To MAME or not to MAME

[madgammer]

Working on a project to get an all version MK cab going and have noticed that a LOT of people use MAME.  The guy that sold me my current cab has a few older ones that he's willing to give me.

I have a few p4 rack mount servers 2gb standard ati card that I could use for a MAME PC.  Can somoene give me a basic idea of the type of games you play with MAME.  I was considering just getting the cab giving it to a newphew and all the parts and work with him to put it together.  He's a big video game fan, but probably wouldn't care to play games like joust or pacman like me.  Can you play current games on MAME or at least games from 2000+?  Since this is going to be in addition to my current project I don't want to spend a lot on it, but If I can get something going with old pc parts great!

[Naru]

Games from 2000 and beyond, there's not too many
beyond NEO GEO games that run correctly yet.
My slowest PC is a Pentium 4 1.5 GHz and it will
run all the Mortal Kombat's working in MAME.
However my Pentium 4 3.2 GHz can't run
Cruis n' USA or Radiant Silvergun at full rate.
Maybe that will give you some clue.
I would say if only the newer games are of interest your
going to need decent PC parts.

[Howard_Casto]

Nah you are over-complicating things. 

2d games, regardless of the year, will run fine. 
3d games aren't going to run... for that matter they aren't going to run on any pc. 

The exception being the games in zinc, but they aren't going to run in mame on that processor.  (Just use zinc)

[Naru]

Nah you are over-complicating things. 

2d games, regardless of the year, will run fine. 
3d games aren't going to run... for that matter they aren't going to run on any pc. 

The exception being the games in zinc, but they aren't going to run in mame on that processor.  (Just use zinc)

Not exactly, Virtua Fighter runs at full speed on Pentium 4 3.2 GHz.
However Groove On Fight and a few 2d games like that don't
quite get up to speed. For the most part your right though.

[madgammer]

Thanks for the info.  I think the basic server should run most of the games.  I would love to include some 3D games, but I'm not ready to go out and by a PC just the play them.  I guess it's a MAME conversion after all. 

Any good links that show a step by step walk through on how to setup a beginner MAME cabinet?

[Lectoid]

This site, arcadecontrols, should have everything you need. I am in the process of converting a "Haunted Castle" cabinet into a mame cab. I am replacing the control panel to a street fighter type layout. I am learning as I go, and it's fun

[DssTrainer]

I too had wondered about newer games. I know my friend want me to get Golden Tee 2005+ roms but I've been wondering why I haven't seen anything recent like that out there. I guess the 3D thing explains it.

Which makes me wonder why? Is it because Software emulation just isn't fast enough yet to fully emulate new 3d hardware? Or is it because MAME "stays true to pure displays" and doesn't want to include 3d because then it wouldn't run the same on all machines.

Are there any 3D Arcade Emulation projects out there? Are we just waiting for faster PCs? Are there roms available?