Arcade Emulation on Modern Macs - Tips & Tricks (strictly non-profit)
This featured post is in steady update.
23 March 2026 - updated Game Cube/Wii section, as some days ago, RetroAchievements landed for the Wii - which is of course super-exciting.
2 February 2026 - updated the Arcade Games section by upgrading MAME to 'excellent' due to vector support and frontend glory.
11 January 2026 - added link to a brilliant collection of Decompliation and Recompilation projects
3 December 2025 - a fully functional DarkPlaces build is finally ready for download, updated the section below, enjoy!
6 February 2025 - MAME updated again due to the big news of a Dynarec for Silicon builds
6 January 2025 - MAME update, added a link to my new post concerning MacIntel builds
10 December 2024 - added short entry for the PS3, as RPCS3 now provides native builds for Silicon Macs.
19 October 2024 - added WolfMAME/MAME Action Replay Page, thank you, Mr. Unknown!
3 October 2024 - small update for Arcade, as the MAME 2003 RetroArch cores improved on Apple Silicon as well.
6 August 2024 - small update of for N64 (mupen 2.6.0 release), GameCube (RetroAchievements in Dolphin), and Darkplaces (still compiles smoothly).
23 March 2024 - added TyrQuake in the Quake for PC section for the sake of completeness.
2 March 2024 - added GBA section and applied links to the Table of Content as well as a lot of shoe polish to the entry.
(links in this TOC only work in the actual blog post, but not on the homepage)
Statistics tell me that my info about MAME on Apple Silicon is having highest popularity and became a kind of landing page for the entire blog. Here I give a broader overview. As emulators still improve, I will regularly update this blog post and try to provide a changelog in the header. In consoles, I will only review those emulators, for which I dump my own games.
Why this focus on MacOS emulation?
Motivation has changed through time. When I started this blog in 2016, its main purpose was to fill a huge gap by explaining how to run MAME on Macs. Documentation was scarce or non-existent back then.
Nowadays documentation got much better, and I see Silicon Macs as a quite unique emulation platform - emulation on the Mac M2 mini shines like never before. You are getting decent performance paired with highest energy efficiency, thus no noise or heat at all. Compared to a quite noisy and hot Nintendo Switch, a Silicon Mac is a much quieter and cooler gaming device. Gaming PCs, while more powerful, are clumsy, can be noisy and always emit a lot of warm air. With most emulation, Apple Silicon performance is the definitive sweet spot for me.
What about those RetroAchievements aka cheevos?
I consider them as a game changer for retrogaming. While cheevos shines on more complex console emulation, they are increasingly fun on arcades as well (e.g. brilliant achievements for 1942 and Bubble Bobble). I also discovered new things via RetroAchievements that I had not been aware of. That‘s why I will always prefer emulators supporting RetroAchievements over others.
So many words to read here - why don‘t you do videos?
Call me old-fashioned, but reading is remembering. There is great YouTube content out there, but when it comes to learning things and configuration on the command line, I prefer the written word. And with the more complicated configuration instructions, videos get overly complicated to make (and to use as well). I also revisit my blog entries and update them, and that seems hardly feasible with videos.
With this in mind, let's have a look into the emulation scene with a focus on Silicon Macs.
Managing your MAME install via Homebrew should address the following major issues around any MAME installation:
MAME system and user files stay separately: With this setup
the MAME system files, which are regularly upgraded via Homebrew, stay in the Homebrew repository of your Mac, while
your user data, such as inis, rom files, artwork and all other content, are in a separate folder of your Mac, where MAME can find them.
Seamless upgrades: By keeping MAME system data separate from your user data, you upgrade MAME via Homebrew without the need for any user data migration. User data upgrades are always separate from MAME system upgrades.
No Gatekeeper woes: Running MAME via Homebrew does not hit Gatekeeper restrictions. MAME is treated like any other CLI tool installed through a trusted package manager. This is why you can launch it without the “macOS cannot verify the developer” or “move it to the bin” popups.
Launch MAME from anywhere: Just open the Terminal and type e.g. mame 1942, and the game launches. It is no longer needed to launch MAME via Terminal from the home directory.
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| No need for you to join the Dark Side of Negatron - Modena (Default) is bright. |
Quick Hints 2 February 2025 - Running QMC2 for the first time / older MAME installs
Hint #1: Prior to running QMC2 for the first time, please ensure that your MAME install is up and running, i.e. passes the Gatekeeper. This restriction also applies to Intel Macs with modern MacOS systems installed. Without this, the QMC2 setup will not recognize QMC2 as an installed MAME application.
