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Author Topic: nLited XP installs for a cab  (Read 248363 times)

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IG-88

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #40 on: November 01, 2006, 07:43:38 pm »
Just FYI, I get this when trying to go to that karbos site:

"FORBIDDEN
You tried to access a document for which you don't have privileges."

 ;D
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-HarumaN

spystyle

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #41 on: November 01, 2006, 07:48:32 pm »
Thanks, I fixed the link, it's
http://tinyurl.com/ylmcny

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Re: 98se retail uses 23mb RAM
« Reply #42 on: November 05, 2006, 12:55:07 am »
So, since any of these ('the beast', 98se and 95b) will run on under 50mb of RAM, what's you're final decision?  Are you choosing the 'beast' version of XP over the 9Xs?    Are there other pros/cons?

Also, have you done a virus (trojan) check on 'the beast'?  I read a post where somebody claimed Kapersky indicated a trojan in the install.    False alarm or ?????

TinyXP "beast" uses only 45.3mb RAM, but what to compare it to? I did some testing with "Windows 98se retail" for comparative data and below are my findings.

---------------------------------

Windows 98se retail for arcade PC

official minmum specs are: less than pentium 1 cpu, 24 mb RAM, 260 MB HDD

1. my testing shows 98se uses 43mb RAM (out of 128) initial **
2. and 23mb RAM (out of 128) after setting disk cache to 8 mb***
3. and 21.5mb after all startup items were disabled****
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #43 on: November 05, 2006, 09:21:52 am »
I'm not a computer guru (not MCSE), but I would guess 98 on an older machine, where 64-128 MB RAM is present. And TinyXP on a newer machine, maybe anything above PIII 500 with 256+ MB RAM.

and anything below those specs can run DSL Linux (it is said to turn a 486DX into a workstation and comes with FireFox!) or DOS.

RAM is dirt cheap these days, read your motherboard's manual to discover the maximum amount of RAM it can take and buy that much RAM from pricewatch.com (or maybe ePay)

I was thinking : Maybe 98 can't make much use of RAM above 128 MB, MAME32 running on Win98 probably can make use of the RAM above 128 because it loads the game ROM into the available RAM before loading the rest into the swap file - right?

Cheers,
Craig

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #44 on: November 05, 2006, 09:37:55 am »
Holy cow!

IG-88 just e-mailed me and said he installed TinyXP on a 166mhz Pentium 1 with 64 MB RAM, said it got him online and all drivers were plug and play - that's hilarious! I'm going to dig up a P1 from my basement and try this.

But I've done allot of reading about making old computers into workstations, and DSL Linux was the best solution I've seen so far.

It's unfortunate that Windows CE isn't easy to get and install for this purpose.  That would run blistering fast on a 100mhz Pentium with 8 MB RAM and turn $10 laptops into $100 PDAs.

But for MAME : I would recommend DOS on a P1

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #45 on: November 05, 2006, 11:04:28 am »
No workstation here  ;D I just wanted to see if it would work. I actually got Mame32v36 to run Mr. Do after some frame skipping. It didn't look all that bad! 
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #46 on: November 05, 2006, 11:09:35 am »
I should also say that I tried DSL on this same computer several weeks ago, and while it worked I wasn't all that thrilled with it. "The Beast" works better in my opinion. And it's a snap to install, just stick the cd in and sit back. It's all unattended.
"I know what a HAL 9000 is... I was wondering if HAL 7600 was his retarded cousin or something..."
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #47 on: November 05, 2006, 11:23:43 am »
I should also say that I tried DSL on this same computer several weeks ago, and while it worked I wasn't all that thrilled with it. "The Beast" works better in my opinion. And it's a snap to install, just stick the cd in and sit back. It's all unattended.

So, would you say that 'the beast' is actually a viable mame setup for a P1 wigh 64meg?    I don't have any idea how intense 'Mr. Do' is, but it'd surprise me if it's a tough game to run.   How do other classics (pac man, donkey kong etc) work on that setup?

