"If it ain't broke" or "onward upward"

[mr_doles]

I have been using mame .128 and all my games work great, I finally figured out how to patch with the diff files and upgraded to .128u7.  The first game in my list, Ajax, did not work so I went back to .128 and all was well again.  I saw that .129 came out and was thinking about the upgrade.  So my question to all is how you handle upgrades for your machines...if it's not broken leave it or onward and upward, forward progress, etc...

[Jack Burton]

Well, as long as you have the harddrive space nothing keeps you from just coverting the neccesary roms over to the newer standard and installing both copies.  That's what I do.

[TOK]

Seldom do it... My 2 main machines run primarily .99 and my bartop which has a P3 is running .84.

.99 has the original series of Golden Tee games (up to 3D), and the Robotron speed is fixed. They're not adding stuff that I really care about at this point, and breaking stuff that I like. I do have a newer version on one cab that I use for the later Raiden games, but I have them set up separate from my regular front end.

[Ginsu Victim]

I use .84 on my older computers (future cocktail or bartop) and .127 on my cabinet. A few games I run with .128 because they were broke in .127 (Blazing Tornado mainly).

[Malenko]

I use .84 on my older computers (future cocktail or bartop) and .127 on my cabinet. A few games I run with .128 because they were broke in .127 (Blazing Tornado mainly).

Blazing Tornado is great! so few fans f FirePro wrestling, it'll prolly never come out on the 360 or PS3

[Ginsu Victim]

I was just happy they released Fire Pro Returns for PS2. Nice to play in English for once (GBA versions and translations aside...)

[nipsmg]

well, 129 introduces soul caliber, so imight be interested.

But basically, I leave it be.  There are SO MANY games in mame at this point unless there's some kind of major speed increase (it usually goes the OTHER way), I generally don't do it.

[Ginsu Victim]

well, 129 introduces soul caliber, so imight be interested.

Whoa....you just got my attention.

[Dazz]

Before knowing how to compile or acquire the new sets I would update every 4 or 5 major releases.  But now days I tend to update fairly quickly.  If a update adds a game that I want to play then I'll update to the newest .diff at the time.

[RayB]

I would only update in major increments, but anyways, if you do, do it smartly. Just use a seperate directory for the new mame, and everything else (including a copy set of the roms, diffed). Then if it doesnt work out, it's a simple task of just re-assigning the old MAME file path to get the machine working right again.

[mr_doles]

Yeah the games I have work great with .128 so there I will stay, at least for now.

well, 129 introduces soul caliber, so i might be interested.

But I will have to stick the upgrade somewhere to try that one out!!

[TAG]

well, 129 introduces soul caliber, so imight be interested.

Whoa....you just got my attention.

Using the standard MAME on my P4 3.0 GHz, gameplay is in the 60-80% range.  It's playable, but I'm hoping for a little bump when I optimize once the new diff comes out.  If all else fails, I'll still have the Dreamcast version available!

[Ginsu Victim]

well, 129 introduces soul caliber, so imight be interested.

Whoa....you just got my attention.

Using the standard MAME on my P4 3.0 GHz, gameplay is in the 60-80% range.  It's playable, but I'm hoping for a little bump when I optimize once the new diff comes out.  If all else fails, I'll still have the Dreamcast version available!

Yeah, after I said that, I thought, "Oh, duh, my Dual Core 2 Ghz won't play this worth anything. I'll just stick to the superior Dreamcast version."

[u_rebelscum]

For cabs, I suggest upgrading only as really truly needed, and only for specific games if your FE can do multiple versions of mame out of sight, rather than the whole thing.  Then you can spend more time playing rather than updating mame, and patching zip file, and setting up.  (FWIW, ajax rom set changed in 0.128u4.)

On my desktop, OTOH, I update mame to each minor release, but don't touch any rom set until I try to play one that broke, and I only update that one.  Then when something "big" happens that I want on my cab and tested fine on my desktop, I can transfer everything from my desktop to my cab, and be able to play it as soon as the transfer is finished.