Author Topic: mame on my pc is a tad 'glitchy' (Read 3400 times)

danny_galaga · « **on:** January 03, 2006, 05:49:40 am »

well, ive been looking at the mame32 faq and ive tried all the different settings but i find that any games that count 'stutter' if that is the right word. i never really noticed before because my pc wasnt used for mame except to test a new rom etc. my cab didnt seem to have this problem. basically what happens is you are playing the game and it will just 'stick' or 'stutter' just long enough to ruin your timing. asteroids is really noticable. with frame rate going it doesn't seem to slow down when it happens. it sometimes speeds up a touch (berzerk is most noticeable in this regard). now my pc isnt the most amazing thing but it is reasonably modern. a HP pavillion 2.6ghz, xp pro, 512mb ram (thanks to sirp and others for helping there). it has onboard sound and graphics but ive been lead to believe this is not important for mame? i'm thinking maybe increasing ram might help although the faq here says 512 should be sufficient. my cab runs win98 on an amd2000 so 256 was fine on that. hard to compare really...

any thoughts? it could be ages before i have a dedicated system again so id like to at least be able to play asteroids and berzerk without any reminders of the crap legacy it sits upon!

ps: im running mame32, v78. this glitch ahppens whether im using a front end (have been testing atomic), online or purely just mame32 running...

Bones · « **Reply #1 on:** January 03, 2006, 05:55:21 am »

I get a similar response on a quicker machine with 2Gb ram when a program such as Norton fires up in the background.

It's not something as simple as a background task hogging resources is it?

danny_galaga · « **Reply #2 on:** January 03, 2006, 06:25:16 am »

Quote from: BrokenBones on January 03, 2006, 05:55:21 am

I get a similar response on a quicker machine with 2Gb ram when a program such as Norton fires up in the background.

It's not something as simple as a background task hogging resources is it?

no, i have all that --- euro disney world ---- turned off all the time. i dont even use norton, it just --- US cricket association--- me to tears!

i have also had probs with internet explorer lately which i thought was related to this forum (i know, i know such blasphemy!) . but i have NOTHING i can easily control running in the background when i want to be serious and get blasty on those Bezerkers arses!

Bones · « **Reply #3 on:** January 03, 2006, 06:30:35 am »

On a positive though, you found some new replacement auto censor words I hadn't seen before.

danny_galaga · « **Reply #4 on:** January 03, 2006, 07:26:12 am »

dunno if its a clue, but ive never had asteroids deluxe before. now i do and it wont run full speed in mame (without frameskip) while asteroids runs fine (except of course the glitchy thing). maybe of course this asteroids deluxe is different to what was available in mame78. so many questions...

eccs19 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 03, 2006, 10:24:39 am »

Have you by chance checked for spyware stuff on your machine? You may think you don't have anything else running, but they can hide very well, and they will take system resources. My PC is not nearly as powerful as yours, and have no trouble with either of the versions of asteroids.

MikeDeuce · « **Reply #6 on:** January 03, 2006, 02:35:00 pm »

Just curious, but does it run smoothly on a fresh restart of your system? My main PC (3800+X2/2gb Ram/blahbity blah) is terrible for MAME use if I've done much of anything on it (web browse, videos, etc). But on a fresh restart it's smooth as butter.

Hoopz · « **Reply #7 on:** January 03, 2006, 02:46:01 pm »

Quote from: MikeDeuce on January 03, 2006, 02:35:00 pm

Just curious, but does it run smoothly on a fresh restart of your system? My main PC (3800+X2/2gb Ram/blahbity blah) is terrible for MAME use if I've done much of anything on it (web browse, videos, etc). But on a fresh restart it's smooth as butter.

Sounds like you have a memory leak somewhere. There is no reason that PC shouldnt run 95% or more games without a hiccup.

Danny, is it mostly classics that you have been trying that display this problem or something else like newer games? Like eccs19 said, check for anything running in the background. Your pc is 50% faster than mine and I have not had those problems on Mame32 (or any other FE).

RayB · « **Reply #8 on:** January 03, 2006, 02:47:01 pm »

spyware, virus...

ahofle · « **Reply #9 on:** January 03, 2006, 03:08:57 pm »

Definitely sounds like some background process mucking things up. 2.6 Ghtz and 512Meg is more than enough for perfect emulation of the games you've mentioned.

