---------------------------
Emulation:
- Machine:
- Support for MegaST & MegaSTE machines added
(this also replaces the Real Time Clock / RTC option, since this chip
is only available on the Mega machines)
- The general purpose registers of the TT SCU are now correctly emulated
(this fixes the problem with AHDI not finding any partitions during boot)
- HD:
- Fix: Disable GEMDOS opcodes after GEMDOS drive is disabled
- Fix: GEMDOS HD can now be initialized multiple times,
e.g. when running EmuTOS RAM image from a normal TOS
- Fix: WORD access to IDE data register at 0xf00002
- Fix: '*.*' pattern with GEMDOS HD should match also files
without extension
- Video:
- Full rewrite of the GLUE state machine, including support for the
4 wakeup states in STF mode, as well as more accurate video timings
(hbl, timer b, top/bottom and left/right removal, mixing 50/60/71 Hz
lines)
- Correctly shows the last 8 pixels for STE 224 byte overscan
- Fix: reading video counter $FF8205/07/09 after modifying it
while display is ON
- Fix: location of the video counter's restart when screen runs at 60 Hz
- TT: sync ST & TT color registers immediately on write, handle
palette bank setting correctly, fix duochrome colors
- Falcon: handle byte access special case for ST color registers
- Falcon: border color support also in HiColor
- better hbl/timer b interrupts when CPU runs at 16/32 MHz
- Sound:
- Special cases for STE DMA sound when start address = end address
- Increase STE DMA volume when compared to the YM2149 volume
- Greatly improve Falcon DMA sound
- CPU:
- use WinUAE CPU for STF/STE mode too, not just Falcon (old CPU core
is considered deprecated)
- improved IACK and simultaneous interrupts
- access IO regs on 2 cycle boundaries when possible
- More accurate 68060 mode (instructions from previous CPU versions
removed in 68060 aren't accepted/emulated anymore)
- Misc bus error / IO mem register handling fixes for TT & Falcon
(e.g. add TT DIP switch register handler)
- Blitter:
- Better bus arbitration when blitter is started
- Don't cause bus error when accessing regions causing CPU bus error
- Fixes to DSP addressing
- Floppy:
- Fix the value of the WPT bit when inserting/ejecting a write protected
floppy
Are you getting fidgety waiting for Halloween to arrive? Well now
you can take your mind off the wait by giving the brand-new MAME
release a spin! We've changed the release slightly this month: the
whatsnew file is formatted differently, the 32-bit Windows binary
package has "32bit" in its filename, and we're no longer providing
a pre-built debug binary package for Windows. We've dropped the
debug binaries as they don't seem to have a target demographic.
All builds include the MAME debugger. The release packages are
built with symbols that will give a meaningful stack trace. The
debug build was still optimised, so stack traces were no more
precise. The main difference is that debug builds have assertions
enabled which is mainly useful if you're working on the source. In
short, we don't see a use case where someone would be better off
with the debug build if they aren't compiling MAME themselves
anyway.
With that out of the way, what surprises does MAME have in store
for you all this month? We're pretty confident that we have something
for everyone! First of all, we're proud to present the Soviet arcade
game Istrebiteli ("Fighters", as in aircraft). We've also emulated
Ocean to Ocean, an early video slots game on the DECO Cassette
system. ShouTime has worked his magic again, allowing the masses
to see the rare Alpha Denshi title Splendor Blast II. But possibly
most interesting is preliminary emulation of the Magnet arcade
system, a prototype floppy disk-based system from Spain.
We've also added a number of non-arcade systems. There's the Gakken
Game Robot 9 handheld game, and several Fidelity chess systems.
Getting away from games altogether, we've added a working driver
for a VeriFone Trans payment terminal. There have been some
substantial updates to the software lists, too. The Sega CD software
list has been completely updated to use the latest and best dumps
known to exist, we've replaced a number of pirate Apple II disk
images with clean cracks, there are some notable additions to the
Sharp X68000 floppy list, and even an obscene Pokémon hack for
Game Boy that's being sold in China.
according to https://wiki.winehq.org/Gcc :
some program (steam) require ms_hook_prologue which is only in gcc 4.5
but gcc 4.6 broke support for it, so require 4.7.
addresses PR pkg/42218 indirectly
It was used as a fallback for NetBSD-5.x http://gnats.netbsd.org/46565
This PR was closed in 2015 as NetBSD-5.x has been eol'ed.
