How Did This Happen? was - Mala and Mame Not Working Correctly...

[hsr]

Looking for some help please.

I have Mala and Mame096 setup and working properly on my home computer (XP Pro).  Made a reduced list of 52 games to install on a cabinet.  Mala does display ONLY those 52 games, have launched each one and they seem to play fine on home computer.  There are no sound or display issues.

I made a CD of the Mala and Mame directories and installed them on cabinet machine running optimized Win98SE.

Initially, Mala would not launch at all.  I deleted the contents of the Mala directory and unzipped the full download again.  Upon doing so, Mala opened the initial dialog box and I went through the basic setup (setting paths, etc).  Once Mala launched, it was displaying 0/0 of my games.  I went into “options” and selected “only working games” so it would refresh my game list.  The refresh game list started, and then stopped with an error message that Mala was terminating, check the Mala.exe.log for info.

I tried this several times with no luck.

Attached is the log file.  Can anyone decipher?

Second issue.

Mame is now displaying my games very small.  Only about 2/3 of the screen, low to the left.  None of the Mame files were modified after I copied them off the home computer.  Bezels are shut off.

Also attached is my Mame.ini  Anyone see problem(s)?

Please note, on both files, I added .TXT to the end so I could upload.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[leapinlew]

When I copy data off a cd, sometimes I have to turn off the read only attribute. Open a dos prompt, and navigate to those folders. Do a

attrib -r -a -s -h *.*

Do that command for both the MAME and MALA directory. Now, I didn't think it actually wrote to the files and would need more than read only access, but give it a try.

Another option is to reinstall both MAME and MALA on the new machine. You can copy the favorite games list from your older computer to your new computer to restore your list of 52 games.

Did that help?

[hsr]

When I copy data off a cd, sometimes I have to turn off the read only attribute. Open a dos prompt, and navigate to those folders. Do a

attrib -r -a -s -h *.*

Do that command for both the MAME and MALA directory. Now, I didn't think it actually wrote to the files and would need more than read only access, but give it a try.

Another option is to reinstall both MAME and MALA on the new machine. You can copy the favorite games list from your older computer to your new computer to restore your list of 52 games.

Did that help?

Lew,

Thanks for the reply.  Your comments make sense and I will try the suggested when I get home this evening.

I did re-install Mala from the zip file last night.  It would only display all games.  If I selected any of the 52, they would launch.  It's when I tried to refresh the game list that when the problems listed above occured.

My understanding of what you are saying is the attributes are not correct for Mala to read what rom files I have and is looking at the xml or other to display all games.

Will re-install Mame as well from the zip file.

Any thoughts on the display issue I'm having in Mame?  It happened through Mala and from the command prompt.  Windows and Mala display just fine.

Thanks again,

[hsr]

Lew,

It didn't help.  Still having the exact same issues as originally posted. 

This is after re-installing newly downloaded versions of both Mame and Mala.  Unzipped/Installed them into new directories off my USB stick this time.

Any other ideas?

[hsr]

Okay, loaded the same files to another Win98 machine using the CD I created last night.  Changed the attributes before doing anything.  Launched Mala and it fired right up displaying only the 52 games as expected.

I am still having the display issue though.  It is only once in a game.  Windows and Mala display just fine.

Depending on what game I am in, it is either too small, off the sreeen to the left, to the right, etc.  If I adjust the monitor for a specific game, it throws off the other games even worse, but has no apparent effect on Windows or Mala.

Any thoughts for this?

[loadman]

Okay, loaded the same files to another Win98 machine using the CD I created last night.  Changed the attributes before doing anything.  Launched Mala and it fired right up displaying only the 52 games as expected.

I am still having the display issue though.  It is only once in a game.  Windows and Mala display just fine.

Depending on what game I am in, it is either too small, off the sreeen to the left, to the right, etc.  If I adjust the monitor for a specific game, it throws off the other games even worse, but has no apparent effect on Windows or Mala.

