MAME via Homebrew on Macs - Finally There (and MacPorts, actually)

Update 3 March 2026: The Homebrew formula of MAME was updated to 286, which is the first MAME with SDL3 support in MacOS per default! It works well, and I see consistent performance improvements with nearly every game tested. However, I had to manually adjust my paths in the mame.ini file, which for some reason has been modified by this update. After this correction, I see a well working MAME 286 - and of course, you need to install the sdl3 package in Homebrew. Good gaming!

Update 1 February 2026: Just reporting that two Homebrew updates of MAME worked as expected. Couldn‘t be more satisfied with this setup (except for the small BGFX Artwork glitch, as explained below).

Update 14 December 2025: Added a chapter for Intel Macs and for Linux (with some basic ideas how Linux should work). I also provided initial thoughts on my tests with MacPorts (instead of Homebrew), encouraging, but not fully there.

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This is a major achievement - after several unsuccessful attempts, it seems that I have finally managed to create a near-perfect MAME Homebrew setup on my Mac. Let’s explore why this effort was worth the time.

Why does this matter?

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.

With only one minor deficiency that needs a workaround as explained below, it’s ready. It’s really great to keep MAME up-to-date in an admin-friendly way.

Requirements for this setup on your end

• Main instructions are for ARM64/Silicon Mac, where the necessary changes for Intel Macs are described in a separate chapter (not that difficult)
• Basic Terminal knowledge (recommendation: iTerm2 app)
• Basic Editor knowledge (recommendation: Visual Studio Code app)
• An existing Homebrew installation (for Apple Silicon)
• Understand how to access and use the hidden folder $HOME/Library/Application Support/ folder of your user account $HOME

Let's start from scratch!