What Mame games to you play to test a slow computer?

[Stobe]

I was wondering if anyone had a few games that they always try out on a computer to see if it will be fast enough for "mameing".  I'm not talking about testing out their super gaming rig with CHD games, or something like that.  I'm looking for the opposite.  If I pick up a cheap computer on craigslist to throw in a cab, what game should be a good test to see if it would play, lets say, "most" of the mame games.

Thanks for any input.

-Stobe

[deweyhewson]

NBA Maximum Hangtime, in my opinion. That's the most taxing game on my cabinet, intended for classic gaming. A close second would be Rampage: World Tour. If your computer can run those at 100%, it should run most classic games you're wanting to play.

Asus A8V-X Motherboard
Athlon 64 3500+ (overclocked from 2.2ghz to 2.4ghz, won't run Hangtime at 100% at stock speed)
ArcadeVGA Second Edition, AGP
1gb DDR Memory

[Turnarcades]

Save your head - any P4 at 2Ghz or above will cover most of your needs, as long as it has at least 256mb RAM and decent on-board graphics and sound. We've done extensive benchmarking and remarked on this a million times - see back through my posts to find several threads I've commented in about this with more detail. I used to squeeze max MAME performance from sub-1Ghz P3's as well as other platforms, so no reason why you can't do the same. If using older systems, be sure to use a pre-0.106 build of MAME (before the major graphics and sound core changes).

[Marsupial]

should an athlon 1800+ be ran with pre-0.106 or the latest would be OK?

[that's the computer I will put in my WIP cab, and from experience most games run, but sometime there's hickups that I hope to tweak out...]

also, are there "correct settings" in mame to help slower machines run smoothly?

[Turnarcades]

should an athlon 1800+ be ran with pre-0.106 or the latest would be OK?

[that's the computer I will put in my WIP cab, and from experience most games run, but sometime there's hickups that I hope to tweak out...]

also, are there "correct settings" in mame to help slower machines run smoothly?

I would definitely recommend an older MAME build in anything under 2Ghz without an additional graphics card - newer versions will run slower on old hardware as they have been optimised for progressing graphics and sound card technology.

I would advise 'keep aspect ratio', 'stretch to fit', 'switch resolution' and 'switch colour depth', and be sure your entire desktop/frontend/other emulator setups are set to run at no more than 800x600 resolution. If you use these settings you should not need any of the graphics filters that require a lot of processing power, as you will get some 'edge softening' caused by the stretching.

[mytymaus007]

see if pong works oh yeh thats if you use misfitmame .127

[Marsupial]

see if pong works oh yeh thats if you use misfitmame .127

we can run pong?

seriously?

[mytymaus007]

Sure on MisfitMame 0.128

is the latest version

[leapinlew]

Mario Bros. and Popeye.

For some reason, just the intro to those games will run choppy on a computer. If it can run those, it'll run most of the other classics.

[Flip The Switch]

I have an old Pentium 4 1.2 with 512 meg of ram and a Ati Radeon 256 meg card, it runs stuff pretty well, some games run the game great but suffer with a stutter sound, i tried a few early versions of mame and they made not alot of diffence for me, prob cause of the gfx card?

[Marsupial]

True, I experience more sound glitch then video glitch.

Could it be partly solved by putting a better sound board?

[wweumina]

True, I experience more sound glitch then video glitch.

Could it be partly solved by putting a better sound board?

No.

[wweumina]

I have an old Pentium 4 1.2 with 512 meg of ram and a Ati Radeon 256 meg card, it runs stuff pretty well, some games run the game great but suffer with a stutter sound, i tried a few early versions of mame and they made not alot of diffence for me, prob cause of the gfx card?

Probably not.  Your graphics card is good enough, it's your CPU that will slow you down.

[leapinlew]

I have an old Pentium 4 1.2 with 512 meg of ram and a Ati Radeon 256 meg card, it runs stuff pretty well, some games run the game great but suffer with a stutter sound, i tried a few early versions of mame and they made not alot of diffence for me, prob cause of the gfx card?

Probably not.  Your graphics card is good enough, it's your CPU that will slow you down.

I hear people saying that, and then I see better performance once I use a  better video card. I'm not sure what the correlation is, if some video cards use less CPU resources somehow but it definitely can make a difference.

I've had video cards that wouldn't display the proper resolutions or wouldn't display vertical. I've also had video cards which made the games run slower.

[Blanka]

I use Donkey Kong, Galaga 88 and Rayforce as test games. If they have no sound hiccups, the machine is fast enough for my taste.

[OverRide]

I use DK to test if it is a newer version of MAME on an older PC.

[jholman76]

I like to use metal slug, KI, SFII:CE and MKII.

Since those are the games I'm mostly going to play anyway, they better run well!

You can tell if MKII is running well if the sound is spot on. if it cracks or hiccups, then you have issues.

joe

[Thenasty]

if you have stuttering sound, drop the Samplerate to 22khz it works wonders. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

I use Donkey Kong, Galaga 88 and Rayforce as test games. If they have no sound hiccups, the machine is fast enough for my taste.

+ 1 on Donkey Kong as a test.

[Marsupial]

if you have stuttering sound, drop the Samplerate to 22khz it works wonders. 

That's what I did. Works OK.

Would it be easier on MAME if the machine ran DOS instead of Windows XP?

My thinking is that half the hang comes from windows' extra features. Should install XP light or run some XP diet program. lol.

[Thenasty]

DOS would be perfect for an oldie machine. Just make sure you have the right sound card and DOS drivers for it.

Give Windows 98/95 a shot instead of XP.

[ark_ader]

Define slow computer.

386DLC/40 or a 486DX100?

I used to build small cabs out of IBM 365x think Pads which are P90, and they play classics fine in 8mb with .37b.

