For me, well, I've been a "lurker" for well over a decade (actually 2 decades now), and became interested in MAME from two perspectives. First, I was a demo-scene programmer in the early-to-mid-90s, and was quite intrigued with Nicola's vision by the end of the 90s. As an "aspiring" programmer, I always wanted to add to the contribution, but life and career advances pulled me further away from that goal - I moved away from hardcore programming (mainframe and x86) and moved into multi-database administration/SME/instructor across various platforms. But, it wasn't until the early-2000s when I started seeing fan-based MAME machines being built, and that led to my second perspective. I thought...hell, I could do that, but the effort had to wait until I finished building my house and could build the capital to finance the arcade build. I spent over a year researching and planning the design, and spent another year learning all about MAME. As a technical programmer by heart, I poured over all the source code, and dreamed of eventually contributing, but, alas, that never came to be simply because I never invested in the resources to continue down that path.
Over time, I was able to complete my MAME cab, and over the years, it has gone through heavy use and multiple upgrades. All throughout that time, I have kept up with all the technical improvements/additions to the core, and actually look forward to continually digging into the Git repositories to see what technical advances are being made, and trying to understand them.
Yes, there is a point to this background...
Due to the nature of our living conditions, we are fortunate enough to have many people across various cultures/backgrounds/diversities/generations that visit us. The "gameroom" is a popular destination, with the MAME cab being one of several focal points.
Over the last decade, I have noted the following:
1) People that are of my generation (born in the 60s and 70s) love to play the early games and are very intrigued by the internal operations of the machine. They are very interested in looking at the source code and following the project, and are willing to donate and provide components for the continuation of the project, but they are an aging generation that are starting to look to other interests;
2) People that were born in the 80s are more interested in the "nostalgia" of the games they used to play, and love to play those games, but are still somewhat interested in the earlier games. They are still interested in the internal workings of the code, and some have had interest in continuing following in the project. Most would love to build something similar. I have also had several requests from people on who to contact to donate components to for the continuation of the project, and one person who was actually interested in coding;
3) People that were born in the 90s are more interested in the "NES-style" games (console-based Mario and such), but are excited to play games like TMNT, Street Fighter 2, and MK, but only on a limited basis before they get tired and want to move on. I tend to get more requests for playing Super Mario 2 and other console games, but these are not on the arcade, but on a separate machine in another part of the house. There is extremely low interest in source code review much less wanting to spend the time to learn and build their own machines or contribute to the code base. Many have been interested in the hand-held games, but because they were a lower format of the GameBoy/Color and have viewed the games as an amusing fad only worthy of a few seconds to look at. I have had a couple of people willing to contribute components to the project and nobody wanting to code;
4) People that were born in the 2000s have even less interest in not only the MAME cab, but in the entire core project of MAME. They will spend time asking which games to play, then trying them for a minute or so and moving on, stating that either the game is too difficult (of which I have every game switch setting to the easiest mode) or that they are bored. The most popular games (Pac Man, DK, etc.) are now available on their phones and other media, so they are not interested in the original concept. People of this generation tend to look at the project as if it is something old and that they don't have any relationship with, so it isn't worth the time and effort to go down the path. Also, since there are other high-level programming languages, many (not most) are not interested in delving into the language used in the MAME core. As it currently stands, MAME has certain restrictions on emulation of certain components of this era, as well as limited knowledge resources, so it would make sense that components of this generation are less-likely to be emulated.
5) People that were born in the 2010s, who are of age 10 or less, have extremely limited knowledge in MAME, much less the intended project. They have hardly any relationship with any of the components, and are the least to be actively involved. They view the cab as a strange large machine, and have no history with any of the games (other than the popular Pac Man, etc. that they can play on their phones or other media). Although they are considered the future programmers, they do not have any relationship with the project, nor are they being told of such - mostly due to the lacking interest in the prior generations.
So, how do I summarize this??? Actually, I'm not sure, since most of this is based on observations from a certain individual that has access to opinions of various generations. What I can conclude is that each generation is becoming less interested simply because: 1) they just don't care about preserving their current technologies (older means lower value or that they simply view technological growth as something that doesn't need to be preserved); 2) they have no association with the older technology that the MAME development community is currently working on, so there is little to no interest in contributions; 3) they would rather invest their time in other values, such as newer programming languages that are not associated with antiquated technologies (chip readers) or where their education/career/family takes them; 4) the core project of MAME moves too slow for their wants - i.e. current CPUs do not have the power to emulate the things they want now (per MAME documentation standards), so they are willing to give up accurate documentation/emulation for hacks and shortcuts that work now.
I can say that I am of the generation that understands and supports the MAME project, and will continue to educate and promote interest where possible. Honestly, I think that is where part of the future of MAME is at - to look for ways to understand the perspectives of the newer generation and to help educate them on the value of the project - maybe help kindle a fire for awareness of things that they may be able to contribute to (or learn how to contribute to) going forward, even if it is just to take notice of the things they are using today and have them consider if it is something they would like to tinker with again in the future.
But again, I'm an old dude that has been told on numerous occasions that my views are not in line with the goals of the new generations, and to that I say, "So be it...I won't be here to coddle you forever"!
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