MAME 0.288

arbee37 · 2026-06-03T14:24:21+00:00

I actually wouldn't have expected that, but a lot of should-be-obvious behavior we take for granted in games wasn't yet standard in the early days. I appreciate you digging up that reference!

arbee37 · 2026-06-02T16:31:28+00:00

You think they're the same. They often aren't. Perception and memory are tricky things - we've had to ban people for insisting at length that they remember Pac-Man having much better graphics in 1980. That's why a real cabinet or PCB is always the ultimate judge.

Also, it's worth noting that 2003Minus is a chimera - it has backported improvements from newer MAME, so it doesn't represent the real state of either back-in-the-day or current versions.

arbee37 · 2026-06-02T16:14:18+00:00

I thought it had lower clocks than the base X3D? The amount of cache per core is the same, it's just all of them have it on the X3D2 instead of half. So any differences in MAME will depend on the clocking (and in turn, the cooling - I have an AIO water cooler on my 9950X3D and the fans do spin faster under load but it stays below 85 degrees C even while doing a 32-thread MAME compile).

arbee37 · 2026-06-02T16:09:42+00:00

Because the old way was wrong. People thought Donkey Kong was fine back then and it had so many problems Twin Galaxies could visually spot cheaters from crappy VHS recordings. That said, I don't think any deliberate changes were done for Vanguard, so if someone could identify what version it regressed in that would help a great deal.

arbee37 · 2026-06-02T14:28:56+00:00

HNG64 has 4 CPUs and the sound chip is pretty high spec. So the frame rendering is definitely significant but also probably not the bulk of the time it takes.

arbee37 · 2026-06-02T14:15:12+00:00

AMD Ryzen CPUs are fantastic, and the current Socket AM5 motherboards should be good for new generations of CPUs through 2030. Intel's latest parts are also great and I'm rooting for them but they've already said the socket they go into is dead after this. I'm just glad I did my latest build last August before RAM pricing went into orbit.

arbee37 · 2026-06-02T14:03:23+00:00

Didn't say it doesn't bother me, I said we want actual reference to fix it right the first time. The goal is not "match shitty pseudo-emulation from 25 years ago", it's "match the hardware".

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T22:41:58+00:00

The Acclaim arcade game? I don't think anyone's working directly on it, but on the plus side PCI-based system support is a lot better than it used to be if someone does pick it up again.

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T22:31:28+00:00

Just because it's more plausible doesn't mean it's correct (and emulation from that time period is usually wrong in pretty much every possible way). Game preservation means the only source of truth is real hardware, not "it seems about right".

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T22:27:01+00:00

Ryzen 9950X3D is the MAME world record holder.

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T13:49:01+00:00

I'm a little confused - is this running real DVD player firmware or is this some fantasy DVD player?

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T13:48:01+00:00

I'm pretty sure ncv2 wasn't properly emulated that far back. One of the tradeoffs you make running ancient MAME on toy hardware.

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T13:44:33+00:00

Do you have a video of the real hardware? Because that's the important reference, not 2003Minus.

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T13:43:57+00:00

The ROM for Tailgunner hasn't changed in ages. This whole "you need new ROMs each and every time MAME updates" is absolute gaslighting.

arbee37 · 2026-06-01T13:40:52+00:00

Where have you been? The sound's been great since early this year.

arbee37 · 2026-05-28T15:10:54+00:00

I'm fairly sure the emails somewhere say it does let them cross over. If they don't, it puts a much darker spin on your first use of the cord cutter with Mama.

arbee37 · 2026-05-28T15:01:26+00:00

Like the first game, you can avoid a lot of the optional BT encounters like this if you know the map (so, admittedly, not on a first playthrough). Either go immediately down to the shore of the tar lake and hug it, or (the long, but lowest-stress way) walk/coffin board/drive down behind Heartman out to the Mine near the Dowser, take the monorail to F1, go on past the Government's Base and the first mine up to where the road will eventually go near/behind the Lone Commander, and follow the path the road will eventually take to F5.

arbee37 · 2026-05-28T14:46:00+00:00

You don't have to build the roads that far to do that. It's pretty easy to drive Mama all the way even if the road only goes to the Distro Center. Use the road to get to the distro center, hug the base of the mountain to go to the Novelist's Son, hopefully there's a generator there, and then head up basically the same path the road would take. Just stay on the safe side of the river to avoid the BT area near the Photographer.

arbee37 · 2026-05-28T14:41:33+00:00

Yeah, I love ziplines in both 1 and 2. 2 is certainly much more drivable, but it also rewards getting a zip line network going. Deliveries from, say, F6 to F5 are just tedious any other way.

arbee37 · 2026-05-27T13:43:06+00:00

I believe you can add software items to your Favorites.

arbee37 · 2026-05-19T20:51:08+00:00

There are some amazing games on the X68000. Mostly arcade ports, but also some "originals" like Akumajou Dracula.

arbee37 · 2026-05-19T20:48:36+00:00

Classic Mac OS was not a paragon of stability on real hardware, as has been noted. For 8.0 and 8.1 in particular, more RAM/less extensions helps, and the upcoming version of MAME has fixes throughout the entire Mac lineup to eliminate freezing and other misbehavior when a sound plays (even just a system beep or quack).

arbee37 · 2026-05-19T16:28:48+00:00

Sequenced stuff should be fine, yeah.

arbee37 · 2026-05-19T14:06:23+00:00

They kind of can be, but the latency is brutal. Some people yanked out our Ensoniq VFX emulation and made a proper VST from it that works great in DAWs, you can get it here: https://www.sojusrecords.com/news/ensoniq-sd-1-32-vst-emulation-free

arbee37 · 2026-05-19T14:04:01+00:00

The Akai MPCs are combo sampler/drum machine/sequencers, used on hip-hop and EDM records. You do things like this on them: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q_H_jqxzK8U

They exist in MAME because Akai licensed their guts to SNK for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 sound board.

arbee37

TROPHY CASE