P4 to GroovyMAME Machine - Recommendations

[littlemegagamer]

Hi everyone guys! It is my first post!

I am looking for some recommendations in relation to transform my old Pentium 4 to a modest GroovyMAME machine.
I would like just to enjoy some icons 2d games from 80s-90s.

That is my hardware:
Pentium 4 630 (2M cache, 3.00 Ghz, 800 MHz)
4 GbRAM
Club 3d ATI Radeon 9250 PCI Standard 128 Mb

I have already read some topics here and maybe my PC is too old fashion to get the last configuration for Win7x64. Maybe my Graphic Card cannot support DirectX 9.0 or I could get some bug with them... I don't know guys! I would like to have some recommendations for a friendly configuration that could match my hardware:

- which OS? (XPx86, XPx64.. Win7?).
- which version of GroovyMAME and where I could find it? (32, 64?).
- if I have to use an old GroovyMAME version, could you suggest me which MAME bios pack could match with it (My older Bios pack is the 0.185).
- which version of CRT-Emudriver + VMMaker + OSD Arcade and where I could find it?

Thank you very much in advance guys!

[PL1]

- if I have to use an old GroovyMAME version, could you suggest me which MAME bios pack could match with it (My older Bios pack is the 0.185).

Use matching ROMset and GroovyMAME versions.

Many people find it easier to find a ROMset then download the matching version of GroovyMAME.   


Scott

[littlemegagamer]

Thank you, Scott,

I will follow your recommendation once I will know which configuration you suggest to my case 

[keilmillerjr]

Windows 10 1703 creators update enterprise or newer is easy to hide windows ui. Dont use Windows XP. Its old as balls. Consider linux as well. Groovy Arcade fork is making good progress.

[MaximRecoil]

Dont use Windows XP. Its old as balls.

So is his CPU. When the Pentium 4 630 was released in 2005, XP was the latest version of Windows. His hardware would work great with XP, and not as great with newer versions of Windows. "Old" in and of itself is no reason not to use something. If it does what you need it to do, and does it well, that's all that matters. If it were me with that hardware, I'd just follow that tutorial on YouTube, which uses XP and an older version of GroovyMAME:

Consider linux as well. Groovy Arcade fork is making good progress.

The current build of GroovyArcade might be a little much for his hardware. His CPU is about the equivalent of an Athlon 64 3000+. I ran it on a 3700+ and it was marginal for Street Fighter games. For the most part it worked okay, but there was slowdown at times. Overclocking it from 2.2 to 2.8 GHz all but eliminated the slowdown, but it still happened occasionally. On the other hand, when that CPU was new in the mid 2000s, running XP and a then-current version of MAME, it was massive overkill for any of the Street Fighter games.

[keilmillerjr]

Dont use Windows XP. Its old as balls.

So is his CPU. When the Pentium 4 630 was released in 2005, XP was the latest version of Windows. His hardware would work great with XP, and not as great with newer versions of Windows. "Old" in and of itself is no reason not to use something. If it does what you need it to do, and does it well, that's all that matters. If it were me with that hardware, I'd just follow that tutorial on YouTube, which uses XP and an older version of GroovyMAME:

Consider linux as well. Groovy Arcade fork is making good progress.

The current build of GroovyArcade might be a little much for his hardware. His CPU is about the equivalent of an Athlon 64 3000+. I ran it on a 3700+ and it was marginal for Street Fighter games. For the most part it worked okay, but there was slowdown at times. Overclocking it from 2.2 to 2.8 GHz all but eliminated the slowdown, but it still happened occasionally. On the other hand, when that CPU was new in the mid 2000s, running XP and a then-current version of MAME, it was massive overkill for any of the Street Fighter games.

Not many people want to support 32-bit anymore. I don’t waste my time compiling binaries for it. Yes, XP is old As balls for computing if you are trying to stay current.

[donluca]

Given his current limitations, he might be absolutely fine with a slightly older 32-bit version of GroovyMAME.

If he wants to keep up to date and have most game working full speed he'll have to update his hardware.

[littlemegagamer]

Thanks for your opinion guys.

As I said in my first post, I am not looking for perfection, just a friendly configuration for my hardware.
Diego Sanchez looks like very happy about his configuration, maybe I could follow the same way.

GroovyMAME is not my area, I would like to have your recommendations in relation to which range of GM versions can match with XP 32 or 64, where I can find them..
If my graphic card is compatible with the last driver 2.0 and so I could go for Win 7.

Hopefully, someone has already done some test about. Thanks!

[MaximRecoil]

Not many people want to support 32-bit anymore. I don’t waste my time compiling binaries for it. Yes, XP is old As balls for computing if you are trying to stay current.

There's no need to stay current with a PC that's only used for MAME. In his case, trying to stay current would be counterproductive, because current software wouldn't run well on his old hardware.

Thanks for your opinion guys.

As I said in my first post, I am not looking for perfection, just a friendly configuration for my hardware.

Perfection doesn't exist with emulation anyway, even if you have the latest and greatest hardware and software. Emulation for most 2D arcade games from the '80s and '90s has been close enough to perfect for as long as I've been using MAME (since 2001). On my main PC, my goto version of MAME is 0.62 from 2002, because I have a full ROM set for it and it works fine for nearly every game I want to play. Even back then, MAME already supported about 3,500 ROMs.

Diego Sanchez looks like very happy about his configuration, maybe I could follow the same way.

That's what I would do if I were you. Just use Windows XP and the same version of GroovyMAME that he did, and you should have a working setup that runs well on your hardware.