them, be aware that you’ll need to access them over an emulated network interface, as video output isn’t working. IBM RTPC emulation is still progressing steadily as well. There are some emulation improvements to the sound chip used by Akai MPC samplers as well as the SNK Hyper Neo Geo 64, although it’s still preliminary.
As always, you can read about everything that’s changed this month in the whatsnew.txt file, and the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages are available from the download page.
MAME 0.280
31 Aug 2025
It’s been a month, so it must be time for MAME 0.280 to be released! One interesting addition this month is the very rare 1986 arcade game 119 from Coreland and Sega (the game is named after the ambulance/fire emergency telephone number used in Japan). If you’ve been following along with the work on Namco System 23 emulation, you can now see several more video hardware features emulated. Sound issues in Konami’s Golfing Greats have finally been fixed properly.
You’ll also find improved Acorn BBC Micro emulation, a few more working TV games and handheld multi-game systems, and quite a few more playable video gambling systems. Improvements to Mega Drive emulation fix issues with some of the more sensitive games on the system. A number of graphical glitches plaguing arcade games have been solved, too.
You can read about everything we’ve been working on over the past few weeks in the whatsnew.txt file. As always, source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages are available from the download page.
MAME 0.279
31 Jul 2025
MAME 0.279 is here at last! Building on the work in recent releases, this month you’ll get to see proper lighting and fixes for logic bugs in Sega Model 2 games. Philips CD-i emulation keeps improving as well, including better cursor behaviour and XA audio fixes this month. While we’re talking about things you can see, MAME now emulates the “snow” effect on early ZX Spectrum models caused by memory refresh cycles interfering with video RAM accesses. Graphical issues in various Konami and Irem games have been fixed, and there are noticeable improvements to graphics in some Namco System 23 games.
There’s been more work this month on support for NES-inspired chips from V.R. Technology, bringing some of these low-cost games closer to working. There are lots of improvements for emulated Macs, particularly the PowerBook Duo sub-notebooks, and fixes for a few issues with the Apple IIgs as well. The Casio FZ-1 and related sampling synthesisers now have preliminary sound output. The Sharp MZ-5500 computers are also starting to show some life, although emulation is far from complete.
As always, you can read about everything that changed this month in the whatsnew.txt file, and source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages are available from the download page.
MAME 0.278
30 Jun 2025
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.
If you want to read about all the adventures in MAME development in these past two months, check out the whatsnew.txt file. As always, the source code and 64-bit Windows binary packages are available from the download page.