Log Message:
mame: update to 0.260.

MAME 0.260

Some long-anticipated updates landed in October, making MAME 0.260
a very exciting release! Firstly, there are some general updates
to MAME itself. After a few false starts, MAME now supports bgfx
video output with Wayland on Linux. As requested by users, you can
finally use delta CHD files for clone systems and software items.
This allows for major disk space savings in some cases when you
have multiple versions of a system or software item. There’s also
an updated version of PortAudio included.

Two very different systems from Casio have been promoted to working
this month. The first is the CZ-101 compact keyboard synthesiser.
It used Phase Distortion Synthesis, which was Casio’s patent-avoiding
answer to Yamaha’s DX series. To help you load patches, MAME can
now feed SysEx files to emulated MIDI input ports. The other is
the Loopy, a game console released exclusively in Japan and marketed
primarily to girls. While sound output, the sticker printer, and
the frame grabber accessory are not emulated (yet), you can try
out the system’s entire library of eleven software titles.

Several Korean arcade games were added this month, including a
Solitaire card game from F2 System that uses a dedicated control
panel and features some rather disturbing pre-rendered 3D animations.
A few Merit games were added as well. Other improvements include
more emulated NuBus and PDS cards for Macs, Cumana DFS disk image
support for the Acorn Electron, and support for an MSX Flash
cartridge.

MAME 0.259

It looks like MAME 0.259 just squeaked in before the end of September!
As usual, it’s packed with exciting stuff. One thing we know some
of you have been patiently waiting for is emulation of Namco System
12 games using the CDXA board and CD-ROM storage: Truck Kyosokyoku
and the interesting but unsuccessful Um Jammer Lammy NOW! The work
to support these games also puts us in a better position to support
systems that use SH-2 CPUs with different combinations of onboard
peripherals. Also added this month are two Konami LCD games, Bandai’s
two-player tabletop U-Boat game, and three arcade games on dgPix
hardware.

On a completely different front, VME-based systems in MAME have
had a major overhaul. The system of backplanes and cards is more
faithfully reproduced. Speaking of cards, another ZXBUS storage
interface card has been emulated for enhanced ZX Spectrum derivatives
with a suitable slot. In other card-related news, work on PC video
cards is still progressing, with the added benefit of fixing
MegaTouch XL 6000 graphics this month. While we’re talking about
graphics, the Sharp X68000 had a few glitches fixed, too.

Initial support for built-in Ethernet has been implemented for
several Macintosh Quadra systems, and some bugs in the onboard
video emulation for MC68040-based Macs were fixed. Also in Apple
news, the Apple III now runs at a more realistic speed, and there’s
been a little progress on the first-generation PowerMac family.

MAME now has support for hard-sectored floppy formats, which were
a thing back in the days of big 8" drives, and a few issues with
how TD0 format disk images are handled were fixed. Also related to
floppy disks, the poorly-received TIB Disc Drive DD-001 that attached
to the Commodore 64’s cartridge port is now emulated. Finally,
players curious about CPS-2 games can now twiddle the debugging
DIP switches that were apparently present on development systems.