Main > Main Forum
Why so slow?......
u_rebelscum:
Mame emulates the original hardware. If the original game took X number of seconds, mame tries to match.
So the question revolves around how the original game tested. Was it a crc check on part or whole chips? Did it involve multiple reads and (for RAM) writes? Was there a timed pause between chips/tests? Or did the next chip/test start immediately after the prior? Or were they done in parallel? Add that older machines had slower RAM/ROM and slower CPUs, so they expected to run slower (bits/sec) than current hardware. And last but not least, these tests were done only on machine startup, so they didn't need to finish quickly: most machine were on all day so no player saw how long it took to start up.
edit: RayB beat me to it.
Justin Z:
That's what I always figured -- the designers were probably like "yeah nobody's going to care if this takes 15 seconds because, well, you turn the machine on once in the morning and that's it."
Ummon:
Notice I didn't say 'in MAME'. So of course the actual games, although as MAME is intended to accurately emulate, the point is a little moot.
--- Quote from: RayB on November 04, 2009, 12:21:54 pm ---Oh the INTERNAL checks. They are slow because the game is throttled to it's "real" CPU speed. If you want to skip those, press F10 to turn off throttling, then turn it back on when it's done (which will be like, less than a second later).
--- End quote ---
Apparently there is something in AdvanceMAME that is doing this automatically. Not for all games, but many. If it's that simple, and while there are savestates and such, perhaps someone'd like to write a script for this to add to your build or FE folder or something?
HaRuMaN:
Turnarcades:
Never made much difference to me to be honest, after all it's only a few seconds each time. It's not like it's as bad as old computer tapes with long loading times, or even modern consoles, with up to a few minutes between stages and stuff while it reads off a disc - wish they'd research better cartridge technology so we can go back to instant gaming. But then, even then they stuck loads of non-skippable company logos on the start you have to sit through.