Help with AdvanceMAME

[RTSDaddy2]

I was told to use it because of its ability to work better with light guns.  I downloaded it, but can't get beyond configuration.  Wil AdvancedMAME .102 not work with an ATI200 or 300 graphics card?

[whammoed]

Before researching that, what OS are you trying to use it on?

[Antix]

And are you planning to use it on an Arcade Monitor or PC monitor? If arcade, what make/model etc.

[RTSDaddy2]

Ok:

1) I'm using Windows XP
2) TV monitor - SamSung  Flatscreen HD ready acting as monitor

To add to all this brouhaha, I bought a new graphics card from Microcenter yesterday, just to see what it'd do having an actual "TV out". (the old card did not have one, was using scan converter).  The card is a Diamond Stealth Graphics accelerator card featuring Raedon 9250.  DVI / Dual Monitor / TV out card with 256 MB DDR (not SDDR) in a PCI version.

That's basically where I'm at stats wise- not sure the model number on the TV, I'll try and find it...

By the way, the S-video out on that card really sharpened up the picture quite a bit...little Mario no longer looks all "pixelated" when he runs!

[Antix]

OK so I dont see why you would want to use AdvanceMame then.... It is mostly best for people that want to use true arcade monitors (15/25Khz ones) You can still use it with a PC monitor, but it would be a lot easier to use Mame32 or an easier to configure mame emulator. (just my opinion here)

I have only had experience with getting AdvanceMame to work on an Arcade monitor. I have never even tried to get it running on a PC monitor sorry.

[RTSDaddy2]

Well, as to why I'd been told it responded to light guns better than MAME32.  I think however, that since I got the new video card, if I just build the GunCon2 circuit it may work fine...but I don't know.  I know one thing for sure...the DVI input / output from the PC to the TV did exactly what I thought it would....no more issues reading text at any resolution!!

[Silver]

For the record, yes advancemame is typically used to create custom perfect resolutions etc..etc... and works better usually from dos or linux... and is VERY picky about gfx cards. This is much, much worse in XP, where it struggles with most gfx cards.

However, it CAN be used WITHOUT all these fancy direct hardware control of your gfx cards issues - and in fact acts much like normal mame in this mode.

You've been recommened it because it does include extra lightgun code - specifically, I believe, code that detects if you are using either an act-labs or a guncon2 (although possibly only detects with one of the 2 guncon drivers) and, the last time I checked, auto-calibrates them on the fly (you need to point to the four corners of the screen apparantly). I have not used this myself, but am planning to look into it.

to use advancemame in windows with any kind of modern video card (with the possible exception of a geforce2) I would suggest in the config look for device_video:

It probably says: device_video auto

change to:

device_video sdl

and if you want full screen (test with above first)

device_video_output fullscreen

This works for me. Note that the using the sdl driver removes all the super fancy auto clock pixel generation techniques in advancemame, but then you were not after those anyway.