MAME and RetroArch in macOS 12.1 Monterey

Just a fast post on Monterey: Both MAME and RetroArch/FinalBurn Neo work flawlessly, both on Intel and Silicon machines available for me.

After the read of Ars Technica's review of macOS Monterey and the release of version 12.1, I found it safe enough to to the upgrade. 

Game & Watch Games in MAME with Screenshots

Just a fast very honourable mention of the large efforts that the MAME community undertook in order to preserve the original Game & Watch LCD handheld games from the 80ies. 

As of MAME 0.223 every Game & Watch handheld is supported in MAME. While previous emulations, such as the Retroarch Core, were not based on the original dumped roms, I understand that MAME versions actually preserve the data of the old handhelds. Huge kudos for this, I never owned one by myself, but played on my friends' handhelds a lot. It is very nice to look back.

However, if you only have the roms availabe, there is no way to play them properly. You also need the artwork.

Mickey Mouse without Artwork

January 2016 - September 2021: 100.000 Views - Thank You

Without realizing it, this September saw my blog passing the 100.000 views mark. Even in rather silent times, this documentation seems to help Mac users.

Thank you for your interest, this is my contribution to MAME. Please let me repeat that this blog will always remain strictly non-commercial.

Cheers.

Final Burn Neo 1.0.0.2 is the better MAME on Macs

Fast update 29 August 2021: After quick tests of MAME 0.235 and FBNeo 1.0.0.3/RetroArch Metal 1.9.8, the situation is still the same. Important note, however: After updating FBNeo (as well as any other Core), restart your Mac! Weirdly any updated Core crashes RetroArch immediately, while after a restart, everything works fine.

These are quite heretic news: On my Macs (both M1 and Intel), many arcade classics play better on the brand new combo Final Burn Neo 1.0.0.2/RetroArch Metal 1.9.2 than current MAME. If you are curious and ready to dive into RetroArch, this is definitely worth a try.

Moon Patrol (FBNeo with crt-guest-dr-venom2 shader)

I tested the newest incarnations of Final Burn Neo (via RetroArch frontend) and MAME official on my Macs, and to my surprise, Final Burn Neo currently has a clear edge over MAME in some classic arcade games. If you want to do your own testing, I recommend that you try out these three games, where results are quite obvious:

MAME Arcade Bezel Update!

Just to let you know that my Github repository containing realistic bezel artwork for MAME is significantly updated. No need to repeat the ReadMe file in Github, just move there:

https://github.com/estefan3112/MAME-Realistic-Bezel-Artwork/blob/master/README.md

Shinobi contains all updates, including the Screen Mask (very much smoothing the screen borders) and
adding a dedicated Screen Bezel (thereby adding a lot of depth to the bezel).

I was looking for a long time for a screen bezel for Oddyssey2/Videopac - so many thanks to SuSGoART for that one (I found it in the libretro forum, conversion to MAME layout format by myself).

While this project will probably never end, I believe that it is a very nice moment to grab the repo and enjoy the new stuff. Comments as always much appreciated.