MAME: To upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question!

[mark shaker]

My main MAME Cab is running a 2.66 GHZ Celeron w/ MAMEUI V112.

I'm considering upgrading to a Core I3 with the current version of MAMEUI.

Will this upgrade make a bunch of games playable?

Are there any downsides? (Are the game and controller configuration files from MAME V112 compatible with the current version of MAME? I spent days setting everything up, I'd hate to go through that again.)

   - Mark

[oyama82]

you should upgrade and also upgrade mame to the latest version,only if you want to play games like tekken tag tournament,carnevil,etc.
or else keep it as it is and play the classics

[Rick]

I'm considering upgrading to a Core I3 with the current version of MAMEUI.

I'll be honest.  I don't have an answer to your question.  What I do have, is a question for you.  Why would you choose to go with MAMEUI vs. the current version of MAME with a nice front-end?

[jimmy2x2x]

Mameui can be used just like commandline mame without any kind of penalty, the bonus of having mameui is a nice interface for changing any mame settings, or sorting games in a way a front end cant.  Another plus is its always accessible if your front end goes tits up.

For those reasons I always use mameui, there is no disadvantage to using it.

EDIT: Mark, are you asking about your roms here? If so, you will need to update your romset to version of mame you decide to use.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

he might also be like me and just doesn't like front ends. I've tried about all of them at this point and once the novelty of 'Oh neat, pictures and video!' wears off I keep going back to just running MameUI in windows.

[Rick]

Mameui can be used just like commandline mame without any kind of penalty, the bonus of having mameui is a nice interface for changing any mame settings, or sorting games in a way a front end cant.  Another plus is its always accessible if your front end goes tits up.

Hmm.  That's something I didn't know!  You learn something new every day.  Thanks!

^{(Hey oyama82, see what asking questions gets you?)}

 

[oyama82]

yeah I see,at least I knew about mameui 

[mark shaker]

I'll be honest.  I don't have an answer to your question.  What I do have, is a question for you.  Why would you choose to go with MAMEUI vs. the current version of MAME with a nice front-end?

Please keep in mind that I'm trying to answer your question without having tried-out any other front-ends:

1) Good Enough: MAMEUI shows me a list of games with screenshoots. I click on a game it starts...

2) Laziness:  No research or initial setup required.

3) Fear: Other front-ends seem to come and go. I *think* that I can count on MAMEUI to always be there.

   - Mark

[Rick]

Good Enough, Laziness and Fear

Those are as good of reasons as any, I guess!

 

[garnerb350]

you can run frontends via MameUI (it just has the gui...simpler for us noobs) You have some people here that update every version and then you have some that update every 10 versions....if you go to the Mame site, you can see what works and what doesnt in the "whatsnewtxt"

I use version 129 and i have'nt had any need to update....yet

I think that ( pardon me im rusty here) after version 117 certain games no longer needed samples in the sample folders...sound quality was improved/degressed (sound for dkong sucks)

Also depending on your system determines if you can play the games...I have a P4 and Carnevil/Tekken are choppy...Gauntlet Legends I think is still shot ( lot of people use the Dreamcast emu version)...

i basiclly told myself i wouldnt update till Star Wars Trilogy was playable...(God knows when that would be)

Do a search for "updating" this topic has came up in the pass discussing this....

[mark shaker]

EDIT: Mark, are you asking about your roms here? If so, you will need to update your romset to version of mame you decide to use.

I use to update my version of MAME and my romset once a year.

As my PC got older I stopped updating, as the newer versions of MAME needed more CPU cycles per second than my poor old PC could deliver.

   - Mark

[jimmy2x2x]

Well in your situation, I would upgrade your hardware as you are intending to do, grab the latest versions of everything, mameui, roms, samples and anything else you would like screen-shots etc...

Keep your old mame/roms etc. in a separate folder for the time being, this will allow you to revert if you don't like the new versions.  It will also allows you to migrate any settings to the new version in a non destructive manner.

There are plenty of excellent resources for downloading complete verified sets of everything, you wont have to hunt around to much.  Just start off the downloads and you are set.  Nothing to it really.

I cant imagine you wanting to revert once you have the new version configured.

[JustMichael]

Why consider upgrading the computer in your Mame cabinet?

Let me explain the question.  Please understand I never think about upgrading the computer in my Mame cabinet first.  Instead I think about upgrading my main computer.  Whenever I do upgrade that computer, I then have a spare computer that I  put in the Mame cabinet to replace the one that is currently in there.

[Ginsu Victim]

Why consider upgrading the computer in your Mame cabinet?

Let me explain the question.  Please understand I never think about upgrading the computer in my Mame cabinet first.  Instead I think about upgrading my main computer.  Whenever I do upgrade that computer, I then have a spare computer that I  put in the Mame cabinet to replace the one that is currently in there.

This.

I had a 700 mhz in my MAME cab first, then when I upgraded my main computer, I installed my 2 Ghz system in there. Then upgraded and moved my dual core 2 Ghz into my MAME cab. One of these it'll be nice to have my dual core 3 Ghz in there, but that'll be a while.

[mark shaker]

I cant imagine you wanting to revert once you have the new version configured.

Thank you (and everyone else) for the advice.

I've downgraded or kept old versions around for several reasons in the past.

I had once upgraded past V112, but at the time it broke. (I think that I could not get multiple mice working in the newer version.)

One thing that was way better in V79 than V112: The V79 would stretch my favorite games (Roboton, Joust...) to full screen.   V112 plays them with a huge black border.

[mark shaker]

Why consider upgrading the computer in your Mame cabinet?

Let me explain the question.  Please understand I never think about upgrading the computer in my Mame cabinet first.  Instead I think about upgrading my main computer.  Whenever I do upgrade that computer, I then have a spare computer that I  put in the Mame cabinet to replace the one that is currently in there.

I upgraded my main PC to a quad-core earlier this year. The PC it replaced was no faster than my current MAME Cab.

   - Mark

[JustMichael]

I just tried Robotron and Joust in Mame .139 and they took up almost the entire screen.  In the Mame.ini file I do have:
hwstretch               1
Perhaps yours is set to 0 and that is why it isn't being stretched?

[mark shaker]

I just tried Robotron and Joust in Mame .139 and they took up almost the entire screen.  In the Mame.ini file I do have:
hwstretch               1
Perhaps yours is set to 0 and that is why it isn't being stretched?

Thanks! I'll check that out tonight. The older MAMEUI had a menu setting for enabling the stretching, when it was removed, I probably didn't think to look in the .INI file.

   - Mark

[releasedtruth]

I've also been using MAMEUIFX for several years as the command line in GameEx. Haven't noticed much difference, if any, when using the standard .138 MAME code. I do like the backup front end because sometimes games wig out in GameEx but work in MAMEUI

[Ginsu Victim]

I just keep the UI exe in my mame folder, but run the command line version through a frontend. That way if I want to tweak things without going into the INI, I can just do it from the UI version. Also good to have for recording gameplay for the competitions, though I've only competed once.