How do you deal with using MAME in 2 different rooms?

[j123vt_99]

Like most of you, i will be building a mame machine in the near future. currently i have mame and other emus on a HD in my comp. I think I want to keep mame and emus on my comp as well so i can play a quick game every now and then.. do you guys just use seperate HDs or do you network the cab and PC together and work off a server environment?

[Buddabing]

Like most of you, i will be building a mame machine in the near future. currently i have mame and other emus on a HD in my comp. I think I want to keep mame and emus on my comp as well so i can play a quick game every now and then.. do you guys just use seperate HDs or do you network the cab and PC together and work off a server environment?

Separate PCs. My cab runs MAME v0.78. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. On my regular computer I have my custom MAME build.

[j123vt_99]

Like most of you, i will be building a mame machine in the near future. currently i have mame and other emus on a HD in my comp. I think I want to keep mame and emus on my comp as well so i can play a quick game every now and then.. do you guys just use seperate HDs or do you network the cab and PC together and work off a server environment?

Separate PCs. My cab runs MAME v0.78. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. On my regular computer I have my custom MAME build.


and when there is an upgrade to roms or mame?

[SirPeale]

and when there is an upgrade to roms or mame?

Like the man said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  However, if a future version of Mame supports a new game, just copy the new exe and ROM to your drive on your cabinet.  Make a backup of the old exe, JIC.  Play with it.  If you like it, then run ClrMAME on the cab to clear up any potential changes.

[cholin]

Network the PCs and use a remote admin software so that you dont have to switch rooms to see how something is working.

[j123vt_99]

thanks for the quick reply guys... peale & budda, what are the specs on the comps you are using in your cab?

[SirPeale]

AMD K6/2 550 (which is only recognized as a 450) and a I forget the other.  I think it's about 400 MHz.  Oh, and a 486 I'm about to upgrade to a P133.

[j123vt_99]

K6 slower than a Athlon/Duron?

[Buddabing]

thanks for the quick reply guys... peale & budda, what are the specs on the comps you are using in your cab?

FIC AZ11E motherboard
Duron 900 MHz
384 MB SDR DRAM
ArcadeVGA
Pentranic 1425 25" arcade monitor
Windows XP Pro SP2 (bleccch, I would rather use DOS)
SB Live! Value
MAMEWah

[brandon]

K6 slower than a Athlon/Duron?

for sure.. slower than Pentium II AFAIK  probably work just fine with older build of Mame and classic games though.

[SirPeale]

K6 slower than a Athlon/Duron?

for sure.. slower than Pentium II AFAIK  probably work just fine with older build of Mame and classic games though.

Actually about the same speed.

[Buddabing]

K6 slower than a Athlon/Duron?

for sure.. slower than Pentium II AFAIK

[SirPoonga]

my roms are stored on my mame machine.  I network map a drive letter on my arcade machine.

[Fat_Trucker]

Yup. Have a seperate PC in my cab (actually used it as an excuse to upgrade my desktop pc and just used my old one).

Everything is installed seperately inside the cab and you simply open the coin door to access the dvd drive for updating etc.
Some people use a wireless network card so they can update their cab remotely.

Cab PC:
AMD Athlon 2800XP (2.2Ghz)
80 Gb Maxtor HDD
Arcade VGA from Ultimarc
Soundblaster Live soundcard
512Mb PC3200 DDR
MSI DVD Rom.

Running Win XP and Command line MAME with MameWah FE.

[paigeoliver]

I never ever, ever update anything in my cabinets, once the machine is done it is closed up and never updated. Updates are just trouble, can break what previously worked, and make games that previously ran full speed fun slower. Sure it won't matter much for a few updates, but after a few years your cab will be crappy and slow.