"Best" MAME version, and other Qs....

[riggs]

Hey all.  Long time no speaky!  I had an account here about 10 years ago with the crazy notion I was going to build an arcade cab.  However, things happened, equipment broke and I never got around to finishing it.  Anyhoo, I'm back with the intention of finishing what I started and have a few quick questions regarding MAME (things seemed to have change a little in the last 10 years, and I'm well and truly 'out of the loop')!

I've got a little dual core Atom setup (2GB RAM, onboard Intel GPU, Windows 7 etc) running MAME 0.148 (i have D3D problems with .0149) which is working OK-ish, but I think I can do better.  Essentially, I'm wondering what everyone's opinion is on running an older version of MAME for the purposes of emulating games from around the mid-90's and earlier.  I'm not bothered about 3D games, and I reckon the most graphically intense I'm wanting is DoDonPachi 2 standard (at the moment this seems to struggle a little on my machine - stuttery GFX and lots of sound echo).  Is there an earlier version of MAME that will run better on my setup?  I'm pretty sure (if my memory serves me correctly) that back in the day I was able to run most games using 0.65 on an old AthlonXP with 512MB.  What's changed?

2nd question; is there anything out there that will batch-recompress all of my ROMs from 7zip to zip?  If I opt for an earlier MAME version I'll need to do this.

Question the third; what's the best option for auditing games (and generating XMLs for MaLa) to edit out anything 3D, non-working/glitchy, with more than 4 buttons?

Any help greatly appreciated.  I'm wanting to finalise all of the software before starting my build in a couple of weeks time.

(quick/dirty 3D shot of my plan;)

[BadMouth]

Hey all.  Long time no speaky!  I had an account here about 10 years ago with the crazy notion I was going to build an arcade cab.  However, things happened, equipment broke and I never got around to finishing it.  Anyhoo, I'm back with the intention of finishing what I started and have a few quick questions regarding MAME (things seemed to have change a little in the last 10 years, and I'm well and truly 'out of the loop')!

I've got a little dual core Atom setup (2GB RAM, onboard Intel GPU, Windows 7 etc) running MAME 0.148 (i have D3D problems with .0149) which is working OK-ish, but I think I can do better.  Essentially, I'm wondering what everyone's opinion is on running an older version of MAME for the purposes of emulating games from around the mid-90's and earlier.  I'm not bothered about 3D games, and I reckon the most graphically intense I'm wanting is DoDonPachi 2 standard (at the moment this seems to struggle a little on my machine - stuttery GFX and lots of sound echo).  Is there an earlier version of MAME that will run better on my setup?  I'm pretty sure (if my memory serves me correctly) that back in the day I was able to run most games using 0.65 on an old AthlonXP with 512MB.  What's changed?

2nd question; is there anything out there that will batch-recompress all of my ROMs from 7zip to zip?  If I opt for an earlier MAME version I'll need to do this.

Question the third; what's the best option for auditing games (and generating XMLs for MaLa) to edit out anything 3D, non-working/glitchy, with more than 4 buttons?

Any help greatly appreciated.  I'm wanting to finalise all of the software before starting my build in a couple of weeks time.

1. DoDonPachi II wasn't made playable until v 0.145u5.  Rolling back to that recent of a version probably isn't going to make much difference.

A lot of people use v .106 on low power PCs because v.107 included an overhaul of the video drivers that made the required specs more demanding.
Of course you'll be missing all the games added since v.106

2. Not all of your new roms are going to work with the old version even if converted to regular zips.  You'll either need to roll them back using CLRMAMEPRO and "rollback roms" or download roms meant for the version of MAME that you want to use.  Search online for a CLRMAMEPRO tutorial.

3. Romlister http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

[Haze]

1. DoDonPachi II wasn't made playable until v 0.145u5.  Rolling back to that recent of a version probably isn't going to make much difference.

Right, and I optimized the driver at that point or shortly after, so rolling back to that exact version might even make it worse.

DDP2 is using a whole bunch of nice little speed-ups, otherwise it would barely scrape 100% on my C2D with the MAME cores ;-)  Advice for that one, use Final Burn Alpha, it might be faster although I'm not sure the emulation is quite as good.

Atom machines simply aren't very powerful tho, so don't expect too much, I remember somebody saying they struggled even with some 90s 2D Namco games in MAME and by the time they'd rolled back far enough for adequate performance the additional glitches of using such old versions made them no more desirable.

[adder]

i use version 0.148 and really like it so havnt bothered updating since then.
i'd upgrade your hardware rather than go back in time to earlier mame.
im using a P4 3.4ghz, 2gb ram, microXP 32 bit, onboard ati gfx. this pc was dirt cheap to buy
i dont bother with 3d games, everything i like runs just fine (mostly eighties games)

[riggs]

@BadMouth - thanks for that info dude.  I'll do some reading ;-)

@Haze - That's good to know.  I may ditch the Atom then and look at alternatives.  I'm assuming a C2D is sufficient enough for most games?

[Haze]

@BadMouth - thanks for that info dude.  I'll do some reading ;-)

@Haze - That's good to know.  I may ditch the Atom then and look at alternatives.  I'm assuming a C2D is sufficient enough for most games?

Yeah, my 3ghz C2D is a getting a bit dated now, but it's served me well!  I'm probably going to look at an i5/i7 soonish for the higher end stuff (and because there is a gradual shift in requirements as we improve various emulations) but if you can pick up a similar processor for fairly cheap then they perform well for the vast majority of MAME, especially in 64-bit land.  Obviously some of the 3D stuff is still out of the question, but I've never been too interested in that.

Atom is simply designed for low power / low noise situations where performance doesn't really matter.

[riggs]

Just 'won' a C2D 2.2GHz + mobo + 2GB RAM (good old eBay).  Hopefully this'll be ok for what I'm wanting.

May have to look at starting a project log soon...