[Wintermute0110]

Comparison of MAME 0.226 with Retroarch MAME 2003 Plus (November 2020)

AML supports now Retroarch MAME 2003 Plus (M2003P) and I though that it could be interesting to compare Vanilla MAME with M2003P. Retroarch users have many MAME cores to chose from, ranging from M2003P until a recent MAME version close to Vanilla MAME, and often I see in forums the question "What MAME core to use?". I will try to give an answer to that question by looking at the AML statistics for both versions of MAME. First let's have a look at the machine statistics of MAME 0.226:

Code:

MAME machine count
Type        Total   Parent  Clones
----------------------------------
Machines    42,878  17,866  25,012
Runnable    37,791  12,779  25,012
Coin        25,736   7,920  17,816
Nocoin      12,055   4,859   7,196
Mechanical  15,355   3,355  12,000
Dead         8,814   3,441   5,373
Devices      5,087   5,087       0
BIOS            73      73       0
Samples      1,237     702     535

And compare with MAME 2003 Plus:

Code:

MAME machine count
Type        Total   Parent  Clones
----------------------------------
Machines     4,944   2,818   2,126
Runnable     4,928   2,802   2,126
Coin         4,838   2,726   2,112
Nocoin          90      76      14
Mechanical       0       0       0
Dead            36      35       1
Devices          0       0       0
BIOS             0       0       0
Samples        154      35     119

The number of machines of MAME 0.226 is vastly superior to M2003P. Note that M2003P does not include mechanical machines at all, such as pinball machines. M2003P also does not have BIOS nor device machines. Also, M2003P almost does not have machines with no coin slot (consoles, computers and the like) because at that time those machines were part of MESS and MESS was not integrated in MAME like it is today. It is not shown here but M2003P does not include Software Lists at all.

Things get interesting if we compare the MAME main filters only. Next there is a table of the main filters for MAME 0.226:

Code:

MAME machine statistics
Type (parents/total)  Total          Good          Imperfect         Nonworking      
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coin slot (Normal)    4,120  10,181  2,298  6,364        962  2,240         860  1,577
Coin slot (Unusual)   1,975   6,474    850  1,959        185    327         940  4,188
No coin slot          2,040   3,837    900  1,557        336    570         804  1,710
Mechanical machines   1,203   8,487      0      0          0      0       1,203  8,487
Dead machines         3,441   8,812      0      0          0      0       3,441  8,812
Device machines       5,087   5,087    N/A    N/A        N/A    N/A         N/A    N/A

And here is the same table for M2003P:

Code:

MAME machine statistics
Type (parents/total)  Total         Good          Imperfect       Nonworking    
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coin slot (Normal)    2,576  4,662  2,360  4,289          0    0         182  317
Coin slot (Unusual)     142    168    142    168          0    0           0    0
No coin slot             65     78      4      4          0    0          45   58
Mechanical machines       0      0      0      0          0    0           0    0
Dead machines            35     36      0      0          0    0          35   36
Device machines           0      0    N/A    N/A        N/A  N/A         N/A  N/A

Note that there are no Imperfect machines in M2003P. Often, imperfect machines are playable and enjoyable as they have only minor graphical or sound glitches. If we consider imperfect machines the same as good machines, Vanilla MAME has 3,260 playable parent arcade machines (with coin slot), compared with 2,360 M2003P has. Surprisingly, the difference is not huge if we only look at the playable parent arcade machines.

So, to summarize. If you are interested in playing your favorite arcade machines from your youth, M2003P can be a pretty good option. Likely, 99% of the arcade machines that you want to play are included and working in M2003P. On the other hand, users that prefer to be up-to-date, are interested not only in arcade machines but also in consoles, computers and the like, and want to use the Software Lists, can use Vanilla MAME. The number of machines in Vanilla MAME is vast compared with M2003P, however most of these machines are non-arcade such as mechanical machines, pinball, computers, consoles, etc., or clone machines.