Converting my cab to mame

[Jox43w]

Hey, i picked up a samurai showdown 2 cab a while ago and i want to convert it to mame. I havent used mame for a few years and iv heard hardware requirements have gone up.im not that intrested in the 3d games but i want something powerfull enough to play all the neogeo,cps1 2 and 3, killer instinct mortal combat up to 3, and the street fighter series basicaly all the 2d stuff. Will a e2220 2.4ghz 1mb cash duel core run them above full speed? Thanks for any replys look forward to sticking around

[Kajoq]

My MAME box is a 2.4ghz P4 (single core) with 1gb of ram.  Basically anything Dual Core will run everything you need and more

[Malenko]

my mame box is a 2.0 GHz Intel P4 (single core) and it runs all that stuff just fine, KI2 has some sound stutter but I never planned to upgrade the CPU in my cab; so yours should run it peachy keen

[Jox43w]

Thanks for the quick replys! Dont seem to get many friendly people on other mame boards anymore anyhow thanks i just wanted to be sure i could run those games ill go ahead and order all my parts now cant wait to get stuck in!

[CheffoJeffo]

You'll want to know the version number that folks are using when you ask this question, although with a current-ish dual core rig, I wouldn't expect many problems.

But, for the sake of completeness, I am running v .9 (it runs everything I want, so I settled on it as standard for my MAME boxes ... until something really cool gets added) on a couple of old 1Ghz-ish rigs and can play everything I want without issue. And then there are folks are running current versions on vastly superior hardware and have trouble.

[Kajoq]

Mine is running .117 and can run CPS3 games (Street Fighter 3:Third Strike namely) no problem

[Malenko]

Im runnin Mame32 on WinXP with like 2GB of RAM and a good video card. I dont have the LATEST mame, but its fairly recent. Im too lazy to go to the machine and boot it up and see the specifics, maybe tomorrow.

[moloch]

I am running Mame .81 or there abouts on a 1.8Ghz machine and can run everything I would want. All streetfighter and mortal combat up to 3 easy. I built it about 4.5 years ago.

I am using Win98 that has been stripped using Win98 lite.

[Jox43w]

Well iv managed to obtain a full rom set for what i belive to be version .124 does anyone know the oldest version i could drop back to if need be with that rom set. Hopefully i can run them in a new version i want to try and avoid using vista 64 too.

[ArtMAME]

You should be able to drop back and run most of your games.  There will be games that may not run on older versions due to filename changes and stuff, and some games are just not supported by newer versions anymore. 

You may need to experiment with different versions of MAME once you get your hardware put together.  You could also mix and match different versions of MAME and ROMs if you need to run a particular game that does not work will with the current versions.

I am using MAMEPlus v 0.92u2000 but I cannot remember my romset version, it is at least 3 years old though.  I can run the SF and MKs pretty well on my AMD Athlon64 3000 (1.8GHz) / ASUS Mobo/1GB RAM rig.

[phishpac]

I have a 2.6 w/ a gig of ram running a complete .124 rom set.  I am having a great deal of framerate and sound stutter issues with the newer games.  I can run older versions of mame and it's much better, but the sound is crackly every once in a while.

[Jox43w]

Do the dualcore chips make any diffrence in mame or am i better off going with a single core with a higher clock speed? Would be nice to hear from somebody with a duelcore rig. I could over clock my dualcore to 3ghz but as it will be in a cab im not to keen on leaving it oc'd all the while'. 

[paigeoliver]

Dualcore isn't going to do much for mame. Overclocking for Mame is lunacy. 95 percent of the games you want to play ran full speed in mame YEARS ago on a 500 mhz processor.

[Jox43w]

I do remember playing kof98 on my old imac 333mhz 32mb ram at near enoughfull speed! Are the older versions any less accurate emulation wise or buggy? And are they compatible with ultimarcs arcadevga2 card? 

[paigeoliver]

I regularly use version .55 which is what, 70 versions out of date? It supports basically anything you would want to play (notable exceptions are CPS 3 games, Golden Tee games and games that use CHD files) and it runs them wonderfully.

