MAME Variants

The "official" MAME program can be found at mamedev.org. MAME is opensource, thus people can create their own builds of MAME- some with it's own added features. Often these custom builds are referred to as "a different flavor of MAME" or, with popular variants, by the chosen name such as "MAMEUI".

Versions

The loose term "variant" is chosen over "version". It is common to keep the version in sync to the MAME version it was derived from. This to avoid confusion as to what set of ROMs work with the modified MAME version. Note that software versioning might still be in place using build numbers.

MAME variants

A list of popular MAME variants:

MAME	The "official" command line program that the other variants are based on.	[1]
NoNag patched	Suppresses error messages that are useful when troubleshooting.	[2]
MAMEUI	Built in frontend.	[3]
MAMEUIFX	Built in frontend.	[4]
MAME Hub	Added network play.	[5]
HB MAME	Dedeicated "homebrew" hacks.	[6]
Groovy MAME	Mainly aimed at CRT monitors and alleviating some annoyances associated with emulation on LCD displays.	[7]

Compiling your own MAME

An excellent guide can be found here (written by Mr.Do!). BYOAC forum user MKChamp has a guide and the files needed to create your own build of MAME without the so-called nag screen and support for highscores. The thread can be found here.