MAME compatibility list
This is an incomplete list of compatibility issues that MAME has with different systems.
Contents
Atari
2600
Rivals Stella in most cases, and is even better in some cases.
5200
Doesn't boot for some reason.
7800
Pretty much the most accurate emulator for this system.
8-bit
Relatively inaccurate. INC WSYNC, for instance, waits 3 scanlines instead of just waiting 1 scanline like it's supposed to.
ST
No inputs anywhere, so you can't really use it.
Jaguar
Holy shit, this one has lots of weird bugs. One being Tempest 2000 overwriting the cart ROM region. Stay the fuck away from it.
Apple
Apple 1
Pretty much perfect.
Apple 2
Also pretty much perfect, and it's got good emulation of a bunch of peripherals too!
Apple 3
The only working emulator for this system, due to RBelmont reverse-engineering the weird banking system this one uses.
Commodore
Vic-20
Really slow, and also kinda inaccurate.
Commodore 64
Kinda slow, and also kinda inaccurate.
Commodore 128
Never even made it past the WIP stage. Don't even bother.
Amiga
Decent for OCS. Kinda iffy on everything else.
IBM
PC 5150
It works fine for anything that doesn't require the cassette port or timing. Don't expect to run 8088 MPH on it.
PC/XT 5160
It works fine for anything that doesn't require timing.
PC/AT 5170
It works fine.
AT clones up to 486
It works just fine, barring some rare CPU core bugs.
AT clones with Pentium
Don't even bother. It needs a pretty bad rewrite to actually work. It also doesn't emulate any Super I/O chips, either.
Microsoft
Xbox
It doesn't work nearly as well as XQEMU, let's just put it that way. It's also ungodly amounts of slow thanks to no i386 dynarec.
NEC
PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16
It's only got one major problem. The game Air Zonk hangs due to imprecise timings. Other than that, it's fine.
PC Engine CD
Again, it's mostly fine, but you're gonna want to use the new video cores and also pray you have a good dump.
SuperGrafx
Works fine.
PC-FX
This doesn't even boot, due to issues with the CPU core that it shares with the Virtual Boy.
Nintendo
NES
The PPU for this core is per-scanline, so mid-frame effects generally don't work too well. The only reason it can even handle MMC5 games is because of hacks! It really needs a video system rewrite and BAD.
SNES
Many timing issues here. It's probably not even as accurate as SNES9x. It really needs to be reworked.
Nintendo 64
This whole system has tons of timing issues. Tread lightly, and remember to use -nodrc on this one, as their dynamic recompilers for this system are currently broken, and result in Spiky Polygon Syndrome.
Game Boy (Color)
Lots of slight timing bugs, but other than that, it's fine.
Virtual Boy
Sorta works, but some games just completely crap out. It's also really slow.
Game Boy Advance
Many atrocious timing bugs, though endrift and MoochMcGee have tried to help clean it up. 16-bit unaligned accesses also aren't emulated correctly, so most of endrift's hardware tests fail.
Sega
SG-1000
Nearly perfect.
Master System
Pretty damn accurate. MAME is quite a good emulator for this system.
Mega Drive
Runs most games fine. Some don't work that well, but it's got about a 95% compatibility rate.
Mega CD
Not that good. The extra processors throw in more timing problems.
32X
Lots of timing issues.
Mega CD and 32X
This probably won't work that well.
Saturn
It's about as good as Yabause, more or less; just with much nicer code.
Dreamcast
Nowhere close to even nulldc. It's also very slow, and only started booting games thanks to what amounts to a miracle.
Model 1 Arcade
Reverse engineering isn't quite finished on the geometry DSP, so don't expect every game to work. Regardless, Virtua Fighter works fine.
Model 2 Arcade
Again, reverse engineering hasn't been finished on the first model's DSP, but there are plenty of other problems that also need to be worked out. Last I checked, Virtua Cop 2's textures just display black. Virtua Fighter 2 just freezes after a bit due to bugs in the DSP comms.
Model 3 Arcade
It's in better shape than Model 2, but it's slow and has lots of bugs. Virtua Fighter 3 either hangs or crashes a bit into gameplay, depending on what set you use.
Naomi Arcade
It's okay? I'm not sure if I can really call it that frankly. There are just too many bugs. It's also quite slow, as you can expect from most 3D games in MAME.
Chihiro Arcade
Basically an arcade Xbox. It boots OutRun 2, and not much else.
Sony
Playstation
It's got lots of bugs. Many games have SPU-related hangs, for instance. It's not even as good as pSX, and that emulator's ancient!
Pocketstation
It works pretty well, actually. I daresay the emulation is perfect.