ArcadeVGA is a video card, it doesn't care what Mame version you use. I have an arcadevga card (older version) running in a cabinet that uses mame .55

I do remember playing kof98 on my old imac 333mhz 32mb ram at near enoughfull speed! Are the older versions any less accurate emulation wise or buggy? And are they compatible with ultimarcs arcadevga2 card? 

[Jdurg]

Dualcore isn't going to do much for mame. Overclocking for Mame is lunacy. 95 percent of the games you want to play ran full speed in mame YEARS ago on a 500 mhz processor.

And they played full of bugs, graphics glitches, sound glitches, etc.  I don't know about you, but I'm not going to play a bug filled piece of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- version of an arcade game that I loved.  I certainly can tell the difference between the older, crappier emulation and the newer, more acurate emulation.  You really need to stop calling people "lunatics" for using powerful systems to play a vastly more accurate emulation of games just because you don't want to spend the money doing it. 

BTW, the DualCore CPUs do a great deal better in MAME than the equivalent speed P4 chips.  This isn't because of the dual cores, but more because of the greater architecture of the DualCore CPUs compared to the laughable architecture of the P4 processors.

So if you want faster, but less accurate emuation of games in MAME then you can go with an older version.  If you want more accurate emulation, albeit at a somewhat slower speed, then you'll need the newer version.  If you can't tell the difference in emulation between the older and the newer, then by all means go with the old one as it does run faster than newer iterations.  Just don't let paige's very vocal opinions prevent you from making a decision on your own.   

[CheffoJeffo]

Dualcore isn't going to do much for mame. Overclocking for Mame is lunacy. 95 percent of the games you want to play ran full speed in mame YEARS ago on a 500 mhz processor.

So if you want faster, but less accurate emuation of games in MAME then you can go with an older version.  If you want more accurate emulation, albeit at a somewhat slower speed, then you'll need the newer version.  If you can't tell the difference in emulation between the older and the newer, then by all means go with the old one as it does run faster than newer iterations.  Just don't let paige's very vocal opinions prevent you from making a decision on your own.   

While I'm not exactly a Paige fanboy, I encourage folks not to disregard what he says out of hand since he has build more MAME cabs than anybody else here, except for Zakk (and, maybe, Knievel). His cabs have not been the prettiest by a long shot, but they are more than many here have completed.

FWIW, *I* am happy with the version of MAME that I am running (.90) for emulating the games that I want to play (and do not have dedicated cabinets for).

As for the "accuracy of emulation", I would leave such assessments to those who have actually owned the original machines and run them side-by-side with their MAME boxes. It would be a total mistake to believe that a dual-core system is require to accurately emulate Galaga, for example, or to listen to anybody who isn't comparing apples to apples.

[paigeoliver]

Most of the "accuracy" of emulation bits are things that the end user never sees. In addition to having made a TON of mame machines I have also owned a few hundred original machines and boards and I could never spot any actual differences between the real thing and Mame .55 in the games that were stated to be properly working in that version.

Most of the accuracy of emulation bits are either things you just can't see, sounds that are just a wee bit different, or tiny differences in game speed that you have to leave the real thing running against a mame for a while in order to be able to spot. There are a few exceptions here and there (Robotron not slowing down when there is a lot of onscreen activity is a notable exception present in old mame versions that I believe was fixed in new ones).

I am sure the current version is more "accurate" but .55 is not a bug filled crapfest either. All the accuracy in the world is worthless the minute your machine has to skip frames, because THAT is far worse than all that "inaccurate" stuff that you can't see.

And to be exact I said OVERCLOCKING to run mame is lunacy. Buying a $600 PC to run Mame on a 15" PC monitor is lunacy. There are benefits to be had with a better PC in Mame, but the PC is the LEAST important part of the cabinet, controls, monitor, encoder, computer mix.

A lot of people come into Mame from a PC gaming background and thus assume hot hardware is what they need and the best way to go and end up sticking brand new computers into cabinets using $8 used joysticks and cast off PC monitors that are way too small for the cabinet.