I have a couple old eMachines which are running Win98se (one with an AMD K6, the other with a Celeron 400MHz) and Mame .55 but if this automated XP installation works, I might go that way.
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #48 on: November 05, 2006, 11:52:42 am »
Max out the RAM on those - If TinyXP uses nearly 50 MB RAM you will need more RAM for MAME32 to use. If the said computer had 256 MB RAM (cheap to buy) I bet it would work.

Also consider 95 and 98, they use less than 25 MB RAM

But for a P1 that is a MAME box - DOS is king, using less than 5 MB RAM* it leaves lots of resources for MAME. If your P1 has a soundblaster ISA sound card you can use my DOS boot CD : http://tinyurl.com/sexwm

Cheers,
Craig

*
DOS only uses around 300 KB RAM, the drivers and options loaded should weigh in at less than 5 MB RAM usage total.
 

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #49 on: November 05, 2006, 02:10:10 pm »
OK,

I installed TinyXP on a 200 MHZ Pentium with 64 MB RAM and 500 MB HDD.

It actually worked, although much too slowly to be practical.

Very interesting was : after install, I swapped out the 64 MB RAM stick for a 32 MB RAM stick and TinyXP did boot, and showed 7 MB free RAM (out of 32).

I will try installing DSL linux on the same system and discover how to display avilable RAM.

But ofcourse all this testing is only for fun - running MAME on a P1 should be done in DOS. If the command line scares you there is a GUI for DOS that uses only 300 K RAM, here: http://gem.shaneland.co.uk/

Cheers,
Craig
 

« Last Edit: November 05, 2006, 11:00:10 pm by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #50 on: November 05, 2006, 09:43:00 pm »
Max out the RAM on those - If TinyXP uses nearly 50 MB RAM you will need more RAM for MAME32 to use. If the said computer had 256 MB RAM (cheap to buy) I bet it would work.

Also consider 95 and 98, they use less than 25 MB RAM

Yeah, I'm running 98 now on my emachines with MAME .55, they work fine for the classic verticals I'm running.

I'd run DOS except I don't like the front ends.  They just look so.... DOSsy.     I was a MameWah guy but after too many struggles I switched to MALA and I'm hooked!   I'll probably just stay with 98, but I may try out this XP beast just for grins.

Thanks for all the info.  This is a great thread.
No crap, don't put your kids in a real fridge.
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #51 on: November 06, 2006, 06:13:38 am »
I have wanted to try these on my 333mhz AMD-K6 machine but I cannot get them to boot up. With the help of Spystyle I could get his boot CD to boot but only after using a WIN98 boot disc to install the CDrom drivers so it would recognise the CD drive. Then the install was riddled with "Invalid Drive Specification" errors, which would render the install useless. This is driving me insane, I also wanted to try the TinyXP but I have no idea what to type in to get that to boot up. I have also tried several different settings in the Bios to boot off the CD etc..no go. PLEASE HELP!

Cheers,

Simon.
Operation Aussie Lowboy http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68962.0
Soon I may actually be able to play it!

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #52 on: November 06, 2006, 07:00:22 am »
You shouldn't have to type anything in to get TinyXP to boot as long as you have your computer set to boot from the CD-Rom first in the bios. Also make sure you have the .iso burned onto a cd correctly, I had probs with that earlier until I used that Burn4Free program that SpyStyle talked about. It was the only one that seemed to work for me. If you have both of these things done all you should have to do is pop the cd in and watch.

Or maybe try a different cd-rom drive if you have one. I know some of my real old machines won't read cd-rw's....if you are using one of those discs. It just might be a faulty drive too.  :dunno
"I know what a HAL 9000 is... I was wondering if HAL 7600 was his retarded cousin or something..."
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #53 on: November 06, 2006, 07:09:41 am »
If you can get your PC to boot from floppy but not from CD, boot from the floppy, go to the cd's i386 directory and type netsetup.

I think that will do it

If not see this:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_installation_tips578.html
« Last Edit: November 06, 2006, 07:13:11 am by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #54 on: November 06, 2006, 08:53:35 am »
OK, for more comparative data I installed "Damn Small Linux" on a 200mhz Pentium with 32 MB RAM and 500 MB HDD.