[Creeper]

I'm running an older dual core 1.8ghz with 2gb DDR2 with an ArcadeVGA PCI-e and also a D9800. I just had an epic Metal Slug X session with my buddy but when we both had heavy machine guns and there was tonnes of explosions, the game slowed down probably by 25%. Triple buffering was on.

Does that seem normal?

[leapinlew]

I'm running an older dual core 1.8ghz with 2gb DDR2 with an ArcadeVGA PCI-e and also a D9800. I just had an epic Metal Slug X session with my buddy but when we both had heavy machine guns and there was tonnes of explosions, the game slowed down probably by 25%. Triple buffering was on.

Does that seem normal?

Those games are emulated to the point that if the real game slowed down, so does mame. Defender does it a lot too.

[jholman76]

play double dragon too. for the longest time that bugged me that it wasnt playing smooth... until I read it was exactly like that in the arcade too. Frameskip helps, but I kindof like the nostalga of it.

joe

[mvsfan]

NBA Maximum Hangtime, in my opinion. That's the most taxing game on my cabinet, intended for classic gaming. A close second would be Rampage: World Tour. If your computer can run those at 100%, it should run most classic games you're wanting to play.

Asus A8V-X Motherboard
Athlon 64 3500+ (overclocked from 2.2ghz to 2.4ghz, won't run Hangtime at 100% at stock speed)
ArcadeVGA Second Edition, AGP
1gb DDR Memory

I dont like B Ball, so i cant comment on hangtime. But i completely agree that if you can run world tour without any slowdown, your rig will basically play anything besides Chd Games.

If you want to run Chd, you had better be looking at the best Athlon ever made, or a Phenom, also with the most ram and best aftermarket video card that you can afford. 99% of OBG are unsuitable for CHD games.

also look towards doing something about that hard drive. Best thing possible to do for chds would be to get the quickest access Sata Solid State drive available.

but of course, that is providing that you are among the lucky people who are able to go and play the 5 dollar machines at the casino without breaking a sweat.

I wish i was.

[Haze]

also look towards doing something about that hard drive. Best thing possible to do for chds would be to get the quickest access Sata Solid State drive available.

none of the CHD games require anything faster than a regular drive, you can run the LD stuff on a 5400RPM drive over USB and they cope fine.  Fragmentation can be a problem and that's easily solved, but aside that you don't need to fork out for an expensive SSD for the purpose of MAME.

[Epyx]

I use Starblade...Starblade requires a dual core running at about 3.5ghz to run smoothly.  I make this the upper baseline for my builds.  I love the classics but my tastes are too varied to just play classics

[mvsfan]

DOS would be perfect for an oldie machine. Just make sure you have the right sound card and DOS drivers for it.

Give Windows 98/95 a shot instead of XP.

NAH, Xp is the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- for running everything you would want to run without needing to search for and locate special drivers for an older os. You just need to know how to fix it right, first. take that any way you like.

[mvsfan]

I was wondering if anyone had a few games that they always try out on a computer to see if it will be fast enough for "mameing".  I'm not talking about testing out their super gaming rig with CHD games, or something like that.  I'm looking for the opposite.  If I pick up a cheap computer on craigslist to throw in a cab, what game should be a good test to see if it would play, lets say, "most" of the mame games.

Thanks for any input.

-Stobe

Dude, you can build a very good computer any way you want it from ascendtech.us, using all standard components.

i built my rig a couple of updates behind, and i went with an ABIT motherboard. a lot of folks like to label ABIT as ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, but they are one of the longest boards i have run in any of my home systems, or embedded cabinets.

For a top of the line business computer that absolutely cannot fail however, i would go with name brand, NON-Proprietary components. ASUS motherboard, Master cooler, Liscenced os, etc etc, you get the idea, because after all, Failure is money.

however when you build a kick ass box to run your hobbies the best that it can, go with a good, well known ISO9000 knockoff part, it will work just as well.

the only reason that i do not also do that in business is because when you have to explain to a business owner why his system failed,
you dont have to explain that i used equivalents that are just as good as the stuff you have heard of. nuff said.

[shfifty]

NBA Maximum Hangtime, in my opinion. That's the most taxing game on my cabinet, intended for classic gaming. A close second would be Rampage: World Tour. If your computer can run those at 100%, it should run most classic games you're wanting to play.

Asus A8V-X Motherboard
Athlon 64 3500+ (overclocked from 2.2ghz to 2.4ghz, won't run Hangtime at 100% at stock speed)
ArcadeVGA Second Edition, AGP
1gb DDR Memory

I dont like B Ball, so i cant comment on hangtime. But i completely agree that if you can run world tour without any slowdown, your rig will basically play anything besides Chd Games.

If you want to run Chd, you had better be looking at the best Athlon ever made, or a Phenom, also with the most ram and best aftermarket video card that you can afford. 99% of OBG are unsuitable for CHD games.

also look towards doing something about that hard drive. Best thing possible to do for chds would be to get the quickest access Sata Solid State drive available.

but of course, that is providing that you are among the lucky people who are able to go and play the 5 dollar machines at the casino without breaking a sweat.

I wish i was.

I'm running ADVMAME+ in dos, i can run CHD games at max FPS, but i still cant run NBA hangtime full speed. and only P4 1.8 and 384 MB RAM

[Thenasty]

I ran Hangtime with no problem in my pc.
I have 2.4 ghz and 1GB RAM.
UP your spec and it should do  it.

[shfifty]

I ran Hangtime with no problem in my pc.
I have 2.4 ghz and 1GB RAM.
UP your spec and it should do  it.

The annoying thing is, its an old first generation socket 423 which maxes out at 2.0 ghz, so if i upgrade i need a new cpu AND mobo... but to get hangtime working, it would be soo worth it...