HI All, I have an i7 3GHz/12GB Win7-64 dedicated MAME system using a Wie-Ya M3129 chassis with an LG 29" tube 15/24/32Khz (aka "Makvision" Tri-mode) driven by a AVGA 5000.
I have been using GroovyMAME with great success with this system and can run pretty well any horizontal 2D game (e.g. mk.zip, wboy.zip, sfa3j.zip, sfiii3.zip etc.) with smooth video, synced audio and very low input lag with my Q4RAF Sanwa fightsticks & xbox controllers I have attached. Of course I get the same experience if I run any vertical game with the screen rotated 90 degrees (e.g galaga.zip, viprp1.zip, cave shooters etc.).
I have been researching in these forums for years and following the excellent advice from the community members and haven't needed to ask questions because the content in the forums is so helpful for solving problems. However, I ran into a nasty problem yesterday and I'm hoping that re-installing the AVGA drivers will fix it (as a last resort) but wanted to check here first before I do that...
The problem is I get messed up video in every resolution the AVGA driver supports EXCEPT for the 400x256 res (running somewhere between 53-55Hz but not sure the _exact_ frequency). I ran into the problem ONLY AFTER running R-Type/rtype.zip using the -triplebuffer option. In command line I typed "rtype -triplebuffer" as opposed to using an .ini as I was just testing the option to see if it slowed down the game to the proper speed (it did) and was planning on making one after testing ok. This did not happen ever in the past when running other games like Mortal Kombat (which shows smooth scrolling/audio during the fight ladder btw) and uses the exact same video mode as R-Type. Also I should mention R-Type ran well too and continues to but now I've lost all the other resolutions.
I would post a log or .ini but this issue is not isolated to the GroovyMAME config. Something in the system or driver got altered that affects the display in Windows. The problem happens with any program using the CRT now (it's the primary monitor) like a more modern program like Street Fighter 4 in 640x480. When I reboot the system the custom 15Khz windows boot screen appears messed up too. After I boot to windows desktop the video is ok only because the CRT is set to 400x256 with QuickRES NT (the AVGA utility with the Notification Icon in the right corner that looks like a Galaga Bee that allows you to quickly change supported resolutions).
If you guys have any suggestions that I could try other than a video driver re-install it would be greatly appreciated. Lol, until then I am stuck to only being able to play Mortal Kombat and R-Type. ...and I don't think I will be playing R-Type on GroovyMAME again until I use it with an ATI Radeon card that CRT EMU supports and install Atom f/w on it.
Thanks in advance!
Joseph-122