diff --git a/scripts/target/mame/virtual.lua b/scripts/target/mame/virtual.lua
index 7cc49adb149..a5d04d8f370 100644
--- a/scripts/target/mame/virtual.lua
+++ b/scripts/target/mame/virtual.lua
@@ -69,11 +69,15 @@ function createVirtualProjects(_target, _subtarget, _name)
 		MAME_DIR .. "src/lib/netlist",
 		MAME_DIR .. "3rdparty",
 	}
+
+	includedirs {
+		ext_includedir("zlib"),
+	}
 end
 
 function createProjects_mame_virtual(_target, _subtarget)
-createVirtualProjects(_target, _subtarget, "virtual")
-files {
-	MAME_DIR .. "src/mame/drivers/vgmplay.cpp",
-}
+	createVirtualProjects(_target, _subtarget, "virtual")
+	files {
+		MAME_DIR .. "src/mame/drivers/vgmplay.cpp",
+	}
 end
diff --git a/src/mame/drivers/vgmplay.cpp b/src/mame/drivers/vgmplay.cpp
index 52d605f9729..61d639e87c5 100644
--- a/src/mame/drivers/vgmplay.cpp
+++ b/src/mame/drivers/vgmplay.cpp
@@ -4,11 +4,7 @@
 // A "virtual" driver to play vgm files
 // Use with mame vgmplay -bitb file.vgm
 
-#if defined(_MSC_VER)
-#include "zlib/zlib.h"
-#else
 #include <zlib.h>
-#endif
 
 #include "emu.h"
 #include "debugger.h"