I found that it uses 9.4 MB RAM (when set to JWM window manager)

(it looks exactly like the attached pic, only the pic is not mine, it's from the web so the ram usage shown is different)

It looks like it would turn an old PC into a nice workstation, I am unsure how to make it useful for MAME but I would imagine you could install XMAME on it.

Below is the install guide I used

Cheers,
Craig

-------------------------------------------

 preparing the hard drive

I booted the DSL CD with boot option dsl 2. 
From the command line I typed:
fdisk /dev/hda
(This brings up the Linux version of "Fdisk") I made two partitions hda1 type 82 100Meg for swap and hda2 type 83 for the rest. 
Then I typed mkswap /dev/hda1, mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda2, and swapon /dev/hda1

Installing DSL linux to the hard drive

1. Boot the computer from DSL Linux CD, at the prompt press enter
2. Once DSL linux has started and you see the desktop - right click the desktop, choose Apps > Tools > Install to hard drive
3. When asked what partition type hda2, answer yes to start install
4. after install is done it asks if you want to install the boot installer > yes
5. When asked what boot loader press "L" and enter
5. after that it asks if you want to reboot > yes. Remove the DSL Linux CD from the CD-ROM drive

Once booted from hard drive I right clicked the desktop and chose "window manager > switch to JWM"

It changed the desktop to JWM and shows the RAM usage as 9.4 MB (out of 32 MB)

Done :)

----------------------------------------

Here are some advanced instructions to turn the PC into a better workstation :

When it reboots, you have a very simple machine. A few web clients, VI (a crippled Vim), several other apps. Enough for simple computer usage, but not what you'd call a real desktop machine.

The installation does not have a functional apt-get or dpkg. You need those if you want to do anything more than browse the net and get email. To enable them, be sure your Internet connection is working and connected, then right click the desktop, then Apps->Tools->Enable Apt. The computer will take quite a bit of time downloading more stuff.
 
Installing IceWM
The Fluxbox window manager is nice, but if you're like me you prefer a taskbar and start button. The IceWM window manager is almost as efficient as Fluxbox, and it has a start button, task bar, and network and CPU monitors on the taskbar. Install IceWM as follows:

apt-get install icewm

The computer will download and install IceWM. To enable IceWM, edit the /home/dsl/.xinitrc file. Comment out the line that runs fluxbox, and substitute the following:

# set mouse speed
xset m 5 2

# start xterm by default
xterm &

icewmtray &

# silently check if icewm is in your $PATH and start icewm when found
# or a red colored xterm when not found or execution of icewm fails
which icewm >/dev/null 2>&1 && exec icewm || exec xterm -bg red


The result is a rather hard to see black version of IceWM. You need to change the theme. Do so by creating a .icewm directory under the home directory, and creating a preferences file containing the following:

ShowThemesMenu=1 # 0 / 1
Theme="Nice/default.theme"


« Last Edit: November 06, 2006, 08:55:11 am by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #55 on: November 19, 2006, 02:34:34 am »
I got Windows 98se to use only 15.45 MB RAM!

The formula was:

1. set vcache to 2 MB min and max**
2. run msconfig, deselect everything on the startup tab
3. from add/remove programs, deselect all items in 'windows setup'
4. set virtual memory* min and max to 2.5X RAM
5. diable windows sound scheme (from control panel > sounds)

After doing all this MAME32 .36 still ran properly, as did IE

* from Control panel > System > Performance > Virtual memory

Choose "Let me specify..." and set both the min and max to 2.5X your RAM, but not exceeding 500 MB.   

