what fornt end and emulators to use?

[mrynit]

the computer i want to use for my arcade is an old Compaq. it has a P3 667MHz with 320MB of PC100 RAM and it has an AGP 2x 8MB savage GT video card. i want to use usb gamepads and rewire them to joystics and buttons. I want to have nes and snes games mainly and possibly Atari or other consoles games. what emulators should i use? i do not want the player to use the keyboard or mouse to switch games, just use the joystick and buttons. what front end would i use then?

[danny_galaga]

welcome to the forums! it will all depend on what sort of OS you use and how capable YOU are. im not that capable myself    see:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=47246.0

the two ive tried myself are ultrastyle and atomicfe. both set up fairly easily (atomic maybe a bit quicker, but some of the french instructions confue me). atomic is supposed to work with win98 although i havent tried it. atomic also works for all sorts of emulators. ultrastyle i couldnt make work with win98, so maybe xp only? others here will tell you about other front ends, my perspective is of someone not really confident with software...

[Howard_Casto]

you need a new pc

While mame runs in dos, most console emus dont and with a pc that puny you'd be better off running dos (mostly because of the lack of ram).

[mrynit]

OK...what would work with the computer i have now? anything? I want to go with usb controls. i dont get why mame needs so much power. ZSNES works fine on that computer.

[brophog]

zsnes is not mame.

[jhanson]

Older versions of MAME will run fine on that machine, at least in DOS.  I'd recommend using MAME 0.55 - 0.78 on a machine like that.  However, if you're planning to use Windows so you'll have USB support, I'd stick to the lower end of the MAME version range I gave.

As for front ends, I like AdvanceMenu in DOS, but it's a pain to configure.  Another good but simple one is GameLauncher.  In Windows, I like how customizable Dragon King is, but I'm not sure it would run well on that PC.  MameWAH is the popular choice, but I've yet to figure out why.

[youki]

Yes, you can use old version of mame .
And  XP and Atomic Fe on your configuration.

My Test/Dev computer for AtomicFE is on a old celeron 533Mhz 256Meg RAM  and an old ATI card.
It runs under Windows XP , FastMame 0.71 and Atomic FE.

Of course i can not run recent 3d games, but for game i like  , like Donkey Kong, Galaxian , Pacman..etc.. it is very good.

[mrynit]

Yes, you can use old version of mame .
And

[Howard_Casto]

In Windows, I like how customizable Dragon King is, but I'm not sure it would run well on that PC.

[youki]

will i still have usb support?

Yes.

the games i want to play are nes snes. all i need is  FastMame 0.71?

To play nes and Snes games you need a nes and Snes emulator , you can not play nes games with mame.

[mrynit]

i ment to say Atomic FE. what i want is MAME, ZSNES and some nes emulator all to work with a front end that uses only jpystick and a few buttons, no keyboard interface after it has been set up. so my question to you(all) what front end do i use to run the above stated emulators? i hear MameWah will run any emulator. but will MAME32 run the above stated emulators?

sorry for getting off the subject of this post.

[youki]

AtomicFE can work only with a joystick and few button. No need keyboard interface.

Anyway, even if a Front End need a keyboard interface and you don't want use it, you can use something like JoyToKey.  This driver will convert joystick input to keyboard input.

I don't  think that in MAME32 you can use "external" emulator. It is only the build'in Mame.

[mrynit]

just to clarify, mame32 is a FE and an emulator, which only runs arcade roms

[Tiger-Heli]

just to clarify, mame32 is a FE and an emulator, which only runs arcade roms

To be technical - MAME32 is the Windows MAME port with a built-in GUI, which only runs arcade roms.

Based on your other posts, you want an older version 0.55 or so of Command-line MAME, ZSNES, Ultra FCE, and Atomic FE to launch any of them.

[Tiger-Heli]

Also - you do NOT need to upgrade hardware.

I played older MAME games on a Pentium 200MMX for many years.

[mrynit]

the computer i'm using is really a 450mhz 100mhz FBS P3 with 192RAM. i tried playing SF2 with MAME and it worked fine for the most part but when some characters jump is slows down. i guess it wil work for older games but for some snes based arcade games it may run slowly. i know with ZSNES running it on that computer above would not be aproblem. i havent tried MameWah on it yet but i think it will work. i am a bit more inclinde to get a different computer. some thing like an AMD Athlon XP 2200. the problem is i cant find any.

[Tiger-Heli]

the computer i'm using is really a 450mhz 100mhz FBS P3 with 192RAM. i tried playing SF2 with MAME and it worked fine for the most part but when some characters jump is slows down. i guess it wil work for older games but for some snes based arcade games it may run slowly. i know with ZSNES running it on that computer above would not be aproblem. i havent tried MameWah on it yet but i think it will work. i am a bit more inclinde to get a different computer. some thing like an AMD Athlon XP 2200. the problem is i cant find any.

I think you will find SF2 in MAME more demanding than ZSNES - You also can tweak the settings to speed MAME up somewhat.  Mamewah or your frontend shouldn't be a problem.

[mrynit]

how do you tweak MAME to make it run faster?

[Tiger-Heli]

how do you tweak MAME to make it run faster?

Increase Frameskip, decrease audio samplerate, change to lower resolution, experiment with D3D settings, etc.

[highland04]

to bluntly say that he needs a new computer is inaccurate.

mame will run on a 400mhz pc.

i ran nesticle on a 233mhz pc, snes9x on a 600mhz pc.

you dont need a new pc, you just need to look for the best compatibility.

[brophog]

i ran nesticle on a 233mhz pc, snes9x on a 600mhz pc.

You're comparing a single console emu to a multiple hardware emu. Apples and Oranges.

More correct may be to say that it's not necessary to play MAME on a 400 mhz machine.

[jhanson]

the computer i'm using is really a 450mhz 100mhz FBS P3 with 192RAM. i tried playing SF2 with MAME and it worked fine for the most part but when some characters jump is slows down. i guess it wil work for older games but for some snes based arcade games it may run slowly.

What version of MAME are you using?  If you go to .36 or .55, a 450mhz machine should play a game like SF2 fine.

[RayB]

I agree with the last poster. 0.78 is a little too high a version for that CPU. I use 0.78 on 1 ghz, but without "triplebuffer" and "wait for vsync" turned off (that means I get tearing in scrolling games). For vector games, I still use 0.55 because .78 won't run them at full frame rate on even a 1ghz!