Can't get 320x240 to work with CRT and groovymame

[tech medics]

Hi all let me introduce myself 1st seen as it’s my 1st post. I’m rebuilding an old arcade machine for nostalgic purposes and to show my kids what gaming used to be like!

So I managed about 6 months ago to pick up a electrocoin xenon cabinet stripped of all its inside, no control panel etc , so I’ve been rebuilding on the cheap over the last 6 months things are coming along nicely.  I run a computer repair company so I know my way around the usual stuff etc.

So I’ve just used an old dell dimensions c521 machine lying about which had an ati hd2400 xt graphics card in, nice and small to fit in the cab and powers on automatically as soon as it get power ,sweet!

Found an old crt tv (sony Kv-x2582u) for free off gumtree, built a control panel ect. So all starting to take shape. Made a  RGB scart to vga cable. Which works fine and switches the tv over. On power up.

So as I was building this I’ve been doing a lot of researching in mame emulators ect. Discovered hyperspin thought great I’m gonna build a system with every emu and rom on it possible it’s going to be amazing........then I thought no I’ve had all the roms and emus in the past on a wii and never really played anything much. So it got me thinking what do I really want to play on this machine. So I made a list of all the old games I played at the arcades when I was little so here’s my list of what I’m going to put on it

Sf2, bubble bobble, golden axe, track & field 2, Mario 1, punch out, donkey kong, gauntlet,outrun,chase hq, nba jam, tetris, 1943, rampage, chopperlift, mk2 simpsopn, tmnt, bomb jack,green beret, kung fu master, shinobi, final fight, wwf wrestle fest, puzzle bobble , gradius , r-type.metal slug  and maybe be the odd one or 2 extras.

So with those in mind I thought I’ve gotta do the old crt thing properly.  Which is where I’ve got stuck. Now I’ve been reading these forums for about 6 months, so I have tried to find the answers myself and self-teach but I’ve wasted the last couple of days and I’m ready to put a sledge hammer to this tv and put a lcd in!

So in short here is my problem I have windows 7 64bit installed on a ssd
installed crt_emudriver_13.1_1.2b_w7_64 got a picture up on the tv great once it’s booted up.
Run thru the whole guide of installing groovy mame from the eiusdemmodi forum. Did the whole vmm resolutions procedure. Now when I pick resolutions from arcade osd anything low res like 320x 240 won’t display just goes black screen. Hence when I launch groovey mame none of my games work because they launch those low resolutions that just cause a blank screen. The only games that seem to work ok are vertical games not sure if that info helps at all? So I need help from you guys before I go insane. Ps I have tried a different install of windows on another drive ect with the same results. I’m now thinking I either need to try another graphics card or try the linux build. Or tv but the that’s not that easy not many 4:3 rgb scart tvs around anymore.

So any advice guys I’d be truly grateful. I just wanna play some old games and have some fun but I’ve had nothing but frustrations trying to get this to work properly...help!

[Calamity]

The HD 2xxx family can't do low dotclocks. You just need to edit vmmaker.ini and set DotClockMin = 8.0. Do the same thing in mame.ini (dotclock_min 8.0). Redo the modes, restart, etc.

New CRT Emudriver 2.0 automatically assigns the right minimum dotclock. If you ever decide to update, please let me know if this works fine.

[tech medics]

Do you know what I saw that on the download section of those forums but thought because it was under the xp section it didn't apply to windows 7.

Did that and it's working a treat now 
thanks alot Calamity! you have saved my sanity all's working fine now.

Just a couple of quick question to anyone who can answer whilst I'm here.

1.Some of the games overscan a little what's the best when to under scan via the service menu of the tv? or is there another way? lowest resolution I can now get is around 376x240 60p does that sound about right? it works anyway thats the main thing.

2.what's does everyone reccomend as a front end, I don't need anything to flashy just want to play the games.

3. and finally if I was to change the graphics card whats the best one to use at present

[tech medics]

Hi guys still need a little more help then I'm nearly done.

So I managed to get into the service menu and underscan the tv which looks good. Thanks to help from adder over on the monitor forum section
Sorted out hyperspin as a FE as that seemed easiest to configure for me.

Everything looking good apart from the 2/3 vertical games that I have, DK and 1943 have top and bottom picture cut off. Could anyone explain to me how I go about adjusting those games resolution only so they fit my TV?

I not too fussed about them being stretched squashed or whatever as long as they fit. So How do I go about it do I need to make some sort of config ini file per game? Sorry for my lack of knowledge. I tried the vmmaker.ini settings for vertical picture on horizontal monitor to 3:3, 3:4 but none of those settings made any difference picture was exactly the same.

Can someone also clarify the Arcade osd is that just for setting the desktop mode? am I correct in saying that groovymame switches to the best resolution possible/available on the system automatically?
my lowest res in the list is 400 256 57p 56.996 15.731 does that sound right for this tv?

Sorry for all the questions I'm trying to learn fast!

[Calamity]

Basically, you must tell GM how many lines fit in your TV, using the progressive_line_max and interlaced_lines_max values, by means of a custom crt_range. More information here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,116023.0.html

A short explanation about Arcade OSD:

http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=328#p328

[tech medics]

Ok I'm getting somewhere now with this.

I have underscanned via the service menu as much as the tv will do "0" and still the top is cut off of dk and 1943
So I took your advice and did some reading and changed the mame.ini file

So In the mame.ini I had mine set to arcade_ex (top cut off in vertical games)

So tried arcade_15 and generic_15 same results.



Change to pal and I now get all of the picture ok on vertical games but it doesn't look as good


So which part of the code do I need to change to get my vertical size correct?

if I was to use one of the generic_15 presets as a start?

The progressive_line_max and interlaced_lines_max values are the same for arcade_15, generic_15, pal, ect so I don't understand? 192, 288, 448, 576

I dug this out from an old scart crt tv thread pt2 will this help me?

I've looked through this thread for you, this is the setup we came up with for lettuce's Sony TV:

monitor_specs0 15700-16662, 49.50-61.00, 4.100, 4.600, 8.700, 0.180, 0.180, 0.960, 0, 0, 288, 448

Thanks for all your help Calamity