> While I can agree with that on paper... in real life it doesn't make much sense. MAME > and MESS are essentially the same program at this point, they share so much code it > isn't even funny. And this is a GOOD thing. There isn't any point in inventing the > wheel twice and many arcade systems are offshoots of consoles and vice versa.
Exactly. I really couldn't have said that better myself, Howard; except to add that tremendous benefits have been afforded to both "sides" of the project whenever the two are brought within orbiting distance. Combining them would only lead to more benefits of the sort.
I would also think it would lead to better ports of the project "sides" - for example, I think the allure of porting an "all in one" emulation platform to Android would be far greater than porting either side separately. This could lead to many more people actually creating and maintaining meaningful and useful ports. I'm willing to bet few of them today even know this project COULD emulate a lot of those other computers and consoles. That's a benefit that's only going to become more obvious with time, as more non-Windows systems find their way into the picture.
..and if it ever does happen, I think "Multiple Archaic Machine Emulator" (MAME) would be a great option, because it preserves the most common and popular acronym/logo/trademark while sliding in a more appropriate title. Maximum gain from minimum change. Folders on hard drives, marquees on cabinets, domains and logos on websites, wouldn't have to change. It also underscores the project's focus on preservation rather than "playing games".
Otherwise, just go with "EmuAllSystems" with all credits passed to Reirom.
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