This release caught me off-guard this month but we’ve got it squared away now! Check-out the whatsnew_0256.txt for this months new additions! There is also a new SDL release, you should upgrade that on your systems as well. Again this month the Intel build is patched to build on 10.14, so MAME can work on these older installs.
Downloads:
Intel: mame0256-x86.zip
Apple Silicon: mame0256-arm64.zip
Good news ant very good job 😉
Any way to get this working with macOS 10.13.x? I’m stuck on High Sierra because it’s an early 2011 MacBook Pro 15 inch. I tried using OCLP to install newer versions (oldest I can get is Big Sur, newest being Ventura), but there’s no GPU acceleration because the Radeon 6750M does not support the Metal API.
I really don’t want to install Windows or Linux on it. I tried booting the Fedora 38 live USB and it was also sluggish. Not sure why. The CPU should be more than powerful (Sandybridge). I mean my i5 Haswell PC runs Fedora 38 just fine!
Unfortunately High Sierra is the latest OS that runs buttery smooth on this machine.
The only way to get mame to run on 10.13 would be to build it yourself (after patching the bgfx issue). It’s not particularly hard to do, but the build process takes around 3 hours and uses 100% of the cpu during that time. Not sure of the specifics of your model, but I need to use 3rd party fan control software in mine so I can maximize cooling while building. You just need the Apple Command Line Tools and the mame source (and sdl). MAME itself should build just fine with the patch.
As for Fedora, it’s notorious for not working well on Apple hardware. Ubuntu works out of the box but I get it if you don’t want to go there either. Your Mac should be able to run the latest releases until the end of 2023, if compiled. I’ll post a link to the patch in a bit, don’t have it handy at the moment.
Hey there! This is possible on 0.255 without having to compile yourself. Text tutorial here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/14e10e8/updated_tutorial_how_to_run_modern_versions_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
Video tutorial here: https://youtu.be/L7PfiWxutK8
If you’re on 10.13 I think you should get an older version of (SDL) MAME like 0.217. I think I was using that on High Sierra for years no problem.
I would disagree, I notice very little performance difference on my devices between versions. Following my linked tutorial allows you to use newer versions of MAME and all their updated features.
For some reason, your implementation of SDL can’t see my USB joysticks. I run Flycast and SDL has no problems seeing them there. The only other version I’ve tried is 252 and it had the same problem. I’d love to help get it sorted out.
I had the same/similar issue with the latest “Intel for 10.14+” versions, and it appears to be related to changes to the SDL Input handling from version 0.252 and up.
Excerpts from the “whatsnew” file for 0.252:
“-osd: Better XInput and SDL game controller input enhancements: [Vas Crabb]
-osd: Improved SDL Game Controller joystick provider: [Vas Crabb]
* Allow fallback to joystick API for devices without game controller mappings.
* Detect controller reconnection.
-osd: Added support for mapping files to sdlgame joystick provider and made it default with SDL. [Vas Crabb]
* This changes behaviour, however I think it’s a net positive:
– Most games using Steam Input or SDL2 to read game controllers have this behaviour, so users have come to expect it.
– This module is better at giving meaningful names to buttons on common controller, and assigning axes consistently.
– Button/axis mapping files using a widely-used format are supported.
– The old behaviour is still available with `-joystickprovider sdljoy` if anyone wants it.
* The new option for controller mapping files is in the general OSD options rather than SDL options as it can be extended to
DirectInput in the future.”
So tl;dr, I was able to fix this issue by changing the “-joystickprovider” from “auto” to “sdljoy” in my “mame.ini” file.
I’m sure there’s a way to get things reconfigured to the newer implementation — but until there’s time to test that, the above solution may work for you as well.
Finally, *THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH* to Jay, Arbee, MAME Team, etc for the work-around for us macOS 10.14+ hold-outs!! Not being a coder, I struggled with Xcode/Homebrew/etc in attempts to build the latest versions under 10.14 to no avail (including within a VM install of 10.15). The latest patched-up versions are working wonderfully now! =D
Also MUCH appreciation for Nicola Salmoria, Brad Oliver for the original versions of MacMAME, Y.Nemoto for MacMoon, and David Caldwell for MultiPac — a personal dream became reality in 1997 thanks to them as well!
This may be one of the best comments ever left on this page. Thank you for the effort! And for pulling the documentation to help this user, (I work long days and hadn’t even looked at this yet). I do hope this is the solution for them, as I’m unaware of anything else it could be, since mame is using the same sdl library as other software. There’s no reason to expect it’d operate any differently in the end.