Running CHD games

[Scoobie]

I'm running a P4 2ghz, 512 ram 128mb ATI card machine - in MAME32. I can get games like Blitz 99 and KI2 to run, but they are way too slow to play.

Does anyone have a suggestion to get these to play at proper speed in MAME32?

Thanks!

[btoddkelley]

Invest in a Cray super computer and then port mame to it! Seriously, they don't play on any commercially available hardware ATM.


Todd

[Scoobie]

What would be considered a super computer?  I think the fastest processor available right now is a P4 3.4 ghz.

Would this be enough, and how much total ram would I need?

[dema]

I'm running a P4 2ghz, 512 ram 128mb ATI card machine - in MAME32. I can get games like Blitz 99 and KI2 to run, but they are way too slow to play.

Does anyone have a suggestion to get these to play at proper speed in MAME32?

Thanks!

My primary computer is a P4 3.0 GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and can run KI2, with an occasional blip of slowdown, but it still has problems with Blitz. I'm hoping I'll be able to run Simpsons Bowling on the computer when it's playable, but since most of the CHD games are too much for my PC it's probably a lost cause.

[Scoobie]

Does anyone know how fast a computer will be needed (when available) to faithfully run ALL the games in Mame?

[simplygriff]

Just curious...
Will Killer Instinct 1 run on your machine?  I'm planning on getting a 2.6GHz P4 and am just curious if it will run when I get it.

[Piss Ant]

I've played KI1 & KI2 on a AMD 2000+ 256 Ram machine with no slowdown.  You need to go back several versions of your Mame32 (Try around .71 or so), of course you'll need to get the version .71 rom for it.  Each version adds more tweaks & each one slows things down.
Good Luck,
Piss Ant

[dema]

KI1 runs flawlessly for me on my 3GHz machine. A buddy of mine runs KI1 perfectly on a 2.8GHz machine. The KI2 blip I get is very rare, and I haven't altered the frameskip settings. I'm sure if I tweaked that it would be okay. I know KI2 is tougher to run than KI1, but if you have a 2.4 - 2.6 GHz P4 I'm sure you could pull it off. Or you can do what Piss Ant suggested and go back to an earlier version of MAME. That solution helped me run MK2 and MK3 much better on a 1.2GHz machine I originally intended to use.

[Minwah]

Does anyone know how fast a computer will be needed (when available) to faithfully run ALL the games in Mame?

Such a thing will (almost) never be available, since harder-to-run games are being added all the time.  Maybe a 5ghz machine would run all currently in MAME...

See this: http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=14155

[Tiger-Heli]

I'm running a P4 2ghz, 512 ram 128mb ATI card machine - in MAME32. I can get games like Blitz 99 and KI2 to run, but they are way too slow to play.

Does anyone have a suggestion to get these to play at proper speed in MAME32?

Thanks!

Best bet for running these on current hardware is to underclock the game processors from the cheat menu - see
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=18170 for details

[Scoobie]

I read this thread, but it's a lot of code talk and besides, I'm running Mame32.  How do I underclock the game processors Mame32?

[Tiger-Heli]

I read this thread, but it's a lot of code talk and besides, I'm running Mame32.  How do I underclock the game processors Mame32?

Options - Default Game Options - Miscellaneous Tab - Click on "Enable game cheats"

With that done, you can use the Tab menu and the arrow keys to see how much to under/over clock the processors.

Then you can edit the cheat.dat file (you might have to get one and put in your MAME32 folder), so it does the required overclock at startup.

[Scoobie]

I now have a cheat.dat file in my MAME32 folder and have checked the "enable game cheats".  

How do I edit the cheat.dat file in MAME32?  What do I press, and where do I go?

Thanks!

[Tiger-Heli]

I now have a cheat.dat file in my MAME32 folder and have checked the "enable game cheats".  

How do I edit the cheat.dat file in MAME32?  What do I press, and where do I go?

Thanks!

Just open it in Wordpad, type the entries in, and save as a .txt file (keep the .dat extension, though).

