Questions about the different MAME variants out there

[Red]

I've tried to search the net for all the pros and cons about the different variants of MAME, but it has been less than satisfactory, so I'm asking my fellow BYOAC members to chime in with their experiences.

I haven't played MAME since 1998 and am now getting back into it and have some questions about the different MAME options out there.

Below are some of the MAME choices from the net I found.

I know MAME 0.119 and MAME32 are the official versions, so I'm good there, but what can you tell me about your experiences with the other versions? 

I've heard that MAME Plus Plus is a security nightmare and should be avoided, is this true?

Are there any other MAME options that you've tried and liked that are not listed below? 

I've got a pretty fast CPU- AMD 3800+ with 1GB RAM, so I'm just undecided as to which MAME option would be best for someone just starting out that will also give me the best performance.  Thanks.

MAME 0.119
MAME32
MAME32 FX 0.119 MAME32 variant
MAME32 Kaillera edition 0.67 MAME32 version with net play support    AdvanceMAME 0.106 MAME with advanced video support 
MAME Plus! 0.117 Enhanced MAME version
MAME Plus Plus 0.117

[Green Giant]

This ought to cover most of what you want to know.

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mame_Modified_Versions

Now if this is going into a cab, regular mame is all you should need.  Your computer is fast enough and a good frontend like Mala can handle all the mame details.

[Red]

Thanks Green Giant.  That Wiki seems kinda outdated though.  I couldn't even link to the Homepage of the Mame Plus developer as it just hung.  It could be my lousy connection though.

I was looking for some input as to what y'all are running as far as MAME goes, but something tells me most of y'all are running regular MAME with a good frontend. 

I can always try all of them, but I was hoping to save some time by asking other's opinions.

Green Giant, do you know if MAME Plus Plus is a security threat?  I've read conflicting things about it.

Thanks again for the help, it was much appreciated.

Red 

[Haze]

I've tried to search the net for all the pros and cons about the different variants of MAME, but it has been less than satisfactory, so I'm asking my fellow BYOAC members to chime in with their experiences.

I haven't played MAME since 1998 and am now getting back into it and have some questions about the different MAME options out there.

Below are some of the MAME choices from the net I found.

I know MAME 0.119 and MAME32 are the official versions, so I'm good there, but what can you tell me about your experiences with the other versions? 

I've heard that MAME Plus Plus is a security nightmare and should be avoided, is this true?

Are there any other MAME options that you've tried and liked that are not listed below? 

I've got a pretty fast CPU- AMD 3800+ with 1GB RAM, so I'm just undecided as to which MAME option would be best for someone just starting out that will also give me the best performance.  Thanks.

MAME 0.119
-- the baseline version isn't a bad choice with a good frontend, 0.119u1 fixes a few stability issues that were still present in 0.119

MAME32
-- standard MAME32 0.119 offers the same functionality / performance as MAME but with a windows GUI. 

MAME32 FX 0.119 MAME32 variant
-- has some pretty ugly hacks to get certain games to play 'better' and high score save support added back, but is potentially more unreliable due to the said features.

MAME32 Kaillera edition 0.67 MAME32 version with net play support
-- Kaillera is a security risk, all builds / emulators with it should be avoided on any machine connected to the internet.  Also violates the MAME license (due to the inclusion of kaillera which is closed source)  MAME is not designed to be secure online, Kaillera isn't secure online, recipe for disaster.

AdvanceMAME 0.106 MAME with advanced video support
-- Good for cabs due to custom modes, seriously out of date tho, there have been a LOT of improvements to mame since 0.106, including the classic games.

MAME Plus! 0.117 Enhanced MAME version
-- Has some interesitng features, includes a couple of bonuses like being able to run some Megadrive/Genesis games via integrated 'HazeMD' support.  Good multi-language support, but like mame32fx has a fair few hacks designed to make things run a bit better, so might not be as reliable as a regular build.

MAME Plus Plus 0.117
-- Includes kaillera, so, not a good idea, really.  Random builds from dodgy chinese/korean websites are the last thing you want to be running.  Also includes some (likewise unauthorized) support for Zinc plugins, but honestly, it's not worth the risk.  Highly unstable too due to the sheer number of hacks made to drivers.

What do I recommend?  Sticking with the standard Mame / Mame32 builds, it's the only way you can be sure that if you're experiencing an issues that it's a real MAME bug, not something created by the various hacks and patches in the others.

[david656]

welp the way i see it

DOS MAME - pritty good works a treat with arcade os and have been quite happy with it, quite quick loading time on a 2.something Ghz CPU/MoBo.

MAME32- i don't like it much, the pnly use i find is to test roms before sticking them on the arcade machine, if it says things are missing when i figure out how to repair or find what ever is missing i can do taht.

command line MAME- i just started using this a few days ago, it works with mameWAH and i got to say im very impressed with this set up and plan on changing my arcade machine to this

thats all i know might be of use might not

[Green Giant]

FYI, all the popular frontends, Mala, AtomicFE, and GameEX, use the command line version of mame.  They take the game you want to play with the options you want, vertical, horizontal, the screen size, or whatever, and automatically apply them so you will never have to enter an actual command line code.

[rooter]

Has anyone here compiled 64bit version of MAME?  How were the results?

I have heard that some games run better under 64bit and some run worse.  I would think with a frontend like Mala you could specify which build to use for each game.