Games: MAME Emuation, Games in UEFI (Bloat With Bug Doors), and Update of Bazzite

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 13, 2026

• HowTo Geek ☛ MAME emulator adds support for unreleased Atari game, more software

  MAME is a fantastic emulator for classic game consoles, arcade cabinets, and computers, delivering major updates roughly once a month. MAME version 0.284 has arrived just before the end of 2025, complete with support for new systems and games, and many bug fixes.

  First, the new MAME update includes a few new working systems. It can now emulate the Brainchild PLS-1000, an educational handheld console from the 1990s. There's also support for the Jammin' arcade cabinet game, which was developed by Atari but never released, based around the same hardware as the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. A prototype of the game was discovered on old VAX backup tapes earlier this month, and it's now playable in MAME.

• XDA ☛ You have to beat this ingenious UEFI-based game to boot your OS, or else

  For something that's vital for my PC to boot properly, I don't give the GRUB menu much of my attention. I usually hit the power button and wander off to make a hot drink or perform a chore, then return to my OS all booted up and ready to go.

  But what if that wasn't the case? What if, instead, your UEFI demanded your unfettered attention, else it won't let you boot into your operating system at all? Well, someone has made a game that does just that, and you can give it a try right now, if you dare.

• XDA ☛ One of the best Linux distros for gaming just got a handy Wi-Fi stability update

  Once a joke in the gaming scene, Linux distros have made leaps and bounds over the past few years. It has gotten to the point where we're seeing entire gaming-oriented distros appear, including, but not exclusive to, the Steam Deck's operating system, SteamOS.

  One distro that we've seen crop up time and time again is Bazzite, a Fedora Atomic-based distro that offers an alternative OS to using SteamOS. And to help bring in 2026, the Bazzite team has released an update that should help solve any Wi-Fi woes you've had with the distro, alongside some nice performance tweaks.