[MrBond]

I know this isn't exactly what you are talking about, but you may try running the u64emu emulator.  It was developed specifically for KI and KI2 and both games run great on both my machines (1.6GHz and 2.6GHz).  I did a quick google search and here's one download spot:
http://www.sys2064.com/u64.htm

Note, you'll need a "ki.img" or "ki2.img" file...
"roms" are same as MAME, but you will need them unzipped in the roms folder.

Also, you may want to try Howard's U64 wrapper at:
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus/wrapperdownload.html
If you don't know what a wrapper is (basically allows you to more easily play the game on a cabinet...like with the nice "esc" exit), don't worry about it, you can run the game from the emu itself.

PM me if you have any problems (if you try it in the first place!)

~Mrbond

[dema]

I was looking for the U64 emulator originally but then I read that it was the N64 version. If that's the case then why don't you just run the game from the N64 emulator instead of the U64 emulator?

[walls83]

The U64Emu is not a Nintedo 64 emulator it is the Arcade version of KI and KI2 hardware emulator.

[dema]

The U64Emu is not a Nintedo 64 emulator it is the Arcade version of KI and KI2 hardware emulator.

I wasn't aware of that. I hear that it can run KI 1 and 2 better and smoother than it does on MAME. I just thought it was because it was the console version, but I was wrong. Thanks for the heads up.

[simplygriff]

So if I understand correctly...
I can put the same roms from Mame into u64's roms folder and it will work?  Do I need to unzip the roms?  Just trying to clear some things up so I can try this.  Thanks.
-G

[Tiger-Heli]

So if I understand correctly...
I can put the same roms from Mame into u64's roms folder and it will work?  Do I need to unzip the roms?  Just trying to clear some things up so I can try this.  Thanks.
-G

Mr.Bond said the roms need to be unzipped in u64's roms folder.  I haven't used the program.

[Howard_Casto]

I've played KI1 & KI2 on a AMD 2000+ 256 Ram machine with no slowdown.  You need to go back several versions of your Mame32 (Try around .71 or so), of course you'll need to get the version .71 rom for it.  Each version adds more tweaks & each one slows things down.
Good Luck,
Piss Ant

Not true at all.... the original ki/ki2 drivers were severly flawed (they were based on the totally inaccurate kiame code) .  These "tweaks" you meantioned are accurate emulation.  If you want to play the ki game properly, then upgrade.  If you want to play crappy hacked versions of the game then use your method.

[MrBond]

You are correct that U64 emulates (simulates?) the KI and KI2 arcade hardware found in the "Ultra64" Arcade Cabinets (thus the name).

So if I understand correctly...
I can put the same roms from Mame into u64's roms folder and it will work?  Do I need to unzip the roms?  Just trying to clear some things up so I can try this.  Thanks.
-G

U64 uses the same roms as MAME.  However, it uses harddisk images (.img) instead of .chd's.

This should make it easy:
u64emu/roms directory has the same as MAME but unzipped:
u98-l15d, u10-l1, u11-l1, u12-l1, u13-l1, u33-l1, u34-l1, u35-l1, u36-l1
ki2-l11.u98, ki2_l1.u10, ki2_l1.u11, ki2_l1.u12, ki2_l1.u13,
ki2_l1.u33, ki2_l1.u34, ki2_l1.u35, ki2_l1.u36, ki2-l11.u98

u64/hdimage directory (NOT the same as MAME's CHD files)
ki.img, ki2.img

Now run U64emu and press "GameSet".  Select the gameset (ki/ki2), then browse for each rom file and the harddisk image.  Press OK.  You can choose resolution, fullscreen, scanlines from "Settings".  You can change your inputs in "Input Config", and modify "DIP Switches".

Then, when your ready to play, just press "Run".

That's it  

PS. Don't ask where to get the roms/.img files, as it's against forum policy.  

[dema]

Thanks for the walkthrough MrBond.