Dig it?
Craig

p.s. On a MAME cab the CD-rom isn't used often, so you can save 1 MB RAM by disabling the CD-rom cache. Go to Control panel > System > Performance > File system > CD-Rom

Change the cache size to minimum by moving the slider all the way to the left. And change the "optimise access pattern" to "single speed drive"

Also, the Windows loading logo sux on an arcade cabinet, edit c:\msdos.sys and add this line under options:

Logo=0

Then add these lines to autoexec.bat:

cls
@echo Starting arcade
@echo off

(otherwise it would say "starting windows"

**edit  c:\windows\system.ini

find [vcache] change it to:

[vcache]
MinFileCache=2048
MaxFileCache=2048

(this also allows Windows 98 to stably use more than 512 MB RAM, an infamous problem)
« Last Edit: November 20, 2006, 09:12:49 pm by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #56 on: November 19, 2006, 09:12:31 am »
That is sweet !!  :applaud: When doing the initial install did you choose the custom setting? How many of the components did you uncheck? I noticed if I unchecked all of them I had to re-install audio & video stuff later on.

I should also ask, what were the system specs that you were testing this on?
« Last Edit: November 19, 2006, 09:24:28 am by IG-88 »
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #57 on: November 19, 2006, 12:18:18 pm »
That is sweet !!  :applaud: When doing the initial install did you choose the custom setting?

I just did a "compact" install

How many of the components did you uncheck? I noticed if I unchecked all of them I had to re-install audio & video stuff later on.

I unchecked everything except the shortcut to launch mame32 at startup. I didn't have any problems running mame32 and IE afterward - but if you do lose sound or video you could re-enable just those things.

I should also ask, what were the system specs that you were testing this on?

This was in MS Virtual PC 2004, so the specs were:

Windows 98se
Intel P4 @ 2.80 GHZ
64 MB RAM
Intel 440BX Chipset
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 ISA Plug and Play Sound card
DEC 21140A 10/100 network adapter
S3 Trio 32/64 PCI (with 8 MB Video RAM) Video card

Cheers,
Craig

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #58 on: November 19, 2006, 09:24:46 pm »
So far so good. I got everything except the virtual memory thing done. Do you change that in the msconfig area? Could you go over that a little more thoroughly for me?
"I know what a HAL 9000 is... I was wondering if HAL 7600 was his retarded cousin or something..."
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #59 on: November 19, 2006, 09:43:13 pm »
I edited my original statement to make it more clear.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2006, 09:59:04 pm by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #60 on: November 20, 2006, 07:38:28 pm »
OK.  ;D

2 more questions. Is there a way to stop or change the annoying windows start-up tune?

And, as for the loading logo. I got rid of it. Now can you change the size of the font for our new logo and get rid of the c: prompt below it or is that as good as it gets?
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #61 on: November 20, 2006, 09:11:39 pm »

As for making the font bigger, maybe something like this?
__________________________________________________________
_______@@@____@@@@@@@@_____@@@_____@@@@@____
______@@@@____@@@@@@@@____@@@@____@@@@@@___
______@@____________@@______@@___@@___@@__@@____
_______@@@_________@@______@@____@@___@@_@@______
_________@@@_______@@_____@@@@@@@___@@@@_______
__________@@@______@@_____@@____@@___@@__@@_____
_______@@@@_______@@_____@@____@@___@@___@@_____
________@@@________@@____@@____@@___@@_____@@____

That could take a while to make so I'll leave it to you :)

As for the startup sound, delete the directory C:\windows\media

I don't have any Windows sounds, I disabled them in control panel > sounds

As for the C:> prompt during startup, add the line "@echo off" (without quotes) to the bottom of autoexec.bat

Cheers,
Craig

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #62 on: November 20, 2006, 10:12:48 pm »
That looks pretty cool! I'll have to try it.

I was thinking about trying win95b also. What do you think of that O/S?

Another thing. Have you ever messed with Arcade.exe for use as a FE? I can't find it on the web anymore but I probably have it on a disc somewhere. It's ultra small and configurable, tho not supported anymore. Might work great for these low end machines.
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #63 on: November 20, 2006, 10:36:40 pm »
As for 95b - I'll have to try that. But I would imagine 98se is best - it is the last stage of 9X so it probably has all the bugs worked out.

