Initial Setup of emulators from scratch...

[Digital Vandal]

I'm ultra new to this but after reading this forum for a long time I've registered and decided on which cabinet to build. The Ulimate Arcade II is the only one I've found which will hold a 4 player control panel and a 28" CRT TV whilst also having the look I'm after. I'm trying to get Maximus arcade setup with all the emulators I need on the pc I've made for this but there is so many different versions of the same emulators, mame especially (binary, source, 0.139, 0135 etc) that I haven't got a clue how to set it all up. The pc's specs are P4 3Ghz, 1Gb ram and soon to be a ATI HD3650 graphics card but atm is a Geforce 4ti 4200. I'm looking for some links to the best emulators to use for each system and hopefully this can be turned into a library for people new to the hobby which can be updated when new emulators become available. Or maybe this has already been done but despite searching for nigh on 5 hours a night for a month I've still managed to miss them. Any other help or advice would be gratefully appreciated whilst I get my head around all I need to learn.

[DeLuSioNal29]

You don't want to go any higher than MAME .119 since it's a slower computer (compared to today's speed demons).  The general rule of thumb is that the higher the MAME version, the beefier the CPU needed to run it.  MAME primarily is based on CPU speed, not video speed.  So a computer with a kick as CPU and a crappy video card (on board) will run great.  But a slow CPU and a kick ass video card will run poorly.

D

[Digital Vandal]

So If I was wanting to use the latest version what speed machine would I be needing? I always thought that a 3Ghz P4 is faster than a 2.2Ghz Core2 as mame will only use 1 core.

What about the list of emulators? is there one?

[nipsmg]

No No No..

The P4 is an older chip architecture, it's not all about clock speed.  To be safe, you're going to want to get yourself into LGA755 (Core 2/Core 4) territory.  You can start off slightly cheaper with a "dual core Pentium" 755 series chip if you want to save about $100.

It really depends on what you want to run.  If you want to be at the cutting edge of MAME and be running 3D graphic-heavy games like NFLBlitz, Crusin USA/World, and Gauntlet Legends, you're going to need an E8400 or E8500 (core 2) or a Q6600 (core 4), overclocked, running a 64 bit version of Windows XP or Windows 7.   You'll have hit a ceiling going this route, however.  If you want to be sure you can upgrade in the future without replacing the motherboard, you'll have to get yourself into the i3/i5/i7 architectures and that chipset.

This is the definitive topic on benchmarking MAME vs CPUs: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72776.0

As far as the "best emulators" list, I think there have been many threads here but I don't believe there is a complete list of "the best" for each system.  Best bet as far as Maximus is concerned is to use their list of supported emulators.  Most of the emulators for older consoles are pretty complete, so I don't know how important the choice is.  For GameCube/WII dolphin is your only choice.  For newer handhelds like the DS, there's a few out there and they have different compatibility levels.  I Believe there's quite a variety of PSX and N64 emulators too that vary pretty widely, so you'll have to do some research there.

Also, take a look at RomLister (see the BYOAC Wiki pages on it) for making your game lists in Maximus, at least for MAME.  Also, make sure that you filter your roms.  You really don't need 10 versions of each rom in your game list.  The software forum here is excellent for topics on doing just that.

Good luck with your system!

[Digital Vandal]

Thanks for the full explaination. I've completely misunderstood peoples comments about only using one core so pointless going higher, unless of course I was reading old posts. I'm getting so many headaches. 

So in a nutshell, I'm needing the fastest possible cpu I can lay my hands on but graphics card means nothing? Is memory important? or is there a ceiling on that?

I'm going to try to set my system up on the hard drive with my P4 and once I can afford the better system then i'll transplant it.

Is there any tutorials for me to follow to setup the emulators in maximus. If I know what to do for 1 then at least i know where i'm going.

[Digital Vandal]

Thanks to you guys I'm getting there. I now have mame and daphne working but for some reason some of my roms wont work. all the files are there but are in a folder not a zip, the zipped ones work great. not sure whats going on there.

There is a massive list of emulators not accounted for every time i load maximus and it asks me yes or no. yes or no what? yes takes me to config and no eventually takes me to the emulator choice screen. How can I stop that appearing?

What is the ideal system for all but the newest titles? I have MK4 and it reminds me of trying to play the original quake on a 486 DX2/66 if anyone remembers that. (god, I'm showing my age there.  )

Thanks again for all your help guys. Hopefully once I start building I can show you all the cabinet, but for the time being I'm trying to make sure I have the software up and running before I throw myself into building the CP.

[Digital Vandal]

I've been playing with mame and many others for quite a while now and have managed to get a few of my favourite games working but what I can't understand is that 0.139 the game will work, then it won't. Then I set up 0.135 and it works so I put 0.139 back and it works on that again.  I don't get it!!!

Would anyone recommend using model 2 emulator or would I be fine with mame on a e8400 running at just under 4ghz? Will I need a beefy graphics card? please recommend. Money is VERY tight but I've realised to do what I want means ditching the P4.