Software update: MAME 0.232

Version 0.232 of MAME and MESS has been released. MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and is a program with which it is possible to create a large amount of classic arcade games to play. MESS stands for Multi Emulator Super System and emulates a lot of old ones computers, such as the Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Gameboy and ZX Spectrum. New in this release is support for Mrs. Dynamite and there are improvements in the emulation of the Namco C140 sound chip. The extensive list of changes is available here, the release notes can be found below.

MAME 0.232:

It’s time for MAME 0.232, and do we have a surprise for you! The incredibly rare Universal game Mrs. Dynamite has finally been found and dumped! This is an early example of a game where you place bombs to kill enemies that walk over them, showing Universal’s flair for cute characters and cutscenes. Mrs. Dynamite is believed to had performed poorly on location tests, and never had a widespread release. The graphics in the version that has been dumped don’t match what’s shown on flyers. Other arcade additions include Dokaben 2 and a prototype of Spinal Breakers.

Namco racing games have taken a leap forward this month. Final Lap has its sprite chip hooked up subtly differently to later games on the System II platform, which had been causing graphical issues on the title screen. Lack of playback status register emulation in the C140 sound chip was causing issues with engine sounds in Final Lap, Suzuka 8 Hours, and Four Trax. The horizontal position of the road layer has also been adjusted to better match videos made using original hardware.

A number of bug fixes allow previously unplayable Japanese home computer games, including µPD7220 issues affecting the Madou Monogatari games on PC-98, the missing 1-bit DAC sound on PC-98, broken sprites in Asuka 120% Burning Fest. on FM Towns, and background bugs on Sharp X68000. Mac media support continues to improve, with working CD-ROM drives on more Macs, and fixes for high density floppy drives. The V. Smile Smart Keyboard is now supported, in US, French, and German variants. Tim Lindner has continued to fix long-standing bugs in Tandy CoCo 3 emulation.

Software list additions include Taiwanese Game Gear cartridges, Master System prototypes, a big batch of software for the Australian MicroBee series, and quite a few add-on ROMs for the Acorn BBC Micro. We’ve also got the latest Apple II floppy dumps and cracks, FM Towns floppies and CDs, and PC floppies.

That’s all we’ve got time for here, but you can read about all the additions, bug fixes, and enhancements in the whatsnew.txt file.