New to GroovyMAME... a few questions

[Jimbo]

I've just been told about GroovyMAME by a very helpful member of BYOAC

My first cab used a Hantarex Polo 3 (15Khz), and an ArcadeVGA from Ultimarc.

It worked great - there were a few games with stuttering sound though, but apart from that, pretty happy.

I'm working on cab 2.0 now though with the following plans: -

• Hantarex Polo 3 (15Khz) arcade monitor (can display windows 640x480 interlaced)
• Rotating Monitor, vertical games to be played in correct CRT orientation
• LCD panel for mame marquees
• MaLa Frontend
• Wanting to run Mame, a C64 emulator, and an Amiga emulator

I've read that GroovyMAME can get the game running on the CRT, and the marquee running on the LCD (assuming extended desktop?).

So... some questions...

Is there a CRT preset for the polo3 15khz monitor?  I saw one for the polo and the polo star... but no mention of the polo 3 15Khz-only one specifically.  Does this deal with me not wanting to play vertical games in a horizontal orientation?

When setting up games to play on my monitor... do I need to configure each one with the exact resolution manually, or is there a tool for this (is that what the CRT preset is for above)?

What's the optimum setup for my requirements in terms of GFX card and OS.  I'm not interested in all the new 3D mame games, its mainly the oldies I will be playing, along with C64 and Amiga games.  I'm quite happy running Linux if that is the recommended option.

Thanks

[sean_sk]

Aplogies for going slightly off topic here, but may I ask what LCD screen your using for the marquee, the dimensions, and also if they vary in dimensions and where to get it from?
I find this concept of a LCD for a marquee intriguing and might look into it myself.

In regards to your question about graphics card, you might want to look into ATI cards as the CRT_Emudrivers posted in this forum are designed for them and work best. It will provide you the most flexibility for modelines and refresh rates. As you probably know, you can pick up ATI HD 4XXX cards quite cheap off Ebay. I can't speak in regards to Linux because I've never really used it but many here were using Windows XP, but support for Windows 7 is very good and continues to improve. When it comes to MAME games, with a proper setup Groovymame will chose the right resolution for each game on the fly, taking away much of the work of having to setup each game manually.

[Jimbo]

Aplogies for going slightly off topic here, but may I ask what LCD screen your using for the marquee, the dimensions, and also if they vary in dimensions and where to get it from?
I find this concept of a LCD for a marquee intriguing and might look into it myself.

I haven't got one yet, but I'm after one of these: http://www.unisystem.pl/download/produkty/2011/Litemax/SSD/DS_SSD2313.pdf

In regards to your question about graphics card, you might want to look into ATI cards as the CRT_Emudrivers posted in this forum are designed for them and work best. It will provide you the most flexibility for modelines and refresh rates. As you probably know, you can pick up ATI HD 4XXX cards quite cheap off Ebay. I can't speak in regards to Linux because I've never really used it but many here were using Windows XP, but support for Windows 7 is very good and continues to improve. When it comes to MAME games, with a proper setup Groovymame will chose the right resolution for each game on the fly, taking away much of the work of having to setup each game manually.

Cheers - My main concern for now is that my Hantarex Polo 3 (15Khz) is supported, does it have a preset, and are the presets setup for running vertical games horizontally or vertically in their native res.

Any help on those questions muchly appreciated. 

[cools]

It will work out of the box, you can use the standard settings as they are lovely generic 15k ones

[krick]

My main concern for now is that my Hantarex Polo 3 (15Khz) is supported, does it have a preset, and are the presets setup for running vertical games horizontally or vertically in their native res.

Groovymame has a preset for the Hantarex MTC 9110 and Hantarex Polo.  Both are 15Khz monitors.  I have a Hantarex Polo myself and while it also supports 25KHz, it's a manually switched jumper on the board and most people using it for emulation just leave it set at 15KHz because that works with far more games.

I'm guessing that this preset will likely work for your Polo 3.  If not, one of the Generic 15KHz presets will probably work.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about running a monitor in a vertical orientation with GroovyMAME.

[Jimbo]

My main concern for now is that my Hantarex Polo 3 (15Khz) is supported, does it have a preset, and are the presets setup for running vertical games horizontally or vertically in their native res.

Groovymame has a preset for the Hantarex MTC 9110 and Hantarex Polo.  Both are 15Khz monitors.  I have a Hantarex Polo myself and while it also supports 25KHz, it's a manually switched jumper on the board and most people using it for emulation just leave it set at 15KHz because that works with far more games.

I'm guessing that this preset will likely work for your Polo 3.  If not, one of the Generic 15KHz presets will probably work.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about running a monitor in a vertical orientation with GroovyMAME.

Thanks for your help.  I've since found that there are settings for the horizontal/vertical thing, so I think I'm all set now