GroovyMame has got me hooked.

[nevbuster]

I haven't messed around with computers since I had a Sinclair ZX81 and a Commodore 64. I decided I wanted to get an old fashioned cab, started reading about MAME, and then GroovyMame with all the positive feedback and decided I could put my 1980's computer science knowledge to good use and start a project. I've been reading the wealth of info on these forums and on other sites and am starting to put it all together. I'll try to problem solve myself rather than ask too many questions but just wanted to introduce myself.

So far I have :
An old JAMMA cab with a Nanao 26" dual res monitor (already had to get the old brown chassis serviced due to very old components, but now looks great.)
An old IBM desktop with a Pentium 4 3 ghz 1gb (may have under specced here).
JPAC
ATI HD4890 1gb graphics card (may have over specced here)

and plan to run Hyperspin with GroovyMame emulating MAME and any other older consoles that will run on the old Pentium 4.

I'm currently downloading an already set up Hyperspin project and various roms and will get it all running on an LCD before putting it the cab with the JPAC. The aim is to get the cab to run the old games looking as original as possible.

Please keep those posts going as they've valuable to Noobies like me trying to get their own setups started.

Nev.

[dgame]

A reader! Welcome aboard!

You have good parts to get started.

My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000.

[Calamity]

Hi Nevbuster, welcome.

Your P4 is almost identical to my Dell boxes I use for testing stuff (not the one in my cab). I can confirm it'll run must MAME stuff fluently, not all. MESS (UME) emulators for systems like SNES won't run full speed, however. BTW, make sure to follow the Windows XP route!

[nevbuster]

Thanks Dgame and Calamity,

I've never heard of Timex Sinclair 1000. You must be more of an old timer than me ! Did it even have graphics ? I remember one of the challenges of a ZX81 was programming with a total 4K of memory available. It sure taught you how to be efficient and learn machine code !

Calamity, I'm worried the P4 will struggle with some MESS emulators as I originally didn't factor MESS into my decision making to get a box. Although for a total investment of $60 for this box with a good LCD monitor, I won't be broken hearted if I have to ditch the box. I'm currently setting everything up on USB hard drives so if I have to pull the graphics card out and get a dual core box it won't be a big financial loss. The internal HDD is 80GB which may have been OK for only MAME with no videos or hyperspin etc, but hopelessly inadequate for anything more.

I am running XP 32 which was already on the box and will stay that way. Seems quite a few people are running XP 64 but I'm yet to see much documented about real advantages so I'll keep it simple.

One of the things I love about this project is that it is not just a download and double click to install and run. It forces you to understand how it works, even if just at a high level. When I started I downloaded MAME roms and the emulator and jumped straight into Hyperspin and it ended up out of control. Now I'm taking the time to make sure everything works properly in UME, one console and set of ROMS at a time and will tackle Hyperspin last. Logical really, but like a lot of noobies I underestimated the work involved. Also learned to investigate before making decisions. I was almost set to spend $200 on a new JPAC and Arcade VGA 3000. After doing the research I spend less than $100 on a second hand JPAC and ATI HD4890 which should perform better at half the price.

I'm not going to pretent to offer any technical advice to other newbies, but if I was to offer anything it would be to read, read and read more before starting and only look at posts from the past three months as application info gets out of date fast.

Also, are there any other users online from Australia ? I'm kind of feeling lonely down here.

Nev.

[dgame]

Good call on the Arcade VGA 3000, I bought one as well but they are not ideal for GrooovyMAME in Windows.

The Timex Sinclair 1000 was the North American version of the ZX81. It came out a year later. I remember typing pages and pages of code from magazines into that thing. The good old days. . .

From Wiki:

The Timex Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) was the first computer produced by Timex Sinclair, a joint-venture between Timex Corporation and Sinclair Research. It was launched in July 1982.

The TS1000 was a slightly-modified Sinclair ZX81 with an NTSC RF modulator instead of a UK PAL (Units sold in Portugal have a PAL RF modulator) device and the onboard RAM doubled to 2K. The TS1000's casing had slightly more internal shielding but remained the same as Sinclair's, including the membrane keyboard. It had black-and-white graphics and no sound. It was followed by an improved version, the Timex Sinclair 1500.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair_1000

[nevbuster]

getting off topic (not that there ever actually was one), but I bet you would have dreaded that message "syntax error" when you typed in one character wrong, or even worse "load error" when you typed it all in and got it working only to find your home cassette player hooked to the ZX81 with an audio cable couldn't reload the file after 20 minutes of waiting ! (for the younger generation, floppy disk drives were for the ultra-rich and hard disk drives were the size of a washing machine).

