old MAME versions

[deadmoney5]

I am still using an old MAME .86 variant (MAME PP) with my bartop.  It is used just for old 4-way games.  I'd be surprised if any of the 50 or so games I have available to play are newer than 1990.  Pretty much all 80's classics.

Am I missing anything by using such an old version of MAME?  It was just so much easier to use that version because I have all of the ROMS, artwork, samples, etc for that version.  Plus hiscore support is there.

[adder]

if some of the mame games you play have bugs or unfinished emulation etc, you could check on the mametesters site to see if the bugs have been corrected in later mame versions and then decide if it is worth upgrading, otherwise, i wouldnt worry about it.

[Grasshopper]

I see no reason to upgrade unless there's a specific game you like that's not supported (or buggy) on that version of MAME.

MAME 0.86 is actually a pretty good vintage. By that version, most of the games that mattered were already supported, and most of the significant bugs had already been fixed. It was also around that time that many people started saying that MAME was basically done, and I'm inclined to agree.

In fact, these days you can make a pretty strong case for deliberately choosing an earlier version of MAME. Unfortunately, the program's performance has fallen off a cliff in recent years, and that fact that it's theoretically more accurate isn't sufficient compensation for the worse performance IMHO.

[Yenome]

I agree no need to update. im sticking to 151 my self but i play newer games. Now if you do find that there is a game you wish to play that is supported in a later mame you could always get that version of mame just for that game or for a list of games and have diff lists for diff times like for example is 10 of your games work on mame .134 better than .84 you could get .134 just for those 10 games. i have seen it where the user cant tell that a diff mame version is being run just for that game. I have seen setups that had 3 diff mame versions

[gildahl]

I don't think the emulation of most '80s titles has changed too much since .86, but  there are a few changes that might be worthwhile.  Atari Pokey sounds were recently updated.  I don't much care for how Missile Command changed, but Centipede is a definite improvement (better twang on the shots).  I think Donkey Kong and some others went from sampled sound to fully emulated discrete sound since .86.  Robotron received some recent updates to make timing in higher levels much more authentic. I think there were some improvements in Star Fire too (I may be wrong, but I don't think sound worked in .86). It's also likely that improvements in various chip emulation and palette changes have subtly improved other games as well.  There are regressions too, but you'll have to assess that on a game-by-game basis.

If you're going to continue to just run a strict set of golden era games, then I would stick with .86 as your base version, but consider installing a newer version alongside for just those games that might benefit from it.  On the other hand, if you're thinking that you may want to expand your library to include newer games, then you may want to consider taking the 10 year plunge and establish .154 as your new base, but keep .86 alongside to handle games whose performance you preferred under that version.  90's+ era games will benefit significantly from newer mame versions. 

In my setup, my FE doesn't call mame.exe directly to launch a game, but rather a very simple AHK script that searches for the rom and launches it in the version of mame that it finds it in.  This way I can change the version of mame that a game uses by just dragging the rom from one version to another rather than changing any configuration in the FE.

[deadmoney5]

thanks guys!
 

[JimmyU]

I believe Donkey Kong had its sound fixed from using samples to properly emulated discrete sounds in the last few years.

[lamprey]

The upcoming 0155 will have Raiden 2, if that means anything to ya.

The other thing that that may be of interest is the UME/SDL variants starting with 0155 (soon to be released) will support OpenGL 2.0 shaders (I think that is the right terminology). In addition to SDL2.0 there is a new shader by Timothy Lotte that is about as good as it gets for a CRT emulation. If you haven't tried it and you are running a non-crt, I'd suggest checking it out. Unfortunately, I can't use builds of SDLMame prior to 0155 for various reasons, but the 0155-pre release builds seem to be working pretty well for me.

[Minwah]

I believe Donkey Kong had its sound fixed from using samples to properly emulated discrete sounds in the last few years.

I use 0.99 as a rule, but do also run a new version (forget the exact version) so I can play D2K. As Jimmy says, the colours and sound in DK seem to be better emulated...although it plays exactly the same.