If you'd like to play other games, just try another emu/some homebrew games. Really fantastic games other than mame. And now it supports around 1000 games, I think that's more than enough..
Anyway, searching for Mame in the topic title will bring up this thread as one of the first ones. It's by Franxis and he's giving some information 'bout a new version:
Yep. Cut the developers some slack, they do this as a hobby and people seem to not realise how much time they put in. If they wanna have a break from it they should be allowed to.
I agree that there's a lack of etiquette in some people's requests for updates, but I don't think that Caps lock is the solution. If I'm dead excited about some emulator or other, and I'd just like to see it get updated because there are still some issues with compatability or whatnot, it could occur to me to post a message on the forum asking whether there are any chances of new releases any time soon. It's not that easy for me to go ahead and edit source codes, as something like that could best be likened to a caveman trying to perform Beethoven's Ninth with a rock and a dead lizard, so I'm stuck on waiting for people to make updates.
Of course, I'd ask in a much more polite and definitely more positive manner, but my point still stands:
It must be allowed to REQUEST an update, if the request is articulated as nothing close to a demand.