How far will this PC get me?

[AE35]

Hi all!

I have an Aopen 1GHz, 256MB ram, 80GB HDD and onboard
gfx and sound.

Could anybody give me a hint about how far I could go in MAME
games? Any special version of mame I should use, what should I be 'heads-up' about?

The PC won't be running anything else, and be on XP, with all the extras turned off. No network, no nothing.

Thanks!!

Nicholas

[spriggy]

You won't get a definitive answer.

[Tiger-Heli]

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=14155

[AE35]

Thanks to you both! It should be OK then.

Nicholas

[GGKoul]

Thats the spec of my MAME machine and it plays 85-90% of the games.

[Havok]

Stay away from the CHD games, and you should be fine...

[pointdablame]

Well it won't get you very far if you don't give it a nice tune up.  Check the fluids, and change out the spark plugs.  You might also wanna give the belts a quick look.  And of course check the tire pressure... it's not gonna get you very far if you blow out a tire.

 

I mean... listen to what everyone else said.... yeah.....

[DrewKaree]

Well it won't get you very far if you don't give it a nice tune up.  Check the fluids, and change out the spark plugs.  You might also wanna give the belts a quick look.  And of course check the tire pressure... it's not gonna get you very far if you blow out a tire.

PDB, you suck so bad.  That didn't help him or answer his question at ALL!

That PC will get you to halfway between Joplin and Texarkana.

THAT'S how you provide a helpful answer to his question

[Luckydevil]

NASA used a less powerful PC to get to the moon. I'm thinking maybe Saturn or jupiter.

[SirPeale]

Stay away from the CHD games, and you should be fine...

This statement is *highly* inaccurate.  Only 60% of the CHD game are unplayable with any machine.  Killer Instinct 1 & 2, Area 51 and all varients, Maximum Force, all the Beatmania games all work with non-top-of the-line hardware.

[brophog]

True, but he's still not getting far with that 1 ghz machine on those games.

[thesmit]

Well, what would be ideal hardware to run the CHD games then?

[USSEnterprise]

I know awhile back, someone set up a system wit a 2GHz and 8 250GB HDDs in RAID for CHDs.

[pointdablame]

I know awhile back, someone set up a system wit a 2GHz and 8 250GB HDDs in RAID for CHDs.

I dont see how that RAID array would help much... you still need much more raw processing power than 2ghz to run some of the CHD games.  And there is not need for 2TB of hard drive space to run CHD games.  The Mame set might be getting large, but it isn't THAT big.

[krick]

MAME is almost entirely dependent on CPU power.  Any idea what kind of 1GHz cpu you have?  Keep in mind that modern onboard video almost always uses system memory for frame and texture buffers.  This will eat away at your 256M.  Exactly how much depends on the video chipset, and your BIOS settings.

XP will be gasping for air on a sytem with 1GHz and only 256M of memory.

I wouldn't even think about running XP with less than 2GHz and 512M of memory.  Though some people will call me crazy. I can hear them sharpening their pointy sticks already.

However, if you can bump your memory up to 512M, drop back to Windows 98SE, and resign yourself to only running older versions of MAME (someone here will have to offer specific version numbers), I think you'll make out fine.

Depending on the exact chips used for your onboard video and sound, you might make out better picking up a used soundblaster and Geforce2 off of eBay.  Sometimes, the onboard stuff *REALLY* sucks and eats up a bunch of CPU cycles while it's sucking.  Without knowing the exact details of your hardware, it's hard to really know.

Your hard drive should be fine.  A full set of MAME 0.92 ROMs, CHDs and samples is only about 40GB so you should have plenty of space even with newer versions.  I can't imagine it's gone up that much with the newest version of MAME.


If you decide to go with 98SE, make sure you install the Unofficial Windows 98SE Service Pack...  http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html

[MaximRecoil]

I wouldn't even think about running XP with less than 2GHz and 512M of memory.

[TurboC--]

mame 071b is always good for slower systems from about Cel 300 up.

[spriggy]

mame 071b is always good for slower systems from about Cel 300 up.

[brophog]

C'mon, Maxim. You should know by now that not all 2GHZ are the same. 

[USSEnterprise]

I wouldn't even think about running XP with less than 2GHz and 512M of memory.  Though some people will call me crazy.

For simply running XP and not doing much with the PC beyond internet browsing and email checking, something along the lines of a P3 or Celeron 733mhz with 256mb of RAM runs XP just fine. cessor for running Windows XP?

