Need Advice

[IG-88]

I have several old P1's - P3's sitting around that I want to put to some good use. I've been doing a bunch of searching here on the site and google but I'm not finding what I'm looking for.

I was going to run older versions of mame32 like v.36 or v.55 (like paigeoliver likes) using win98 or 98se stripped down with just a few roms each. The systems range from 166mhz too 400mhz (I think) with 32mb to 128mb ram. All have real basic sound/vid cards.

What I wanted to know is what F/E's would work with these (I know, mame32 is gui, I'm just comfortable with it) Or any other advice people might have for me. Other than scrapping them  that is.

[divemaster127]

the 400 you might be able to do something, maybe, but the old 166 will is just to old...
thanks

[JoyMonkey]

The 400 could probably cope with Windows98se, Mame 0.55 and GameLauncher. Anything lower than that and I'd stick with DOS, Mame 0.36b16 and GameLauncher, or DOS, Vantage and GameLauncher for a vertical setup.

[youki]

AtomicFe should work under windows 98  from a 200Mhz machine with 64Meg of Ram.  (i think it could work with 32Meg only , in fact it depend of the skin you use).

Of course, you will have to use non-animated skins and non alpha-blended one on very low configuration. But it should work.  (the default skin won't work i think)

My frontEnd is very scalable.

If you want try and if you have problem don't hesitate to contact me.

[IG-88]

The 400 could probably cope with Windows98se, Mame 0.55 and GameLauncher. Anything lower than that and I'd stick with DOS, Mame 0.36b16 and GameLauncher, or DOS, Vantage and GameLauncher for a vertical setup.

Hey JoyMonkey! I was hopin' you would answer. Actually I have win98 running on all the machines I just haven't put a set of emulators/and games on them yet. I would love to go the DOS/Mame36/GameLauncher route, but I guess I'm a little intimated by the whole thing. I am VERY command line "illiterate". I do know how to read however so I guess I could learn how to do it. How would you recommend getting started with that?

Youkki, thanks for responding. I was actually considering your FE just for the outstanding support you provide, I was just worried I wouldn't have enough "horsepower" to run it.  A few questions: You mentioned the default skin wouldn't work, what should I use instead? Also what size is your is the FE (mb)? Not that it should matter all that much. And when you say scalable do you mean that it can easily be scaled down to run a lower end machine like I'm talking about?

[JoyMonkey]

Hey JoyMonkey! I was hopin' you would answer. Actually I have win98 running on all the machines I just haven't put a set of emulators/and games on them yet. I would love to go the DOS/Mame36/GameLauncher route, but I guess I'm a little intimated by the whole thing. I am VERY command line "illiterate". I do know how to read however so I guess I could learn how to do it. How would you recommend getting started with that?

If I get time I'll put together a boot CD that will format your C drive and set up Mame 0.36b16 (or 36b12, since I can't find 36b16 anymore) and GameLauncher. Do you know what kind of sound cards are in these PCs? And what type of monitor are you planning on using with these (VGA or arcade)?

[JoyMonkey]

oops, double post!

[youki]

Youkki, thanks for responding. I was actually considering your FE just for the outstanding support you provide, I was just worried I wouldn't have enough "horsepower" to run it.  A few questions: You mentioned the default skin wouldn't work, what should I use instead? Also what size is your is the FE (mb)? Not that it should matter all that much. And when you say scalable do you mean that it can easily be scaled down to run a lower end machine like I'm talking about?

The default skin is an animated one it is why it could not work very well on a low power computer (in fact it works but is far too slow to be usable).
The kind of skin you shoud use are skin like Jeston3 , or Zarouk ones (may be in that case you will have to disable the bakground music).
Theses skins are downloadable from my web site.

Anyway, if you like a skin and it doesn't work for you, i have always a way to optimize it for your machine. Just ask me, i will do that for you.

The Size of the FE itself is only about 600Kb  , but then you have to add memory used by images , musics, sounds  of the skin. That part is variable and can be easily scaled down to fit your needs. (by modifying image resolution, sample rate for sound, replacing alpha-blending selection by non-ones..etc...etc..)

Anyway as i said by modifying the layout (skin) Atomic could run even on a 100Mhz machine with 32Mega of ram.  

So as i said, if you want try. Contact me , i will modify a skin for you to make it works on your configuration.

 

[IG-88]

Hey JoyMonkey! I was hopin' you would answer. Actually I have win98 running on all the machines I just haven't put a set of emulators/and games on them yet. I would love to go the DOS/Mame36/GameLauncher route, but I guess I'm a little intimated by the whole thing. I am VERY command line "illiterate". I do know how to read however so I guess I could learn how to do it. How would you recommend getting started with that?

If I get time I'll put together a boot CD that will format your C drive and set up Mame 0.36b16 (or 36b12, since I can't find 36b16 anymore) and GameLauncher. Do you know what kind of sound cards are in these PCs? And what type of monitor are you planning on using with these (VGA or arcade)?

Wow, you all are great! What I think I'll do is try JoyMonkey's CD (I'll gladly pay for the CD and your time!) for the real low end machines and Youkki's FE and v.56 for the better computers.

J.M. the sound cards I've been using are Creative Labs Sound Blasters that I got on the cheap and I plan on using some old PC monitors, so VGA I guess. I thought of using some old TV's also but thats probably on down the line a ways.

Thanks alot both of you. I know how limited time can be, so I really appreciate the effort you are putting into this.