Log message:
mame: update to 0.244.

Given how many exciting updates have gone into MAME 0.244, it’s
hard to believe it’s only been a month since the last release! Only
one disk has been added to the Apple II software lists, but it
comes with a very engaging story involving physically damaged media
and manual data repairs. The Zilog Z80 CPU has had a bit of an
overhaul this month, allowing more accurate memory access timings
for the ZX Spectrum family. This fixes a lot of broken visual
effects and other glitches. The HP 9000/300 series computers have
had the necessary floppy disk image formats hooked up, allowing
them to mount floppy disks from their software list.

MAME’s driver for JPM’s first CPU-based fruit machine platform,
dating all the way back to the late 1970s, has been almost completely
rewritten this month. Four games are now playable, albeit with
minimal internal artwork. Colour video output has been implemented
for Zilec’s Vortex. Don’t get too excited, though – while the
approach they used to produce colourful graphics without adding
any video memory is technically interesting, the results are very
ugly and don’t make a bad game any better.

Other improvements in arcade emulation include:

    Score display and diorama control outputs have been hooked up
    for Bubble Trouble (this means you’ll need updated artwork for
    Golly! Ghost! as well).  Layer offsets in Slap Fight and Alcon
    should be fixed, and cocktail mode now works for the original
    sets.  The communication board for Super Street Fighter II:
    The Tournament Battle is now supported, allowing it to actually
    run in eight-player tournament mode.

SDL builds (the default for Linux and macOS) now detect game
controller reconnection. Note that due to limitations of SDL itself,
MAME may confuse similar controllers, potentially causing issues
if multiple controllers are disconnected at the same time. Issues
using MIDI input or output with 64-bit Windows builds should be
fixed.

Log message:
mame: update to 0.243.

Another month has passed, and it’s time for another MAME release!
MAME 0.243 has a few fairly big internal changes, and while we’re
working towards making MAME more future-proof, there will likely
be some regressions in the short term. The most noticeable regression
that we’re aware of is that rhythm games using DVD media on Konami’s
Firebeat platform are now very unhappy with our lack of proper DVD
drive emulation. If you find any other regressions, please report
them – it’s a lot easier to fix things when we know they’re broken.

Remember the unreleased arcade version of Rise of the Robots,
running on the RasterSpeed platform? This month sees support added
for another game on the same hardware: Football Crazy. In a clear
demonstration of the benefits of MAME’s modular architecture, this
provides test cases yielding fixes for the CPU, serial controller
and SCSI controller used in the system. Numerous games and computer
systems using the same devices stand to benefit.

MAME’s floppy drive emulation system has had an overhaul this month.
We think we’ve finally nailed down and fixed the issues that were
causing bad data to be written by the Apple IIgs. Of course, it’s
still a good idea to back up your precious disk images. There are
lots of nice fixes for NES/Famicom cartridge support, making a
whole lot of Chinese-language games playable. The driver for the
NEC PC-8801 family has had an overhaul this month, giving more
expansion options and better software compatibility. Also, several
more early Rockwell electronic calculators are now emulated.

As always, there were plenty of bugs squashed this month, including
Midway Seattle and Vegas stability issues, graphical glitches in
The Karate Tournament, erratic joystick movement on the Apple IIgs,
missing sounds in Looping, and quite a few incorrectly labelled
DIP switches.

Log message:
revbump for textproc/icu update

Log message:
mame: update to 0.242.

Today is a bittersweet day. After a quarter of a century, we’ve
decided that it’s no longer in our best interests to distribute
MAME as Open Source/Free Software. Wait, that’s not the right
announcement… After many fruitful years, we’ve come to realise MAME
has achieved everything it can. The project is now in maintenance
mode, and there will be no new functionality or regular releases.
Hang on, that can’t be right, either! Happy April Fools’ day!

We have an interesting release today in several ways. Yes, the
rumours are true, after many years, we’ve added support for another
LaserDisc-based arcade system. It’s a system that only ran a single
game: Time Traveler, created by Rick Dyer at Virtual Image Productions,
starring Stephen Wilber, and published by Sega. This full-motion
video game consists of a near-constant stream of quick time events,
utilising a mixture of live action video and computer-generated
imagery. Although re-living the early ’90s corniness is pretty
awesome, this is a milestone because it’s the first LaserDisc arcade
game preserved using the Domesday86 Project toolchain. In short,
this involves the use of custom hardware to record the raw radio
frequency signal from a LaserDisc player’s laser pickup, and then
decoding it in software. This frees you from the limitations of
LaserDisc player demodulators and video capture devices. As well
as better, more consistent video quality, this opens up possibilities
like combining multiple captures to overcome disc degradation and
laser pickup dropout.

In another first for emulation, MAME 0.242 adds support for systems
based on Rockwell B5000 family microcontrollers. This includes
several electronic toys from Mattel, and calculators from Rockwell
themselves. You’ll also find the first working game based on a
Sharp SM530 microcontroller: the Star Fox game watch from Nelsonic.

There are plenty of software list updates this month, including
recently-released prototype dumps for Mega Drive, NES and Super
NES, all the latest Apple II dumps, and some more of the steady
stream of Commodore 64 cassettes. You’ll also see that a big batch
of Amiga software has been promoted to working – that’s because
the Amiga family has had an overhaul this month, and it’s paid off
with substantial improvements in compatibility.