This version 0.15.1nb18 isn't functional on NetBSD-7.x neither CentOS 7.x.
bug was fixed, but gcc 5.0 is explicitly required by the package.
see scripts/genie.lua. It also mentions GCC 5.2 being problematic
in the same file.
given that nobody has tested it for <5.3, leave it at 5.3 required.
The end of the month is almost here, and it's time to unwrap another
shiny MAME release. This time around we've had the pleasure of
seeing Angelo Salese show us all that he's a bug-fixing machine,
resolving many long-standing bugs in playable games (including
graphical glitches in Combat School, and issues with slopes in
Sunset Riders). Highlights from newly emulated machines include
the Esselte 100 classroom computer from Sweden (thanks Edstrom),
Slap Shooter (courtesy of ShouTime and the Dumping Union), the
French version of the Apple //e Enhanced, the original Japanese
version of Street Fighter with pneumatic buttons (thanks ShouTime),
and the original version of Nintendo's Popeye on Sky Skipper hardware
(yet another gem from ShouTime).
On the gambling front, we have another batch of layouts from John
Parker, clickable button lamps for more machines from einstein95,
and improved inputs/output for a number of games from AJR. Speaking
of inputs and outputs, Risugami added/improved outputs and layouts
for a number of Midway games.
This release includes preliminary support for persistent controller
ID mappings from Tomer Verona. This may help if you're having issues
with Xbox controllers appearing in a different order when you
relaunch MAME. If you're interested, check out the documentation
and see if it helps. It's still not particularly easy to use, but
it's ready for testing and improvement and may be useful, particularly
for people with wireless controllers.
Other notable improvements include working envelope and LFSR
emulation for Mega Duck, better emulation of MCU communication for
Taito Super Qix hardware, support for multiple BBC Micro floppy
drive controllers, restoring the ability to have MAME accept incoming
socket connections to communicate with an emulated serial port,
and more features for the UI graphics viewer.
MAME 0.178 also adds software list updates with the latest prototype
cartridge dumps, numerous bootlegs and alternate versions of
supported games, and steady progress on non-working systems like
the CMI IIx and LSI Octopus.
try to use networking code under NetBSD.
netbsd won't let you manipulate _res in a multithreaded program and
instead calls abort(). avoid the code that does this for now.
it's possible that it broke the ability to resolve domains and I
didn't see this yet - but I'm able to use network programs now.
bump PKGREVISION
NetBSD has gethostbyname_r in libc, and it's incorrectly detected
as being sufficiently linux-like by wine, but it likely returns
different errors.
force fail the configure test for linux-like gethostbyname_r, which
already allows use of alternative networking functions.
fixes wine bug #40865: Steam does not connect to internet
bump PKGREVISION
updated by Adrian Fernandes in pkgsrc-wip
tested on netbsd/i386, netbsd/amd64.
Linux and Darwin will likely need a PLIST update.
Possibly incomplete changelog 1.7.36 -> 1.9.18:
Support for multiple kernel drivers in a single process.
More WebServices reader support.
Various improvements in joystick support.
Some more work towards the Direct3D command stream.
GDI performance improvements.
Improved IME window handling.
Compatibility fixes in the clipboard support.
Better exception handling on 64-bit.
Various improvements in joystick support.
Some more stream support in the C++ runtime.
Font embedding improvements.
More metafile support in GDI+.
Better 64-bit binary compatibility on macOS.
Performance improvements in JavaScript.
More progress towards the Direct3D command stream.
More shader instructions in Direct3D.
Performance improvements in GDI.
More shader instructions in Direct3D.
Performance improvements in GDI.
Better multi-joystick support on macOS.
Active Scripting improvements.
Additional stream support in the C++ runtime.
More Shader Model 5 support in Direct3D.
Some more write support in WebServices.
Performance improvements in GDI.
Some more progress towards the Direct3D command stream.
New version of the Gecko engine based on Firefox 47.
More Shader Model 5 support in Direct3D.
Unicode data updated to Unicode 9.0.0.
Improvements to GDI paths and metafiles.
More progress towards the Direct3D command stream.
Joystick support improvements on Mac OS X.
