MAME Laptop Recommendation Please

[D_Harris]

Can I get recommendations for a lap-top that can be used for MAME(and perhaps a little word processing)?

It'll be used for some classic(1979-1986) games, and I plan to make a mini control panel for it. And I don't intend to install any unnecessary software on it, so the simpler it is the better.

So I guess the necessities are a hard drive, floppy drive, joystick port, and *plug for wall outlet*.(Did I miss anything?).

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Searcher7@mail.con2.com

[naomi+]

Im a long Island baby! I kick yer but!

Joking aside, the biggest concern for a laptop is price IMO. Running mame is easy on most current generation laptops, but they are still more expensive than a cheap computer. If you buy used there are issues you could run into...

I think when looking at a laptop your gonna want to make sure it has USB since it will not have a joystick port.  Most current laptops do have USB mind you.

If the laptop has any Nvidia or Ati card you should be ok with the classics (and prolly newer) . The tridents and such are kinda chessy.

If you play on a laptop without being plugged into a wall I warn you that it will kill your battery in an hour! If you run the laptop on "long-life" mode or equivlant you prolly wont even be able to do word processing!

Good luck

[Lilwolf]

btw, my bosses old laptop SUCKS for mame.  

1) the keyboard can't handle more then one or two keys at a time.  This is ok in most cases but not for mame.  So get one with a USB port or a game port.  Then a joystick or an ipac.

2) The video SUCKED!  no hw stretching at all...don't even consider it.  It had a trident video card in it I think.  But could have been any of the crap chipsets out there.  Go for ATI or NVidia and you will be fine.  But I'm sure some others will also... but you will be taking chances.

3)  The SOUND sucked!  Dont' know what it was.... but to get any performance at all I had to just turn it off.

btw, it was the same speed as my office machine and my office machine played them all just fine.  So there are differences.  They do remove some features from laptops to make them fit in the small space.

[eightbit]

If you use the word "old" to describe a laptop its probably not going to play mame well. My 1ghz business class Compaq Armada E500 plays most mame games great. It has a ATI video chip set and the sound is decent. Its about 6 months old and work payed around $1300 I think.

In a laptop remember you get half as much computer for twice as much money with very little upgradeable potential.

You don't need a massive computer. I've played some of the roms on my handheld Ipac with MameCE with satisfactory results.