Ancient computer to make mame out of

[Dreadnaught]

Here are the mind blowing specs of this computer that I was given.  I figured I could make it into a small mame cab for my nephew.

Windows 98
Wopping 10 GB Hardisk
.8 Ghz pentium processor
128 MB RAM

Should I use an older version of mame?  Is there any GUI that would work for this aging beast?  I have XP but fear that the tiny HDD can't take it and a descent amount of mame roms.   

[FALSE]

I've got a really old similar pc that I was wondering if I could run mame on.
I was also wondering if it would be possible to get mame running on it, even if just pacman and galaga era games.
In for some answers  : )

[nitz]

Should I use an older version of mame?  Is there any GUI that would work for this aging beast?  I have XP but fear that the tiny HDD can't take it and a descent amount of mame roms.

You will need to use an older version of mame to get full speed on anything. I recommend Mame 0.56 or something near that. I had that running on a PC with worse specs than that once, and I think I was able to run pretty well everything full speed except 3D games, CHDs, and Mortal Kombat era Midway games.

You could try Mala, I think that's pretty lightweight and may run on that. TinyXP might run on it too, but if Windows 98 is working well for you, I would probably just stick with it.

I've got a really old similar pc that I was wondering if I could run mame on.
I was also wondering if it would be possible to get mame running on it, even if just pacman and galaga era games.
In for some answers  : )

I think games from that era will run on pretty much any PC if you go back to an old enough version of Mame.

Hope this helps guys.

[BadMouth]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=116268.0

...and I'll add:
If you go the DOS route, get a soundblaster card.
DOS drivers for onboard audio usually doesn't exist.

[quadrider1]

i used mame .108 and it worked fine with the old computer i was using but after .108 it needs a better version of directx that it could not run. I reccomend tiny XP 9.0 or whatever with mame .108 and mala. That was the specs for the first cab i built

[wizkid32]

I had a PC with similar specs., and was going to use it in my cabinet.  I recently upgraded, however, to a AMD Athlon powerhouse, with a whopping 512 megs. of RAM. 
I'd try MAME .7X, and run something like MAMEWAH or some other LITE front end.
And stick with Windows 98.  That's what my upgraded PC is running. 

Why 98?

Stable
Compact
Fast
Compatible (with all but the newest games)
Low System Requirements
I Already Had A Licensed Copy 

[Jack Burton]

Don't use 98.  Windows XP is going to be more compatible with a variety of emulators and will not use any more resources.  In fact, there are versions of XP out there that use far less than off the shelf 98.  License shmicense. 

This computer should do fine with hundred of classic games running on older emulators.  

What kind of slots does the motherboard have on it?  Get an old AGP Nvidia card and a smaller PC CRT and use advancemame.  You can run games in their native resolution and use advancemenu as your front end.  Very barebones and efficient.  

[Blanka]

With that little power, you could as well run a gameduino.

[GregD]

Why use this pc?   Are you trying to challenge yourself?   You can pick up a pc with far better specs than this for free.   At least you are reusing the machine and it isn't in some electronics dump in Sri Lanka.

[compute]

BITD I ran quite a few games on my 300mhz Celeron with Win98.  This was around .40 or so.  Classics ran very well.  As long as you're using an old enough version of MAME, you should be able to run quite a few games.  That PC has about the same specs as an Xbox, and those run MAME quite well.

[jennifer]

Why use this pc?   Are you trying to challenge yourself?   You can pick up a pc with far better specs than this for free.   At least you are reusing the machine and it isn't in some electronics dump in Sri Lanka.

         Some truth to this, And kinda funny too [Giggle] .

[Cakemeister]

Try XP, you'll have better luck with drivers and whatnot.

Minimum requirements for XP are here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865

Also, I would start with version v0.106 of MAME.

[Blanka]

I figured I could make it into a small mame cab for my nephew.

Considering making small things for nephews and the time we not have:
Make him a MicroMame cab from some old Mi2 or GP2X handheld, and wire a small joystick and 2 buttons to it. You can even stuff it into a dead Coleco table top (really dead one, most dead ones can be saved).

[ds015882]

I had a very similiar system. I played around with Puppy Arcade (linux) that is out there. It worked all right.

I currently use my old system to run RandyT's Jumpball for my skeeball machine and it works flawslessly with my system.