MAME version history/major changes

[shrunkenmaster]

Is there a list anywhere of MAME versions detailing when the major changes were made?

I'd like to find out the first version available when the 'video sliders' under the TAB key came into effect. I want a version of MAME that's better for older games but still has more video control.

Anyone?

[Haze]

Is there a list anywhere of MAME versions detailing when the major changes were made?

I'd like to find out the first version available when the 'video sliders' under the TAB key came into effect. I want a version of MAME that's better for older games but still has more video control.

Anyone?

Well you're implying that modern versions are somehow bad for older games, when the emulation quality should be better than ever..

but to answer your question, most people consider the video rewrite the tipping point, before that you could force more 'real' resolutions etc.   The video rewrite is what effectively killed off AdvanceMAME etc. too because suddenly you got more complex support for dynamic resolutions, multiple screens with different refresh rates etc. rather than every driver assuming a single screen / resolution / refresh that would never change which broke an awful lot of their code.

the video rewrite is also the point at which things like the slider controls became possible in the form you see them today, because the new way of rendering / composing the image made things like that much easier.  It's also the point at which you started to need a semi-decent (for the time..) video card instead of whatever trash you could find lying around which makes the post-video rewrite builds bad for really awful hardware.

so what you're asking for is basically something that doesn't exist, unless you're just believing all the nonsense people spout about the classic games somehow being better emulated in the ancient versions as a whole.  Faster on low end hardware, yes, better emulated, no.

of course even more recently we've seen other significant changes to the video output, the whole HLSL thing (for which you do need a GOOD video card) gives fancy simulations of CRT monitor artefacts etc. and if you're wanting to use those to make things look pretty on an LCD screen you don't want to be running anything less than the very latest version, some important bug fixes went in regarding those filters (and there are almost certainly more to come..)

[BadMouth]

The video rewrite he speaks of was v.107

A lot of people looking for something useful to do with an ancient PC use v.106
You can still find v.106 romsets on the internet.

No idea if that included the video sliders you speak of.

[secret80sman]

Any idea where I can get a version of MAMEui .106 with no nag screens and high score support?

[adder]

Any idea where I can get a version of MAMEui .106 with no nag screens and high score support?

hmm, mameuifx 106 http://petes-emulation.com/mameuifx/ might be what u are after, altho it may not have hiscore support back then...however it does let u skip the game info screens.
     to get rid of the 'type ok to continue' screens, use mame config-o-matic.. here: http://files.arcadecontrols.com/details.php?image_id=3650

[shrunkenmaster]

Thanks for the pointers everyone.

[Howard_Casto]

I think around .37 is when the new artwork system was introduced as well.  You could run mame on nothing prior to .37

That being said, the others are right.  The emulation in earlier versions is just terrible.  On a case by case basis you might be able to do something.  Like if you were making a pacman cabinet and you only wanted to run pacman, you could check the history.dat to see the last time the pacman driver was updated and use that version of mame.  As a whole though, it's generally a bad idea, especially considering how cheap computers are now. 

I used to use this example back in the day.  Your pc is the most important part of your mame cab.  If it were a car, the pc would be the engine.  Spending hundreds of dollars on a cab only to use a underpowered pc is like Putting 1000 dollar rims on a 1985 Dodge Omni. 

Buy/aquire your pc first... then buy controls and some sort of housing.  Now you've got a working setup.  If you are on a budget you can make the cabinet later and re-use the 100 dollars or so of controls you bought on it. 

[Haze]

Like if you were making a pacman cabinet and you only wanted to run pacman, you could check the history.dat to see the last time the pacman driver was updated

even that isn't going to guarantee you anything.

The Pacman driver is only one component of the Pacman emulation, I remember much older versions having rather bad emulation of the Namco sound chips compared to how things are today, if you're looking at only updates to the Pacman driver you'll miss things like that.

Of course nobody *remembers* how terrible some of the old versions were because of the 'wow' factor at the time and the fact that even the imperfect emulation was miles ahead of many of the official home ports at the time.

[Howard_Casto]

Well yeah, you'd have to check the revision history of the components as well, but my point was it's a bit more possible on a case by case basis.