Help for setting up MAME on older system (also romset question, plus NeoRAGEx)

[Ginsu Victim]

About to set up my old computer for my new cabinet I'm working on, but I'm wondering about MAME versions.

I have the current .123 complete rom set, however, the computer I'm using will more than likely run better with an older version of MAME.

Will I need a completely different rom set?

Here's the setup I'll be running:

800Mhz with 512 ram
XP SP2
Voodooł 32MB PCI
19" CRT PC monitor - Horizontal orientation
not sure which frontend I'll use, but will be running in windows
Mini-Pac standard
USB spinner hack

Also, because of my system, I'll be using NeoRAGEx for Neo Geo games. Is it frontend friendly at all?

Thanks.

-Ginsu Victim-

[gonzo90017]

I would use Fastmame 84 for your setup. FastMame 84.zip And forget about NeoRageX. It has it's own gui and is almost impossible to run through a frontend.
But why would you want to use anything but mame for NeoGeo? Your machine seems fast enough to  run the games full speed without frameskip. I have a 400mhz Celeron Pc, I have to use Winkawaks to run NeoGeo games at full speed without frameskip. But Nebula is a better option since it only needs 2 buttons to exit. And winkawas needs 3.

[Ginsu Victim]

In the past, when that was my main PC, NeoRAGEx seemed to be in the only emulator that ran them playable. I'll have to try again, I guess. Thanks

[Ginsu Victim]

Will FastMAME .84 run the .123 romset, though?

[gonzo90017]

Most of the roms should work. There will be a few that won't because of name changes. But if you've tested it with 123 and all games run fine that should be the only thing that matters. Seems most people agree that Mame's pre .100 run better on older hardware.

[BASS!]

Will FastMAME .84 run the .123 romset, though?

     Each version of mame has a different list of games playable on it. As they did updates they improved many things, one of which is the files that it uses to simulate the games. Some games haven't changed since .40 and a ton have.
     There will be a limited ammount of games that will be playable, it may end up showing up in the list, but it will invariably have issues with your roms - ie missing file warnings and lockups . Go to [romsite name redacted], find the rollback torrent, and compile a full romset for your .84 using the program clrmamepro. You will have to do some real reading to figure it out, i guarantee you, but in the end you will have a fully functional romset all based off the .84 romset.

[Ginsu Victim]

Thanks for the advice. I'm a member at the site you mentioned, so I'll have a glance