Why Such Old Mame Ports?

[rjordanw]

I was just wondering why they chose to port such an old version of MAME. MAME v. 0.37b5 came out in 2000. Why not port something newer? There are so many roms that it doesn't even see. Anyone know why?

 

[Squidge]

Newer mame ports require more memory and more processing power that the console simply doesn't (didn't?) have. The Wiz version is a port of the GP2X version as far as I'm aware, and considering the amount of changes made, upgrading the mame version will require a LOT of work.

Pandora may get a better mame version, as it has the memory and processing power for it.

 

[christo930]

I was just wondering why they chose to port such an old version of MAME. MAME v. 0.37b5 came out in 2000. Why not port something newer? There are so many roms that it doesn't even see. Anyone know why?

I would hardly call a newer version of mame, better. They chose the version that was the bet combination of performance and number of games. A newer version would have fewer playable games because so many of the games playable on this version would be unplayable on newer versions because of speed. The newer games supported by newer versions of mame wouldn't even come close to being playable on a wiz or gp2x.

Chris

 

[Klaus]

The "problem" is, that the MAME devs aim at 100% reproduction of the original game, not at playability on current hardware. IMHO this is good, it's about preservation of digital history. Hardware will get faster anyway.