Single game Mame Build?

[allroy1975]

I've googled on this, but found nothing.  Maybe I'm doing it wrong.   

Would there be ANY advantage to compiling a mame build that only ran 1 game?  I built a cabinet (anyone who's paid attention to me, so probably no one, will know I'm talking about the Road Blasters cab I just fixed up) with just 1 game on it, and I'm running a pretty junk computer.  Sometimes the sound stutters and stuff...I'm looking for any way I can to get the most out of this.

thx

[javeryh]

You could just run MAME and all of the games that use the same controls (if there are any... Spy Hunter maybe?).  You don't need to compile a special version or anything...  Just have your computer set up to boot straight to Road Blasters upon boot-up.

[daywane]

very simple to do.
give me a few minutes and I will show you how i did it with MS Pac-man with mame 32
 
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=34776.0

[allroy1975]

What I'm saying/asking is ...mame seems like a larger exe with each build.  I assume that's due to added game support.  The newest versions of mame (I'm probably looking to go post .100)  have some nice features that I can't pinpoint exactly what build they came in on.  I'm not looking at it right now, so I can't even tell you what features I'm talking about..something with the analog stuff and the "dead zone" or something like that.

My question is...would it make sense to compile a version with all the other games stripped out to try to produce a smaller executable that might run more efficiently?

I have everything set up so it boots to MAME, then I hold down a button and it shuts the system down.  I have everything "working" now.  but occasionally I get choppy sound and/or video.  I want it as perfect as I can get it.

Like I said, I'm just trying to get the most out of this little turd machine I'm running it on. 

[protokatie]

Making MAME a smaller exe just for that sake will not stop any choppyness problems you are having. AFAIK only the modules that MAME needs to run a particular game are used. On top of that, if it is simply for a strict "one game only" setup, find the earliest version of MAME that plays it the best. The 27 MB that mame is now should be of little concern for anything resembling a modern system. If you are having framerate issues, it is most likely due to your hardware, not MAME (unless you are using a latter version of MAME that is trying to emulate early sound ICs (see donkeykong)).

[Gatt]

As the person above says.

Mame gets slower because (As I understand the project plans) as time goes on it becomes optimized for the newer hardware at the expense of the older hardware.  Hardware as in the arcade machines,  not your computer.

Recompiling mame by stripping out all but one game won't change things,  because you won't have changed what the targets are,  just removed the targets.

If you want to improve speed of some older game,  your best bet is to find and use earlier versions.  I wouldn't use the earliest version with support,  my understanding is that the earliest version is likely to be the least accurate, most likely to have some bug, or least complete.

I believe the mameinfo.dat will give clues as to which version might be best for the game you want,  it will list the revisions in which any given game had some change occur.  That'll give you a good idea of which build should be optimal.

Haze reads these boards,  and i think a few other mamedev's do too,  if I'm off on anything hopefully one of them can correct me.

[protokatie]

Slight observation: It isn't that newer versions of MAME are trying to emulate newer versions of arcade boards; it is that they are trying to get closer to a simulation of how the boards act as opposed to an emulation. DK is a good example. In DK, the audio IC is analogue. Previous versions of MAME used sound samples taken off of the real board. Newer versions of MAME emulate DK's sound not by just playing sound samples, but by actually trying to simulate the discrete electrical components in the sound IC. This takes a huge toll on CPU resources, as playing a sample requires only a small amount of memory bandwidth to transfer the sound to the sound chip in your computer; but to emulate the diodes/transistors/caps/etc of the IC itself is a huge burden on the CPU and makes DK now almost broken on all but the fastest of computers available today.

[Haze]

As the two posts above state.

Newer versions of MAME have the optimization point set for emulation of more modern systems (in addition to the codebase being more optimized for modern compilers and CPUs eg. the object orientated approach being adopted over the last year is more suited to modern CPUs)

Likewise, accuracy of the emulation improves over time, as older hardware becomes emulated at a higher level of detail (or at least that's the theory, sometimes things do break, and sometimes they even remain broken for a long time)

If it's stuttering then the hardware (mainly CPU) of the system you're using isn't good enough to run the MAME version you're trying to run.

I see to remember Roadblasters being a game where a lot of people reported glitches on later levels in early versions, so reverting to the earliest version that supported it probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Creating a single game exe will have no bearing on run-time performance at all, and will only affect load time on really old DOS/Win9X systems which have to load the whole binary into RAM (or if you do something silly like UPXing the EXE)

[Havok]

So in summary, don't bother compiling Mame, buy a fast computer.

(And run Mame64 with a 64bit O/S)

[filuren33]

May I ask if you have tried the frameskip funktion in mame. That helps me when the sound "stutters". BTW how fast is the junk computer of yours?

[Thenasty]

just use .076 in Pure DOS with your old system I remember using this version p233 with 512 and old games ran fine. No need ro re-compile mame, waste of your time.

[allroy1975]

May I ask if you have tried the frameskip funktion in mame. That helps me when the sound "stutters". BTW how fast is the junk computer of yours?

It's some PIII celeron kinda thing.  I can't remember off the top of my head.

just use .076 in Pure DOS with your old system I remember using this version p233 with 512 and old games ran fine. No need ro re-compile mame, waste of your time.

I would totally do this except I haven't found any xbox USB controller drivers for DOS. 

so it sounds like I've got my answer.  it wont' help.

thanks!

[bkenobi]

Maybe you can run a version under Linux?  That way you don't need to load the GUI and you should be able to get the XBox controller to work.

[allroy1975]

Maybe you can run a version under Linux?  That way you don't need to load the GUI and you should be able to get the XBox controller to work.

problem there is I have to be smart in linux.  I'm not.