Mame 1.0 soon to be released? Not so fast!

[Guden Oden]

When I got my first PC in summer of '97 and started faffing around with emulators, MAME was around version 0.2x as I recall. Not all that long ago, version 0.99 was released.

...Along with the information that the next version would be 0.100. GAHHHHHHH!

Is it some kind of elaborate in-joke that this program will never ever reach 1.0? When we reach 0.999 in only slightly over 80 years' time at the same rate as so far, we could just roll over to 0.1000 instead, and then not see version 1.0 in the major part of a millennia!

So, wth's up with this, really?

 

[Farid]

When I got my first PC in summer of '97 and started faffing around with emulators, MAME was around version 0.2x as I recall. Not all that long ago, version 0.99 was released.

...Along with the information that the next version would be 0.100. GAHHHHHHH!

Is it some kind of elaborate in-joke that this program will never ever reach 1.0? When we reach 0.999 in only slightly over 80 years' time at the same rate as so far, we could just roll over to 0.1000 instead, and then not see version 1.0 in the major part of a millennia!

So, wth's up with this, really?

Why, in the first place, do you care for the code number of the release?
Are you this kind of casual that do not try software if it's labeled Beta or something?

Anyway, and to answer the question, MAME 1.0 would mean that Every Arcade Machines known to man at the moment of the release are emulated in the release... Won't happen this soon (If Ever).

 

[Guden Oden]

Why, in the first place, do you care for the code number of the release?

Don't really care all that much, it's just weird they can't just go to v1.0 like normal people. The program isn't experimental, it isn't unstable in general (though a few experimental drivers might be, but those are a minority since quite a long time).

Anyway, and to answer the question, MAME 1.0 would mean that Every Arcade Machines known to man at the moment of the release are emulated in the release...

Why would it neccessarily have to mean that? Most programs go to 1.0 without every feature imaginable has been implemented. Heck, MSWord is up to over version 10 now and they still add shit to that colossus.

 

[Npl]

Don't really care all that much, it's just weird they can't just go to v1.0 like normal people. The program isn't experimental, it isn't unstable in general (though a few experimental drivers might be, but those are a minority since quite a long time).

you got to stop thinking of decimal numbers. its not Version 0comma100 - its major version = 0, minor version = 100. the changes from 99 to 100 are not big enough to warrant a big jump in version numbers, so why should there suddenly be a big change in the version just because it aint fitting in the decimal-system?
Besides, applying your logic 1.0 would have already followed 0.9

 

[Farid]

Why would it neccessarily have to mean that? Most programs go to 1.0 without every feature imaginable has been implemented. Heck, MSWord is up to over version 10 now and they still add shit to that colossus.

Word is a commercial product and it's only ambition is to be a word processor. And it is since the first version.
MAME project's ambition is to be able to emulate every arcade machines. That's their goal and they didn't reach it yet, therefore they don't want to call it 1.0 until then.

 

[Guden Oden]

Yet they've excluded quite a few arcade games over the years too, discrete logic games being some of those, and I believe a number of gambling/mahjong games have been dumped too.

 

[Reznor007]

Yet they've excluded quite a few arcade games over the years too, discrete logic games being some of those, and I believe a number of gambling/mahjong games have been dumped too.

Of course, the gambling games that were excluded were added in the current release (.99u2)

Discrete logic games are a completely different topic. It's not that they are excluded, just that noone has a way to really emulate them because they have no CPU. The Pong that was in MAME years ago was just a simulated Pong, it wasn't based on the real Pong PCB.

Emulating the discrete components would be extremely expensive CPU wise. Just look at the Asteroids Deluxe sound emulation that is in MAME, which is done via dscrete components. It upped the CPU requirement a TON, and that was just for a few explosion effects. People are working on ways to get the speed for fully discrete games to a usable level, but it will take time. For now I suppose you could input the schematic for an old game into Spice or something and play at 1FPS maybe...This isn't really an issue with MAME, since they already cover plenty of games that require 10GHz+ for full speed though.

MAME's current rule for inclusion is a primarily video based game using 1 or more CPU's. I haven't asked anyone if video based photo booth machines would be supported or not though. Many of those are based on Neogeo MVS hardware and Sega STV(Saturn) hardware.