[Piss Ant]

I've played KI1 & KI2 on a AMD 2000+ 256 Ram machine with no slowdown.  You need to go back several versions of your Mame32 (Try around .71 or so), of course you'll need to get the version .71 rom for it.  Each version adds more tweaks & each one slows things down.
Good Luck,
Piss Ant

Not true at all.... the original ki/ki2 drivers were severly flawed (they were based on the totally inaccurate kiame code) .  These "tweaks" you meantioned are accurate emulation.  If you want to play the ki game properly, then upgrade.  If you want to play crappy hacked versions of the game then use your method.

Howard,
You're correct  if you want to play properly then an upgrade is needed, & that the "tweaks" are more accurate emulation + I'm sure you're right on the severly flawed part as well .  However I was just trying to help Scoobie with a possible solution to the original post - to get it to play at the proper speed in MAME32.  Since ki can be played on that system in Mame32 at a more proper speed although it may be "crappy hacked verstions" it can be done.  I'm sure that a few more tweaking may also be done to get it to run faster as well.  Although MrBond's suggestion is probably the best solution.
Piss Ant

[Scoobie]

I appreciate everyone's help on this.  With that said, I am now considering switching from Mame32 to NoNameMame now that the CPU overclocking has been added and I still can't find this option (pressing F2) in any of the games.  

This might not be a good idea since I don't understand code (I'd like to try).

Does anyone know if there is thread or tutorial on setting up NoNameMame?

Thanks again everyone!

[Tiger-Heli]

I appreciate everyone's help on this.  With that said, I am now considering switching from Mame32 to NoNameMame now that the CPU overclocking has been added and I still can't find this option (pressing F2) in any of the games.  

This might not be a good idea since I don't understand code (I'd like to try).

Does anyone know if there is thread or tutorial on setting up NoNameMame?

Thanks again everyone!

See the thread I linked to in reply #9 above.  And it's the tilde menu, not the F2 key, and you have to have -cheat enabled, and then you have to manually type some numbers in the cheat.dat file, and do some decimal-hexadecimal conversions, and  . . .  read the other thread.

[Scoobie]

Well, I guess I hit a nerve.  As I mentioned before, I don't understand a lot of the code talk that takes place here, i.e. "decimal-hexadecimal conversions".

I've now been able to get into the overclocking section, but without understanding how/where to "manually type some numbers in the cheat.dat file" I'll simply enjoy the classic games that don't require knowledge of tweaking what the developers have done.

Thanks to Tiger-Heli and all of you for your help and patience with another newbie!

[dema]

I really like the way this KI plays on the U64 emulator. I was wondering if it's a stable program, because when I click the enter key it shows my XP desktop and if I double click it it shuts it down. Also can it run from Mamewah?

[Tiger-Heli]

Well, I guess I hit a nerve.  As I mentioned before, I don't understand a lot of the code talk that takes place here, i.e. "decimal-hexadecimal conversions".

I've now been able to get into the overclocking section, but without understanding how/where to "manually type some numbers in the cheat.dat file" I'll simply enjoy the classic games that don't require knowledge of tweaking what the developers have done.

Thanks to Tiger-Heli and all of you for your help and patience with another newbie!

You didn't really hit a nerve - you just probably got in a little over your head - not that you can't learn.  I didn't understand this until last week.

Gotta crawl a little before you can run is all - no offense, but you're running MAME32 and asking how to run underclock CPU's at startup from a custom cheat.dat file.

I recommend you first run commandline mame, just to get familiar with the options and running with commandline switches, then look at the mame source, and some of the custom fixes others have written then go from there.

the numbers to plug in aren't complicated, but getting them can be -
for example, I didn't want to go to the faster underclock for 40 seconds of gametime, but the timer is in milliseconds in hexadecimal -

so 40 seconds is 40,0000 milliseconds in decimal.  Open the Windows calculator, select view-scientific, type in 40000 and click HEX.  The display changes to 9C40 and that's where that value comes from in the other thread.  Of course other games might require longer or shorter times.

[Scoobie]

You're right about getting in over my head.  I'm thinking about trying a command line version, but am currently planning my CP redo.  I hope to change all the things I hate about my first CP.

BTW, even though games like Cruisin' run okay when overclocked, I'll be waiting for the 4 or 5 Ghz machines to play the newer games properly.  There is just too much lost when overclocking.