Software Support > GroovyMAME
Help needed??? Will Groovy do what I need?
dskinchen:
Tried to research the answer but so far no luck... I have a P4 Win XP Mame cab that was using an ultimarc AGP ArcadeVGA card to drive a Wells K7000 monitor. The card died and new ones (AGP) aren't available, so I'm curious--can I use groovy and soft15khz (and any other software plugs) to drive my system? How does it handle boot into windows? I don't have a keyboard or pc monitor on the system. I'd love to have the machine boot up right into something like hyperspin but I'm limited when it comes to working out all the software. Any input/guidance would be greatly appreciated. Detailed, step by step help would really be awesome... Thanks!
krick:
You should be able to use an appropriate AGP ATI-based video card, Calamity's modified drivers and GroovyMAME with your setup.
However, be aware that modern versions of MAME are more demanding and a P4 might not be fast enough for some of the games you want to run.
You can easily configure your system to boot to Windows and automatically launch a front-end, though again, HyperSpin might be too much for your CPU.
You'll have to try it out and see.
To set everything up, you're going to have to pick up a cheap keyboard and mouse. You'll probably need to borrow a PC monitor or LCD (or pick one up used at a thrift store or something). I don't think you can set it up without a monitor. You might be able to use an LCD TV that has a VGA input to set things up, but I'm not positive.
You can get Calamity's modified ATI drivers here, along with recent builds of GroovyMAME...
http://mario.groovy.org/GroovyMame/WindowsATIDrivers/
Here's what Newegg has in the way of AGP Radeon HD 4000 series cards....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600007317%20600007850&IsNodeId=1
You could also try your luck on Ebay...
http://tinyurl.com/ebay-agp-radeon-4000
One question... Do you currently have a J-PAC?...
http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html
The J-PAC is nice because it protects your arcade monitor from out-of-range signals. During the boot process, before entering windows, a normal video card will put out out-of-range signals until the windows drivers kick in. Depending on your arcade monitor, you may be ok without one, but I never felt comfortable going directly into my monitor from a non-ArcadeVGA card.
I can't give you step-by-step instructions on setting things up because everyone's setup is different, but there's plenty of resources if you search on these forums (and the hyperspin forums, if you go that route). If you have specific questions about specific steps, post in the appropriate board and I'm sure someone will help out.
Calamity:
--- Quote ---I've got a Wells K7000 on a p4 mame cab. It used to run perfectly with one of Andy's arcadevga cards, but that seems to have died and he doesn't make agp cards anymore.
I did my research and installed a radeon hd3850 I had lying around with soft15 and quickres. The best I got was a blue screen on the monitor, and stripping out the drivers and reinstalling hasn't gotten me anywhere. Of course when you boot at 15khz your pc monitor no longer works and since I get nothing with the arcade monitor, it sure makes it hard to diagnose... Can you give me some guidance on what I might be doing wrong? I'm sure you need more info so let me know and I'll answer best I can. thanks for any help you can provide. David
--- End quote ---
Hi dskinchen,
I didn't get if you're using regular drivers or the CRT_Emudriver.
Anyway, two things:
- Most moder ATIs only work when using the DVI output.
- HD 3xxx can't do low dotclocks, so they're not very good for MAME (though this has a workaround).
dskinchen:
Hey Calmity. Sorry to be slow responding but my login got locked when I tried to change my email. Anyway, I'm using the drivers that came with the card, then running soft15. I get it to give me a blue screen but that's it. When I remote into the machine, everything looks good so it's the card/drivers.
I'm using the dvi with an adapter so that's fine but if this isn't the best card to use, I'll look for another in my pile of antiquated parts. Sounds like I will also look for the crt_emudriver file too. If I can get that working, my next questions will be how to hook it up so that it boots right into mame with no windows wrapper (and no high refresh rates to cook my monitor...) Stay tuned and thanks everyone for your help. David
krick:
Before you install the CRT_Emudriver, run the ATI Catalyst Uninstaller utility to make sure that all the old drivers are completely removed...
http://www.ultimarc.com/cat-uninstaller.exe
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