Items I was surprised or didn't believe would happen in 2017.
Luca Elia improving Jockey Club II and the CES StarPak series, with help from game designer Keith M. Kolmos, to where only StarPak 1 needs to be found if possible. Kale imroving lots of games in various ways such as Stern's Mazer Blazer and Great Guns, getting audio and mcu simulation going for some of the Taito games. SailorSat improving emulation of Sega's N-Sub and of course the internal rom backup work from contributors that got the Gaelco games preserved and Laser Battle emulated and the PGM2 hardware as well. ShouTime finding various games and prototypes for 2017. And significant improvements by AJR for the DECO cassette updates and additions of clone sets that show regional variation during game play.
Lots more Aristocrat games being supported and Robbie also getting more various gambling games supported as well.
Non stop emulation of LCD games that will rival in numbers emulated along the scope of numerous Neo Geo hardware titles that were emulated over the many years. *kidding*
ShouTime still finding hard-to-find games in 2018.
Users still pleading for Votrax speech emulation to temporarily revert to external audio samples.
For own wishlist:
Net list emulation work of any type or even more roms being dumped from non-cpu videogame pcbs and making way into MAME source....including a particular PSE game that Stiletto and I thought would never be found. ;-)
-- Votrax speech emulation was done in 2020 --
Arcadia Rockford somehow being found along with any other hard-to-find 1970s or 1980s era games. More PEPlus games being found and supported.
-- Mattel Electronics led games began being emulated in Feb 2021. -
Support for the original 1970s era Gremlin wall games such as Trap Shoot.
And somehow of Konami Sys 573 hardware with Drum Mania finally playable in MAME. If Twinkle hardware emulation happened, gotta be hope for Drum Mania.