A C++ codebase with bonus non-C++ code that generates C++ code plus a build-process-that-generates-build processes all with maniacal inter-dependencies and a guy who insists on renaming everything and moving all the files around in git-destroying ways twice a year does indeed create a bit of a monks-in-the-caves vibe.

interrogations on motives for building from source

constant slap fights between contributors (usually involving haze or guru)

important PRs left ignored due to internal drama

8GB+ memory leak during building that they're in no rush to fix

Afaik gurudumps is a total jerk, constantly being hostile for no reason to newcomers.

Haze is almost always in conflict with mame lead Cuavas when trying to upstream his code, but his anger mostly justified.

Cuavas is a huge micromanager, he won't accept your code even if you just missed a typo in a line comment.

I respect his commitment to hold the codebase to absolute standards, but sometimes he takes his micromanagement too far that just makes the whole process unproductive.

The personalities working on this project are so hostile, usually without the skill to warrant it, that it's one of the few cases where having a CoC wouldn't be a horrible idea.

A benevolent dictator then

Not exactly a fork but there was a separate MESS, for a time, expanding the scope to non-arcade systems, until it was reenfolded.

This reminds me that Linus Torvalds quote that the point of open source isn't just the right to fork but also the right to merge, and that's what justify copyleft

Do you have the quote? I would think such "right to merge" would go against the notion that maintainers work for free and have no obligation to merge your work.

Edit: Found the quote. The Right to Merge is about the maintainers right to merge your fork/changes back to their branch. Not the other way where random dev have a right for their changes to be merged into the original project

Yep, it's his right to merge other people's work that were derived from Linux, not the right of other people to get their stuff merged

I feel like every one of my repos is a separate mess.

advmame/advmess too.

There are actually a good numer of forks, but not sure if they qualify for your criteria of "serious" or not.

I also won't be naming any of them because those "committed" mame devs are very quick to inject themselves into any story about them, and harshly judge everything else that touches their code that didn't come from them.

This is absolutely so on brand.

Has its pros and cons, of course.

> no serious forks

What about Final Burn Alpha/Neo? They're extremely popular.

Final Burn isn't a fork of MAME, it was a completely separate code base that started as an Afterburner emulator that just kept growing.

They do share some CPU emulation code, but that's common in emulation, often someone wriets a good CPU core then it gets passed around.

Especially on rpi

What I find absolutely wild and found out by accident is that it also emulates SGI / IRIX

Mame is the most comprehensive emulator you'll ever get. They emulate everything under the sun: from very obscure computers that you don't even find info on the internet to mechanical car rides (yes they even preserve the roms for those).

Yeah, it's absolutely amazing and noble, especially for us that are into those things (Personally, I have a vast collection of consoles and games, including full SNES library etc.). Wikipedia, Internet Archive + Common Crawl, Emulation scene with now MAME at the forefront - those are Alexandria of our times.

Yes, I’ve been running the Apple LaserWriter emulator to explore the internals of the original PostScript interpreter.

Slot machines too.

Thanks for pointing this out!