If you want to add a newly dumped game from 2023 to MAME 0.72, you must:
Feasibility: For a simple 68000-based game from 1992 – maybe 10–20 hours of patching.
For a 2005 ARM-based game – nearly impossible without full driver rewrite.
Let’s be clear: MAME is legal; downloading copyrighted ROMs is not, unless you own the original arcade board. However, for preservationists and those with legal dumps: mame 072 roms new
⚠️ Warning: Many “MAME 0.72 ROMs new” downloads on random forums are fake, virus-laden, or mislabeled. Stick to well-known emulation communities (Reddit’s r/Roms, Arcade Controls, MAMEWorld).
In the ROM collecting world, a “0.72 ROM set” is a static collection. When someone releases a “new 0.72 ROM pack,” they mean they have aggregated the latest verified dumps that are backward compatible with MAME 0.72. Because later versions of MAME change the way ROMs are named (adding clones, merging BIOS files), a modern ROM won't work on 0.72. A “new” 0.72 set is a curated list of files that have been re-named and re-structured to fit the 0.72 standard. If you want to add a newly dumped game from 2023 to MAME 0
To understand the demand for MAME 0.72 ROMs new, you first have to understand the hardware of the era. MAME 0.72 was released before the widespread adoption of Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo processors. It was built for Windows 98/ME/2000 and early XP machines.
Yes, if:
No, if:
| Feature | MAME 0.72 | Modern MAME (0.260+) | |---------|-----------|----------------------| | ROM naming | 8.3 short filenames | Long names supported | | Merging | Parent/clone sets | Split/merged + software lists | | CHD support | Almost none | Required for many games (HDD, laser disc) | | Device ROMs | In same ZIP | Separate BIOS/device ZIPs | | CRC/SHA1 | CRC only (32-bit) | CRC, SHA1, SHA256 | Feasibility : For a simple 68000-based game from
Critical difference: A “new” game dumped in 2023 cannot simply be dropped into MAME 0.72. The driver architecture has changed completely.