This applies to the MAME executable and the SDL2 Framework, which after each upgrade must again be manually authorized in the Privacy & Security section of the System Configuration.
If you hate this (like I do) -> go for the Homebrew/MacPorts install of MAME, as described in my dedicated post, and no Gatekeeper woes will infest your MAME updates. Further details on QMC2 are mostly still valid from my old post of 2016 on QMC2.
Hint #2: Scanning the ROM directory first time is very buggy in QMC2 and often results in crashes. Don't worry, just restart the app, choose the option "Once" and the scan ends. Be sure not to do any multitasking during this scan.
Hint #3: Older MAME installs - start from scratch: When you move to a newer MAME version after a longer time, the second tip I have is to start a new mame install by renaming the $HOME/Application Support/mame directory containing the old ini files. For example MAME 278 introduced new audio latency options that can make problems with old mame.ini files. So if you are stuck with launching MAME and end up in a blank screen, I recommend that you restart with a new mame.ini file. This should resolve most of the MAME black screens at program launch.
Update 23 December 2025 - First fully notarized QMC2 MacOS Binaries online
I finally managed to create MacOS app bundles (both ARM64/Silicon and Intel) that have been notarized by Apple. For this to succeed, I had to bundle the SDL2 Framework into the app bundle and codesign everything with hardened runtime.
Grab it here: https://github.com/estefan3112/qmc2-mame-fe-MacOS/releases/tag/v244v4
Both App versions should work flawlessly - but please look into the ReadMe file if unsure.
Update 6 May 2024 - GitHub Fork with MacOS Binaries
For easier deployment, I created a fork of the QMC2 Github Repository here:
https://github.com/estefan3112/qmc2-mame-fe-MacOS
You'll find here latest pre-compiled and code-signed versions of QMC2 for both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. You'll also find Shell scripts for compiling the Upstream source code and self-sign the app. Right now only for Apple Silicon, soon for Intel Macs as well.
Question: I downloaded the QMC2 app, but MacOS tells me that the file is corrupted. I already tried right mouse + open at least twice, but with no success.
Answer: Sorry to hear, your QMC2 app might be in the quarantine. To lift the quarantine, please execute this command in the Terminal
xattr -cr /Applications/qmc2-sdlmame.app (please adjust the path to your QMC2.app, if required)
Enjoy.
Update March 2024 - in (far too late) Memory of Rene Reucher
Only these days, far too late, I learnt that Rene Reucher, the creator of the QMC2 frontend, passed away in spring 2023. Back in 2022, when I wrote the first version of this post, Rene has restarted his work on this quite unique MAME frontend, and it was a pleasure for me to help him out on some minor things in relation to Macs, albeit nothing crucial. From two phone calls, I remember him as a very reasonable and pleasant person. This is my very late "Sorry, and all the best, Rene."
As always, please care for the instructions in the ReadMe and do report any problems back, many thanks.
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| I started MAME with the help of QMC2, and it is still a classic frontend experience |
Original post in the following (no longer relevant and rather outdated, as it builds nicely now with Homebrew):
I’m pleased to provide MacOS DarkPlaces builds, fully codesigned and notarized, for download and use on Silicon aka ARM64 as well as Intel Macs. The builds are packaged in a sleek DMG for easy installation. Thanks to notarization, also Gatekeeper on ARM64 macOS systems poses no issues. An Intel Mac build landed as well as of 5 Dec 2025.
https://github.com/estefan3112/DarkPlaces-Apple-Silicon-Builds/releases/tag/1.0
This video above is a quick, freehand iPhone recording showcasing DarkPlaces with hires textures running on an M1 Mac Mini connected to a 48-inch TV at 4K resolution. While there are some initial FPS struggles, overall the performance is quite impressive.
Celebrating Quake and DarkPlaces
Quake was the most expensive game I ever bought, since I had to upgrade to a Pentium PC just to play it. I still celebrate the game for its feel, its dark and atmospheric mood, and the brilliant Nine Inch Nails soundtrack (including the idea to have a NIN gun ;-). While many Quake adaptations have been enjoyable, DarkPlaces stands out as the best implementation on modern hardware. You can read more about it here:
https://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/
https://github.com/DarkPlacesEngine/DarkPlaces
Self-compilation has always been possible, but a ready-to-play binary for modern Macs was missing. Thanks to the help of AI (yes, it has its advantages), I was able to overcome the final hurdles and now provide this software package as a direct fork of the official Github server.
