MAME.156 vs .190 - Am I missing anything or gonna notice? New build questions

[csnow]

I planned on doing a project about 2.5 years ago, and shelved it.  Well, I am ready to partake of building two MAME rigs of one vertical machine with two 8-way leafs, 3 leaf buttons each, spinner, and trackball (vertical shmups/Centipede/Arkanoid).  The other will be a horizontal cab with two 8-way leafs and 3 leaf buttons each.  This will be for Track and Field, Ghost n Goblins, Joust, beat-em ups,  etc (no fighting games).  Both machines will be an older i5 4gb Win 7/10 64 bit from a $60 Craigslist ad and will use 25" CRT standard res arcade monitors.  Is there anything that I will be missing since my MAME roms/files are .156?  I will be front ending this with GameEx if that matters.  The one game I might upgrade the hardware to more current would be Blitz since it is one of my all-time favorites.  Is there a noticeable improvement with Blitz with .190 or is it still dodgy?  I may just bite the bullet and get a dedicated Blitz cab since I like the artwork.  I don't mind upgrading to .190 but if there is little to no gain, I would prefer to go with what I already have.

Chris

[Haze]

there have been quite a lot of emulation improvements (and new additions) in that time.

given your setup, maybe the proper sound emulation in Ghox would be of interest to you (and likewise Fire Shark, Vimana, Teki Paki etc. which now have full sound with no hacks)

recent Decap work means there are subtle improvements to a number of classic period Taito games too, such as Rumba Lumber.  Deco Cassette emulation has also improved significantly in that time.

The recent Gaelco work brings several previously unplayable titles such as Thunder Hoop 2 and World Rally 2 to playable status too, people had been asking about those 2 for the best part of 17 years.

Space Lords, another one asked about for many years is also now playable (although the specific cabinet setup might not really fit what you're doing)

Some rare stuff like Hangzo, Metal Freezer and Wing Force is worth checking out too.

There have been various improvements to the Voodoo emulation over the years too, and optimizations, although I'm not sure how they impact Blitz.  Blitz 2000 is still dodgy when it comes to the settings menu not working (we're not sure why, starting to think it might be a rom / drive mismatch and that it was never fully dumped properly)

[csnow]

there have been quite a lot of emulation improvements (and new additions) in that time.

given your setup, maybe the proper sound emulation in Ghox would be of interest to you (and likewise Fire Shark, Vimana, Teki Paki etc. which now have full sound with no hacks)

recent Decap work means there are subtle improvements to a number of classic period Taito games too, such as Rumba Lumber.  Deco Cassette emulation has also improved significantly in that time.

The recent Gaelco work brings several previously unplayable titles such as Thunder Hoop 2 and World Rally 2 to playable status too, people had been asking about those 2 for the best part of 17 years.

Space Lords, another one asked about for many years is also now playable (although the specific cabinet setup might not really fit what you're doing)

Some rare stuff like Hangzo, Metal Freezer and Wing Force is worth checking out too.

There have been various improvements to the Voodoo emulation over the years too, and optimizations, although I'm not sure how they impact Blitz.  Blitz 2000 is still dodgy when it comes to the settings menu not working (we're not sure why, starting to think it might be a rom / drive mismatch and that it was never fully dumped properly)

Thanks Haze, that is very informative.  I have been told that CPU requirements have gone up substantially since .156.  Do you foresee any issues with 2d games from the mid 90's back having any issue with a first gen i5 @3.2 ghz?

[Haze]

there have been quite a lot of emulation improvements (and new additions) in that time.

given your setup, maybe the proper sound emulation in Ghox would be of interest to you (and likewise Fire Shark, Vimana, Teki Paki etc. which now have full sound with no hacks)

recent Decap work means there are subtle improvements to a number of classic period Taito games too, such as Rumba Lumber.  Deco Cassette emulation has also improved significantly in that time.

The recent Gaelco work brings several previously unplayable titles such as Thunder Hoop 2 and World Rally 2 to playable status too, people had been asking about those 2 for the best part of 17 years.

Space Lords, another one asked about for many years is also now playable (although the specific cabinet setup might not really fit what you're doing)

Some rare stuff like Hangzo, Metal Freezer and Wing Force is worth checking out too.

There have been various improvements to the Voodoo emulation over the years too, and optimizations, although I'm not sure how they impact Blitz.  Blitz 2000 is still dodgy when it comes to the settings menu not working (we're not sure why, starting to think it might be a rom / drive mismatch and that it was never fully dumped properly)

Thanks Haze, that is very informative.  I have been told that CPU requirements have gone up substantially since .156.  Do you foresee any issues with 2d games from the mid 90's back having any issue with a first gen i5 @3.2 ghz?

I think you'll be ok with that.

Requirements have gone up in some areas, although in other cases they've decreased.

I'm currently working on a way of reducing the CPU requirements for some of the rather CPU heavy Cave shooters for example.

[baritonomarchetto]

THIS is a great new!