MAME 0.222 Released!

[Tafoid]

MAME 0.222

MAME 0.222, the product of our May/June development cycle, is ready today, and it’s a very exciting release.  There are lots of bug fixes, including some long-standing issues with classics like Bosconian and Gaplus, and missing pan/zoom effects in games on Seta hardware.  Two more Nintendo LCD games are supported: the Panorama Screen version of Popeye, and the two-player Donkey Kong 3 Micro Vs. System.  New versions of supported games include a review copy of DonPachi that allows the game to be paused for photography, and a version of the adult Qix game Gals Panic for the Taiwanese market.

Other advancements on the arcade side include audio circuitry emulation for 280-ZZZAP, and protection microcontroller emulation for Kick and Run and Captain Silver.

The GRiD Compass series were possibly the first rugged computers in the clamshell form factor, possibly best known for their use on NASA space shuttle missions in the 1980s.  The initial model, the Compass 1101, is now usable in MAME.  There are lots of improvements to the Tandy Color Computer drivers in this release, with better cartridge support being a theme.  Acorn BBC series drivers now support Solidisk file system ROMs.  Writing to IMD floppy images (popular for CP/M computers) is now supported, and a critical bug affecting writes to HFE disk images has been fixed.  Software list additions include a collection of CDs for the SGI MIPS workstations.

There are several updates to Apple II emulation this month, including support for several accelerators, a new IWM floppy controller core, and support for using two memory cards simultaneously on the CFFA2.  As usual, we’ve added the latest original software dumps and clean cracks to the software lists, including lots of educational titles.

Finally, the memory system has been optimised, yielding performance improvements in all emulated systems,  you no longer need to avoid non-ASCII characters in paths when using the chdman tool, and jedutil supports more devices.

You can read about all the updates in the whatsnew.txt file, or get the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

[Hutt]

What exactly was the previous issue with Bosconian?

[PL1]

What exactly was the previous issue with Bosconian?

There were several fixes mentioned in the v0.222 What's New file.

- 00480: [Graphics] (galaga.cpp) bosco and clones: Background is not erased correctly during title sequence. (hap)
. . .
-namco54: longer irq to fix bosco shot sound regression (nw) [hap]
. . .
-bosco: fix tilemap offset problem (nw) [hap]
. . .
-bosco: add "star destroyer" sub title to description (nw) [hap]

MAME Testers shows that Bosconian has ten bugs resolved, two closed, and one minor bug still open.


Scott

[gildahl]

The biggie for me was the fix for part of the "Bosconian" overlay on the title screen remaining behind when it scrolled away.  It was a little thing that actually bugged me for a long time, which I was immediately pleased to finally have fixed as Bosconian is an old favorite.  Next similar item I hope someone can fix is that leftover square in the middle of the screen after the end of the countdown in Contra!