Requirements for running Quake in DarkPlaces
November 2025 — an excellent opportunity to present a broad overview of updates in macOS emulation. Since this will cover a diverse range of topics, I plan to combine this post with updates to the corresponding main articles, including links to them. Let’s see how well this approach works, and I hope you enjoy the read.
Despite the widespread criticism surrounding macOS 26 and iOS/iPadOS 26, I actually like all of them. As usual, I waited for the .1 release before updating, and the process went without a hitch.
The emulators are running well, and I’ll be providing an update on them below anyway.
What I realized for the first time these days is the actual impact of scaled resolution on performance - and for official MAME, the effect can be rather dramatic!
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| macOS 26.1 actually tells you this! Let’s look at some performance numbers in MAME 282, still running under Sequoia on the Mac Mini M2 Pro. As always, I used a 30‑second run with shaders enabled, while disregarding other ini‑settings. Both the OpenGL and Metal backends were tested. My main takeaways are: |
I’ll also be updating the main MAME blog post and linking it here for easy reference.
As of this writing, there’s no official blog post yet, but the stable 1.22 build of RetroArch is already available for download from the Libretro website. With so many changes since the last stable release, it’s difficult to highlight any single update. What I can say for sure is that the macOS version has received excellent dedicated improvements, thanks largely to the tireless work of warmenhoven—huge kudos to him, as always.
I’ll also be updating the main RetroArch blog post and linking it here for easy reference.
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| Retroarch 1.22 with koko-aio shaders and my integrated bezels |
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| That's a fully functional Negatron MAME frontend on my Silicon Mac! |
With QMC2 development having completely ended, it’s encouraging to see some progress with Negatron, which looks like the perfect successor to QMC2. At the moment, however, the current Negatron download suffers from significant code‑signing issues, meaning the app will only launch if you start the binary directly from within the app bundle. If you’re willing to take that route, you can already enjoy a highly performant Negatron experience on your Apple Silicon Mac.
I updated the main Negatron blog post from 2020 with the news - here it is.
I will use this post as collector for any further improvements that we see in the MAME (current) RetroArch core.
Update 4 August 2025 - just briefly an overdue update on easier highscore support in MAME (current) for RetroArch, which I can confirm as working (done with newest MAME version 0.279)
Preparatory steps:
Still a bit clumsy, but far better than before.
Reminder: samples for very old MAME games need to be here as well - $HOME/Documents/RetroArch/system/mame/samples
Besides Super Mario 64, the two Zelda games on my Nintendo 64 are high ranking in my forever games list. Even more than Super Mario 64, these games had severe technical limitations on the console and criminally low fps. The two projects I want to present here are still in beta, but seem both stable enough to advertise. They provide unprecedented gaming experience for Ocarina of Time and Majora‘s Mask.
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| My two favorite N64 games besides Super Mario 64, you can see the passage of time ... |
Disclaimer: Legally you require to own the games.
The two solutions I want to present here are
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| Metal backend with 60fps, re-textured including models |
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| The newest version 1.2 provides similar options as SOH - retextures are also breathtaking |
Update 26.7.2025: The very promising Launcher for Super Mario 64 received a nice update. See the new chapter at the bottom of this entry!
Update 18.7.2025: This time, a very welcome update of Render96ex_MacOS, including rumble and support for Retina displays. This is definitely worth the work of the manual compile. Build yourself the latest version and install Texture Pack and Dynos, it is definitely worth the effort!
Update 8.7.2025: late to the party with the latest CoopDX version 1.3.2 - https://github.com/coop-deluxe/sm64coopdx/releases/tag/v1.3.2 - another must download, hyper-polished gaming experience with the dynos mentioned below. So Coop Deluxe is the app to go.
Update 26.03.2025: another update of CoopDX with the latest and greatest version of the app and the Render96 Dynos resources, including actual github links. Good to see such great app further updated.
Update 18.11.2024: Amendments to CoopDX, which really rules. First preview of the SM_OSX launcher that already now shines.
Please allow me this major digression from Arcade gaming: I still adore Super Mario 64, and from time to time and fire up my Nintendo64 only for this game. I also like the game as ported to the Nintendo Switch, but the experience is basic.
