MAME announces big changes: Windows 10 required, fewer releases, switch to C++20
The team behind MAME, the reference emulator for preserving arcade heritage, published on April 7, 2026 an official post on mamedev.org announcing several important structural changes to the project. After a false announcement on April 1st (migration to Rust, AI reviews, it was a joke), here is the real news.
🖥️ Windows 10 minimum required h2>
The most visible change for users: next versions of MAME will only support Windows 10 and above. With Microsoft ending mainstream support for all prior versions (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1), maintaining compatibility with nearly twenty year-old systems is no longer justified for a team of volunteers.
Concretely, this means that 32-bit binaries are disappearing and that old PCs under Windows XP will no longer be able to use the new versions of MAME. Older versions will obviously remain functional, nothing is disappearing, we just stop supporting these configs in the future.
🔧 Moving from C++17 to C++20
On the code side, the development standard is moving from C++17 to C++20. GCC 11 will be the minimum supported version. The Qt debugger leaves Qt 5 for Qt 6. These developments will allow the team to take advantage of the new features of the language and simplify a codebase that has become ex extremely complex over the years.
📅 Fewer releases, next at the end of May
Another important announcement: MAME is slowing down its release pace. There will no longer be a systematic monthly release. Concretely, there will be no release in April. The next release is expected end of May 2026. >The team justifies this choice by the need to ensure the viability of the project in the long term. The MAME codebase has become one of the most complex in open source, maintaining both the quality and monthly throughput is beyond the realistic capacity of a team of resources. Névoles.
💡 What does it change for you
For the average user, not much immediately, MAME 0.287 remains the current version and it works perfectly. If you are under Windows 7 or 8, you can continue to use the existing versions but you will need to stay on an old build for future releases. For modern users running Windows 10/11, no impact.
Sources: mamedev.org, Time Extension, Emu-France