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'''[[wikipedia:MAME|MAME]]''' (originally an acronym for '''<u>M</u>ultiple <u>A</u>rcade <u>M</u>achine <u>E</u>mulator''') is a multi-platform, open-source, [[Multi-system emulators|multi-system emulator]] written in C++. The philosophy behind the project is to recreate focus on recreating the workings of various machines through emulation, and thus with the software's ability to actually play the console games is being described as "a nice side effect". MAME is incredibly large, [[MAME compatibility list|supporting thousands of machines and ROM sets]], though what is supported is not what's playable; your mileage may vary. In the event you don't like MAME's own interface, there are [[Frontends#MAME|many alternative frontends]] available.
Much like the name says, MAME was supposed to be for arcade machines like Pac-Man back when it was released in 1997. Over time, MAME has incorporated similar projects out of a necessity to keep development active and prevent duplication of work (as some arcade machines often shared hardware with consoles to ease development of games); the first project to be merged was [[MESS]] at the end of May 2015 starting with version 0.162 and it functioned almost exactly like MAME but for home consoles and other esoteric devices that never got emulated elsewhere. MAME also had a policy against emulating gambling machines, but that decision has since been reversed and the project that aimed to get them working, <abbr title="Arcade Gambling Extensions for MAME">AGEMAME</abbr>, has also been merged.
|align=center|{{Icon|Lin|Mac|BSD|RiscOS|AmigaOS}}
|[https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/SDL_Supported_Platforms SDL Supported Platforms]
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|align=center|{{Icon|Win|Lin|Mac}}
|<abbr title="Latest development version">git artifacts</abbr>: [https://nightly.link/mamedev/mame/workflows/ci-windows/master CI-Windows] [https://nightly.link/mamedev/mame/workflows/ci-linux/master CI-Linux] [https://nightly.link/mamedev/mame/workflows/ci-macos/master CI-Macos]</br>
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|align=center|{{Icon|Win-big}}
Read this official [https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/FAQ:Performance FAQ page] for the reasons on why it is so hard to run many emulated systems usably on an user's computer or device that supports MAME, its derivatives and/or cores inside frontends or certain kinds of software (eg. [[RetroArch]]). It also has helpful tips to try to get better performance from some systems.
The MAME developers do not recommend using MAME through libretro/RetroArch unless it is the only option (such as on Android), as it is an unofficial port with poor UI integration and additional bugs compared to mainline MAME. Those who still wish to use the libretro core should ensure they are using a recent core instead of one based on a very old version (MAME 2003 etc.), unless older versions are necessary for performance reasons.
===Compatibility===
[http://arcade.mameworld.info/ ARCADE] is a maintenance-only continuation of the MAMEUIFX project, which was in turn forked from MAMEUI/MAME32. MAMEUIFX included unique drivers and games compared to mainline MAME, but these are now integrated into [[HBMAME]] instead.
*Arcade games only*NO No mechanical games (pinball, crane games, etc)*NO No poker, fruit, slot or gambling games*NO No computers, consoles, terminals, appliances, etc*NO No games that display a black screen (skeleton drivers etc)
==Netplay==
*It's slightly (significantly still) prone to freezing
*Mapping controllers and binding keys can only be done in-game, which might be confusing to first-timers
*Incorrectly emulates many games, while outright not being able to emulate others, due to being based on a very old MAME version. Even MAME Kaillera builds labeled with recent MAME versions are actually very old and inaccurate versions with only the game list updated.
*Random, inconsistent FPS drops due to the server trying to keep everyone synched, sometimes stuttering. It's annoying, but rarely does it make it unplayable
*Everyone needs to have the exact same ROM version or Netplay won't work (if it somehow does, it'll desynch rather quickly)