Bug fix update of the Mono engine.
Initial version of a taskbar in desktop mode.
Fixes for right-to-left languages in Uniscribe.
More Shader Model 4 support in Direct3D.
Better metafile support in RichEdit.
Better support for long URLs in WinInet.
Various Direct3D 11 improvements.
Down-mixing support in DirectSound.
Some cosmetic improvements in desktop mode.
High resolution ("Retina") rendering option on Mac OS X.
More compatible directory enumeration.
A number of C++ runtime fixes.
Video output improvements.
More work towards the WineD3D command stream.
Service proxies in WebServices.
Query support in the builtin reg.exe utility.
Improved support for long URLs in WinInet.
More work towards the WineD3D command stream.
Bug fix update of the Mono engine.
More WebServices reader support.
Still more Shader Model 5 support.
Support for gradients in metafiles.
Improved table formatting in WinHelp.
More work towards the WineD3D command stream.
More support for Shader Model 5 shaders.
C++ exception handling on x86-64.
Support for Windows-style static import libraries.
Performance fixes in the XML writer.
Better video card detection when using Mesa.
Support for Shader Model 5 shaders.
C++ exception handling improvements.
New version of the Mono engine, with 64-bit support.
Beginnings of the WineD3D command stream.
Support for effect states in Direct3DX.
Drag & drop improvements.
Support for color glyphs and font fallbacks in DirectWrite.
Improvements to the WebServices reader.
Support for more formats in Direct3D 11.
Simplified syntax and clean up of tests marked todo.
Various bug fixes.
New version of the Gecko engine based on Firefox 44.
JSON support in JavaScript.
Improved line breaking in DirectWrite.
Some more write support in WebServices.
Still more Shader Model 4 instructions.
GStreamer 1.0 support.
Support for SHA hashes in BCrypt.
Synthesizing bold glyphs also for bitmap fonts.
Underlines support in DirectWrite.
Still more Shader Model 4 instructions.
A few more deferred fixes.
Support for debug registers on x86-64.
More Shader Model 4 instructions.
Support for the Mingw ARM toolchain.
A number of fixes that were deferred during code freeze.
WSAPoll implementation.
Standard font dialog fixes.
X11 drag&drop improvements.
Pulse audio driver.
Various fixes for Microsoft Office 2013 support.
Some more implementation of the Web Services DLL.
More fixes for the latest C runtime version.
Improvements to the Makefile generation.
Implementation of the TransmitFile function.
More implementation of the Web Services DLL.
Improved video decoding.
Alternative for the deprecated prelink tool.
Major Turkish translation update.
Support for the various versions of XAudio.
More implementation of the Web Services DLL.
Improved OLE object embedding.
Various code cleanups in Direct3D.
New MAINTAINERS file and Signed-off-by requirement to improve the patch review process.
Unicode data updated to Unicode 8.0.0.
Some implementation of the Web Services DLL.
More Direct3D 11 interfaces.
A few more functions in the C++ runtime.
Output standard glyph names in the PostScript driver.
XAudio2 implementation using OpenAL Soft.
Support for the new Universal C Runtime DLL.
Dropdown menu support in the standard Open Dialog.
Grayscale rendering mode in DirectWrite.
New version of the Gecko engine based on Firefox 40.
First steps of the Direct3D 11 implementation.
Better font matching in DirectWrite.
Support for OpenMP on ARM platforms.
DirectWrite is now good enough for rendering text in Steam.
A number of Direct2D improvements.
Some more OpenMP functions.
Support for namespaces in the IDL compiler.
Fleshed out OpenMP implementation.
I/O stream support in the MSVCIRT C++ runtime.
Support for pixel snapping in DirectWrite.
More support for OpenGL core contexts.
Text drawing in Direct2D.
Support for the new thread pool API.
Toolbar state saving.
Beginnings of an implementation for proper HID support.
Support for file objects in device drivers.
Improvements in the BITS file transfer service.
Still more progress on DirectWrite implementation.
Support for shared user data on 64-bit.
Various C++ runtime improvements.
Some more support for the 64-bit ARM platform.
Better debugging support on 64-bit Mac OS X.
Some more progress on DirectWrite implementation.
A number of RichEdit control fixes.
Beginning implementation of the old MSVCIRT C++ runtime.