Do you want to try a windows type GUI for DOS? Check out openGem

http://gem.shaneland.co.uk

It uses only 300K RAM on top of DOS that probably uses less than 5 MB after all drivers and devices are installed.

As for arcade.exe, coincidentally I had arcade.exe on my daughter's cab until I discovered how to start mame32.exe with windows, maximized.

It's not bad, I am unsure how much RAM it uses.

I leave it on there if I want to close out of mame32 and run fastMAME (which is command line). Mame32 (.65 IIR?) didn't play Elevator Action 2 correctly.

It can be downloaded here:
http://www.zophar.net/frontends/files/arcade079.exe

and a bunch of other front ends can be viewed here:

http://www.zophar.net/frontends/mame.html

But I like mame32 very much. It uses little RAM, it is solid - made by the real mame guys, not stitched together by teens. It is super user-friendly and configuarable enough for me, turn off folders and you're left with the game list and a screenshot for the highlighted game - that is simple and good.

Cheers,
Craig

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #64 on: November 21, 2006, 11:55:51 am »
In my testing arcade.exe front end uses 26 MB RAM.

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #65 on: November 21, 2006, 01:16:35 pm »
Are there any screenshots of arcade.exe anywhere?
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #66 on: November 21, 2006, 01:48:46 pm »
Here are some I took.

I like the first one (screenshot 0) It's blue, it runs fullscreen, you can configure what is shown on the game list, and it shows the selected games's history if history.dat is present. (Mame32 also does that if history.dat is present)

It's easy to set up. Just drop it, fastmame, history.dat (and ofcourse hiscore.dat) in a directory together, rename fastmame.exe to mame.exe, and double click arcade.exe - that's it.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2006, 03:57:18 pm by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #67 on: November 21, 2006, 01:54:59 pm »
Thanks spystyle,

I don't dig that list that's present in each one of those.   Oh well.

You mention that it uses 26MB of ram.  How does this compare to other FEs being run in Win9x?   Are there others in the same ballpark?  Others that use less?
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #68 on: November 21, 2006, 02:01:18 pm »
I could test some by request

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #69 on: November 21, 2006, 04:55:17 pm »
Thanks spystyle,

I don't dig that list that's present in each one of those.   Oh well.

You mention that it uses 26MB of ram.  How does this compare to other FEs being run in Win9x?   Are there others in the same ballpark?  Others that use less?

Yes, I would like to know that too.

How about testing:
Mamewah
Atomic Fe
Mala
Game Launcher
Maximus Arcade
Arcade O/S
Emaxulian
and the ever popular Ultrastyle  ;)

Hey Quarterback, I think you can make that list look anyway you want actually.

Craig. I like the idea of a GUI dos but I am afraid that will lead me back to driver issues again and no FE.

How hard is fastMAME to set up?
« Last Edit: November 21, 2006, 05:17:53 pm by IG-88 »
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #70 on: November 24, 2006, 07:55:54 pm »
OK, I tested Win95b, I found it uses 10.6 MB RAM (after vcache*, file system**, and startup cop***)

Attached are pics of Win98se vs Win95b. Win98se uses 4 more MB RAM but less CPU cycles. In my testing 98 used 0-5% cpu cycles when idling, 95 used 10-20% cpu cycles while idling.

So, I would recommend 98se over any other 9X

Cheers,
Craig

*vcache min and max were 2048
** "network server" and minimize cd-rom cache
***no "msconfig" in 95, use "startup cop"
« Last Edit: November 24, 2006, 07:57:57 pm by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #71 on: November 25, 2006, 07:28:49 pm »
...
How hard is fastMAME to set up?

FastMame is an optimized version of command line Mame for windows, just install it as you would command line Mame and rename fastmame.exe to mame.exe.

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #72 on: November 28, 2006, 02:15:43 pm »
OK, I tested Mala -

http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/

It looks great, it was easy to set up, very intutive - I didn't have to read any docs*. It uses about 11 MB RAM.

Requires Mame .85 and beyond, but I bet there is a way to get it to work with older versions (I think it's an XML issue). It also supports command line emulators (which I'm sure would include older versions of Mame).

