I searched but couldn't find, if there is, any post on what version of Mame, be it a mame32 or a completely different arcade emu, to support the play of mid 90's to older arcade games. Any wisdom on the subject would be awesome. I have an old PC and am configuring it as a Mame machine for my future cab and am having trouble with games that I think could play on my system if I had the right stuff. This can also serve as a guide for people to follow in the future who are doing the same thing with an old PC that they no longer need and would like to make into a Mame machine.
Here are my current specs, but don't just reply with get a faster processor or more memory, I am looking for the optimum software, not hardware, to match with any hardware one might acquire simply to play older games, none more complex than the ones I list further down:
Intel Pentium III 800 Mhz
512 MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9550 XL 256 MB S-video to an old CRT TV (looks great, vintage)
Sound Blaster Live!
Windows XP cut down to 100MB RAM in use when running MAMEWAH as shell
All drivers and everything up to date and I currently run Mame v1.06
I am hopefully looking to be able to run the following games that are so close to running smooth:
Jurassic Park (Why do they go back to the island? For some blood, dino blood)
Mortal Kombat (Klassic)
Street Fighter: The Movie (underrated, might not work on my system even with ideal software but one can hope)
others that I haven't acquired yet to test if they work or need the same tweaking...
Frameskip helps get MK from 7 fps to about 35 for me, even though it creates a sort of lag and 35 is still not that great. It's the sound that skips and repeats and makes things even more unplayable though. I have found many people have this sound problem and it seems that the older the game and the newer the Mame (sorry that rhymes, kinda catchy though), the more likely this is. I am wondering if the same can be said about video too and if older versions of Mame would make MK playable. Anyway, thanks for any info you guys can give.
Also, would even Windows 9x, Mac OS, or a version of Linux be better suited for these older games? Even though XP has better emulator compatibility with all game systems, right? When it comes to a pre-1995 arcade games emulator, is XP optimum? Please share your knowledge and post your experiences.