> It is insufficient to simply state that previous versions are not supported, they are aggressively not supported but I was not to be deterred.

Amen. The time I've spent building old versions of MAME. I have a mountain of Donkey Kong replay files from top players. Game replays are only guaranteed to run under the version used to record them, so get ready to build binaries if you want to watch old replays.

Interesting distribution method of the source code (zip file uploaded to mediafire), any reason not to go for a git hosting service like Codeberg, GitLab or even GitHub?

For a similar, albeit a little older, game that you can play in mame today, check out Gremlin's 1981 game Eliminator.

There are threads on arcade-museum talking about cabs of this popping up on the wild and being played at arcade/cons.

Also, interesting editing on the title. "The Predators" is a name of an arcade game. Little t "the Predators" could refer to anything, like Predators in the Capcom videogame based on the Predator films. Of course the article makes this clear and I understand the article got the title case incorrect, but editing the title opens it up to being incorrect in a different way, so it's best to leave it as is.

I’ve never heard of this game, so I’m particularly interested in how it played. Unfortunately, the article still leaves some questions unanswered.