Call me crazy, but for a long time, I had XP Pro running on a PII 300 w/ 64 RAM and it ran fine

[quarterback]

Call me crazy, but for a long time, I had XP Pro running on a PII 300 w/ 64 RAM and it ran fine

You're crazy.   

[MaximRecoil]

I wouldn't even think about running XP with less than 2GHz and 512M of memory.

[DrewKaree]

Hey Krick, just wanted to let you know that at least one person here (myself) understood what you were saying and didn't ass-hat-sume you were giving us hard and fast rules here.  I also didn't get my panties in a twist thinking you were quoting the processor bible either when you gave us your PREFERENCES of what you'd run.

Amazing what you get out of a post when you simply read it for what it's worth instead of what you feel you're being "told"

[RayB]

ON a 1ghz, you may have to turn off triple buffering and wait for vsync to get alot of games running at full frame rate. (v.78)

You can drop back to v .55 for faster performance, but then you get the nag screens in those.

[krick]

Hey Krick, just wanted to let you know that at least one person here (myself) understood what you were saying

Thanks for your support. 

If you only have a 1GHz CPU, and your goal is to run an application that is very CPU hungry (and sometimes memory hungry depending on the game), it just doesn't make sense to use a resource intensive operating system.

Heck for a 1GHz MAME machine, I was originally going to suggest running DOS instead.
But since Win 98SE includes DOS 7, you always have that option.

[USSEnterprise]

What about an earlier linux distro with XMAME?

[MYX]

I had a SONY Vaio 233 mhz (MMX) w 128m of ram and was able to play a heck of a lot of games. I love Assult and some of the newer Atari games like marble madness. I could not play these on this computer. I was given a PIII 650 mhz w 256 of RAM and was planning on using this as my machine for the new Cab.  Would I be able to play em or should I add another $200 to get a 1.5 ghz off e-bay? I am not into alot of the newer games (95 +) and have no real need to play the CHDs. (I would however love to see Hydrothunder MAMEd).

[RayB]

I had a SONY Vaio 233 mhz (MMX) w 128m of ram and was able to play a heck of a lot of games. I love Assult and some of the newer Atari games like marble madness. I could not play these on this computer. I was given a PIII 650 mhz w 256 of RAM and was planning on using this as my machine for the new Cab.

[Tiger-Heli]

(I would however love to see Hydrothunder MAMEd).

You can play the N64 port of it with Project64.

[daywane]

I have a 1.8 gig CPU
XP pr 2
512 meg mem
Mame 32 ver 79
agp video card
runs just fine

also
700 meg cpu
XP Pro
512 meg memory
PCI video card
mame 32 ver 56
runs fine

also
PII 300
XP pro
on board audio and sound
64 meg
( only running Ms Pac and Galaga)
runs fine
slow to boot .... about 1.5 min
simple ... hardky ever turn it off
games boot fast enough for me
PII 300

[spriggy]

I have a 1.8 gig CPU
XP pr 2
512 meg mem
Mame 32 ver 79
agp video card
runs just fine

also
700 meg cpu
XP Pro
512 meg memory
PCI video card
mame 32 ver 56
runs fine

also
PII 300
XP pro
on board audio and sound
64 meg
( only running Ms Pac and Galaga)
runs fine
slow to boot .... about 1.5 min
simple ... hardky ever turn it off
games boot fast enough for me
PII 300

.. I have an old p90 that doesn't work!!!   used as door stop for the workshop!!    (sorry..had to be a smart anus)

[krick]

.. I have an old p90 that doesn't work!!!   used as door stop for the workshop!!    (sorry..had to be a smart anus)

I forget exactly which version it was but at some point in MAME the blitter code was rewritten to use MMX. So you'd have to run a pre-MMX version on that CPU. 

In all seriousness, I've suggested to the MAME devs that maybe the MAME code should test for minimum CPU feature compliance and spit out an error instead of just crashing like it does now.

[AE35]

Hi again!

Well, right now I'm using MAME v101, and some games are
running slowish.

How much difference is there in going to mame 071b, and WHERE can I find it?

Thanks for all your feedback!!

Nicholas

[daywane]

we can not say were to get them
( it is a NO-NO to ask)
I do not know how to do it. but there is a program that will take them back.
some one else will have to pipe in and tell ya the name.
drawing a blank at the moment.

[MaximRecoil]

we can not say were to get them
( it is a NO-NO to ask)
I do not know how to do it. but there is a program that will take them back.
some one else will have to pipe in and tell ya the name.
drawing a blank at the moment.

