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87 lines
3.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
87 lines
3.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
What is MAME
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============
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MAME is a multi-purpose emulation framework.
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MAME’s purpose is to preserve decades of software history. As
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electronic technology continues to rush forward, MAME prevents this
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important “vintage” software from being lost and forgotten. This is
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achieved by documenting the hardware and how it functions. The source
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code to MAME serves as this documentation. The fact that the software
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is usable serves primarily to validate the accuracy of the documentation
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(how else can you prove that you have recreated the hardware
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faithfully?). MAME, originally the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator,
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absorbed sister-projects, including MESS (Multi-Emulator Super System)
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and AGEMAME (Arcade Gambling Extensions for MAME), so MAME now documents
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a wide variety of (mostly vintage) computers, video game consoles,
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calculators and gambling machines, in addition to the arcade video games
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that were its initial focus.
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| **MAME®**
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| **Copyright © 1997-2023 MAMEdev and contributors**
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| **MAME is a registered trademark of Gregory Ember**
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I. Purpose
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----------
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MAME’s main purpose is to be a reference to the inner workings of the
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emulated machines. This is done both for educational purposes and for
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preservation purposes, in order to prevent historical software from
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disappearing forever once the hardware it runs on stops working. Of
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course, in order to preserve the software and demonstrate that the
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emulated behavior matches the original, one must also be able to
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actually use the software. This is considered a nice side effect, and
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is not MAME’s primary focus.
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It is not our intention to infringe on any copyrights or patents on the
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original software and systems. All of MAME’s source code is either our
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own or freely available. To operate, the emulator requires images of
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the original ROMs, CDs, hard disks or other media from the machines,
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which must be provided by the user. No portions of the original
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software are included in the MAME executable.
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II. Cost
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--------
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MAME is made available at no cost. Its source code is freely available.
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The project as whole is distributed under the terms of the GNU General
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Public License, version 2 or later (GPL-2.0+), but most of code,
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including core functionality, is also available under the terms of the
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more permissive 3-clause BSD license (BSD-3-clause).
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III. Software Image Files
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-------------------------
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ROM, CD, hard disk and other media images are all copyrighted material.
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They may not be lawfully distributed without the explicit permission of
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the copyright holder(s). They are not “abandonware”, nor has copyright
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expired on any of the software supported by MAME.
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MAME is not intended to be used as a tool for mass copyright
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infringement. Therefore, it is strongly against the authors’ wishes to
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sell, advertise, or link to resources that provide illegal copies of
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ROM, CD, hard disk or other media images.
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IV. Derivative Works
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--------------------
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Because the name MAME is trademarked, you must abide by the rules set
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out for trademark usage if you wish to use “MAME” as part of the name
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your derivative work. In general, this means you must request
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permission, which requires that you follow the guidelines above.
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The version number of any derivative work should reflect the version
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number of the MAME release from which it was was derived.
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V. Official Contact Information
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-------------------------------
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For questions regarding the MAME license, trademark, or other usage, see
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https://www.mamedev.org/legal.html
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