More support for the COM interfaces of the RichEdit control.
Initial version of a SmartTee filter.
Some more support for the ARM64 platform.
Support for the null device kernel object.
Improved support for Shell Browser windows.
Some more API Sets libraries.
Read/write operations support with built-in devices.
Major Catalan translation update.
Support for WoW64 mode on ARM64.
Support for dynamic timezone information.
Initial desktop shell window support.
Some more Direct2D support.
More Known Folders supported in the shell.
Some more support for kernel job objects.
More MSI patches improvements.
Some theming fixes.
Support for kernel job objects.
Various fixes to the ListView control.
Better support for OOB data in Windows Sockets.
Support for DIB images in the OLE data cache.
Improved support for MSI patches.
Some fixes for ACL file permissions.
WinMM joystick support on Mac OS X.
Kerning support in DirectWrite.
Support for DirectX Media Objects filters.
Better support for animated GIFs in GdiPlus.
Improved support for Known Folders in Shell32.
New version of the Gecko engine based on Firefox 36.
Support for themed scrollbars.
Updated version of the Mono engine.
More compatible RPC interface for service control.
Support for X Drag & Drop version 5.
Threading fixes in IME support.
Interface change notifications.
Support for the UTF-7 encoding.
A number of graphical fixes for themed controls.
Wininet now implemented on top of Win32 sockets.
Changelog:
System emulation
Incompatible changes
SPI flash devices "160s33b", "320s33b", "640s33b", "at25df041a", "at25df321a", "at25df641", "at25fs010", "at25fs040", "at26df081a", "at26df161a", "at26df321", "at26f004", "at45db081d", "en25f32", "en25p32", "en25p64", "en25q32b", "en25q64", "gd25q32", "gd25q64", "m25p05", "m25p10", "m25p128", "m25p16", "m25p20", "m25p32", "m25p40", "m25p64", "m25p80", "m25pe16", "m25pe20", "m25pe80", "m25px32", "m25px32-s0", "m25px32-s1", "m25px64", "m45pe10", "m45pe16", "m45pe80", "mx25l12805d", "mx25l12855e", "mx25l1606e", "mx25l2005a", "mx25l25635e", "mx25l25655e", "mx25l3205d", "mx25l4005a", "mx25l6405d", "mx25l8005", "n25q032", "n25q032a11", "n25q032a13", "n25q064", "n25q064a11", "n25q064a13", "n25q128", "n25q128a11", "n25q128a13", "n25q256a11", "n25q256a13", "s25fl016k", "s25fl064k", "s25fl129p0", "s25fl129p1", "s25fl256s0", "s25fl256s1", "s25fl512s", "s25sl004a", "s25sl008a", "s25sl016a", "s25sl032a", "s25sl032p", "s25sl064a", "s25sl064p", "s25sl12800", "s25sl12801", "s70fl01gs", "sst25vf016b", "sst25vf032b", "sst25vf040b", "sst25vf080b", "sst25wf010", "sst25wf020", "sst25wf040", "sst25wf512", "w25q256", "w25q32", "w25q32dw", "w25q64", "w25q80", "w25q80bl", "w25x10", "w25x16", "w25x20", "w25x32", "w25x40", "w25x64", "w25x80" connect to a backend explicitly named by a "drive" property instead of an implicit -drive if=mtd. This only affect devices created explicitly with -device; "-drive if=mtd" still works for SPI flash devices created by boards, so this should affect almost no one.
Support for the original qcow2 image encryption has been disabled entirely from the system emulators. While QEMU 2.3 attempted to keep it available in system emulators, a bug in the code has actually broken it since 2.4, and no one complained. Supported for the format remains available only in command line tools qemu-img, qemu-io, qemu-nbd to facilitate data liberation. It is recommended to use 'qemu-img convert' to convert qcow2 encrypted images to uncrypted ones. The new LUKS encryption driver can provide a secure replacement, and a future release may integrate luks into qcow2 natively.
Autoconverge is not considered experimental anymore; autoconverge-related commands do not have the "x-" prefix anymore.
The MIPS64R6-generic CPU model was renamed to I6400.
On Q35 machines, IOMMU are now enabled with "-device iommu" instead of "-machine iommu=on".
