This directory contains MAME binaries built for Raspberry Pi and similar ARM boards (Orange Pi, Banana Pi, etc). 

Builds are based on Debian (same as Rasperry Pi OS and Armbian) operating systems, however should work on other Linux based OSes too. 

Target OS/gcc/glibc versions:

* Debian 10 Buster,   with gcc 8  and glibc 2.28 (currently not working, as MAME requires gcc 10.3 minimum)
* Debian 11 Bullseye, with gcc 10 and glibc 2.31
* Debian 12 Bookworm, with gcc 12 and glibc 2.36

Run `lsb_release -a` to find out your release name and number.
If you aren't running something Debian based, download the one that most closely matches your glibc version without going over. 

Each build comes in 32bit (aka arm/arm32/armhf) or 64bit (aka arm64/aarch64).
Find your hardware/OS combo by running `uname -m`, `arch`, and `lscpu`. 

* 32bit builds require at least armhf
  - "armhf" = "hard float" FPU / hardware floating-point unit).
  - "armv7l" probably will work (albeit slowly). 
  - "armel" architecture won't work.
  - For Raspberry Pi hardware, this is at least a Raspberry Pi 2B.
  - Raspberry Pi (Model 1) A/A+/B/B+ hardware won't work.
  - Raspberry Pi Pico/PicoW/RP2040 hardware won't work.
  - Raspberry Pi Zero/ZeroW/ZeroWH won't work.

* 64bit builds are recommended if your hardware/OS supports it, as they run 10-15% faster than 32bit on average. 
  - For Raspberry Pi hardware, this is at least a Raspberry Pi 3 (all models) running 64bit Raspberry Pi OS.
  - Some late model Raspberry Pi 2B devices (version 1.2) also support 64bit. Look for an ARM Cortex-A53 CPU in `lscpu` output. 
  - Raspberry Pi Zero2W will work.
  - All Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 models will work.

See this file for more detail on RPi CPUs:
* https://github.com/danmons/mame_raspberrypi_cross_compile/blob/main/conf/list_cpu.txt

Both "MAME" and a fork project named "GroovyMAME" are supplied here.
* MAME is the original project
* GroovyMAME is a fork that offers better support for real arcade CRT monitors,
  and is suppiled with "GroovyMiSTer" libraries for low-latency video streaming to a 
  MiSTer FPGA device attached to CRT or monitor of your choice. 

You may need some extra libraries installed on RPiOS to run MAME.
Try the following if you get missing library or .so file messages:

sudo apt install -y libfreetype6 libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0 libsdl2-2.0-0 libqt5widgets5 libqt5gui5 libgl1

These binaries are built using cross compile tools.
If you want to do this for yourself, documentation is here:
* https://github.com/danmons/mame_raspberrypi_cross_compile

If you want to see performance/bechmarks on RPi2, RPi3 and RPi4 hardware:
* https://stickfreaks.com/misc/raspberry-pi-mame-benchmarks

If you have problems with these builds, please contact me first before bothering
MAMEDev/mame-testers, in case I screwed something up:
* https://bsky.app/profile/danmons.bsky.social

If you're looking for MAME for "Apple Silicon" (Apple M1 and up, ARM64/aarch64) running macOS, this kind person hosts it here:
* https://sdlmame.lngn.net/