Looking for mame accuracy AND windows usability

[krick]

I know _some_ of this isn't strictly monitor/video talk but the majority of it is and the rest is somewhat related because of driver issues and whatnot.

I'm currently running the following mame setup...

"official" MAME for Win32
P4
Windows 2000
SoundBlaster Live! Value
ArcadeVGA video
J-PAC
25" 15KHz arcade monitor

I haven't even finished my cabinet control panel modifications but after reading a LOT of posts and other MAMEer's sites, I've come to the conclusion that I might be able to improve what I have.

In particular, my thoughts have been concentrated in a few areas that are all sort of interrelated...

1. Should I bag Windows 2000 in favor of Windows 98SE (or DOS even) for dual trackball support even though I would lose the virtual desktop resolution support in windows?
2. Should I be running AdvanceMAME?
3. Given my monitor, is the ArcadeVGA better/worse than a Trident Blade T64 based card when running MAME?  How about running Windows?
4. What if I got a multi-frequency arcade monitor?  Would any of the above answers change?

thoughts?

[menace]

Question1: yes--a p4 will run win 2000 just as well as win98 and you will have a more stable system with additional support for USB etc.

2:No, if you have the arcadevga it handles all the necessary resolutions on the card--no need to complicate things by running advmame

3: if its configured properly a trident t64 setup will look just as nice--but it won't do it out of the box--there are a bunch of settings that need to be tweaked for the trident to look like the AVGA.  As far as windows is concerned both will run 640x480 although the AVGA looks better on the two that i have seen

4: don't know--I suspect the AVGA would come out on top again just because its hardware based but advmame is a very powerful program so that in combo witht he t64 might yield respectable results--just guessing here...

[JoeB]

1. Should I bag Windows 2000 in favor of Windows 98SE (or DOS even) for dual trackball support even though I would lose the virtual desktop resolution support in windows?

- Forget windows 98.  When I was putting together my machine, I started with XP.  Formated it 2 weeks later and installed 98 SE with all the fixpacks.  I was shocked at how much slower the machine ran (especially when it was unzipping those huge ZIP files) and how often MAME froze!

NTFS file system is much better than FAT/FAT32.  If the PC turns off in the middle of a write, you won't have data corruption the way you do in windows.

MAME/Whatever can't freeze the OS either.  A quick CTRL-ALT-DEL always fixes stuff in 2000/XP.


2. Should I be running AdvanceMAME?

Depends.  If you have a PC video card and are trying to make it work with MAME, then yes.  If you have something like the ArcadeVGA, which does all the resolution convertion/etc in hardware.. then no.  The regular MAME is good enough.

No MAME of course is the best.  Since it'll force your video to 60hz which is what your arcade monitor runs at.


3. Given my monitor, is the ArcadeVGA better/worse than a Trident Blade T64 based card when running MAME?  How about running Windows?

Nothing comes close to the ArcadeVGA.  The trident was good when there was no ArcadeVGA, but the ArcadeVGA supports more resolutions, and allows you to run windows perfectly fine.

With the ArcadeVGA you can play regular PC games on your monitor!  And no special software required to "force" it to work.  ArcadeVGA runs fine in any OS as well.. not only windows.

4. What if I got a multi-frequency arcade monitor?  Would any of the above answers change?

Why spend the $$$ on another monitor? You got a good 25" monitor running at the frequency that those games were born at! Get an arcadeVGA and you'll be set.

If you go higher frequency, might as well put a PC monitor in there (and you know how that looks when compared to the real thing!)

[krick]

What about games that _don't_ run at 15KHz?

[tom61]

What about games that _don't_ run at 15KHz?

Get a WG 9200 monitor if you want to play those. Use the D9200 utility on the Ultimarc site to enable 31kHz modes from the ArcadeVGA. That'll get 31kHz working perfectly. Most 25kHz games look good scaled to a 31kHz mode. If you want the 25kHz games working perfectly too, you'll have to use Advance Mame. I'd be tempted to just setup Advance Mame for just the 25kHz games, and then use regular Mame for the rest since the ArcadeVGA has good modes for all the others. You should be able to setup most frontends to use two or Mame compiles, based on the game.

With the D9200 you could run at 640x480 non-interlaced on your Windows desktop (800x600, if you're lucky).

[wpcmame]

2. Should I be running AdvanceMAME?

Depends.  If you have a PC video card and are trying to make it work with MAME, then yes.  If you have something like the ArcadeVGA, which does all the resolution convertion/etc in hardware.. then no.  The regular MAME is good enough.

Unless you like the other features in advancemame/advancemenu. Confirmation before exit, skip game startup etc.

No MAME of course is the best.  Since it'll force your video to 60hz which is what your arcade monitor runs at.

The arcade monitor is running at the frequency the graphic card outputs. Most arcade monitors can handle 45-65Hz. There is no reason to force output to 60Hz.

3. Given my monitor, is the ArcadeVGA better/worse than a Trident Blade T64 based card when running MAME?  How about running Windows?

Nothing comes close to the ArcadeVGA.  The trident was good when there was no ArcadeVGA, but the ArcadeVGA supports more resolutions, and allows you to run windows perfectly fine.

What do you mean with "ArcadeVGA supports more resolutions"? Most graphic cards (including ArcadeVGA) lets you set almost any resolution/pixelclock. The only benefit with ArcadeVGA is that it is easier to use since it got some arcade modes defined in BIOS.

If you want arcade perfection, advancemame is the way to go regardless of the videocard (get a cheap Radeon9200 and you'll get 10x the 3D performance for half the price compared with ArcadeVGA)

Powerstrip lets you run Windows and DirectX games on an arcade monitor without much work (but powerstrip only supports a few manufacturers so an ATI card is probably best for windows).

4. What if I got a multi-frequency arcade monitor?  Would any of the above answers change?

You don't need powerstrip to run windows on non-ArcadeVGA cards.