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No Comments MAME compie 22 anni!
Il 5 febbraio di dodici anni fa l’italiano Nicola Salmoria rilascia la prima versione (la 0.1) del MAME, acronimo di Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, ossia il primo software in grado di emulare varie piattaforme di gioco su Ms-Dos.
Scopo del programma era quello di preservare la storia dei video giochi delle macchinette (definite coin-op per il fatto che bisogna inserire la moneta per farle funzionare). Salmoria aveva avuto l’idea di unire più emulatori trovati in rete in un unico programma in grado di eseguire più giochi.
Parallelamente a MAME, che funzionava sotto Dos, partì lo sviluppo di MAME32 (ora chiamato MAMEUI), una versione per Windows a 32 bit.Nel 1998 la versione 0.34 raggiunse la quota dei 1000 titoli supportati. Oggi, l’ultima versione stabile di MAME è la 0.129, rilasciata il 4 gennaio 2009, che supportata 3938 titoli, 7480 contando anche i vari cloni. Il progetto ora è coordinato da Aaron Giles.
Ecco la storia completa del MAME:
| MAME Project Timeline | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | |
| 05 Feb | MAME 0.1 released (0.1) |
| 18 Feb | First version of MacMAME released (0.4) |
| 23 Mar | First support for multiple CPUs (0.12) |
| 26 Mar | High score saving support added (0.13) |
| 20 Apr | First version of X/MAME checked in (0.18) |
| 26 Apr | Mirko Buffoni takes over from Nicola as MAME coordinator (0.19) |
| 02 Jun | First FM synthesis-based sound chip supported — but only through a hack to use the OPL on a SoundBlaster card under DOS (0.23) |
| 14 Jul | First vector games added to MAME (0.26) |
| 18 Jul | First release of MAME32 (0.26.1) |
| 10 Aug | Nicola returns as MAME coordinator (0.27) |
| 10 Aug | MAME switched away from the GPL license (0.27) |
| 07 Sep | First 68000 game emulated (Rastan) (0.28) |
| 1998 | |
| 08 Jan | YM2151 supported added (0.30) |
| 25 Apr | Atari slapstic first emulated (0.31) |
| 25 Apr | Timer system added (0.31) |
| 25 Apr | Built-in ZIP file support added (0.31) |
| 03 May | Public betas started; previously users would have to wait several months between releases (0.33b1) |
| 16 Aug | First appearance of Neo Geo games, which have been the source of much controversy ever since (0.34b1) |
| 30 Aug | First DSP core added: the TMS34010 (0.34b2) |
| 04 Oct | Began using CRCs to identify ROMs (0.34b4) |
| 1999 | |
| 15 Feb | Internal tilemap code added — previously many drivers did tilemaps their own way (0.35b3) |
| 24 May | Switched to PNG from PCX as the main screenshot image format (0.35b13) |
| 08 Aug | Konami 052001/053248 CPU first emulated (0.36b2) |
| 2000 | |
| 26 Feb | Removed Pong and gambling game drivers (0.36rc1) |
| 06 Nov | First proper 32-bit CPU added (68EC020) (0.37b9) |
| 2001 | |
| 17 Jan | Initial support for discrete sound emulation (0.37b11) |
| 24 May | Windows takes over from DOS as the primary development target (0.37b15) |
| 19 Aug | First checkins for AdvanceMAME (0.37b16) |
| 24 Aug | First release to call out MAMETesters bugs (0.54) |
| 2002 | |
| 01 May | Removed SoundBlaster FM support as software-based emulation finally became better in almost all cases (0.60) |
| 04 Jul | Added initial support for artwork external to games (0.61) |
| 2003 | |
| 06 Apr | First dynamic recompiled CPU core added: MIPS3 (0.67) |
| 15 May | David Haywood takes over from Nicola as MAME coordinator (0.68) |
| 15 May | Added SHA1 hashes in addition to CRCs to reduce hacks and prevent collisions (0.68) |
| 23 May | First release to have intermediate ‘u’ updates (0.69) |
| 09 Aug | First emulation of the SP0250 speech chip (0.72) |
| 12 Oct | Removed the concept of TESTDRIVERS, making all drivers available in all builds (0.75) |
| 11 Nov | 3dfx Voodoo emulation added (0.77) |
| 2004 | |
| 24 Oct | Sega FD1094 decryption added (0.88) |
| 24 Nov | New debugger added (0.89) |
| 2005 | |
| 27 Feb | Major sound system reorganization around streams (0.93) |
| 07 Apr | mamedev.org is born |
| 18 Apr | Aaron Giles takes over from David Haywood as MAME coordinator |
| 03 May | Changed the license to be based off of the BSD license, with commercial restrictions (0.96) |
| 14 Sep | Added back support for some gambling games (0.100) |
| 2006 | |
| 03 Jun | First version of SDLMAME released (0.106u1) |
| 23 Jul | New video system comes online, focused on letting the video hardware do compositing (0.107) |
| 20 Aug | High score support removed (0.108) |
| 2007 | |
| 05 Feb | CPS2 decryption fully implemented (0.112) |
Speriamo ci siano altri 22 anni così.
PS: grazie Nicola!!!
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