Future incompatible changes
Three options are using different names on the command line and in configuration file. In particular:
The "acpi" configuration file section matches command-line option "acpitable";
The "boot-opts" configuration file section matches command-line option "boot";
The "smp-opts" configuration file section matches command-line option "smp".
-readconfig will standardize on the name for the command line option.
Behavior of automatic calculation of SMP topology when some SMP topology options for -smp are omitted (sockets, cores, threads) will change in the future. If guest ABI needs to be preserved on upgrades while using the SMP topology options, users should either set set all options explicitly (sockets, cores, threads), or omit all of them.
Devices "allwinner-a10", "pc87312", "ssi-sd" will be configured with explicit properties instead of implicitly. This is unlikely to affect users.
QMP command blockdev-add is still a work in progress. It doesn't support all block drivers, it lacks a matching blockdev-del, and more. It might change incompatibly.
ARM
The "virt" machine type has support for NUMA.
We now implement an emulated GICv3 interrupt controller, which is supported by the "virt" board and can be enabled with "-machine gic-version=3". Note that many guest OSes do not correctly support a GICv3 without security extensions; if your guest is Linux it must include commit 7c9b973061 "irqchip/gic-v3: Configure all interrupts as non-secure Group-1" or a backport of that patch to one of the stable branches. UEFI and FreeBSD are also known to need similar bug fixes.With a GICv3 the "virt" board now supports TCG (emulated CPU) configurations with more than 8 vCPUs.
New Xilinx Zynq ZCU102 board (-M xlnx-zcu102).
Xilinx Zynq boards have experimental support for ARM Security Extensions.
Xilinx Zynq MP supports DisplayPort (graphics and audio) and DDC (used for EDID info).
i.MX6?
KVM
Xilinx Zynq boards support KVM on AArch64 hosts.
MIPS
Support for 10-bit ASIDs
The MIPS64R6-generic CPU model was renamed to I6400.
Initial GIC support
Support for IEE 754-2008
PowerPC
Many TCG fixes.
mac99 machine can now boot MacOS >= 9.1
pSeries
Significant performance improvements for the spapr-llan device.
Support for CPU hotplug.
Performance improvements for VFIO through dynamic DMA windows.
s390
Support for runtime instrumentation
The IPL firmware can boot from devices in subchannel sets > 0
Major refactoring and improvements of the s390x-specific PCI code
Optionally, zPCI specific 'uid' and 'fid' attributes may be provided
Guest-acknowledged hotunplug (rather than 'surprise removal' only)
bootindex support for IPL from SCSI devices
SPARC
Fix for sun4m Solaris 9 "Segmentation fault" regression (see bug #1588328)
x86
CPU hot-remove support based on generic device_add/device_del interface
support arbitrary CPU adding/removal
Limitation: 1st (boot) CPU isn't removable
KVM
Support for LMCE (local MCE) virtualization, which will require Linux 4.8. LMCE can be enabled through "-cpu model,lmce" on all CPUs as long as the kernel supports it.
Device emulation and assignment
ACPI
NVDIMM devices are now described in the ACPI tables and support labels.
new ACPI CPU hotplug MMIO interface since 2.7 machine types for PC/Q35
more than 255 CPUs support
CPU hot-remove support
Guest side CPU hotplug status notification via _OST events
Block devices
Removed dataplane blockers? (Fam)
New -device properties replacing -drive properties?
virtio-blk now supports multiqueue through a "num-queues" device property.
Network devices
New device e1000e for Intel 82574 NIC.
QEMU now includes iPXE ROMs for vmxnet3 devices.
SCSI
scsi-block now passes sense data correctly to the guest, so that it can support for example persistent reservations.
Support for passthrough of SCSI scanner.
PCI/PCIe
On Q35 machines, IOMMU are now enabled with "-device iommu" instead of "-machine iommu=on".
USB
Support for Xen paravirtualized USB
usb-bot and usb-uas now support hotplug.
VFIO
Support for device assignment of Intel integrated graphics devices.
The SR-IOV capability is now hidden to guests when passing through a physical function.
virtio
Initial reconnect support for vhost-user.
Support for busy polling on vhost-net devices ("-netdev tap,...,poll-us=n").
virtio-gpu multi-monitor fixes
virtio-gpu 2d live migration support
Character devices
QEMU for Windows: Fixed handling of files used for character devices – they are now truncated by default like on Linux.
