MAME is a fantastic emulator for classic game consoles, arcade cabinets, and computers, delivering major updates roughly once a month. MAME version 0.284 has arrived just before the end of 2025, complete with support for new systems and games, and many bug fixes.
First, the new MAME update includes a few new working systems. It can now emulate the Brainchild PLS-1000, an educational handheld console from the 1990s. There's also support for the Jammin' arcade cabinet game, which was developed by Atari but never released, based around the same hardware as the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. A prototype of the game was discovered on old VAX backup tapes earlier this month, and it's now playable in MAME.
The Japanese Model 2 version of the TeraDrive, an IBM PC from the 1990s that had an integrated Sega Mega Drive, is also now working in MAME. Many more systems and clones have initial support but aren't yet fully working, including the Casio Color Digital Diary (CSF-5550), HP 620LX palmtop computer from 1998, Silicon Graphics IRIS 1400, and Torch Computers Quad X.
MAME's Apple II emulation support is also shaping up nicely, with many more applications and games now verified as working. That includes Micro League Baseball, the PolyWriter music notation software, The Great Maine to California Race, and Monkey Business. Beyond the Apple II, there's also Full Tilt! Pinball and Mega Man X working on the ibm5170_cdrom emulator, Xena Warrior Princess on the PlayStation 1 (PSX) emulator, and others.
The blog post explained, "You can now use various replacement keyboards for early Apple II computers, some of which had advanced features like macro recording. There were some big software list updates this month for quite a few computers. The floptool disk image utility included with MAME has improved usability. You can even simulate receiving a Sega Channel broadcast on your emulated Sega Genesis."
You can download MAME for Windows from the official website, which includes both a graphical interface version and a command-line build. The easiest way to install it on Mac is with Homebrew, using the unofficial formulae. The Linux version is available through the software repositories on most distributions, and you can also get it on Flathub.
Source: MAME
