mame prob with older comp

[Truz]

Well i decided to fool around with my old laptop ( a toshiba sattelite 330cds) and see if i could get mame running on it, because maybe sometime down the road i can stick this in a cocktail cab and play ms pac galaga and the like.

So i put windows command line mame (.80) on it and tried to fire up ms pacman but i get this error:

Error getting directdraw capabilities: 80070057
Unable to start video emulation


Anyone know a fix to this problem?

[HagHore]

What version of DirectX is on your laptop?  You may need to update it.

[Truz]

hmm... well it is pretty old its a windows 95, i guess ill just get the latest dircetx that works with win95 (i think its 8.0a) and ill see if that helps.

[Truz]

well i updated directx and that did the trick and i got ms pacman up and running.
It took a bit for it to load but once it started up it was running at around 55 fps.


I was surprised at how well it ran, here are the specs of this computer

 Processor

    * Intel Pentium (1.8 volt) with MMX technology, running at 266MHz
    * 512KB pipelined burst SRAM level 2 cache
    * 66MHz bus clock speed

 Memory

    * 32MB EDO DRAM standard

So my question to you guys is, i see some of you running mame on some really old comps, how to you improve your load times of the games. It took a while for the game to load but after that it ran great. So how are the load times for those of you running older systems and what have you done to improve em?

[SirPeale]

Try using VAntAGE instead.

[Truz]

cool, thanks peale, just checked out the Vantage website, seems to be what i am looking for. I'll give it a try.

Anyone else have any tips for older systems.

[Howard_Casto]

Your machine is hosed... you should have known this when you had issues with windows mame (which will run on any pos machine)

reformat, put something other than windows me on it and start from there.  

You may not like this advice, but virtually everyone is going to tell you the same, probably because it's the best thing to do.  

[SirPeale]

Or just don't use Windows.  But then you likely don't have DOS sound drivers for that laptop, do you?

[Truz]

ummm casto, this is a totally different machine than the one from my other topics. This is an old laptop that i have been playing around with that has windows 95 on it. The "hosed" machine you are refering to was an old desktop (p4 1.3ghz) with windows me on it that i was having problems with.

I was playing around with this old laptop to see if maybe it had some potential in the near future so i could maybe stick it in a cocktail cab or something.

[mclaught]

find yourself an older version of mame, something in the 35-37range. Works much better on the older computers. Go  to this link http://mame.joymonkey.com/mame32.html to find some versions to mess around with.

[Howard_Casto]

ummm casto, this is a totally different machine than the one from my other topics. This is an old laptop that i have been playing around with that has windows 95 on it. The "hosed" machine you are refering to was an old desktop (p4 1.3ghz) with windows me on it that i was having problems with.

I was playing around with this old laptop to see if maybe it had some potential in the near future so i could maybe stick it in a cocktail cab or something.

Then why did you mention it in your post?  Unless you want to confuse everyone, don't post info we don't need.    

Btw I know you didn't mean anything by it but don't call me "casto".  That is my last name unless you tack a "Mr." on the end of it, it's disrespectful to address me that way.  Howard works just fine.  

[Truz]

ok Howard i didnt bring up the other machine at all in my orignal post you did, i was just clarifying that that was not the machine i was refering too.  

Thanks for the input everyone.

[paigeoliver]

Try a Mame version around .53 and use DOS mame, that way you don't have to worry about directX issues or other mess like that.

[Tiger-Heli]

Then why did you mention it in your post?  Unless you want to confuse everyone, don't post info we don't need.    

Like he said, he didn't mention it, you did.

Btw I know you didn't mean anything by it but don't call me "casto".  That is my last name unless you tack a "Mr." on the end of it, it's disrespectful to address me that way.  Howard works just fine.  

And don't call me Casto, any of you Homo's call me Casto and I'll kill you . . . Lighten up, Howard!!!

Just kidding, couldn't resist.

[Lilwolf]

If speed is an issue... mame version around .36 (one of the betas) is where they changed the bpp default away from 8.  This was a pretty big speed hit.

Remember... on many systems, you can have more then one version of mame and one roms directory (but you probably want to seperate them also).

So find a frontend that handles multiple mame/emulators well, and get a few versions.  Older the faster it will be..

Also, look at other emulators WHENEVER possible.  

NeoGeo - bunch of options
CPS2 - again, quite a few
Rygar - REM! is the best for slow computers
Gauntlet - mge does wonders
Vintage - whenever you can


try them all... finding roms for them might be an issue thought...