Dave Dribin announced the released of a new OS X port of MAME that will run natively on Intel based Macs. The port is implemented using newer OS X technologies such as Core Audio, Core Image, Core Video, and OpenGL, and requires OS X 10.4 to run.Here is an example of using the Edges Core Image filter on Ms. Pac-Man:

Astute readers will also know that there is currently no Intel port of MAME for OS X. The MacMAME project has been dormant for most of the year, and is PowerPC only. SDLMAME does compile and run fine, but as with most cross-platform projects, there are a couple minor things that would be nicer if it could target OS X only. After a couple months of work in the background, it is finally ready for general release. Now we can officially annouce the “MAME OS X” project, so check out the this page for download links to a universal binary.

It definitely has some warts and in need of some spit and polish, but at least it’s not embarrasing. All video and sound emulation should be working, and it shouldn’t crash. Enjoy, and please report any problems you find on the web forum. I’ll describe some of the behind the scenes tech details in the next few paragraphs.

The MAME project is well abstracted to be OS agnostic. On OS X, the sound is implemented with Core Audio and the graphics are implemented using Core Video, Core Image, and OpenGL. This not only ensures the best performance, but allows real-time Core Image filtering on the emulation output. While mostly pretty useless, it can add a new twist to an old game. The screen shot above is an example of the CIEdges filter applied to Ms. Pac-Man.

Download MAME OS X

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