Any thoughts for this?

Decent Video card to handle hardware stretching?

[hsr]

Decent Video card to handle hardware stretching?

I just started searching my issue and was reading on that very same subject.  Not exactly sure how to check.  It's an onboard Intel 82815 chipset.

Did read an older post that was talking about changing my Windows default resolution to something lower.  That didn't work.

Then, I specified 640x480 as the resolution in mame.ini  Was able to adjust the settings for some of the games, but not all.

I think that I read that there is a ini file that can be created to set the resolutions for each game, but lost the post and can't find it again. 

Any of that make sense?

[loadman]

Can you swap video cards to eliminate?

[hsr]

Can you swap video cards to eliminate?

The only others I have are some Tridents that only have a couple of meg of ram each.  Not sure they're any better.

Is there a way to check if a specific card supports hardware stretching?

[loadman]

Can you swap video cards to eliminate?

The only others I have are some Tridents that only have a couple of meg of ram each.  Not sure they're any better.

Is there a way to check if a specific card supports hardware stretching?

I think in mame32 the checkbox will be dimmed in the options

[hsr]

Load,

Using Mame 096 command line not Mame32.

Never did figure out why Mala wasn't working or what the contents of my log file mean.

Okay,

If you were following along, I was having issues related to hardware stretch.  Guessing I didn't receive much feedback as it seems to be a "noob" type question, even though there isn't really that many relevant posts or clear solutions to be found in here.

I did find again the post that I referenced earlier http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=44689.0  Some good info there, but still indicates that your card either support or doesn't support hardware stretching.  At least that is what I got out of it.

I spent the better part of today (instead of doing my job) searching through this forum trying to find a tried and true list of PCI (because that's all I have available on these machines) graphics cards that support hardware stretching.

I'll admit I didn't understand everything I read today.  Not sure how DirectX has an impact on my video card or what d3d really is.  Also found that some of "experts" on here stated they never met an on-board video card that supported hardware stretching.

Last night, mine was included.  To recap, it is an Intel 82815 chipset in a Compaq Deskpro.  When I aqquired these pc's, I went to Compaq's (HP) site and downloaded the latest video, sound and NIC drivers offered.  Those are what were installed on these machines along with Win98SE.

Running mame "gamename" -v did in-fact show that hardware stretching was not supported and the on screen results confirmed.  I messed with settings in mame.ini and the display controls on the monitor, but couldn't get the screens fully centered or filled.

In my search today, I went to Intel's site to look at the drivers there for the 82815.  They did have one rev later than the Compaq offering.  On the driver information pages at Intel, it did state that the 82815 is fully compatible with DirectX9.

I downloaded both the Intel driver and a re-distributeable version of DirectX9.0c and brought them home.

Just as a side note, the Win98SE disc that I have installed DirectX6.1.

I loaded the new driver, then the DirectX9.0c.  Ran mame "gamename" -v AND hardware stretching is supported.  The on-screen results confirmed.  I had only a minor change to make with the display controls one time and each of my games now fully covered the screen and centered.  I used a resolution of 800x600 in mame.ini.

Can someone please explain to me how this worked?

Thanks again in advance.

[loadman]

Load,

Using Mame 096 command line not Mame32.

   I understand that.  I just thought loadiing mame32 was a quick way to see what the capabilities of your video card was..

I sure there are better methods anyway. Good luck

[leapinlew]

I'll tell you what I did...

I bought a different video card instead of dealing with the onboard intel. Yeah, it's a nuclear bomb type approach, but I didn't have the patience to mess with it any longer. Not when I can buy a $20 card.

So... I don't totally understand - is it working or not?

[hsr]

I'll tell you what I did...

I bought a different video card instead of dealing with the onboard intel. Yeah, it's a nuclear bomb type approach, but I didn't have the patience to mess with it any longer. Not when I can buy a $20 card.

So... I don't totally understand - is it working or not?

It's working AWESOME!