See attachment, it's nice looking in it's "Blue" layout, and there are many layouts to choose from.

Cheers,
Craig

*I think a "really good" program will be intuitive enough that any semi-knowledgeable computer user can set up and use it without reading any docs. This is one of them. I was very impressed after struggling with some other front ends. Mala is an excellent alternative if you dislike  Mame32 (which is also very intuitive)
« Last Edit: November 29, 2006, 09:45:14 pm by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #73 on: November 28, 2006, 09:01:50 pm »
I like that. Looks pretty nice.

I am still trying to understand why my computers won't let me load games using your boot cd.

One thing I have noticed that didn't happen when I got the first one to work was some of the hard drives I've been using have this happen when formatting:

"Trying to recover allocation unit" followed by some numbers.

I am not sure what it means but the format does continue after a while. Could this be the reason why my games aren't showing up after I install them? Maybe these HD's are bad 'eh?

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #74 on: November 28, 2006, 09:28:38 pm »
You should scan any questionable drives.

Boot from a win98 boot floppy (www.bootdisk.com)

type:

scandisk c: /autofix /surface /nosave

If you see any "red squares" on the graphical representation of your drive that means there are bad spots on the hard drive.

Running scandisk can sometimes "patch" the spots so the drive is still useable (it marks those spots as unusable so programs don't write there) and the "patches" stay present until FDISK is used again - "format" will not delete the "patches"

but as a rule of thumb - drives with many red spots are fragged. A drive that makes weird noises is usually fragged too, like clicking and clunking.

Hard drives are very sensitive, they can't be dropped. Carry and handle them as if they are eggs.

They are also static sensitive, when handling computer parts touch the metal of the PC case or something similar occasionally to discharge the static from your body.*

Cheers,
Craig

*I do it all the time without even thinking about it. The other day a friend of mine was watching me fix a computer and saw that I kept touching the PC case - he asked me if I had a compulsive disorder :)
« Last Edit: November 29, 2006, 09:08:45 am by spystyle »

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #75 on: November 29, 2006, 03:52:32 pm »
OK. I will try that and let you know what they do.
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #76 on: November 29, 2006, 04:39:03 pm »
Tried it. All I get is the "NTLDR is missing" error. Shouldn't that be on the Boot Disk?
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #77 on: November 29, 2006, 04:54:29 pm »
That's funky...

Try this boot disk:

http://ephemeral-designs.com/downloads/boot98c.exe

and make sure your computer is set to boot from floppy drive.

If all your floppys are fragged, you can use Nero to make a boot CD from floppy image - I can e-mail you the floppy image.

Cheers,
Craig

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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #78 on: November 29, 2006, 05:05:30 pm »
While you were replying I tried this

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm#standalone

and got it to work. I am now at the A: prompt. I'll try the scandisk thing and get back after a while.
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Re: nLited XP installs for a cab
« Reply #79 on: November 29, 2006, 11:27:11 pm »
In my testing arcade.exe front end uses 26 MB RAM.
OK, I tested Mala -
It uses about 11 MB RAM.

That's great news!  I started playing with Mala a month or so ago after getting too frustrated with MameWah.  I think Mala looks great and, as you said, I got it set up quickly and easily.

Requires Mame .85 and beyond, but I bet there is a way to get it to work with older versions (I think it's an XML issue).

I set it up with Mame .55 and I know I did something tricky to do it.... I think I just pointed it at a newer version of mame or something.   Let me see if I have any notes.   This is what I said I did:

Quote
I downloaded a mame.exe executable from v 1.09 which DOES allow creation of the mame.xml file. 
Then I deleted the 1.09 mame.exe and moved the new mame.xml file to the mame.55 directory.   
Right-clicking in the MaLa window brings up a pop-up menu where you can select ‘options’ and get everything working correctly.

- I went to the “options” page, checked off the box about only listing available roms and then clicked “OK”.  NOW it asked me if I wanted to refresh my game list (which is empty) and I said yes.

Don't know if that makes sense, but that's how I must have gotten it working.
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