MAME vs z390
MAME
mamedev.orgz390
z390development.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | MAME | z390 |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Emulator Software | 8.5 (#8) | 7.3 (#33) |
| Intended users | The debugger documentation identifies diagnosing emulation, developing vintage-system software, creating cheats, ROM hacking, and investigating software behavior as use cases. | The site names learning assembler without mainframe access and developing mainframe applications with modern tooling as use cases. |
| Platforms | The current source can be compiled for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and macOS; official binary packages are designed for Windows. | Installation instructions provide Windows and MacOS/Unix paths, and the command guide describes Windows and Linux/MacOS script directories. |
| Purpose | MAME is a multi-purpose emulation framework intended to preserve software history by documenting hardware and how it functions. | z390 is a mainframe assembler and emulator toolkit for developing, testing, and deploying assembler and COBOL programs on a PC. |
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.
z390
z390 has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.