PII450, what to use for best speed?

[GodSin]

well my Mametrix cabinet is for the most part finished, I mounted my Encore PC Speakers to the outside of the cabinet just under the marquee ...

The computer is a IBM POS PII 450 with 512megs PC133 ram currently running windows 98se on a old 6gig 5400rpm hard drive with onboard Video (no agp slot otherwise I would throw in the old 3dfx voodoo card I got)

for some reason most if not all the games (MK 1 to 3) run like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- ...

I was wondering what could be done to help this little guy out other then spending more cash on a new computer which I cant do atm cause I am saving up to finish a Neo Geo MVS System...

would running in pure dos help ? if so whats the best dos front end considering the extreme lack of HD space and slow ass computer I dont plan to run the CHD image games of course

would it be possible to run Dos / Mame off a cdr and be able to keep the High schore file and roms on the hard drive?

yes I am new to all this so please help me out

Thanks in advance
Graham M.
godsin1@nospamhotmail.com

[paigeoliver]

Yes, you could run off a CDROM and keep the other files on the hard drive. But I wouldn't recommend it. It will just increase load times and wear out your CDROM drive.

Try a Mame version somewhere around .60

The Mortal Kombat hardware games are just dogs, most other games should run just fine on a 450 using version .60. Try adding a SNES emulator and running the SNES versions instead. They are very good ports, and are a lot better than nothing. Although the Capcom and SNK  fighters should run fine on that hardware, so it is only an issue if you are a real MK fiend.

Finally, pull some of that RAM. There is no way a DOS Mame cabinet is EVER going to hit 512MB of Ram usage. I don't think there are any games that require more than 128 that would run on a 450 anyway.

Also, I have found in the past that large amounts of ram like that in a P2 Era computer can actually slow down emulation. As an example, my old 500 mhz could only run (using UltraHLE) Super Mario 64 full speed if it had 128 MB of ram in it. It ran poorly with 256, and looked like a slideshow with 512.

The easiest way to test the above is to check your framerates on several different games using different amounts of ram. (Try Pac-Man, Gauntlet, Final Fight, and Mortal Kombat as test games). Be sure to hit the button to display the framerate, and then to run the game as fast as possible. (I believe F11 displays, and then F10 runs as fast as possible).

In general the best Mame version to use is one that came out back when your hardware was still hot stuff. The newer versions may have more "accurate" emulation, but they are way slower. Sure, each version adds more games, but we all know that 95 percent of the games added since around .60 have been either junk, mahjong, stuff you have never heard of, stuff that won't run full speed on anything, or junk mahjongs you have never heard of that won't run full speed on anything.

[Odonadon]

I agree with Paige, in that 512MB of RAM is really overkill.

My MAME cab runs on a K6-3 450MHz (about speed equivalent to a PII 450) with 128MB of RAM on Win98se.  Everything, but the MK games (and a few others) run perfectly except: With Windows, you may notice a problem with sound - choppiness, gets garbly sometimes, etc.  Running DOS will fix this.  In fact, the only reason I'm not using DOS, is because I have a bunch of other emulators that need DirectX to run.  

But MK isn't going to run well on that rig, no matter what software config you choose.  You will need better hardware.  So yes, running pure DOS would help, but MK will still run like crap  Only a bit faster.

OD

[DAmnb]

Just get the PC ports of MK1-4, not the best ports in the world but hey beggers cant be choosers  

[IceCold]

Just get the PC ports of MK1-4, not the best ports in the world but hey beggers cant be choosers  

How do they match up to the SNES and Genesis ports?  I'm just wondering which would be the better choice on a slow system.

[DAmnb]

Just get the PC ports of MK1-4, not the best ports in the world but hey beggers cant be choosers  

How do they match up to the SNES and Genesis ports?  I'm just wondering which would be the better choice on a slow system.

I would go with the PC versions of MK3-4 but for MK1-2 the Snes versions should suffice.

[paigeoliver]

The ideal solution really is just to forget about the 90s Midway hardware games altogether. I mean they are really nothing special, there are at least 100 other fighting games in Mame, and the rest of them are sports games, and I am pretty sure there are already a zillion sports games in Mame too.

Most of the rest of the games that require a killer (or nonexistant) CPU are analog anyway, and require controls that probably are not on the standard streetfighter + trackball panel in the first place.

Just enjoy the other 3997 games for a year or two, then you can buy a used computer for $50 - $100 that will play all of those games just fine.

[Cowboy Mac]

I'm running a celeron 300a overclocked to 450 with 192mb ram. MK2 is my favorite arcade game of all time and unfortunatly in a win98 setup booting directly into dos hasnt got it working correctly. Does anyone know if there is any way to run it smoothly, or is it one game that needs much faster processor? If there are any suggestions it would be appreciated!

Thanks.

[Odonadon]

I'm running a celeron 300a overclocked to 450 with 192mb ram. MK2 is my favorite arcade game of all time and unfortunatly in a win98 setup booting directly into dos hasnt got it working correctly. Does anyone know if there is any way to run it smoothly, or is it one game that needs much faster processor? If there are any suggestions it would be appreciated!

Thanks.

Disabling sound MIGHT help, but I'm willing to bet that your only solution to run the game correctly with MAME is to upgrade your hardware.

OD

[paigeoliver]

Also, be sure you are using mamepp.exe and not Mame.exe (it matters on older hardware).

Also, drop back MANY Mame versions. I finally settled on version .55 for my P2 400, 64 RAM trackball cabinet. The reason being that it ran Irritating Maze at 60 frame per second (83 if throttle was turned off), while .60 ran it at 40, and .74 ran it at 30.