PIII 600, 380mb ram, Win XP Lite ---- sound slow-----Why?

[diverdown]

I have just put together a dedicated mame system to run in a cab.

As above it is a P111 600 with 380mb RAM, a 40GB HDD, running winxpBEAST - with everything stripped.
I am using the on board sound controller.

I am running MaLa FE ( and mame 110.

I have at this moment installed a full romset but will delete those not compatible with the 3 sided cocktail cab it is in. There is about 20GB free on HDD.


My problem is this:

When playing games the sound is "jerky and repeats" on even the less demanding games.  Basically there is an echo to most sounds when playing.
The game play I think may be a little jerky but it is hard to tell.


Should I be having these problems with the above hardware/software?
Should I be using a Sound blaster sound card?
Any solutions? 


Ta GB

[Dmod]

I have similar problems on my PIII 933 MHz.

After investigating, I found that this is caused when the PC can't draw the video frames fast enough.  The video lags the sound, and as a result, the sound is repeated.

Setting the auto-frameskip feature in Mame will reduce the problem, but there's going to be a lot of games that the PIII 600 MHz machine is just not fast enough to emulate.

[Havok]

Just drop down to an older version of Mame and you'll be fine...

[Dmod]

Just drop down to an older version of Mame and you'll be fine...

Thanks for the tip Havok.  I just tried version 0.78, which Texasmame was recommending based on tests with his PII machine and it definitely improved frame rate and sound quality on games like SFA3 and MSLUG3.

The downside is I can't run Bubble Bobble anymore (which I just got my daughter hooked on) and maybe some others.  Any recommendation on how far back we roll back on the PIII?

[diverdown]

thanks to you both


i will wait until the "how far  to roll back" question is answered and then give it a go.
The machine is not for me and the new wont know what he is missing if i drop a few games.  For me metal slug just HAS to work

[Havok]

Just drop down to an older version of Mame and you'll be fine...

Thanks for the tip Havok.  I just tried version 0.78, which Texasmame was recommending based on tests with his PII machine and it definitely improved frame rate and sound quality on games like SFA3 and MSLUG3.

The downside is I can't run Bubble Bobble anymore (which I just got my daughter hooked on) and maybe some others.  Any recommendation on how far back we roll back on the PIII?

Try 106 or earlier - that is before the big video changes, I think. Mala should be able to specify another version of Mame for just one game. Sorry, can't be more help with the front end, I use another... 

[Dmod]

The latest version I could find prior to v106 was v104.  I tried a bunch of versions on MSLUG3 between v099 and v104.

It seems like something changed drastically between v102 and v104.  On v104, I see a lot of frames dropping and it shows a partial update field which doesn't appear on versions prior to this.  v103 seemed to show a little bit of a slowdown initially but the frame drops became lower as the game progressed.

I didn't see a huge qualitative difference between v078 and v102, although I didn't take any quantitative measurements to confirm this.

[Dmod]

Here's some results:

mame -ftr 5000 -nothrottle -noafs mslug3

v078    59.408263 fps
v0102  56.131070 fps
v0104  46.162260 fps
v0110  36.862980 fps

For now, I think I'll be steering clear of anything post v0102.

[patrickl]

Good info. Thanks!

I just got an old PC (PIII 600) to use in a bartop cab and I was wondering which version of MAME would be best. Guess I better find myself something like 102 or older.

[shorthair]

I remember seeing somewhere at Mameworld that anything more than maybe .100 for anything under a 1.4 P4 would be too much.

[ark_ader]

Try .84 it will play ok on your P3, but today chips and boards are real cheap - just get a XP 64 3000 and a cheap board for less than £100. 

Then you can play nearly everything.

[RayB]

Before doing all that other stuff, just knock the sound quality option down to 22500, or even 11050.

You'll notice a difference.

[thennomeking]

diverdown if you cant run Metalslug 5 on Mame, get NeoRAGEX5.0.  It runs fine on my 600 mhz, 256 megs of ram, with TinyXP installed. 

[Dmod]

Before doing all that other stuff, just knock the sound quality option down to 22500, or even 11050.

You'll notice a difference.

Not sure if I need to configure something else, but I see virtually no change in frame rate by changing sound settings in v0102:

Adding:
-sr 44100    58.182782 fps
-sr 22050    60.564741 fps
-sr 11025    60.091084 fps
-nosound    59.915888 fps

[javeryh]

I'm thinking about installing TinyXP on an old PIII computer I have for Mame - is there anything else I'll need to do besides install Mame and MaLa in order to play everything (I'll be using an UltraStik 360 and wiring all buttons to it).  Thanks!

[TOK]

I'm building a Defender/Stargate bartop with a P3 933. I just set up the machine using MAME .84, and everything is good. Any of the really demanding stuff  that has a lot of action onscreen (shooters like Dimahoo, etc) is going to slow down on anything under 1 ghz regardless of the version of MAME you use.

[diverdown]

I just rolled back mame to .98.   Problem gone.

