MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Could MAME be ported to UWP?

> Oh, you don’t believe me eh?
>
> Win16 still exists.

I'm still expecting a cut-off at some point

"Your apps don't work anymore? tough, buy store versions"

When we all switched over to NT based systems we lost support DOS based software, which still wasn't exactly uncommon at the time, and the 64-bit versions of Windows already don't support 16-bit apps.

Microsoft seem determined to have you get things through the store, there are even versions already that only let you run store apps. I think the first step will be that those will become the only versions you can buy preinstalled in high street stores and online shops etc. so that people get used to it, requiring you to buy a separate copy yourself if you want full support for older style applications.

Eventually that option will go away except to enterprise users, then completely, at which point the majority will already have accepted it.

Wouldn't surprise me if we also end up not being able to run Linux except through a virtualized environment in Windows too, all you've got to do is tell people that allowing them to run their own software is a security issue, or helps terrorists and you've got huge support for locking things down completely. I've already had to explain the reality of this situation to friends and family who aren't so knowledgeable about tech, because they were *looking forward* to a time when that happens (it was around the same time there were calls for banning encryption etc.)

People have already become conditioned to the situation of not having full control with the smartphone / tablet / netbook / console market. Even gamers I know want locked down PCs because it will 'reduce cheating and hacking'.

Those of us who actually care about open hardware / software because they want to do their own development I'd say were a tiny minority at this point.

I'd still say long-term this is one of the things that threatens MAME the most, if it becomes incredibly difficult to run without hacking your hardware, or expensive / near impossible to develop for, it might just end up fading away, along with all the history it was trying to preserve. You can't really rely on the emscripten ports etc. as they're putting MAME into an environment that's basically the opposite of what an emulator needs, ie complete lack of performance or access to hardware.