Updating Emulator Software

[xer0s]

I built an arcade cabinet several years ago when I was in college, and I've recently been tinkering around on it trying to fix some bugs that I never got around to.  I'm currently running:

Mame - v0.100
Atari - z26 v3.02.01
NES - FCE Ultra v0.96.13
Sega - Fusion v3.4
SNES - zSNES v1.42

Would it be worth updating to the newest software of each of these emulators?  What would I benefit?  Would some games work that didn't work before or run smoother?  Would games like Tekken and NFL Blitz be able to run if I updated?

I'm also considering adding Dreamcast and GameCube.  These are my current specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz
3 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 M GS

How would Dreamcast and GameCube emulators run on this?

Thanks for all the info you can provide...

[paigeoliver]

Mame generally gets slower with each and every release. Some games get speed increases from one version to the next but the trend is always towards slower. An update would likely make Tekken and Blitz even less playable and would likely take out a lot of games that were previously running full speed.

I can't fully comment on anything you would gain from updating the other emulators, but console emulation is so mature that the changes would probably be ones that you would never notice.

You could probably run Dreamcast and Gamecube emulators however both have controllers that translate horribly to arcade controls, so a lot of your favorites would be unplayable.

I have built a lot of cabinets and my general rule of thumb is not to update any of the software ever.

[xer0s]

Mame generally gets slower with each and every release. Some games get speed increases from one version to the next but the trend is always towards slower. An update would likely make Tekken and Blitz even less playable and would likely take out a lot of games that were previously running full speed.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that.  Obviously you would think it would be the opposite. 

Maybe I'll just leave everything alone.  I would still like to be able to play Tekken and Blitz...

[paigeoliver]

It gets slower because they keep improving the accuracy of the emulation which means more CPU cycles get spent. However most of this is essentially invisible to the end user.

I actually have two mame installs on my cabinet, .78 and the first one from last year where they fixed the speed on Robotron, with nothing installed on that one but Robotron.