DOS or Windows?

[vegetariansoul]

I know that pretty much anything will run mame, but am I making the best choices to have everything work optimally in a dedicated mame cabinet?  I would like to run Daphne if that is cool.

The Arcade VGA card recommends Windows, Mamewah and Avres utility.  I believe the D9200 is mentioned somewhere in there also?

I can pretty much change any of the hardware or software stuff to whatever in those price ranges.

Thanks so much again guys!

2ghz P4
256ram
20gig 7200rpm
slikstik2classic
wg9200 27"
arcadeVGA

[DAmnb]

Well it really depends on what kind of hardware you have.
If you have a comp that can handle it I would say go for Windows. You get a bigger choice of emulators and its alot easier to configure and add roms via lan.

[vegetariansoul]

2ghz
256ram
20gig
slikstik2classic
wg9200 27"
arcadeVGA

[Minwah]

2ghz
256ram
20gig
slikstik2classic
wg9200 27"
arcadeVGA

Windows will perform better with that spec I would say

[vegetariansoul]

I know that pretty much anything will run mame, but am I making the best choices to have everything work optimally in a dedicated mame cabinet?  I would like to run Daphne if that is cool.

The Arcade VGA card recommends Windows, Mamewah and Avres utility.  I believe the D9200 is mentioned somewhere in there also?

I can pretty much change any of the hardware or software stuff to whatever in those price ranges.

Thanks so much again guys!

[Minwah]

I know that pretty much anything will run mame, but am I making the best choices to have everything work optimally in a dedicated mame cabinet?  I would like to run Daphne if that is cool.

The Arcade VGA card recommends Windows, Mamewah and Avres utility.  I believe the D9200 is mentioned somewhere in there also?

I can pretty much change any of the hardware or software stuff to whatever in those price ranges.

Thanks so much again guys!

Is there an echo?  

Thought I'd add that Daphne (& MAMEWAH) are Windows only...

[RebelOz69]

Haven't got it completed yet, but I'm setting up one of my machines for this. So far, it seems to be going fairly smoothly, and should be moderately easy for someone with little/no Linux experience...

[Odonadon]

I know that pretty much anything will run mame, but am I making the best choices to have everything work optimally in a dedicated mame cabinet?  I would like to run Daphne if that is cool.

The Arcade VGA card recommends Windows, Mamewah and Avres utility.  I believe the D9200 is mentioned somewhere in there also?

I can pretty much change any of the hardware or software stuff to whatever in those price ranges.

Thanks so much again guys!

2ghz P4
256ram
20gig 7200rpm
slikstik2classic
wg9200 27"
arcadeVGA

Windows for sure.  If you're running like a 300MHz machine, then DOS.

Odonadon

[JoeB]

Here's the technical reason why windows is better for you..

All new PC's have features inside of them that are normally off in DOS, but need to be turned on via software drivers.  These drivers have been written by the manufacturer only for Windows (and hacked by some coders for Linux).

Some of these drivers include things like Ultra-DMA 100 HD access speed, Bus Mastering (for faster video, audio, network access), chipset drivers to enable other speed ups.

Not to mention the fact that DOS can't really effectivly use much above 128MB of RAM, and not at all above 256MB of RAM.

The amount of RAM and CPU power required by windows are all made up for, and then some, on new PC's when compared to DOS.

On the other hand, with old hardware (P1, P2 CPU), there are no special features that get turned on with drivers.. so they work best under DOS.

Now, the question that remains is, which windows???

Easy.. the newer the CPU, the newer the windows that you should use, since the correct drivers will be there for your CPU.  So if you have a Pentium-III, go with Windows 98.  If you have a P4 or better, Windows XP will be as fast as windows 98.. but a heck of a lot more stable.

[BlackThorne]

But what if i plan to play old DOS-games on my mame-cab? Games like the classic adventures from lucasarts or epics Tyrian. I have some trouble getting them to work correctly under winXP on my athlon 1.2 GHz PC with 512ram (that's the one i'm planning to use in my cab). Is there any decent DOS-emulator that i could use?

[DAmnb]

But what if i plan to play old DOS-games on my mame-cab? Games like the classic adventures from lucasarts or epics Tyrian. I have some trouble getting them to work correctly under winXP on my athlon 1.2 GHz PC with 512ram (that's the one i'm planning to use in my cab). Is there any decent DOS-emulator that i could use?

Short answer would be no. The dos emulators out there arent designed to run games.
You could go with multiple os:es and set it up so MameWah reboots and switches so it boots dos and the dos frontend you want, but its alot of hassle and why would you want to play games like Sam N Max or Monkey Island in your cab anyway? Those definatly are sit down comfy in my chair types of games IMO.  

