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or it's done to cover their backs in case of license/patent trolling it's another matter.

..that's all it was originally for, a misplaced wording in the hope that the Arcade manufacturers legal departments would stay away.

In the highly unlikely event anything ever went to court, such 'cover our backs' mission statements wouldn't have held any sway in legal terms, but I guess it helped Nicola and the rest sleep at night in the early days.

Since then of course, the phrase has been misused and abused by certain MAME dev's to deflect away any and all questions about such stuff as 'Why no 3D graphics card support for the newer 3D games' and similar questions.

Although it has to be said a lot of the more aggressive Devs have either left MAME or mellowed with age and are no longer so hostile to such questions..they've gone soft..