benefit to upgrading from 98E to w2k/XP?

[Halen]

Is there anyone out there who has upgraded from 98 to any of the newer OS's and found things to be better, worse or pretty much the same with the win32 version of MAME?

Thanks,

DMA

[ArcadeFX]

I just downgraded from Win2k to 98.  Win2k is not a very good game OS at all. I found 98 was much better when it comes to fps and mame

Also, IPac isn't supported by Win2k. I don't think XP is either.

Also, many of my PC games like NFL Blitz are not support on Win2k or XP.  If you are looking at a dedicated cabinet OS I would go with 98SE.

What else are you using your machine for?

[Halen]

I only run Mame, Impact, Modeler, and U64emu on it, it's currently in my cabinet.  As far as I've read, Ipac works fine under W2k/XP, it's the programming utility that isn't.  I use the mame preset on it anyway, so that's not an important thing to me.  I've been thinking of running a few PC games on it like MK4 or Golden Tee, but I haven't gotten around to buying them yet.

DMA

[Howard_Casto]

Mk4 and golden tee both work on xp (and im assuming they would on 2000 as well)

Using the default mame layout wont work for impact, but it will for modeler btw.   (Impact's joystick plugin wont recognize some of the more exotic mame keys.)  But a simple boot disk will solve that problem.  

Here's the deal with upgarding to xp... first of all make sure you have a best of a machine, since it needs way more resources than 98.  

A reason to upgrade?  Well if you had problems with 98 crashing your not going to have those probs in xp.  I personally couldn't live without xp now.  However, on a dedicated cab 98 will do just fine.  

[Howard_Casto]

Afx is right..... in my opinon 2000 sucks.  Alot of people think 2000 and xp are virtually the same, and in alot of ways they are.  But subtle differences make them different enough to where i would recommend upgrading to xp but NOT recommend upgrading to 2000.  Regardless of what others will tell you xp has superior hardware and software support over 2000.  2000 has better networking suppport, but that shouldn't apply in this situation.  I've also found that many games that won't run in 2000 will run in xp.  

[Lilwolf]

Also, XP has better directX support I hear  (I haven't compared them... but thats what I hear anyway).

btw, stick with 98 unless your using a development system or need it for something specific.  No real reason for games (in fact, reasons not to)

[Howard_Casto]

Agreed for now 98's your best bet if it's a dedicated cab.

[Jakobud]

I don't know what sort of under the hood problems exist with Windows ME as opposed to 98, but I have experienced ME and bit and the boot up time is WAY faster than 98's boot up time.  Probably boots up in about 1/4 of the time or less than it takes 98 to boot up.  So that's sort of a good thing for arcade cabinets.

Jakobud

[Howard_Casto]

Windows Me is completely unstable on 95% of all pcs.... If you've got a machien that'll work on me then more power to ya, but it's a miracle that it works.  

[Blake]

I'm probably going to downgrade from Win2k to 98SE in the near future.  With 2k, I can't run Golden Tee Golf or Dragon's Lair, and everything I'm doing now, I can do in 98SE.  The only reason I went with 2k in the first place was stability, but since I won't be doing much, there really isn't much chance of crashing.

[fraggtastic]

I went from 98se to ME and am now at XP.  XP is a very stable OS and I have had few problems with any of my software but I haven't put it to a real gaming test yet. Currently Neoragex is not working properly for me but all the neo geo roms work in mame32 for me now.  just make sure your neogeo.zip file has all the right drivers.  

I love XP as an OS and the additional features it provides and most of my USb plug and play stuff has been recognized with no problems.

Avoid ME at all costs it is the worst OS I have ever seen and is unstable beyond a reasonable users tolerance.  

[u_rebelscum]

My bias opinion:  

Stay with win98 because winXP does not allow for multiple & separate mouse controls (due to differences in the WinXP/2000 kernel).  Mame:Analog+ allows for multiple USB mice in win98 & winME, but not winXP or win2000.

I'm bias because I added that feature.

[Andy Warne]

Someone mentioned above that the I-PAC is not compatible with Windows 2000 / XP. It is!
The only limitation is that, if you need to customize the code set you have to run the programming utility from a boot floppy disk.
Once set up, the board will work perfectly in W2K and XP.
Also, for MAME you never need to program it anyway.

Andy