What is the minimal exceptible standard for a PC to run Mame

[fgarvin]

What is the minimal exceptible standard for a PC to run Mame Games?

I am not trying to do cheap.  Just want to make sure I pick the right pc.

Also, I read that some people use win98 and others use TinyXP.   Which is best?

I am very new with this and can use a lot of help.

fg

[johnm160]

A lot of it depends on what type of games you want to play and what version of mame you are running.

Here is a link I was recently pointed to that will allow you to see what you can expect with different setups.

http://www.stickfreaks.com/benchmark/

[fgarvin]

Thanks,


That seems like it would be a great site for someone that knows what they are doing.   But I am very new and have never done this before.   I have no idea what version of mame I will be running.  Also, not sure what ROMs I will be running...   I know a few...   

Can someone tell me what they are running or what I need to get.

thanks,
fg

[ArtMAME]

If you just want classics (any games from 70s and early 80s) you can get a Pentium 3 500MHz and 128 or 256 Megs RAM and the games will work fine. 

If you want some Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat and later action in addition to that, Get a Pentium 4 or AMD equivalent and at least 256M RAM. 

My personal MAME cabinet is running an AMD Sempron 3000 Processor (2GHz) (Socket A) and an ECS motherboard that came with it as a combo deal.  It has 512 meg stick of RAM and it will run all the games that can be currently run on MAME.  I do mostly classics, but I do try newer games that I never played before. 

SOME of the newer games (1995 and later) may not run 100% even on a system 2 or 3 times as powerful.  It is just the nature of the emulation.  These games need something like a 10GHz processor or something ridiculous like that to run properly in MAME.  Currently, nobody is really able to play these games 100% on MAME, so with those games, we will just have to wait for the hardware to catch up.

Basically, if you go to the computer store and get the cheapest NEW computer that they have, it will be have than enough horsepower to run any of the games that are currently playable in MAME.   

Or you can go to Newegg, or Tiger Direct, or Fry's or wherever, and get the cheapest CPU/Motherboard combo, use 512 Megs of RAM and put a basic system together for yourself, and that will be plenty for anything current in MAME.

Getting more expensive hardware will just be overkill unless you want to play Doom3, Halo, or WOW on it.

As for OS, just use regular old Windows XP.  It works fine.

[SithMaster]

you want to play Doom3, Halo, or WOW on it.

doom3 and a halo cab?  thatd be sweet thought youd have to change it somehow to have the level timed and for every enemy you kill you get more time.

[ark_ader]

Minimal Acceptable Standard?

How about a Thinkpad 365x with 8MB RAM, 128mb CF and a P120?

You could go 486 DX 75 which should play those classics fairly well.  The above gets 60fps on pacman and the like.

I have just hacked the above thinkpad for a cool Mame project.  Not bad for a £10 laptop and plays the 2000 odd games that the classics hold.  Not to mention nesticle, and the similar vein emulators of that era.

Windows 95 is a capable platform to run emulators and you can shrink the install to 30mb, but you would do better running Mame Dos on Dos 7.  Much easier than DSL.

After decasing the Thinkpad - the whole motherboard is very tiny with passive cooling and very light in weight.  I just wished it was a P233 to play Starwars..... Oh well.   

[shorthair]

Windows 95 is a capable platform to run emulators and you can shrink the install to 30mb, but you would do better running Mame Dos on Dos 7.

So that's what people mean by DOS, these days?

[tommyinajar]

What are some of the newer games that run good on a 2-3 Ghz computer- Almost every one I try is just about unplayable.