Has my PC got the right specs?

[Mark Thomas]

Hi Guys,

I am wanting to run mame on my PC with mamewah but am not sure if it's powerful enough for the latest build of Mame? I also would like to run other emulators for Nes, Snes, Gba, Genesis and have recently heard that light guns can be used as these types of games are now playable in mame. Id love to be able to play games like House of the dead,point blank, operation Wolf,lethal Enforcers and virtua Cop.

My PC -

System:  Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 3 (32 bit)

Computer:  AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+ 2.25 Ghz, 2 GB of Ram

I have the AVGA Version 2 graphics card.

So my question is do I need to update my system to play latest mame and above emulators? Or could I use a lower mame and rom set and achieve my goal?

Thanks folks

[wweumina]

I don't want to be a forum nazi, but can we get a dedicated forum for this question?

Your specs are ok for the majority of mame and the other emulators should be ok as well.  Most of those light gun games aren't going to work though.

[Mark Thomas]

Thank you for your reply will the light guns games not work due to mame not supporting them or due to my PC set up?

Many thanks

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

Some will be due to your setup, others will not be improvable as they are down to MAME.

You may find the Zinc emulator & the Model 2 emulator good BTW. They run games a lot quicker than MAME & do not require your computer to be as powerful as what MAME does. Model 2 runs a few light gun games as well, House of the Dead is one of them. I am not certain if your system will be okay running it though, but maybe...

[Mark Thomas]

Could you guys please   help suggest some upgrades to my PC so that it would work with all the current mame build working games including light gun games like Area 51, lethal Enforcers etc.

I'm not very good with computers but I know some people who could upgrade my PC if I knew what I needed them to do. I am aware my PC is quite old now so im sure it is likely not up to the job I need it to do.

I also forgot to mention I would also be playing a few PC gun games and looking into these other emulators you suggested Zinc, Model 2 I really like the look of them and it also opened my eyes to a whole load more like daphne, Virtual Pinball, Dreamcast plus a few others also look amazing I didnt realise there were so many good emulators.

Hope you can help

Many thanks

[Mark Thomas]

Sorry to double post  but need to know if I can upgrade this PC to run those hard to run light gun games like Carnevil and Area 51 or if a new motherboard is required.

[notroubleclubber]

Apart from a better grafix card (above 512mb ram) then you should be fine to run what you want. My CPU is about 2.8ghz and my ram is 1.5gb ram with a 512mb grafix card and all the emus o wanted ran fine.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks mate,

I picked the arcade VGA card specifically to use my arcade monitor via a Jpac. Do you know if the new 3000 model of the Arcade VGA card would be better for me?


And do you know if there is a specific build of mame that is best suited for my project? I'm planning on using the latest one but am also looking into Groovymame as this has been recommended.

Thank you

[BobA]

I don't think Carnevil will run.   It takes alot more HP then area 51 etc.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Boba what is HP? if I could play the majority of games like Area 51, Point Blank, lethal Enforcers, T2, Operation wolf/ Thunder bolt & Aliens I would be happy it seems carnevil is a tough game to run from what I have read.