Buddabing · « **Reply #10 on:** January 03, 2006, 05:23:25 pm »

Do you have the latest chipset and video drivers installed?

Try configuring Atomic to use command-line MAME instead of MAME32.

Try disabling artwork.

Try experimenting with frameskipping.

eccs19 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 03, 2006, 07:40:09 pm »

You should be able to give your computer the 3 finger salute (CTRL-ALT-DEL), and start killing a process at a time, and see if any one process in general fixes your issues. For that matter, it may tell you what it taking your resources. Typically if nothing is running, then "System Idle Process" should be at 95-99%. If something else is taking more than 5% when you think nothing else is running, kill that process and see what happens.

SirPeale · « **Reply #12 on:** January 03, 2006, 08:11:27 pm »

Other than Asteroids, which can be a resource hog (turn OFF artwork to speed it up) what other games are 'stuttery'?

danny_galaga · « **Reply #13 on:** January 04, 2006, 05:57:22 am »

i think its pretty much every game. examples are gyruss, galaga, afterburner, galaxians, pacman. others like asterix i think also do it but they just arent as critical so i dont notice it as much. incidentally, asterix runs something over 200% unthrottled and is actually heaps of fun to play that way!
it certainly does seem like it is some sort of background issue. this is happening even if im not running it through a front end- just using mame32, and nothing else obvious running. looking in task manager, system idle definitely is using the most resource at 97 or so %. although just looking at it now i noticed that spysweeper did some funny little thing. i only just thought of it now. hmmm, ill turn it off and report back!

SirPeale · « **Reply #14 on:** January 04, 2006, 06:24:39 am »

What resolution? Try turning it way down.

danny_galaga · « **Reply #15 on:** January 04, 2006, 06:53:43 am »

well, it seems to be running well with spysweeper turned off. i will experiment more when im offline to make sure nothing else interferes. if its a matter of resolution, whats a ballpark? while experimenting i changed it from auto to 1024 * 768. i guess i would just go down a step and test until its fine? i refuse to for vectors though. just not cricket! so to speak...

SirPeale · « **Reply #16 on:** January 04, 2006, 07:03:20 am »

Ballpark? For any standard res game, 320x240. Yeah, vectors should be run high, but it'll cost you.

danny_galaga · « **Reply #17 on:** January 04, 2006, 08:00:44 am »

Quote from: Peale on January 04, 2006, 07:03:20 am

Ballpark?

eccs19 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 04, 2006, 08:21:32 am »

Quote from: danny_galaga on January 04, 2006, 06:53:43 am

well, it seems to be running well with spysweeper turned off. i will experiment more when

Havok · « **Reply #19 on:** January 04, 2006, 08:59:24 am »

Go with the Microsoft anti-spyware. We've tested a bunch here at work, and it actually seems to be the best at detecting the most. (Probably because they bought the company!)

Get it here:

http://tinyurl.com/dawcd

ahofle · « **Reply #20 on:** January 04, 2006, 12:17:48 pm »

Spysweeper is one of the best spyware removal tools out there!
I have it set so it only runs when I tell it to, as opposed to running in the background. Try that to avoid it hitting the disk while you are gaming.

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #21 on:** January 04, 2006, 01:19:05 pm »

Quote from: danny_galaga on January 04, 2006, 06:53:43 am

well, it seems to be running well with spysweeper turned off. i will experiment more when

hartdre · « **Reply #22 on:** January 04, 2006, 02:24:22 pm »

I use both Spybot: Search and Destroy and Adaware.
They both pick up different things, but both work really well (combined that is).

-Drew
P.S. And they are both free!

danny_galaga · « **Reply #23 on:** January 06, 2006, 09:05:46 am »

well im very relieved to tell you that it WAS spysweeper running in the background that was causing the glitch (",). i did some hard testing with it on and off and from a fresh start to having the computer on for a while etc. mame runs without a hitch now.

Peale, i tried 320 x 240 but it looked way too 'fuzzy' on my system. looks ok at 640 x 480. As im guessing the lower the resolution the less processing needs to be done 640 x 480 should still be better than 1024 x 768 so ill bear that in mind for my next projects (which will no doubt utilise some cheap second hand stuff)

thanks again guys. id almost forgotten there was more to these forums than 'everything else'! now, i have to go back there. dont wanna miss out on anything bones is saying...


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