Mame cabinet project with a 266 mhz???....

[hayabusa_fmw]

Hello everyone

I Have started a mame project with a PC MONITOR inside my old arcade cabinet that the monitor just died

so i will Restore it to a mame

but My main question is the PC i want to use is a pentium 266mhz
with a Normal Video card i can't recall the size of meg but It was enough to run half life

My main Concern is
#1 What version of mame to use?
#2 is there a way that windows always boots in Mame ??
is there some kind of mame windows? mame os without installing windows?
#3 I will use a hot rod or xarcade hook to my cabinet will i be able to scroll down in mame?
#4 The games i will play is mainly Street fighter II sf III neo geo & double dragon & turtles
is it enough to run on the 266mhz?

thanks!!!!!!!!!!

[SithMaster]

My main Concern is
#1 What version of mame to use?
#2 is there a way that windows always boots in Mame ??
is there some kind of mame windows? mame os without installing windows?
#3 I will use a hot rod or xarcade hook to my cabinet will i be able to scroll down in mame?
#4 The games i will play is mainly Street fighter II sf III neo geo & double dragon & turtles
is it enough to run on the 266mhz?

1-depends what games you want to play but check the whatsnew
2-yes im trying to get dos mame to work on start up
3-dont know
4 dont know and refer to step one

[redfivexw]

I have tried using computers that slow, you will not get good results running a windows version of mame with Neo Geo games, etc on a 266mhz pc.  As far as a direct boot solution, Try GameEx (do a web search for gameex, you will find it).  there is a tutorial on the site on how to get your windows machine to boot right into it.  I have set up several computer with that software, I was able to use Mame 32 and gameex together and it works beautiful, however you will need at least a P3 800 mhz with 192mb of ram for good response.  good luck

[daywane]

#1 What version of mame to use?
a) mame 56 or less

#2 is there a way that windows always boots in Mame ??
a) yes... copy mame exe to sart up folder
#2b)is there some kind of mame windows? mame os without installing windows?
a) yes. several versions of boot cds have been built for linux
I have had no luck. one has not been built with kiss. ( Keep It Simple Stupid) that I know of

#3 I will use a hot rod or xarcade hook to my cabinet will i be able to scroll down in mame?
a) yes.  newer versions of mame will do this out of the box.
I have a PII I am seting up now for vetical games. Mame 56. I added a program to start up folder named joy to mouse. Lets me use the joystick as a mouse

#4 The games i will play is mainly Street fighter II sf III neo geo & double dragon & turtles
is it enough to run on the 266mhz?
A) not to sure. my usb on my PII is not working to transfef the game to it to check it out. I am only set up for vert.
other PC's do not havea floppy. I use compact flash to transfer from pc to pc

[hayabusa_fmw]

Or i have a P3 I think 1.2 ghz with 256 DDR
I only ude this computer to download & burn dvd's like a download station & stuff.....

I think I should Take the 266 to do this task ...
right ?


I better put more for my mame project wich would be awesome since KI used to run on this pc
 ect.....

So what should i do Run Dos mame?
or take the normal mame??
because i don't wanna have a keyboard at all.
i just POWER + scroll & play. with the joystick.

[SithMaster]

well i would say use the p266 and use the other for other apps.  but i havent tried running the games you want on my 266 so im not sure if they could run decently.  if you could try the 266 then make a def decision.

[Kremmit]

I am fairly certain you are hosed on the NeoGeo, TMNT, and StreetFighter.  A Pentium is really only good for older games like Pac-Man.  You might want to look at an even older version than .55, maybe .37b16

[hayabusa_fmw]

then i should Really take my pentium 1.2ghz....

hell it isn't doing nothing now, it's only downloading files & stuff a pentium 266 can be put as a server aswell.... i don't have anything to do more than that with it so it would be better to take the best machine to play good & no lag & stuff
than to let this machine only take files.... it doesn't take much of a Memory to do this task:)


I think i made up my mind

but

What setup should i use with my 1.2
I want my pc to start in mame so i can only scroll down & boom start a game & exit too ... To rechose a game no need to close the whole thing each time.

anyone know?

[daywane]

I am finding it very simple to start Mame on start up
do a search on you PC for start up
1) right click on start menu button
2) explore
search start up on c drive
now if you want just Mame's menu . Just put a short cut of Mame.exe
in there

if you want a game to start right away ( go to the software part BYOAC)
there is a thread I started on asking for help starting Ms Pacman on boot up

Others have explained it much better than I can. I will post a link .

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=34776.0

what is cool about this... you favorite game boots up. ( very slow to boot up on my PII ( I am running xp pro on the poor beast))
then you can hit escape and the mame 32 menu is there.
I have 18 other games to play with then
My cab is a Ms Pac so... with just a 4 way only so many games are worth having on it.

[Shifty]

I have a P2-350 and it *just* runs Streetfighter II at full speed. Double dragon should run fine. Probably not much luck running Neo Geo games though ...

I don't know about switching your PC's, as the 266 will have a lot of trouble burning dvd's, even at really slow speed. My P2-350 couldn't burn CD's past 8x.

[USSEnterprise]

Couldn't you get MAME (or the frontend) to start on boot by adding it to the autoexec.bat file?

[MPTech]

If it's any help.  I completed my cabinet the week before Christmas, with a P3 450mhz and it would play a lot of the simpler games, but 2 player games were almost impossible and with a lot of lag (sometime just locking up).  Fighter games just didn't work (Marvel, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, etc) and most of the 2 player shooter games (1941, Metal Slug, etc).  I had bought a 128 mhz video card and almost 500mb ram, but it just wasn't enough horsepower.

After Christmas, I built a new PC (not in my plans, but we'll just call it a "late" Christmas present.  250g HDD, 3g CPU, 512mb ram.  IT ROCKS!!!
My advice is to use your better PC or build a new one (I don't regret it!)

btw, my son and I play Metal Slug all the time.  COOL! 

[gonzo90017]

I know this wasn't the answer you were looking for but you create a few user accounts one with mame as startup up. The 2nd one with NeoRageX at startup and the 3rd with Callus95 at startup. Callus 95 should take care of most capcom games and it only requires 24mb of ram! Just make sure you patch Callus with the Callus95 patch 2.4. it allows you to play some of the newer games. And for NeoRageX make sure you update zlib.dll with the newest one ( Edit:You can use Game Launcher as a frontend for both mame and Callus but you would still need  a seperate account for Neorage x).