Development — Work In Progress

► NOTEThis page tracks active development of MaLa v2.0. Check the BYOAC MaLa Forum for the latest updates and discussion.

MaLa v2.0 — Coming

► IN DEVELOPMENT MaLa v2.0 is currently in active development — a major modernisation of the existing MaLa codebase for modern Windows systems.
► BETA 1 TESTERS WANTED A limited MaLa v2.0 Beta 1 test release is currently targeted for mid-September 2026, pending final validation. Hardware and emulator testing are complete — Layout Parity validation (checking rendering matches the previous version) is the last step remaining.

Interested in testing? Reply on the BYOAC Forum thread with your current setup.
MaLa v2.0 — In Development
What's New
  • Complete rebuild in Delphi 13 — modern compiler, modern codebase
  • Backward compatible by design — existing v1.74 configs, layouts, and .mplugin plugins remain fully compatible
  • Target platform: Windows 10 and Windows 11, including 64-bit Windows; MaLa remains a 32-bit application
  • Improved stability and crash resistance throughout
  • Reliable keyboard and joystick focus at startup, when auto-starting with Windows, and after waking from sleep or the screensaver — no more clicking the window before controls respond
  • Full Unicode support — international game titles, including Japanese, now display correctly
  • Updated video engine using FFVCL — plays MP4 and other modern formats out of the box, no codec packs or DirectShow hunting required
  • Native support for IOWarrior LCD and LED hardware
  • Hardware allocation recovery — clear or reassign a stale LED/LCD device slot without needing to reconnect the original hardware
  • Many more built-in emulator presets added — setting up a new emulator is now just a couple of clicks
  • Updated plugin API with improved event system — SDK examples for C++ and Delphi
  • Modernised UI with VCL Styles support
  • Companion tools (GameList, Tree, Layout, AttractMode editors) rebuilt and launched directly from MaLa's own Options dialog — no separate launcher app needed, shipping with the final v2.0 release
  • New: MaLa Control, a command-line tool for remote-controlling a running MaLa instance from scripts or automation — including a clean-shutdown-then-force-kill KILL command
Timeline

No date has been set for the final v2.0 release. Beta 1 is currently targeted for mid-September 2026, pending final validation. Development is progressing through a structured multi-pass stabilisation plan. Watch this page and the BYOAC Forum for updates.

► WHY NO SCREENSHOTS YET MaLa's layouts and gameplay screens are staying visually the same by design — your existing layouts will look and feel exactly as they do now. What's actually changing is under the hood, plus the menus, config windows and splash screens. We'll share screenshots of those once Beta 1 testing is underway.
► DISCLAIMER MaLa v2.0 is still under active development. Features and implementation details may change as testing continues. The core goal of maintaining compatibility with existing MaLa layouts, configurations and plugins remains unchanged.