The big event of the day is here! MAME 0.236 is ready for your
enjoyment! Sadly, this month marked the passing of Sir Clive
Sinclair, who it could be argued did more to put computers into
the hands of everyday people than anyone. There’s a small update
to MAME’s ZX Spectrum software list in this release.
The effort to dump and preserve protection microcontrollers is
still going well. This month’s additions include Juuouki and Wonder
Planet. Protection simulation has been removed for Wonder Planet
and Space Harrier. Remember, this is a worthy cause that provides
multiple benefits: it improves accuracy by taking guesses out of
emulation, helps people maintain and repair ageing arcade boards,
and simplifies MAME’s code.
MAME’s NEC PC-8001 now supports floppy disks. The PC-8001 and
PC-8801 software lists have been reorganised to match, and a big
batch of items from the Neo Kobe collection have been added. MAME
continues to improve its NES/Famicom cartridge coverage. There are
a whole lot of games you can play now, including Chinese RPGs,
fighting game bootlegs, and pirate multi-game cartridges. Experience
a parallel universe of software of such inconsistent quality that
you can’t stop going down the rabbit hole! Saturn emulation has
seen a few improvements, with several games that didn’t boot
previously reaching playable status this month.
As you might expect, the FM Towns, PC-98 and V.Smile software lists
have been updated as usual. A couple of recently dumped prototypes
have been added to the SNES and Game Boy software lists. The
SpongeBob SquarePants Jellyfish Dodge game has been dumped and
emulated, and a Korean version of Sotsugyo Shousho known as Jor-eop
Jeungmyeongseo has been found. More pleasant surprises include
working emulation for the IDE protection dongle included in Killer
Instinct 2 upgrade kit, and some fixes for Atari 8-bit home computers
using the ANTIC video chip.
For people with more exotic tastes, MAME has added its oldest
working software list additions: Munching Squares and Punchy for
the MIT TX-0. There’s also a new disassembler for the DEC VAX
architecture. In more mundane news, you can now reduce the
proliferation of duplicate ROM sets for families of similar keyboards
and other devices.
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