MAME vs webЯcade
MAME
mamedev.orgwebЯcade
webrcade.comSide by side
| Figure | MAME | webЯcade |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · TurboGrafx-16 Emulators | 8.6 (#4) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Spec score · Sega CD Emulators | 8.5 (#5) | 8.2 (#9) |
| Latest release | The latest official release listed is MAME 0.289, with official Windows x64 and Arm64 binaries and source code packages. | GitHub lists version 0.2.3, released July 18, 2026, adding Bally Astrocade, Philips CD-i, Apple II and Apple IIGS emulators plus Nintendo DS homebrew SD-card support. |
| Purpose | MAME is a multi-purpose emulation framework intended to preserve software history by documenting hardware and how it functions. | webЯcade is a browser-based player for gaming content organized by user-defined feeds. |
| Support | Users can report information or code through the MAME GitHub page, MAME Forums, or the project contact page. | The project directs users to Discord, GitHub Issues, and GitHub Discussions for community, questions, bug reports, and feature requests. |
| What it does | MAME is a multi-purpose emulation framework that documents and reproduces the inner components of arcade machines, computers, consoles, calculators and other electronic amusement machines. | webЯcade is a browser front end that launches retro-game emulators and game engines from user-defined feeds. |
Plans
In their own words
MAME
MAME is a free emulation framework intended to preserve software history by documenting and reproducing the inner components of arcade machines, computers, consoles, calculators, and other electronic amusement systems. It can emulate over 32,000 individual systems from the last five decades. Alongside emulation, it includes an interactive low-level debugger for investigating software behavior, diagnosing emulation issues, and developing software for vintage systems. Its Lua interface can inspect device state, access CPU registers, read and write memory, and draw overlays, though the API may change without notice. Plugins support uses such as external-program communication and alternate interfaces; included examples are Discord Presence and a GDB Stub. MAME can save and load states, record inputs for playback, and capture screenshots or video. It is available for Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows; official Windows binaries require Windows 10 or later. BIOS dumps and copyrighted software are generally not included. The project is distributed under GPL-2.0 overall, while more than 90% of files, including core files, are under BSD-3-Clause.
webЯcade
webЯcade is a free, open-source browser-based player for gaming content arranged in user-defined feeds. Games run locally in the browser through JavaScript, WebAssembly and HTML5 gamepad and audio interfaces, rather than being streamed. Its graphical feed editor lets users create feeds without working with the underlying document format, and its ROM analyzer can identify application types, metadata and artwork. Supported categories include emulators and game engines, with examples such as Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Doom, Quake and ScummVM. USB and Bluetooth gamepads work for navigation and gameplay. Most emulator-based applications provide eight save-state slots per game. Optional Dropbox linking can share save data and settings across devices and let the feed editor upload local files; access is restricted to the Dropbox account’s /Apps/webrcade folder. Single-item links can be shared, added to iOS or Android home screens, or embedded in web pages. The project prioritizes popular-content compatibility and lower resource needs over the latest emulator features. It is listed for Android, iOS, macOS, web and Windows.