Now, there have been exiting Super Mario 64 Mods and Hacks out for a while that deliver the goods. If you are capable of the Command Line and Homebrew, they are also available for under MacOS, in particular Silicon Macs. And with a MacOS-native launcher currently in revamp, things could get easier as well.
Here are the instructions for three solutions that worked for me. It's quite easily to loose focus with all the different repositories, so let's look into three solutions that work reliably.
1. smex: The oldest repo and manual install, but perfect for textures and rumble.
2. Render96ex: Not as impressive as under Windows with raytracing, but still powerful.
3. SM64CoopDX: Bleeding edge, a lot of mods and romhacks out there, though designed for cooperatives, you can also play it solo (host yourself). Endless gaming.
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| Screenshot of Render96ex with Textures and Models |
MacOS-specific hint: MacOS display scaling is your enemy for all these apps! In my own case, I have to set my 4K-monitor to native resolution without scaling, while normally I use MacOS with the largest scaling. But especially with custom textures, this scaling causes a lot of jittery effects in all three solutions. So prior to using any of the following solutions, be sure to switch MacOS-scaling off. It‘s only one click, leave the window open to revert after gaming - no big hassle.
By the way: That can also be very true under Windows11 in my own experience, only that I could not find such an easy solution there as with MacOS.
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| Turning off scaling is a must for hi-res textures. |
Requirement for all solutions: Super Mario 64 (USA).z64 rom
Just a brief note on the latest version 0278 of MAME: As advertised in the Release Notes, it comes with a new sound infrastructure that provides for very nice tweaking possibilities. Performance-wise, the latest ARM64 build also shines on my Mac.
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| As soon as you enter the MAME menu with TAB, you see the new options called "Audio Mixer" and "Audio Effects" |
Audio Effects: That's very nice, and MAME-typical very much to the very detail. Tuning your audio here provides quite endless tweaking possibilities.
If you are a headphone player like me, try this: Activate Reverb under "Default", switch to the "Very Large Room Bright" setting and put the Resampler on HQ. Suddenly your game sound feels like in a larger Arcade hall! Just a matter of 5 minutes trying, gives you an immersive experience.
Very well done, MAME team!
And yes: After updating your Retroarch MAME (current) core to the latest version, this option is also available in RetroArch.
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| Quite vast possibilities here, already the Reverb option is a blast for me. |
Last comment on performance: In this latest version 0278, I again see significant improvements on more complicated games, in particular games that need a dynamic recompiler (both OpenGL and Metal backend). Kudos to the MAME team also in this regard, such a strong build!
As always, happy gaming!
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| That's a lot of benchmarks! |
It seems that one of the major drawbacks of current MacOS MAME is the lack of a Dynamic Recompiler (dynarec), which is only available for Intel64 builds. Modern Arcades can crawl even on very powerful Silicon Macs if the games relies on a dynarec. This is where an Intel build comes to the rescue.
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| Comparison between ARM/Silicon and Intel64 Build |
While during summer, computing tends to slow down a bit, this is certainly not true for the emulator scene. Let's just list the big news that also are relevant for Mac Retrogaming:
The RetroArch community remains very busy and provides for another big thing - RetroArch is now downloadable for iOS/iPadOS/tvOS from the official Apple App Store.
But this app iOS/iPadOS/tvOS is a big step forward, as you no longer need to care about sideloading or even jailbreaking your mobile device. Installation and updates from the official Apple App Store work like a breeze. Big thanks to the libretro community for such good progress.
If you are really into RetroArch on Apple mobiles, I can highly recommend you this third-party app for all your file transfers: https://imazing.com/ - yes, it costs money, but it's worth every cent. A very smart way of managing your devices and transfering data from and to it.
At this occasion, I also updated my two RetroArch tutorials:
All in all, RetroArch continues to be a cornerstone of Mac emulation.
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| Hello RetroArch! I do hope it's fine to use your great logo here :-). |
Update June 2024: Besides minor tweaks all over the document, I included a dedicated RetroArch Cloud Sync section for FinalBurn Neo, as this cannot be put into the official documentation.
This February 2024, RetroArch reached another milestone with the release of the stable version 1.17. The significance of this frontend for the emulation community cannot be overestimated - it's the foundation/inspiration for many other projects and of course the home of an ever growing list of cores that run under this frontend. But it's also a steady inspiration for new concepts and ideas - with some of these ideas remaining in an experimental mode, while others becoming very successful and influential.