There is no rule against telling someone where to get an old version of Mame. ROMs are another story. You'll find that a lot of your existing ROMs will work across wide range of Mame versions, so just try it and see. ClrMamePro is the program that is supposed to be able to "downgrade" your ROMs I think, though I've never used it. Anyway, you can get old versions of Mame from http://www.mame.net/oldmame.html

This is a direct link to 071b - http://www.mame.net/zips/mame071b.zip (right-click and "Save Target As...")

If you prefer Mame32 you can find old versions at - http://mame.joymonkey.com/mame32/ - though not all of the downloads always work there.

[pointdablame]

you should be able to see a marked difference from 101 to 71.  If not, drop to something in the 55 range and you'll see much faster speeds, although you lose a few newer games.

[AE35]

Thanks!

There is a distinct difference I see now.

I've settled at v0.78, since lower didn't allow Twin Cobra.

So all is good, even though I can't get Galaga, Wonderboy in
Monsterland and Golden Axe running on this version.

Nicholas

[pointdablame]

Thanks!

There is a distinct difference I see now.

I've settled at v0.78, since lower didn't allow Twin Cobra.

So all is good, even though I can't get Galaga, Wonderboy in
Monsterland and Golden Axe running on this version.

Nicholas

Galaga and Golden Axe should work just fine.  I haven't upgraded MAME since .69 and Galaga runs just fine. (although not perfectly of course... emulations changes were made around 100 IIRC)

[RayB]

So all is good, even though I can't get Galaga, Wonderboy in
Monsterland and Golden Axe running on this version.

Those all work. You just need to download all versions, and then rebuild the ROM set to 0.78 formats.

(By "all versions" I mean, download the Namco, Midway, and other variations, maybe even clone sets too. This gives the ROM re-builder all the data it needs to rebuild the set properly for 0.78)

[AE35]

Okay, thanks!

But I don't understand 'rebuild' rom to .78??!?

Nicholas

[IG-88]

If you decide to go with 98SE, make sure you install the Unofficial Windows 98SE Service Pack...

[krick]

It bundles a bunch of updates and fixes a ton of bugs.  Plus, it makes it play nice with 512-768 megs of memory.  I find that it generally makes windows more stable.  It also adds a few choice utilities like "command prompt here" and "TweakUI".

Features of 2.1a:

# 120+ updates and hotfixes (Detailed list will be prepared soon).
# Solves 512 MB of RAM problem.
# 256-color tray icons.
# Better Notepad: MetaPad 3.5 (Optional).
# Optimized swap file usage (Optional).
# Better WDM and USB support.
# Adaptec ASPI 4.60.1021 drivers (Optional).
# Windows Scripting Host 5.6.
# DCOM98 1.3.
# OLE Automation Libraries 2.40.4522.
# Dial-Up Networking 1.4.
# Microsoft Installer 2.0.
# HTML Help 5.0.
# TweakUI (Optional).
# Command Prompt Here (Optional).
# New Animated Boot and Shutdown Logo (Optional).
# Microsoft Layer for Unicode.
# Visual Basic 5.0 SP2 runtime library.
# Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 runtime library.
# Visual C++ 6.0 SP6 runtime libraries.
# Updates JET 3.5 files to JET 3.5 SP3.
# Supports 98lite 4.7.
# Windows 2000/ME desktop icons.
# Windows 2000 color scheme (Optional).
# Supports custom "Program Files" directory.
# Shows attributes column in details view on the Windows Explorer.
# Semi-slipstreaming support.
# Some tweaks (Optional).

More info here...
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61749

I install every option except "MetaPad" since I already use UltraEdit.



If you use USB mass storage devices with Windows 98SE, you'll also want to get this too...

Maximus Decim Native USB ver.2.2
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=43605

It basically grafts the Windows ME USB mass storage device support into Windows 98SE.



If you're really feeling adventurous, there's also a utilty that will graft *all* the good parts of Windows ME into Windows 98SE....

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=46349

I haven't tried this one yet, but a lot of people are using it and swear by it.

[IG-88]

Thanks that's really interesting. I'll definitely look more into this.

by the way, sorry I hijacked your thread AE35

[RayB]

Okay, thanks!

But I don't understand 'rebuild' rom to .78??!?

Nicholas

Search for info on "CLRMAMEPRO". It's a tool that goes through your rom files and fixes errors and revises them so they are the correct format for your version of MAME.

[DrewKaree]

Yeah, and then find directions on how to use it before you EVER sic it on your roms so you don't have that friggen program wipe out every rom you have.

[AE35]

Ok, I tried the program, but that is too complicated for getting Galaga, Out Run and Golden Axe to work on 66b.

Thanks though!

Nicholas