Log Message:
mame: update to 0.226.

You know what day it is? It’s MAME 0.226 day! A lot has happened
in this development cycle, and plenty of it is worth getting excited
about! First of all, there’s a change that affects all systems with
keyboard inputs, including most computers. MAME now allows you to
activate and deactivate keyboard and keypad inputs per emulated
device in the Keyboard Mode menu. When a system has multiple
keyboards (for example a computer with a terminal connected to a
serial port), you can choose which keyboard you want to type on
rather than effectively typing on all the keyboards at once. If a
system has multiple devices with keyboard inputs, MAME will start
with only one enabled by default. Sadly, MAME doesn’t have mind-reading
capabilities yet, so it may not always choose the keyboard you want
to type on. If you find you can’t type on an emulated computer,
check that the right keyboard is enabled in the Keyboard Mode menu.

Another batch of layout/artwork system updates are ready this month.
More image formats are supported, several long-standing alignment
and clipping bugs have been fixed, more parameter animation features
are available, and external artwork loads faster. Lots of systems
using built-in layouts look prettier, but Cosmo Gang probably shows
the biggest improvement in this release (yes, the electromechanical
redemption game). Try it out in MAME 0.226, and maybe do a before/after
comparison to see how far we’ve come.

Apple II systems have seen some significant development this month.
Firstly, a number of issues with demos using raster split effects
have been fixed. The Apple II has no hardware support for raster
effects, so these demos rely on open bus read behaviour to work
out what the video hardware is doing. Getting this to work requires
precise emulation of memory access timings. Secondly, two parallel
printer cards are now working: Orange Micro’s popular Grappler+
and Apple’s Parallel Interface Card. The Grappler+ is well-supported
by Apple II software and provides a better out-of-the-box experience
if you want to try one of them.

Sega’s Tranquillizer Gun was a somewhat ambitious title for 1980,
but was largely overlooked at the time. It’s finally fully emulated
in MAME, with audio emulation and protection simulation being added
in this release. We’ve also added support for Must Shoot TV, an
unreleased prototype developed at Incredible Technologies. Step
into the shoes of disgruntled ITS Cable employee Chuck and go on
a rampage!

Far more has been added this month than we can cover in detail
here, like another batch of TV games (including several Vs Maxx
titles), support for Mattel Aquarius CAQ format cassette images,
and working Sega Mega Play games.