Computer Upgrade Question

[Virtualmatt]

I'm going to build a MAME Cocktail Cabinet in a month or so, and I currently only have an old 500mhz Pentium III Dell to build it with.  It has 400 something megs of RAM, an NVidia TNT2 Graphics card, and an 80 gig hard drive.

I installed MAME on it, and it ran older games great - but the gameplay was far to slow on games like Metal Slug and such.

My question is this: What would be the cheapest way to upgrade this computer to ~1ghz so that I could run newer games on it?  I don't have very much money left over after buying most of the cabinet supplies.  I guess I'd need a new motherboard and processor?  Would it be smart to look for these parts on eBay?

Thanks!

[hnugz]

you wont run metal slug on a 1ghz either.  I have an amd sempron 2800+ with ecs mobo that I got as a combo at Frys for $70 or $80.  Metal slug slows in parts on that sometimes, not enough to really make gameplay unbearable.  Get at least a 2ghz if you want to run some of the newer type games, otherwise it seems like a waste of money.

[SirPoonga]

* SirPoonga sighs

For neogeo use neoragex, kawaks, or nebula as they are more gamer friendly and run on lower specs.  I ran all neogeo just fine when I had a PIII 500.

[AtomSmasher]

you wont run metal slug on a 1ghz either.  I have an amd sempron 2800+ with ecs mobo that I got as a combo at Frys for $70 or $80.  Metal slug slows in parts on that sometimes, not enough to really make gameplay unbearable.  Get at least a 2ghz if you want to run some of the newer type games, otherwise it seems like a waste of money.

All the metal slug games run fine on my 800mhz system, at least the first few levels ran fine which is all I played of them.

[whatzcrackn]

Yeah I second that, I had a 700 AMD and 256 mb memory and ran metal slug without an issue.

I am in need of an upgrade too.  What speed is to fast?  Meaning when can you stop telling the games dont any different (if there is such a thing).  I guess what I mean is If I got the fastest running cpu out there will it really make a difference.  What is to fast and what is to slow?  I pretty much what to run any and every emulator out there.  When I use to zinc on the 700 nothing but issues, I think only about 4 games played correctly and all the CHAD roms were unplayable.

[Xam]

The slug runs fine on my AMD 1.2ghz. Hmmm....something sounds inherently wrong saying "the slug ran"

Xam

[brained]

Try using an older version of mame before making the upgrade...

[Virtualmatt]

Thanks, I'll try an older version of MAME I guess.

I'm using MAME32, as that's what the Cocktail Cabinet plans I bought say to do - is that a good idea?

[Darkstalker]

The specialized NeoGeo emus will do a better job.  Keep in mind MAME was geared for accuracy, not performance. MAME32 might be a little slower than DOS or Linux MAME too, just because you have the OS overhead to deal with on a lower spec machine.  I can't imagine it would make a huge impact though, unless your hard drive is grinding away which would indicate a shortage of RAM.

Using NeoRageX, for example, runs just fine on PII-PIII/K6 technology, and you can't really perceive a difference in quality over the real boards.

[mj147]

Heyas VirtualM

One thing folks might not realize is that the the MS series seems to lag even on original SNK cabs. I own a one slot and know for a fact that Metal Slug does "lag" at times so there might not be anything wrong with your system, MAME might just be doing its "thing" just  too perfect? Check you FPS, on my MAME cab it stays at 59/59 but there is still lag on the game.


Hope this helped ya out


mj147

[Virtualmatt]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I can't check the fps at the moment because I'm at college and my machine is at home, but I don't think it's just lag.  The entire game runs too slow to even start playing.  The machine has 400 some megs of RAM, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Do DOS versions of MAME support screen rotation?  I'm making the "3box" Cocktail Cabinet from GameCabinetsInc, so I'll want to set specific games to start with their own custom rotations.