MAME4apple-037b5

MAME 0.37b5 for iOS devices. 64-bit, rebuilt from the original 0.37b5 source code. Compatible with the MAME4all rom set.

Based on the original MAME 0.37b5 source code as downloaded from the MAMEDev website. The emulator core is unmodified; only the OS-dependent ("apple") layer is specific to this port. Designed for iOS and tvOS.

iOS "apple" layer (rewritten)

The iOS OS-dependent layer was rewritten for solid, low-latency behaviour on modern iPhone and iPad hardware:

• Graphics — Metal. The in-game frame is presented by a dedicated Metal renderer (MTKView) with crisp nearest-neighbour, aspect-correct / integer scaling. A triple-buffered, lock-guarded handoff between the emulator thread and the display eliminates tearing without stalling emulation. Frame pacing uses a precise mach_wait_until deadline (no busy-wait), so timing is smooth and the CPU/battery aren't burned spinning.
• Audio — AVAudioEngine. Sound is played through AVAudioEngine / AVAudioSourceNode fed by a lock-free single-producer/single-consumer ring buffer, with under/over-run handling and audio-session interruption and route-change support (phone calls, unplugging headphones).
• Input. Game controllers are read on the main thread into an atomic snapshot that the emulator thread consumes, so controller state is never touched cross-thread. Supports MFi controllers and iCade.
• On-screen touch controls. A safe-area-aware overlay with a floating analog/8-way stick plus action / coin / start / exit buttons that adapt to iPhone and iPad and auto-hide when a hardware controller is connected.
• Lifecycle. The emulation parks cleanly at a frame boundary when the app is backgrounded and resumes when it returns to the foreground.
• File I/O. ROM/sample/config/nvram/highscore paths use bounded string handling suited to iOS's long Documents directory paths.

Minimum deployment target: iOS 15. 64-bit Xcode project.

Front end

The game browser is a UITableView listing games for which ROMs are present in the app's Documents/roms/ directory.

tvOS

The tvOS target still uses the original SpriteKit renderer and AudioQueue audio path (guarded by TARGET_OS_TV); the rewrite above applies to iOS.

What's working

• Most "supported" MAME4ALL games.
• Smooth, tear-free, vsync-paced video via Metal.
• Clean audio via AVAudioEngine.
• iCade and MFi controllers, plus the on-screen touch controls.
• AppleTV / tvOS (original SpriteKit path).

Tested against the MAME4all rom set on iPhone and iPad.