This is a follow-up to this post about configuring RetroArch from scratch - Part I.
So let's start Part II of the RetroArch tutorial with a focus on Arcade games - but most of this applies to other cores as well. As you may expect, this post is work in progress and will grow over time. If you are interested in some special RetroArch topics, just leave a comment below.
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| Even with 1.17 being out, let me suggest to use nightly builds. |
The nightly MacOS builds of RetroArch have now been stable for several years. I can recommend using them instead of the stable builds. For example, new version 1.2.7 of MoltenVK (the Vulkan layer for MacOS) just landed two days after the stable 1.17 - apparently, this plugin is essential for RetroArch in MacOS, so you would not want to miss this update. But I do not mean that you should update RetroArch every day, but if you do, download a nightly build to benefit from the latest updates.
If things turn out strange for you, you can easily downgrade by installing the stable version over the nightly build. As shown in Part I, updating the app is simple, and you will not loose any of your settings.
Update 13 January 2024: Further great news for all Aracade fans.
1942 has RetroAchievements! One of my all-time arcade favorites finally received nice Achievements. Needless to tell that I won't master this set at any point in time, but for all you hardcore gamers, this is definitely something to head for.
OpenEmu 2.41! After some two years, the emulator with a MacOS feeling, OpenEmu, has been finally updated again. If you download the "Experimental" version, you also receive a MAME 250 core. One word of caution: It is still Intel only. However, some initial testing on my M2 Mac mini showed nice performance. In MacOS Sonoma, OpenEmu also activates the Gaming Mode in fullscreen. I certainly will always prefer RetroArch/FinalBurn Neo, but if you want to engage into all this configuration hassles, OpenEmu is worth a try.
Update 22 December 2023: Have a good festive season with a lot of good arcade gaming! These great news will help you so spend some quality gaming time. I also tweaked the main text a bit. Cheers!
Bubble Bobble has RetroAchievements! The wait is over, and these Achievements are pure joy. RetroArch and FinalBurn Neo (don‘t forget to turn the koko-aio shaders on, and my repository of course contains dedicated artwork). It’s a great experience and raises this brilliant game to a new level.
AttractMode Plus updated to 3.0.7, the signed app for Silicon Macs is online: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/releases/tag/3.0.7
Arcadeflow layout for AttractMode Plus updated to 16.7, grab it here: https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow/releases/tag/16.7
Happy holidays! And again: All here strictly non-commercial, i.e. no ads, and any comments trying to benefit will be removed.
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Inspired some interesting reads out there (Dolphin Emu progress reports, PCSX2 progress reports, and last but not least https://www.readonlymemo.com/) I do this status report in December 2023 on Mac Arcade emulation (including iOS emulation). Don't get me wrong: Those emu progress reports are much more into technical stuff than this blog - still the format inspires. And it's also a very good moment to do this, as there is a lot of good things to report. And before you ask: No tvOS experience here, sorry ;-).
In short: Arcade emulation on Macs/iOS was never better than now. Let's discuss why.
(1) MacOS Sonoma: Upgrading to the latest MacOS from Ventura was hassle-free. The new OS just works, and so do all emulators so fae (and Homebrew, most importantly). For sure, you will ask about this Game Mode that landed in MacOS for the first time. Happy to report that RetroArch properly launches in Game Mode when in fullscreen (MacOS tells you this with a notification each launch).
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| Apologies for Shots in German ;-). |
(2) FinalBurn Neo (RetroArch Core for MacOS/iOS): This core continues to impress and remains a clear number one in Mac Arcade emulation. The RetroArch documentation provides a nice summary of the main differences between MAME and FinalBurn Neo: https://docs.libretro.com/library/fbneo/ - in short, FinalBurn Neo takes compromises on accuracy in favor of playability by accepting 'quality of life hacks' that MAME doesn't. Since my latest post on this core (actually a full setup guide on RetroArch for Arcade games), the developers took huge efforts to stay in sync with MAME official (as of this post, this is version 261). Highscore support further increased for my favorite games. And most importantly, it is the only reliable RetroArch arcade core for RetroAchievements. Remember: For playing in HC Mode (the real thing without save states and rewind), you need to disable the rom hack core option when running FBNeo and restart.
In short: FinalBurn Neo remains the best Arcade emulator on MacOS/iOS systems.
