Dos Mame - Full Screen on PC Monitor?

[JLR2000]

Ok, this may be a dumb question, but I've just recently started working on a pure dos box to run a few driving games.  When I run Pole Position, there are black borders around the entire game.  I've tried -stretch, but honestly am not that familiar with the command line parameters.  I've read up at easyemu and tried tweaking the video resoulution a bit, but with no luck.  Is it possible to get a horitizontal game to take up the whole screen on a 15" pc monitor or am I chasing after a white elephant?  Seems like it should be able to use the entire screen on a horizontal game - I can understand borders on vertical games when played on a horizontal monitor....

Any input would be appreciated - Thanks!

[Chris]

What you really need are tweaked video modes.  Unfortunately, MAME did away with those sometime back.

One solution is to use AdvanceMAME.  THe other solution, the one I use, is to use an older MAME (I use b37. for games that need the tweaked modes and .61 for more recent, higher-resolution games.  I modified my copy of b37 to use .CF2 files instead of .CFG files, and I wrote a little launcher program to  allow me to pass the MAME version on the command line.

AdvanceMAME is probably the way you want to go.

--Chris

[JLR2000]

One solution is to use AdvanceMAME.  THe other solution, the one I use, is to use an older MAME (I use b37. for games that need the tweaked modes and .61 for more recent, higher-resolution games.  I modified my copy of b37 to use .CF2 files instead of .CFG files, and I wrote a little launcher program to  allow me to pass the MAME version on the command line.

Can you tell me where I can find older Mame versions with source?  I need to recompile it for some changes I prefer, but I didn't have any luck finding b37 source.  Also can you elaborate on the video tweaked modes or point me to a site that explains it more?  Thanks!

[Chris]

Older MAMEs and their sources are at http://www.mame.net/oldmame.html .  To use the tweaked modes, just add -tweak to the (older) MAME command line.

[JLR2000]

Okay - this is why I say "this might be a dumb question"....

If I would have just looked other than downloads at mame.net I might have seen the whole section titled "older mame versions"!....DUH.  Thanks Chris for the info.  

[Chris]

Take a look at AdvanceMAME, though; it's probably the better solution.  http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/ .  I'm probably going to convert my cabinet over to AdvanceMAME soon....

[JLR2000]

Yeah, that does look like a better solution, but I need to recompile with some changes, and I don't see any information or help pages on how to recompile AdvanceMame.  I'm actually using AdvanceMenu - I can use it as is.  Know of any links with info on compiling AdvanceMame?

Okay, actually found the page on building it.  Might look more into this....the page is not as simple as the how-tos on mame.net.  Didn't realize you just use the mame source + the advancemame source.  I'll look into this.  Thanks again Chris.  BTW, your cool looking Jukebox software has me mentally planning to build a dedicated jukebox......thanks for the software!

[Chris]

So did you have any luck with AdvanceMAME?

--Chris

[JLR2000]

Yes and no.  I did get the game to fill almost the whole screen, but it required me moving the vertical/horizontal size and position - which is fine for the game, but when I exited to the ADVMenu frontend, the screen was off by the changes I had made for the games.  That won't work for my particular implementation, I need something I can set once and not have to fiddle with.  Thanks for the input though, I'll either live with the black bars around or even (gulp) buy a bigger monitor....

[Chris]

The bigger monitor will just give you bigger black bars.  Try the other method, then: use an older MAME for older games like Pac-Man and Galaga that prefer the tweaked modes.  Older MAME is also good for older vector games like Asteroids, as it can run them in 8 bpp modes that are faster.

I can send you my little launcher that takes the place of the MAME executable and looks for a parameter on the command line to decide which version of MAME to launch... I can even send you my list of the games I run that look better in the older MAME with the -tweak parameter...

--Chris

[rampy]

Yes and no.  I did get the game to fill almost the whole screen, but it required me moving the vertical/horizontal size and position - which is fine for the game, but when I exited to the ADVMenu frontend, the screen was off by the changes I had made for the games.  That won't work for my particular implementation, I need something I can set once and not have to fiddle with.  Thanks for the input though, I'll either live with the black bars around or even (gulp) buy a bigger monitor....

silly question... did you use the advconfig (or whatever) util that came with advmame to configure all or your video  modes?  You set everything up in that, adn then you don't have to fiddle with your monitors vert/horis size/pos controls...

The purple mame page has a pretty decent walkthrough even though it's focused on arcade monitors and arcade os... I picked up a lot of helpful DOS tweaks and ADVMAME help from it...  

http://www.clubi.ie/ogiee/mamehow2/software.htm

http://mame.how.to/

rampy

PS I'd be interseted in that tool. too. to help "steer" mame to to the "best" version for certain games, BTW Chris...

[Chris]

PS I'd be interseted in that tool. too. to help "steer" mame to to the "best" version for certain games, BTW Chris...

I'll put it up on my web page tonight.  On my box, it has two functions: to load the appropriate MAME and to load the appropriate mouse driver (trackball or spinner), since when I tried using the Logitech dual driver, the mouse action was choppy.

Right now it's hardcoded to use a specific pair of MAME executables, but I'll probably change that tonight to something like "-exe mame37" which would use mame37.exe as the executable.

An easier way to do this without my tool  is to just set up the old MAME and the new MAME as separate emulators, so all of your classic games would be on one page and your newer games would be on another page...

--Chris

[bhille]

I can send you my little launcher that takes the place of the MAME executable and looks for a parameter on the command line to decide which version of MAME to launch... I can even send you my list of the games I run that look better in the older MAME with the -tweak parameter...

Can you send me a copy of this?  I am still in the planning stages, but I will need something like this when the time comes.  My email is: brian@hille.org.

Thanks.  Brian