TLS support
Support for overriding the TLS property, for example "-object tls-creds-x509,...,priority=NORMAL:-VERS-SSL3.0" disables SSL 3.0. This can be used both to use a non-standard weaker set of prioririties, or to enforce a stronger default for QEMU. The default priority can also be specified through "--tls-priority=VALUE" at configure time.
GUI
A new option "-machine graphics=on|off" lets you disable graphics in the VM like "-nographic" (e.g. OpenBIOS will use the serial port for boot messages) but without an implicit "-display none".
Monitor
new 'info hotpluggable-cpus' and corresponding 'query-hotpluggable-cpus' QMP commands
to list present/possible CPUs with properties necessary to add a CPU instance using device_add for a given '-smp ...' layout
supported by x86 and SPAPR softmmu targets
Migration
Autoconverge is not considered experimental anymore. Autoconverge-related commands do not have the "x-" prefix.
TODO: TLS support
Network
User-mode networking supports DHCPv6, RDNSS, DNS6 and link-local DNS addresses.
Socket networking in TCP mode can now run over IPv6. UDP and multicast modes do not support IPv6 yet.
Block devices and tools
New "bench" command in qemu-img .
The "write" command in qemu-io grew "-f" and "-z -u" options.
TODO: Block job ids?
TCG
Speed improvements around 20%.
Fixes for self-modifying code.
Tracing
TODO: dfilter
TODO: tracing for qemu-io, qemu-img and qemu-nbd
CLI options
'-cpu cpu-model,feat1=foo,...' acts as a set of '-global cpu-model-type.feat1=foo' options, which affects initial CPUs as well as all CPUs created with help of -device/device_add/cpu-add for a given cpu-model
doesn't apply to SPARC target which uses legacy -cpu semantics as its features haven't been converted to properties.
Today marks the end of the southern winter/northern summer, and
time for the hotly anticipated August MAME release. Possibly most
importantly, we've fixed the issues that were causing menus to
display off the edge of the screen on Windows (MT06335). We've
integrated a fix for Aimtrack Dual Lightguns on windows from new
contributor Pitou, and the behaviour of XAudio2 sound output should
be much improved when adjusting game speed to match monitor refresh
rate. Mouse behaviour on SDL builds (Linux/Mac) is also improved.
Thanks very much to all the users who reported issues and helped
out testing fixes.
We have lots of newly working computer systems to show off: Xerox
Alto-II, TeleNova Compis (a 16-bit educational computer from Sweden),
Victor 9000, Wang Professional Computer (DOS-based but not IBM
compatible), Atari Portfolio (of Terminator 2 fame), and Vector-06C
(a mass-produced Soviet home computer). Newly working games include
Namco Techno Drive, the original Japanese release of Orca's River
Patrol, Korean puzzle game Intergirl, and gambling game Magical
Butterfly. Speaking of gambling games, this release is a huge update
for BFM, JPM and Maygay fruit machines. John Parker has created a
tool that converts MFME layouts to MAME layouts and contributed
layouts for hundreds of games. This should make it far easier and
more rewarding to work on these drivers.
MAME now includes a driver for a VGM music file player virtual
machine (VGM is a popular video game music file format). This
feature is primarily intended as a way for developers to test sound
cores and do A/B comparisons, as it's a lot easier to just load a
VGM test case than to play a game until it uses the sound chip
feature you want to test, but it's also a convenient way to enjoy
a wide variety of video game music. You can try it out by running
mame vgmplay -bitb file.vgm or choosing "VGM player" from the list
of systems and loading a VGM file in the appropriate media slot
through the internal file manager.
The generic serial terminal and keyboard devices have been greatly
improved. This should make computers controlled via serial port
far more usable. (Keyboard layout, key repeat, simultaneous
keypresses, local echo, auto CR/LF and audible bell have all been
improved and/or made configurable.)
There are a number of improvements for MAME developers and
contributors. We now allow Unicode characters in C++ and Lua source
comments. This can make documentation clearer when referring to
original machine labels. Source files must be encoded in UTF-8 with
no initial byte order mark. Non-ASCII characters are allowed in
comments, but not in most other parts of source files. Source and
comments must still be written in English. We've improved build
times a little, and migrated a lot of MAME-specific constructs to
standard C++14 library features. A number of MAME APIs have been
streamlined and modernised. The palette viewer now shows some
details about the colour swatch under the mouse pointer (press F4
during gameplay to show, this may be interesting to regular users
as well).
