Games played through MAME question, help before i build & general questions

[racecar]

Hi all, just have some questions before i build my MAME machine.

I want to build a MAME mahcine and was wondering the following questions before i start to build, i was using a xbox and now with all the slowdown and errors its time to upgrade

- what type of pc is everyone using here for newer games without slow down etc?
- is there a website which shows what games have better emulaton other then MAME? (wondering for fighting game)
- if the game plays poorly is that just because of the rom?
-any other tips which will help or i might not have asked yet??

THANKS HEAPS, i look to start building while i have some time off work

[Donkbaca]

If I can help:

I am running a Pentium 4, 3.0ghz and I can run most of what I want to run, except KI2 has a little stutter that I need to tweak.
I got that PC for free, you can pretty much find one for free or under 50 bucks if you want to go that route.

 What are you looking to play?  The toughest games to play are the blitz/gauntlet dark legacy games.  However from what I understand, if you run a dreamcast emulator, those games play just fine.  Also the 3D fighting games, like tekken, don't play that great on my machine, but from what I hear, the model 2 emulator and zinc make a huge difference, but I haven't gotten around to playing with those yet.

[racecar]

thanks for that

im looking to play

metal slug games
street fighter 1,2,3
marvel vs capcom 2
capcom vs snk
mortal kombat 1,2,3
NBA JAM
maybe some older classics like DK but they should work no probs

anything newer like tekken and street fighter 4 im going to build a candy cab and put a ps3 in there

[nitz]

You could probably get away with using any decent PC if you don't mind using older mame or other emulators.

Metal Slug Games - use old mame or possibly a neogeo emulator
Street Fighter 1, 2, 3 should run fast on FB Alpha
Marvel Vs Capcom + Capcom vs SNK - FB Alpha maybe? Not sure because I don't play these games.
Mortal Kombat 1,2,3 + NBA Jam - I had these running full speed on a Pentium III 1.4 Ghz machine using FastMame 0.71.

The emulation won't be as accurate this way, but unless you're hardcore into these games, you probably wouldn't notice.

I guess what I'm saying is, it never hurts to have a fast PC for a mame cab, but you can actually play most games on a beater PC if you're on a budget.

[Donkbaca]

I'll try those out tonight if I get a chance and let you know how they work.

I know capcom v marvel 2 works great on the dreamcast emulator.  I am pretty sure NBA JAM works great on my computer, I am pretty sure all the street fighters work well, except for the weird EX ones.  I am curious about what works great on my machine so I will let you know. 

[Donkbaca]

As a side note.  Surprisingly some of the old classic games are actually the hardest to emulate!  The reason for this is that a lot of them used analog sound, and reproducing that through digital emulation is really, really hard.  That's why a lot of older games don't have perfect sound emulation.

[Endaar]

I'm running a Core 2 Duo E8500, and I believe all of those games work perfectly. MK3 is the only one I'm not positive about.

For what it's worth, the major difference between the Core 2 Duo and  P4 3.0Ghz was not needing to use Zinc for most of the Playstation-hardware games. Tekken 3 runs pretty well under MAME on the C2D; it was unplayable on the P4.

Endaar

[racecar]

thanks everyone, just get back to me and let me know

im looking to build a pc for around the $500AUS mark

not to fussed about the EX street fighters, there terrible imo lol

ill just have to read up on the games and see which are better in MAME and which are better on other emulators

i dont really mind to much about the sounds being 100% and the game speeds being 100%. im only 20 so alot of these games i have not played before, not to worried just want games to run good. more fun then a hardcore gamer

[srarcade]

Black friday at CompUSA is where I built my MAME PC. Last year I got a Intel duo core 1.6 + 2GB ram, intel mobo, 500GB drive, power supply, nvidia  video card and I spent a little more than $200 after rebates and discounts. It will play anything I throw at it. I think the newest game it normally sees is SF3 3rd strike because i still wont man up and buy the pcb.