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MAME 0.237

For everyone who’s waited patiently all month, MAME 0.237 is out today! As well as the updates to the UI and debugger that we’ve already announced, there are several updates to the included plugins:

A brand-new input macro plugin.
The data plugin can now show text from the Japanese command.dat file (or a Chinese command.txt file if you rename it to command.dat).
The location the hiscore support plugin uses to store its data and configuration has changed. You won’t lose your high scores, but you need to move the .hi files from the hi folder to the hiscore folder in your plugin data (homepath) folder.
The configuration format for the autofire plugin has changed. Unfortunately, you will need to add your autofire button settings again.

Interesting machines added this month include a Mexican TRS-80 Color Computer clone, Tronica Thunder Ball (a re-skin of Space Rescue with a nautical theme), the original version of Pengo that the widespread bootlegs seem to be based on, the original hardware revision of the Laser 128 (Apple II clone), and a slightly older version of Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha for Asia.

Master of multi-memory controllers kmg is still on a roll broadening NES/Famicom and clone cartridge compatibility. Highlights of the month include:

Railway management simulator A Ressha de Ikou.
Recent NES/Famicom games released by Ancient to promote Gotta Protectors (Minna de Mamotte Knight). NES development is still alive over two decades after the last licensed title was released in 1995.
The two Korean Brilliant Com (영재컴) edutainment games.
Some multi-game cartridges featuring the ambitious Titenic game, inspired by a highly successful James Cameron film.
Kart Fighter – using the engine from an unlicensed NES port of Street Fighter II, and unlicensed depictions of the character roster from Super Mario Kart, this is almost a premonition of Super Smash Bros. It even features Yoshi’s tail smash, and depicts Kinopio (Toad) as a bare-knuckle brawler long before the Mii costume was available for purchase.
Well-known low-effort Mario-themed hack 7 Grand Dad. PUSH ↑ START BUTTON. GET ADDITION GAME. AND NOURISH THE BLOOD

Amiga software compatibility has been improved this month, the NEC PC-6001 family has gained a cartridge software list, and another batch of Commodore 64 cassettes has been added. An issue was identified with “fake E7” Apple II cracks that could prevent them from working if they were written out to disks to use on original hardware. Although this didn’t prevent them from being used in MAME, disk images with the issue fixed have been added to the software list. Over a hundred Apple IIgs cracks have been added, too.

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

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