Of course, this release also comes with more alternate versions of
games supported (including The NewZealand Story, Metamorphic Force,
Super Hang-On, Terminator 2, Golden Tee '98, Gulf Storm, and Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles), and other fixes and improvements for machines
already emulated by MAME (including Midway V-Unit outputs/layouts
from Risugami and input/output improvements for gambling/medal
games from AJR).
It's the last Wednesday of the month, and time for another MAME
release. We'd like to thank the Debian team for their help during
this development cycle: they've provided patches allowing MAME to
build cleanly on several more platforms, and arranged access to
IBM-sponsored POWER8 machines so we could improve our PowerPC
support.
The popular crt-geom and crt-geom-deluxe shaders have been ported
to BGFX and are now distributed with MAME, thanks to cgwg. The BGFX
versions of these shaders allow live adjustment of effect parameters
through the slider controls menu.
Interesting newly supported games include rare Soviet arcade games
Gorodki and Kot Rybolov, gambling mahjong game Swing Gal, and
alternate versions of Beastie Feastie and Raiden Fighters 2. Graphical
issues have been fixed in Seibu Kaihatsu's Denjin Makai, Godzilla,
Legionnaire and Zero Team, and there are some improvements to the
Tandy CoCo 3 palette. A few remaining gameplay issues in Taito's
Operation Wolf were resolved.
Thanks to a huge group effort involving some of our highly valued
external contributors as well some MAME team members, we've got
some visible progress on the Sun SPARCstation drivers. The SPARCstation
IPC (sun4_40 driver) now passes its self-tests and allows you to
use the OpenBoot interactive Forth interpreter at the ok prompt.
Note that there are still issues with SCSI emulation, so it won't
boot from and emulated hard disk or CD-ROM. In other news for
emulation of professional systems, MAME now supports the TeleVideo
990 and 995-65 terminals.
For people using CRT monitors and/or running games at native
resolution, we've added a lot of characters to the uismall.bdf font
supplied with MAME. It now covers most European languages using
Latin and Cyrillic scripts, as well as modern Greek and half-width
katakana. Changes were also made to improve legibility.
For developers, scrolling and hilighting in the state (registers)
view have been fixed, and viewing memory in the debugger no longer
causes spurious side effects like bank switches in systems like the
Apple II and Osborne 1. There's also been a lot of refactoring and
modernisation, particularly in the netlist and UI code.
Get ready for your vacation and grab MAME 0.175!
We're proud to say MAME now supports a number of previously unemulated
prototypes, alternate versions of games, and unusual systems.
Prototypes include the super-rare Konami Kyuukoukabakugekitai, Home
Data's Mahjong Joshi Pro-wres Give Up 5 Byou Mae, and an early
Japanese version of E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force. Atari Moto Frenzy,
previously lacking protection emulation, is now fully playable.
We've also added a number of gambling games, including some Flaming
7's variants.
Many more Game Boy peripherals are now supported, including real-time
clocks, light sensors and tilt sensors. This makes several previously
unsupported games fully playable.
This release includes improvements to the Sega Master System and
SG-1000 emulation, including better SG-1000 expansion slot support,
and drivers with correct clock speeds for South American Master
System variants.
There's some big news in Sun emulation: all sun3 models will now
POST, MAME has a SPARCv7 CPU core, and there has been substantial
progress towards emulating the SPARCstation 1 (sun4c). Using unidasm
(built with TOOLS=1) you can disassemble SPARCv7 SPARCv7 or SPARCv9
code, incuding all VIS variants up to VIS-3B.
As usual, there are many emulation improvements, including fixes
for keyboard controls in some TRS-80 games, and better Seibu COP
emulation in Legionnaire, Heated Barrel and Godzilla.
In less visible changes, MAME's memory system got a nice cleanup
exposing a number of existing issues which are now fixed, and the
netlist-based discrete circuit simulation code has had a major
overhaul with lots of performance improvements. There are a number
of improvements to MAME's debugger modules in this release,
particularly the imgui-based debugger.