Thanks to all

[rockin_rick]

IIRC, when I was checking into this, .93 or .94 is when the sound was updated [made more demanding].... perhaps .92 should be worth checking into.


http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=58236.0

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=33905.0


Rick

[custard80]

Really intrested in the Tiny xp, mala, mame set up. I can't get mine to work properly.
Mame 32 works fine but command line through mala just wont launch a game.

Iv'e got a duron 800 setup soon to be a 1.4 -2.4 athlon if i can get the chip to recognise and a pentium 3 800 setup.

[Kaytrim]

The MAME Devs have a page that allows you to download all previous versions from Version 0.1 to the one prior to the current release.

http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

[Dmod]

The MAME Devs have a page that allows you to download all previous versions from Version 0.1 to the one prior to the current release.

http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

That's a nice link, Kaytrim.  Thanks.

[Kaytrim]

No problem guys.  Now we have a place where we can download the release of our choice. We also don't have to try and hunt up a version from different sources or worry about something having been done to the file.    Thanks to the MAME Devs for making this available to the masses. 

Kaytrim

[shorthair]

I was just looking for something like this, yesterday.

[Scumgriever]

Is there somewhere that has a list of which games were added to each version of mame?

Someway to compare the tradeoff between slow mame with LOTS of games and fast mame with less games.

EDIT: Scrap that, didn't see the 'whats new' links on Kaytrim's link.

[diverdown]

Really intrested in the Tiny xp, mala, mame set up. I can't get mine to work properly.
Mame 32 works fine but command line through mala just wont launch a game.

Iv'e got a duron 800 setup soon to be a 1.4 -2.4 athlon if i can get the chip to recognise and a pentium 3 800 setup.

I have now put this setup on 6 machines, from P111 550 to P4 2.4.  The only time I have issues (apart from the slow sound in this thread) is when i dont setup mala directories properly. Config mala mame setup to point to roms. check only games with roms and check only working roms. The only other issue i have had is when i dont install the video drivers in windows. 

Try running a game from "run" with command mame, if it runs the game the problem is in mala configuration, if not then the problem i think is in mame


Ask in the software section.. Loadman    or someone will get it going for you.

also mala can point to mame32  not just command line mame but i dont think it is recomended.

I believe tinyxp by ExPeriance is available on something called torrents.     I have "ultimatexp" which will create any config of tinyxp i want.

[gonzo90017]

Current setup not finished
Intel Celeron 400mhz overclocked to 500mhz with CPUFSB
128mb ram
Nlited xp install

Just did the  -ftr 5000 -nothrottle -noafs mslug3

v084 fastmame fps 58.201989

As you can see I got similar results to Dmod with almost half the machine!

Here's what I recommend people use. If your machine is 600mhz and above use fastmame84. If your machine is 500mhz and below use fastmame71 http://www.geoshock.com/?69. Also if it's a gaming only machine I would use nlite or tinyxp to get rid of all the crap you don't use.

Here's a list of emus and the order you should use them
Winkawaks: NeoGeo CPS1 CPS2
Raine: All games it supports not listed above
Fastmame: All games it supports not listed above

Why v071? It has most of the games we all remember. And why v084? well not too many games have been added since then. And most of the ones that have will not run on low end machines. The higher up you go in the mame ladder the more processor you'll  need.

I know what you're going to say. "Hey you can't run winkawaks through a front end!" Well sorry to burst everyone's bubble http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=57045.0

[custard80]

Where can i find fastmame 84?
Tried a google but can't find this version.
Thanks.

[paigeoliver]

With a 600 mhz CPU you should be using Mame .55, and really, roll your OS back to windows 98SE.

Mame .55 has basically everything anyone would actually want to play in it, and they will all run full speed on your rig. Sure newer mame versions added more games, games of exactly two types, stuff you are never going to play, and stuff that won't run on your rig.

[gonzo90017]

Where can i find fastmame 84?
Tried a google but can't find this version.
Thanks.

You can find it here http://files-upload.com/files/226118/fastmame071b.zip

I think Fastmame 84 is a better choice. Mame .55 doesn't have direct3d support and some pc's run better with it.

http://files-upload.com/files/173598/fastmame084u3.zip

[shorthair]

My dad gave me a PIII from his work. It has 512 mb ram. It has an AGP x4 port where I could use a 64MB radeon I have (or upgrade to 128 or 256 or arcade vga). There's someone local selling a 2.8 P4 for 40 bucks...could I replace the PIII with this and have a functional machine for current MAME?

[diverdown]

Both would run mame (PIII 500 will run mame as above)

[RayB]

With a 600 mhz CPU you should be using Mame .55, and really, roll your OS back to windows 98SE.

Mame .55 has basically everything anyone would actually want to play in it, and they will all run full speed on your rig. Sure newer mame versions added more games, games of exactly two types, stuff you are never going to play, and stuff that won't run on your rig.

PAIGEY!  HELLO!