There’s lots more going on, in fact this was a record month for
pull requests, with over a hundred and thirty merged, including
quite a few from first-time contributors, as well as some regulars.
It’s great to have you all with us! There are dozens of reported
bugs fixed, too, with a particular emphasis on fixing up DIP switch
labelling.

Log message:
{c,d,e}*/*: revbump(1) for libsndfile

Log message:
mame: update to 0.241.

Is it already the last Wednesday of the month again? That felt
quick! Of course, that means it must be MAME 0.241 release day.
This month you’ll get to play The Tower, a rather poor quality
imitation of Crazy Climber running on the DECO Cassette system.
There’s a brand new software list for the Tandy/Memorex VIS multimedia
player. Keep in mind that this was effectively a ’286-based Windows
PC with no disk cache running software from a CD-ROM drive. It
shouldn’t come as a surprise that it wasn’t popular, earning the
backronym “Virtually Impossible to Sell”. A three-player version
of Wally wo Sagase! (based on the popular Where’s Wally? books)
has also been found, dumped and emulated.

As well as an assortment of newly supported NES/Famicom cartridges,
you’ll have a better experience with the Zapper lightgun, improved
PPU (graphics) and APU (sound) emulation, and several fixes for
the related coin-operated VS. System and PlayChoice-10 systems.
Newly supported systems include some electronic toys from Entex
and Mattel, and a couple more Fidelity chess computers. If you’re
interested in scripting MAME, the Lua interface now exposes address
space taps for intercepting emulated memory accesses, as well as
debugger expressions, and a simpler way to discover general input
types.

Log message:
mame: update to 0.240.

As lunar new year draws near and we approach a quarter of a century
since Nicola Salmoria released MAME to the public, it’s time for
MAME 0.240 – the first release of the 2022 calendar year. Wait,
what was that? A quarter of a century? Yes, on 5 February, it will
be twenty-five years since MAME 0.1 was released, supporting just
five Z80-based games. MAME is coming up to its silver jubilee! And
what a long way we’ve come…

This month, we’ve added support for dozens more versions of the
Igrosoft five-reel slot machines. But buried in there are the
remaining versions of Nintendo Game & Watch series games (rare
versions of Helmet, Judge and Mario’s Cement Factory), two more
Elektronika games based on Nintendo programs, a German version of
Exidy’s Mouse Trap, and the incredibly rare Mahjong Block Jongbou
2 from SNK.

In the software lists, there are a whole pile of recently dumped
prototypes of console games, and some homebrew titles for the Bandai
RX-78. That’s on top of the steady stream of Apple II floppies,
Commodore 64 cassettes, FM Towns CDs, and newly supported NES and
Famicom cartridges. Building on the work last month, the CD-i has
received a few more fixes that improve performance and add support
for more discs.

Log message:
mame: update to 0.239.

Did you think we’d let 2021 finish without a parting MAME release?
MAME 0.239 is here, just in time for the new year. This release
includes a fix for many subtle and not-so-subtle sound and music
timing issues in games using Yamaha FM synthesis chips. The frame
rate for Gaelco games has been adjusted to satisfy some wily
protection checks, fixing crashes when continuing in Thunder Hoop
and graphical issues in Squash. A big update for Philips CD-i
emulation just made it in for this release, greatly improving the
experience in a lot of games. Nintendo Famicom Disk System emulation
has also seen some improvements this month.

This release is packed with even more Soviet re-skins of the Game
& Watch Egg program, the latest Apple II dumps and cracks, another
batch of Commodore 64 cassettes, and more exotic NES and Famicom
cartridges. Milan Galcik, who’s been busy with the Elektronika
hand-held games, has also completed a Slovak UI translation and
updated the neglected Czech translation. Both genuine and cloned
Apple II systems have had emulation updates this month, with a
number of unique VTech Laser and Franklin ACE features now supported,
and performance improvements for the Apple IIgs.

Log message:
revbump for icu and libffi

Log message:
mame: update to 0.238.

You know what time it is? It’s time for MAME 0.238, our November
release! After many years of waiting, the rare space shooter Monster
Zero from Nihon Game is now playable. Despite the title, this game
does not feature a three-headed space dragon. This release adds
support for Fowling and Monkey Goalkeeper, two more Elektronika
hand-held games built around the Egg/Mickey Mouse Game & Watch
program.

There are a few changes to MAME’s UI and the debugger this month.
Firstly, MAME is now less eager to reset your input configuration
if you run it without connecting a game controller. Analog inputs
support a few more configuration options, and we’ve added some
(long overdue) documentation for the input configuration process.
The timecode logging feature (used by people making gameplay videos)
has been moved to a plugin, and debugger memory views now support
octal data display, and octal or decimal address display.

Support for several Famicom controllers has been added or fixed
this month, including the IGS Tap-tap Mat, Bandai Family Trainer,
Bandai Power Pad, Bandai Hyper Shot, Konami Doremikko Piano Keyboard,
and Konami Exciting Boxing air bag. Also involving peripheral
support, the Acorn Archimedes drivers now support podule expansions,
the Econet module slot, serial/parallel ports, and extension ROM
sockets.