MAME 0.289 is out with Sega Model 1 fixes and 128-button controller support

MAME 0.289 released on July 31, bringing major fixes to Sega Model 1 arcade games and overhauling controller support for Windows users. The open-source emulator update is available now for PC and continues the project's nearly three-decade mission to document vintage hardware.

The Windows binary releases now include the SDL sound output and joystick input modules. The most notable change here is that the sdljoy input module now supports game controllers with up to 128 buttons. The Win32 debugger module also handles dynamic UI scaling changes now. Outputs have been overhauled to improve performance, though the development team notes you might need to update your configuration files if you have external programs hooked up. If you rely on custom artwork files or complex output hooks for a physical arcade cabinet build, you will want to back up your setup before migrating to 0.289.

Fixing the Model 1

Sega's Model 1 arcade board launched in 1992 as a co-development with GE Aerospace. It popularized real-time 3D polygon graphics in arcades. MAME 0.289 brings numerous fixes to the platform, targeting graphical issues and collision detection.

Yu Suzuki's 1993 fighting game Virtua Fighter gets better collision detection in this release. Virtua Fighter revolutionized the fighting game genre by introducing fully 3D polygon graphics and depth-based movement, and getting it to run accurately requires complex microcode patching for onboard Digital Signal Processors to replicate the original geometry routines. The developers also identified and patched bad bits in the DSP program that were breaking Wing War, a 1994 3D aerial dogfight game. NetMerc is running better, and the highly unconventional Flash Beats is now fully playable with basic internal artwork.

32-bit UNIX and CP/M

MAME originally launched in February 1997 as the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. It absorbed the MESS project in 2015 to expand its coverage from arcade cabinets to home consoles and vintage computers. This update makes several systems and coprocessor cards based around the National Semiconductor NS32000 CPU family fully working.

The NS32000 architecture was one of the first single-chip CPU families with a 32-bit ALU. It used a highly orthogonal instruction set influenced by Digital Equipment Corporation. The hardware ultimately struggled in the market because it lacked enough registers, had overly complex instruction encoding, and took too long to catch up to the performance of Motorola's 68k family. Early bugs also hurt adoption. You can now run contemporary 32-bit System V UNIX on it within the emulator.

Developer David Rand handled the NS32000 emulation advances and also brought several other vintage computer systems up to working status. The update adds support for the Xerox 820 and Big Board families, emulates Toshiba CP/M systems, and implements the hard disk controller for the Kaypro 10.

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