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Author Topic: Should I give Groovymame a try?  (Read 3714 times)

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Hogie1418

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Should I give Groovymame a try?
« on: July 10, 2012, 02:37:01 pm »
I keep reading about everyone here using it and loving it. I have my cabinet set up to my likings at this point using mameui32 and I am a little afraid to mess with it. The problem is that I am a stickler for graphics and if I'm not mistaken then groovymame is supposed to improve this area significantly. If it is smoother I think that it is something that I would like to mess with.

Basically do the benefits outweigh the time it would take me to get it up and running?

thanks :-)
« Last Edit: July 10, 2012, 02:47:20 pm by Hogie1418 »

krick

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2012, 04:05:17 pm »
There is a little bit of setup involved, but the results are pretty spectacular if you have the right hardware.
There's still a few rough edges (mainly vector games) but it will eventually get worked out.

Tell us a little about your cabinet:

What is your CPU
What is your graphics card model/chipset
What operating system are you using
Are you using an arcade monitor?  If so, which model?
If not an arcade monitor, what are you using?  PC monitor, LCD, TV, etc...
Are you using a J-PAC?


I've been meaning to put together a step-by-step setup guide based on my cabinet.  I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow morning, but maybe when I get back from vacation, I'll start working on it.
Hantarex Polo 15KHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 2GB (GCN)
GroovyMAME 0.197.017h_d3d9ex
CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 13 (Crimson 16.2.1 for GCN cards)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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Hogie1418

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2012, 06:17:08 pm »
Thanks for the response, Let me see what I can do as far as answering those questions, If I miss something let me know

Im using an old dell dimension 4400 1.79 ghz processor running xp
Im using a arcadevga as I have a WG d9800 arcade monitor
running all of my controls off of a ipac

So is groovymame for a more beefy cpu?
« Last Edit: July 10, 2012, 07:28:23 pm by Hogie1418 »

Calamity

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2012, 06:48:52 pm »
Hi Hogie,

Do you mean one of the older AVGA (9250)? That card would be perfect.

GroovyMAME requires as much CPU as normal MAME, bear in mind it's un up-to-date build so it may require a decent processor for many games. Besides, running games with vsync, that is the main goal of using GroovyMAME, requires even more CPU power than just running games with normal CPU based throttle.
Important note: posts reporting GM issues without a log will be IGNORED.
Steps to create a log:
 - From command line, run: groovymame.exe -v romname >romname.txt
 - Attach resulting romname.txt file to your post, instead of pasting it.

CRT Emudriver, VMMaker & Arcade OSD downloads, documentation and discussion:  Eiusdemmodi

Hogie1418

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2012, 07:15:36 pm »

Do you mean one of the older AVGA (9250)? That card would be perfect.


How would I know which model I have? I purchased it around 4 years ago....

Hogie1418

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2012, 07:22:41 pm »
Just got "smart" and looked up the new arcadevga 3000 and I see that it is red. Mine is green or black (can't remember which) so I am assuming I have the one that you speak of.

kourampies

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2012, 10:28:11 pm »
You should definetely use GroovyMAME and CRT EMU driver, the result is amazing.

The pentium 4 proccessor in your setup is a little weak though, for any modern build of mame. Still I dont think you ll have any problem with most games, till the mid 90s.

krick

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2012, 11:51:30 pm »
Your Dell computer has an AGP graphics slot, so either have the original ArcadeVGA 7000 AGP, or the ArcadeVGA 9250 AGP.

I don't know for sure if the 7000 model with work with GroovyMAME, but I assume the answer is yes.

As others mentioned, the main problem for you is probably going to be the older CPU.  The age of the game in MAME really doesn't matter when it comes to emulation, older games like Asteroids and Donkey Kong use tons of CPU cycles because they now use discrete simulation of the analog sound circuits instead of samples like older versions of MAME.  As games get more accurate emulation in newer versions of MAME, they tend to use more CPU as well, like Mortal Kombat, for example.

Also note that you're probably running an older version of MAME so many of your ROMs will need to be updated before they'll work with newer versions of MAME.

I guess you could always try it and go back to your old setup if you weren't happy with the speed.
Hantarex Polo 15KHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 2GB (GCN)
GroovyMAME 0.197.017h_d3d9ex
CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 13 (Crimson 16.2.1 for GCN cards)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz
ASUS Z87M-PLUS Motherboard

kourampies

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #8 on: July 11, 2012, 05:00:21 pm »
Perhaps its my idea, but I remember Mortal Kombat etc not running full speed on a 2800+ Sempron many years before, and nowadays im running at full speed even with a Celeron 2.0ghz, thats way weaker than the sempron. Its near the specs of OPs pc.

A little offtopic, nowadays you can find so many good used Athlon XP series CPUs and motherboards for them, that support more recent hardware, like SATA, PCI express and DDR2, that they seem like a good option. Some motherboards even have integrated ATI graphics, that work perfectly with CRT EMU driver and GroovyMAME.

krick

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #9 on: July 11, 2012, 11:17:56 pm »
Perhaps its my idea, but I remember Mortal Kombat etc not running full speed on a 2800+ Sempron many years before, and nowadays im running at full speed even with a Celeron 2.0ghz, thats way weaker than the sempron. Its near the specs of OPs pc.

Mame runs up to 30% faster in some games when running on Intel CPUs so that's definitely something to consider when buying hardware for a dedicated MAME cabinet.
Hantarex Polo 15KHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 2GB (GCN)
GroovyMAME 0.197.017h_d3d9ex
CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 13 (Crimson 16.2.1 for GCN cards)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz
ASUS Z87M-PLUS Motherboard

krick

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Re: Should I give Groovymame a try?
« Reply #10 on: July 11, 2012, 11:36:54 pm »
You should give it a try.

Groovymame is just an executable file.  You need to drop it in a mame folder.

I recommend downloading the latest mame 0.146 package from mamedev.org and unpack it into a new directory, then put the groovymame exe in that folder where the normal mame exe is.

You'll have to acquire some ROM files that are compatible with 0.146

Keep in mind that groovymame is a command line version so there is no GUI.  You'll have to test from the command line.  Later you'll want to get a front end like hyperspin to launch games.
Hantarex Polo 15KHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 2GB (GCN)
GroovyMAME 0.197.017h_d3d9ex
CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 13 (Crimson 16.2.1 for GCN cards)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz
ASUS Z87M-PLUS Motherboard