Anyhow back on topic, project update my ISP slowed down my internet speed because I reached by cap so I have not been able to finish downloading the Hyperspin project or a new set of MAME roms because the first lot were incomplete so I've got to wait a couple of weeks to get a new cap. Found a 1GB ram upgrade for my chipset on Ebay for $10 from China which may help speed up the P4 box. In the mean time will get as many UME romsets up and running as I can.

Problem with being in Australia is that I suspect the MAME/MESS user community is quite small and downloading this stuff is about my only option. I do envy the resources / contacts you guys in USA and Europe must have.

[MonkeyJug]

nevbuster, you do know that hyperspin won't work 'out of the box' with groovymame?  this is due to an incompatibility with HS and the number of modelines available...  you will just run into problems and headaches!

can i suggest you give bitbytebit/ves' groovymame linux cd a blast first, especially if you are only running mame/snes/nes/genesis/sms?  i have a complete hyperspin setup networked to 4 clients in my house, all fed from the main htpc in my av cupboard.  i could run hyperspin in my cab, but the linux cd route is virtually setup and playable in about 15 minutes.

i notice you said that you are 'in the process' of downloading hyperspin.  i can tell you that it has taken me MONTHS to setup my hyperspin and i still tinker with it to this day.  you will never be finished with hyperspin - it's just one of those things and if you aren't careful, it CAN consume your life!

[nevbuster]

Thanks Monkeyjug,

Yeah, I know hyperspin won't work easily with grrovymame and I'm doing my normal read, read, read to find out out to get it to work as I know some people have done it. The AHK file needs ammending and I'm at the point of editing it and recompiling it to see if it works. I might end up following the linux CD route, I've printed out the instructions to set it up and will look through it.

I've cheated a little bit on hyperspin and found a torrent for a "hyperspin project" that had all the setup work already done. It was 90 gb (compressed) of downloading and used by my entire data allowance in one hit but had all the graphics and other files already included and what I've seen so far it looks good and it's saved me a lot of time.

Nev.

[jvlk]

Thanks Monkeyjug,

Yeah, I know hyperspin won't work easily with grrovymame

Actually it's pretty easy when you do it with magic resolutions, you have the right hardware for it so it will be no problem to run hyperspin and groovymame on xp for you.

[nevbuster]

Thanks Jvlk, I'm off to read about Magic Resolutions and VMmaker. If you know any good guides or forums, please let me know.

Nev.

[jvlk]

No need for a guide really, after you installed the crt emu drivers 9.3 (Instead of regular ati drivers) run vmmaker and edit your vmmaker.ini to use the magic resolutions

Code: [Select]

ModeTableMethod_Custom = 0
ModeTableMethod_XML = 2


[nevbuster]

Does that mean that when I get around to installing the ATI 4890 in my box I don't install the ATI 4890 drivers, but it will work with the crt emu drivers even with the temporary LCD i'm using now ?

Nev.

[Calamity]

Does that mean that when I get around to installing the ATI 4890 in my box I don't install the ATI 4890 drivers, but it will work with the crt emu drivers even with the temporary LCD i'm using now ?

Of course you can install CRT Emudriver with your temporary LCD, no problem with that, 15 kHz and high resolution modes coexist within the driver.

[nevbuster]

Thanks Calamity,

Just an update on my project. Finally getting the hang of CLRMAMEPRO updating and fixing my MAME romset. Could have splashed out $30 and bought a current clean romset online on DVD's, but my inner self said that was wrong and I wouldn't have learned how to use CLRMAMEPRO if I took the lazy, easy option.
Recognise my P4 is going to struggle, so I've looked for a cheap upgrade. Taking a gamble here and bought a second hand dual core intel D925 3.0 ghz for $4 online and now got my eyes on a compatable second hand Asus P5Q Pro motherboard for about $20. Hopefully these will go into my ATX box without too much drama and be a little faster without going too high tech.
My power supply can't cope with the ATI HD4890 graphics card so I need to find a better one. Getting a second hand cheap 500w+ with 2 x PCI-e power connectors is proving near impossible, but I'll keep scrounging. In the meantime, continuing to setup roms and software with the current hardware setup. Love the layout of the IBM Thinkcentre ATX box I'm using. Everything's so easy to access, perfect for a noobie like me. I'm sure there's something I missed that will make my upgrade plans not work, and if there is anything obvious please let me know.

This is going to be a long project.

Nev.

[MonkeyJug]

This is going to be a neverending project.

Fixed that for you!