Upgrade or Downgrade?

[drunkatuw]

I've got a somewhat aging system and mame is updating too quickly for me.

Current system:
Athlon 1.4 TB overclocked to 1.5GHz
640 MB RAM
Running winXP pro

My current mame setup is running mame version 0.81.

I noticed that games which used to be playable (NBA Jam, Area51, etc.) are now very slow.

So, should I upgrade my processor?  The highest I could go to would be athlon xp 1900+ (Highest motherboard can handle).  Or should I downgrade mame to an earlier version (perhaps somewhere between 0.76 and 0.79).

My only concern about going backwards is, I know how to update my roms using clrmame pro, but can I go backwards as well?  What about the CHD games?  I've already converted all of mine to the new format, can those go back or do they need to be?

Thank in advance for any suggestions/help!
Can anyone think of any games that have been introduced since 0.76 that they'd be upset not to have?

[SirPeale]

Yes, you can 'downgrade' your ROMsets using ClrMAME.  You just need to have those ROMs that have changed in your backup folder.  Luckily this doesn't happen too much.

[Tiger-Heli]

So, should I upgrade my processor?  The highest I could go to would be athlon xp 1900+ (Highest motherboard can handle).

I seriously doubt you would see a significant improvement going from an TB 1.5 Gigabyte, to a XP 1900+.  Here are my current thoughts on processors (last week's prices, though)

Currently running a Duron 850 ($40?) plays probably 90% of all MAME games with no problem, but I wouldn't buy a new one.

Barton XP 2500 ($75?), considering this since my motherboard can run it.  Only real gain is that I could play Cruisin' USA (with underclock cheats), probably play the games you mentioned, and use higher -res bezel artwork in most games.  Probably the best processor if buying a new system, but even at $75, hard to justify the money for the upgrade.

IMHO, anything beyond this is overkill - i.e. a lot more money and the games the XP 2500 can't handle, the latest stuff can't either.

Or should I downgrade mame to an earlier version (perhaps somewhere between 0.76 and 0.79).

Not what you want to hear, probably, but you don't have to run one MAME version on the PC.  For example, I currently play Bzone in R36B12 (alpha blending slowed it to a crawl, even with the Duron, R36B12 was 100% on my Pentium 200), CABAL in MAME Analog Plus V.70u4 (sometime after this, custom mouse settings got lost), Outrun in R37b6 (before System16 broke), and most games in the current MAME.

My only concern about going backwards is, I know how to update my roms using clrmame pro, but can I go backwards as well?

MOST of the time, MAME will add roms to a set, not remove them, so it's not a tremendous problem (Clrmame may say there's an extra non-required rom, but just ignore it).  Bigger problem is if the newer MAME dropped sample support, good luck finding the older samples that USED to be required, but that's pretty rare as well.

 What about the CHD games?  I've already converted all of mine to the new format, can those go back or do they need to be?

This seems obvious, but if you drop back to a version that still supported the new format, they are okay.  If you go back before that, they may not be.  Not sure how easy it might be to find old version .chd files!

Can anyone think of any games that have been introduced since 0.76 that they'd be upset not to have?

Again, my option is to run the latest MAME and run older versions for games that can't keep up.  You could always handle it the other way as well though - i.e. - use 0.76 as your primary build and run a newer MAME only for those games added since 0.76.

Personally, I'm looking forward to playable SF Rush, although the Current version runs attract mode at about 5% speed on a P4 1.8Ghz with both game CPU's underclocked to 1% (in other words, unplayable) so I think Aaron Giles guesstimate of a 20Ghz CPU requirement might not be far from the mark.

[drunkatuw]

It's pretty weird, but I switched from no name mame to the regular mame and now games are running much quicker.  NBA Jam is back to 100%.  I also started playing puzz loop which is a blast, but I had to set the frame skip to 9 to get speed near 100%.  With the default mame, puzz loop is also running at 100%.

Strange, but atleast it's working.

[Tiger-Heli]

It's pretty weird, but I switched from no name mame to the regular mame and now games are running much quicker.  NBA Jam is back to 100%.  I also started playing puzz loop which is a blast, but I had to set the frame skip to 9 to get speed near 100%.  With the default mame, puzz loop is also running at 100%.

Strange, but atleast it's working.

You might post about this in the NoNameMAME thread.  I'm a big fan on NNM and I'm sure TheGatesofBill would want to know about this.

[pmc]

I also started playing puzz loop which is a blast

We've become addicted to that one! Awesome game. Check out the other similar games (Puzzle de Pon, Puzzle Bobble, etc).

Also look for any of the Puyo Puyo games. Waaaay addictive. When I was in Tokyo a few years ago, it was all the rage in the arcades.