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Update (Fri 31st July 2026): Since publication, we've added a short section outlining the "emulation frameworks" use of MAME, after it was brought to our attention, following the article going live.
Fans of Sega racing games, take note: a brand-new way to experience the legendary developer's 1995 arcade classic, Sega Rally Championship, has just arrived.
If you're a regular reader, you may remember last week we covered the release of developer Wanszai's PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One emulation frameworks for Virtua Racing, going over some of the enhancements that had been introduced to the iconic racer, such as online play, widescreen support, and smoother frame rates.
And already, it seems that the developer has wasted no time in following this up, turning their attention to getting the Model 2 game Sega Rally Championship working across Xbox Series X, Xbox 360, and PC (h/t: @yoshinokentarou).
Sega Rally Championship, as you may already be aware, was released for the PC in 1997, but as you can imagine, it takes some configuring to get up and running on more modern setups today. The goal of this new project is therefore to provide "an easy way" to play one of Sega's most influential racers on PC with minimal fuss, while also throwing in a couple of extra platforms and enhancements in the process.
There are options for HD & UHD scaling, a toggle to switch between 16:9 widescreen and 4:3, CRT filters, and support for custom soundtracks. And that's not all: players can use their own controllers and wheels with force feedback for greater immersion, and can set up online matches to play with 3 other people cross-platform.
Wanszai describes the project as an "emulation framework", but according to the developer in the comments on a previous YouTube video, their project appears to be a specialised build of the multi-purpose emulation framework MAME. This raises questions about whether the project violates the emulation framework's GPL and earlier MAME licenses by not redistributing the source code, with the decision not to share the code also leading some to speculate whether these projects are "vibecoded"; this is something that we should highlight has not yet been confirmed (h/t: Rob Krum).
If you want to check the project out, the download is available now from GitHub, but do bear in mind you'll need to supply your own legally acquired copy of the ROM and the soundtrack files.