[BlackThorne]

Short answer would be no. The dos emulators out there arent designed to run games.
You could go with multiple os:es and set it up so MameWah reboots and switches so it boots dos and the dos frontend you want, but its alot of hassle and why would you want to play games like Sam N Max or Monkey Island in your cab anyway? Those definatly are sit down comfy in my chair types of games IMO.  

I just solved the problem of running those adventures under windows. I found a program called ScummVM which is a collection of interpreters, capable of emulating several
adventure game engines. Works pretty nice.

You could of course argue about why one whould want to play these kind of game in a cab but Tyrian whould definitly be a blast to play in a mame-cab!

[Jakobud]

Windows will perform way better for you with those specs.  Running DOS, you will not get the full performance of your system.   DOS is a bottleneck for faster systems of today.

[Odonadon]

Short answer would be no. The dos emulators out there arent designed to run games.
You could go with multiple os:es and set it up so MameWah reboots and switches so it boots dos and the dos frontend you want, but its alot of hassle and why would you want to play games like Sam N Max or Monkey Island in your cab anyway? Those definatly are sit down comfy in my chair types of games IMO.  

I just solved the problem of running those adventures under windows. I found a program called ScummVM which is a collection of interpreters, capable of emulating several
adventure game engines. Works pretty nice.

You could of course argue about why one whould want to play these kind of game in a cab but Tyrian whould definitly be a blast to play in a mame-cab!

It does rock.  I run Tyrian in my cab.  I use Win98, so DOS games play perfectly fine.  Never had it crash on me either.  One thing to be mindful with Tyrian, is the game plays horribly on a system with a PCI sound card, for some messed up reason.  You need an ISA card to play it properly.

Odonadon

[BlackThorne]

It does rock.  I run Tyrian in my cab.  I use Win98, so DOS games play perfectly fine.  Never had it crash on me either.  One thing to be mindful with Tyrian, is the game plays horribly on a system with a PCI sound card, for some messed up reason.  You need an ISA card to play it properly.

Odonadon

I have an old ISA SoundBlaster but no ISA slot on my mainboard . But there is a SBlive patch for Tyrian which may solve a few problems. Though i couldn't get it to work right, yet. I could turn on sound in the setup but then i couldn't start the game itself anymore. I'll just keep trying that with a few different soundcards, maybe one will work.

[Chris]

I'm a firm believer that for a pure MAME cabinet, DOS is best (most of these "special features" you speak of are irrelevant for most MAME games; who needs Ultra-DMA100 to load an 8K ROM image?), but you want to run more than MAME, so Windows it is.

Complicating this decision is that things like dual lightguns or dual trackballs only works in Windows 98.

--Chris

[Minwah]

I'm a firm believer that for a pure MAME cabinet, DOS is best (most of these "special features" you speak of are irrelevant for most MAME games; who needs Ultra-DMA100 to load an 8K ROM image?), but you want to run more than MAME, so Windows it is.

I wouldn't agree with this entirely...yes, the DOS environment is superb for a cab, but have you checked the size of some of the newer roms lately?!  Some are 80MEG!!  If 80's classics is all the cab is for then DOS would be great, but for the newer stuff Windows is a must IMO.

[Chris]

80 meg is no big deal if you have Smartdrive set up, but many people forget that step.  And DOS is more stable than any version of Windows will ever be.

But, as the OP wanted DAPHNE, this is not an issue....

--Chris

[Grasshopper]

I'm a firm believer that for a pure MAME cabinet, DOS is best (most of these "special features" you speak of are irrelevant for most MAME games; who needs Ultra-DMA100 to load an 8K ROM image?), but you want to run more than MAME, so Windows it is.

Complicating this decision is that things like dual lightguns or dual trackballs only works in Windows 98.

--Chris

I totally agree with that. Another thing the Windows advocates are forgetting is that DOS boots up very quickly indeed and can be switched off instantly (no need to select shutdown) without losing data. These are important advantages if you are building a cabinet and want to disguise the fact that there is a PC inside.

Also, with the awesome power of modern processors speed is not really an issue anymore except for the very latest games.

The only real disadvantage of DOS is that there is no USB support. I just wish someone would hack the Linux USB drivers to work with DOS. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time.

[Minwah]

Well in my (admittedly limited) experience, DOS can perform pretty badly for some of the newer games.  My 1.4gig, 512meg RAM Athlon just can't run games at a decent fps in DOS at all   .

I would have thought DOS's limited ability to make the most of RAM would restrict the performance of the large games somewhat (?)...