Install mame with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• mame

Project history

MAME 0.1 was released on February 5, 1997. Early development moved quickly: MacMAME appeared in February 1997, X/MAME appeared in April 1997, vector-game support arrived in July 1997, and MAME32 also appeared in July 1997. The official history records a steady expansion from arcade CPU and sound emulation toward broader hardware documentation.

The project accumulated preservation infrastructure as it grew: CRCs for identifying ROMs in 1998, ZIP support in 1998, `history.dat` support in 1999, CHD support in 2002, and later major device-model and source-tree changes. In 2015 MESS merged into MAME, widening the project beyond arcade machines, and in 2016 MAME became GPL-2.0-or-later free and open source software with new documentation and licensing.

Adoption history

MAME has had a broad cross-platform packaging history, with official Windows binaries and source releases, Unix-like ports, macOS variants, and package-manager entries across Homebrew, Debian, Fedora, Arch, Nix, MacPorts, Alpine, openSUSE, and others. The project history page explicitly treats supported ROM set growth as one measure of project success.

For users, adoption is tied less to a single GUI and more to the shared command-line executable and data formats. Front ends, ROM managers, preservation workflows, and downstream OS packages all orbit the same MAME release stream and compatibility expectations.

How it is used

The ordinary package-manager workflow installs the `mame` executable, then users provide legally obtained ROM, disk, or media images separately. Official documentation emphasizes that copyrighted software images are not included and must be supplied by the user.

MAME reads configuration from INI search paths that differ by platform. Official command-line documentation lists default INI paths for Windows, macOS, and other platforms including Linux, making those paths important to packagers and users debugging why a setting is or is not being applied.

Why package nerds care

MAME is package-manager lore because it is both an emulator and a preservation corpus interface. The package is just the executable and support files; the user's ROM sets, CHDs, artwork, plugins, shaders, and INI layers are separate data concerns.

For maintainers, MAME is a large C++ project with fast-moving compiler requirements, platform notes, bundled tools, and frequent releases. Small packaging differences around paths, SDL support, Lua/plugins, and INI locations can change user-visible behavior.

Timeline

• 1997: MAME 0.1 released.
• 1998: MAME began using CRCs to identify ROMs and added built-in ZIP support.
• 2002: CHD support was introduced for hard-disk and other large media images.
• 2006: SDLMAME was released, improving Unix-like platform packaging.
• 2015: MESS merged into MAME.
• 2016: MAME became GPL-2.0-or-later free and open source software.

Related projects

• MESS, the Multi Emulator Super System, was a sister project and was merged into MAME in 2015.
• SDLMAME, MacMAME, MAME32, front ends, ROM managers, and MAME data files are part of the wider packaging and user ecosystem.

Sources

• https://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html
• https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/aboutromsets.html
• https://docs.mamedev.org/whatis.html
• https://www.mamedev.org/
• https://www.mamedev.org/history.html