While the 2020 writeup contains a lot of pictures of things we have emulated, it should also be noted that a lot of things have been dumped over the course of the year that still show nothing at all, and haven't been covered at all outside of a mention in the release whatsnew.
Sometimes this is because we don't yet emulate the required level of tech (some of the NESVT stuff) other times it's because there's likely additional Internal ROM data that needs extracting (some of the mini arcade type things)
Other times it's that I'm not really familiar with the CPU architecture, or the MAME emulation cores might not be up to scratch (LeapFrog IQuest / Turbo Extreme etc. use a 8051 based SoC and require better working serial)
Some of them are more advanced platforms, such as the ARM based GeneralPlus chips used by the final batch of JAKKS games, or the S+Core GeneralPlus ones, where currently only HyperScan boots and it's unclear if the internal ROM is needed on the others or just a bootstrap.
There are easier cases where things have stalled; for the Elan type 6502-based platforms, emulation of the games should be possible, but it's just been a matter of finding the right time to attempt to reverse engineer things, or make adequate guesses for timer interrupts / logic.
For the G65816 SoC 'Winbond 2005 BA5962' type hardware (Track & Field Challenge, My 1st DDR etc.) things stalled because I think there might be a tiny internal ROM with the code for one of the interrupts, possibly audio related, but maybe that could be worked around with HLE
and for things like TeleStory there's a custom audio decoder chip that will need figuring out. Either way, there's a huge window open for other people to become involved with these things if they're willing to put in the legwork and do their own research.
I guess what I'm saying is that while 2020 is a year where it looks like a lot got done, it's actually a year when even more opportunities than ever before have presented themselves, a year that has laid the groundwork for a lot of future contributors / future progress.
Even for GPL16250 where I've shown some substantial shots it remains entirely unclear where the issue lies with ones that aren't showing things / aren't uploading valid spritelists / tile lists etc. Also Tahg's XaviX2 progress could maybe be taken further (or SuperXaviX)
and even looking outside of Plug and Plays, the progress that allowed the MPU4 video games to run better also means a lot of the non-video Fruit Machines are running better too, but need individual work on mappings, reel hookups, artwork etc. to be promoted
I'm curious to see what 'the face of MAME' will look like over the next few years. I'm certain one of them will be weighted towards Laserdiscs, while another might see MAME catching up with Naomi, Model 2 etc. but it's the ones I don't see coming that please me the most
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