Help with ArcadeVGA Windows 7 64

[spookybonus]

After about a month of emails back and forth with Andy we both can't figure out why things aren't working properly.
So now I am going to give GroovyMAME a shot.

I am running Windows 7 64, ArcadeVGA 3000, and MAME 0.149 (a version that i complied and a new one from the mamedev site for testing)

The problem is that i cant ever get the resolutions right with the settings from the Ultimarc site, games would run way too small or they would be squished horizontally and so on.

So now I am trying to use GroovyMAME and hopefully that will give me better results.
I have been reading about GroovyMAME and the AVGA 3000 card and found that i will have less resolution options available.

I am wondering about how to set this up now, do I just drop the GroovyMAME exe in my current mame directory and generate a new ini file?
Do i need to run vmmaker even though I have the AVGA 3000? (if so could you point me to the current version of it?)
Anything else i might need to do?

Thanks!

[Calamity]

Hi spookybonus,

To get GroovyMAME working with ArcadeVGA 3000,

1.- Create an empty folder, place GM's executable inside. Launch it from command line, with -cc to create mame.ini. Enter mame.ini and edit as usual to point your roms path etc. Don't touch any other video option (syncrefresh, etc.)

2.- In mame.ini, set 'lock_system_modes 0', 'refresh_dont_care 1' -> these options are to deal with ArcadeVGA peculiarities.

3.- Start lauching games

You may find some vertical games run too slow. Create an individual .ini for them with the 'triplebuffer 1" option inside.

[spookybonus]

Awesome!
Things are looking up now!
I noticed on a couple of games I tested out that it tried to run them at an interlaced res (rampage and narc for example).
I tried pointing the mame.ini to the ini folder that was created with the AVRES tool from the ultimarc site that has ramplage listed to run at 512x448, but it keeps running iat 512x512i and being all jumpy, the same interlaced jumpyness happened with narc.

Is there a different way to make the games display a different resolution?

One last question, I need to compile my own GroovyMAME to get rid of the nag screens right?

Thanks fir the help!

[spookybonus]

Okay, I figured out that the nag screen thing was already in the ini, oops.

Any ideas on how to get games like rampage or narc to run non-interlaced?

Thanks!

[Calamity]

Hi spookybonus,

The Rampage game was interlaced originally (512x480@30Hz) so GM is doing the right thing. Narc was originally 399p, so the best you can do with a stardard arcade monitor is interlacing too. However if you really hate interlaced modes (think it twice: interlace is your friend), just disable it from mame.ini: interlace 0

The result won't be good, these games will be stretched over an inferior progressive resolution.

BTW, if you want to force a give resolution using an .ini file, use the full label, including refresh:

resolution 320x240@60

[spookybonus]

Thanks Calamity!
my monitor is only 15khz so it cant display the interlaced resolutions without the screen jumping around.
I'll try switching that off for those games.
Thanks so much, GroovyMAME has made my arcade cab work great!