X-box vs. PC for Mame

[spiffyshoes]

I all ready have mame on my PC but I have some problems using it for fighting games.

[tetsujin]

I all ready have mame on my PC but I have some problems using it for fighting games.  Whenever I play any of the Streetfighter games and MVC etc; I find that it is hard to pull off Fireballs and Dragon punches and such but they come out just fine when I play on my Dreamcast versions of the games.

Bear in mind that with MAME you're playing an emulation of the original machine.  With the Dreamcast version you're playing a version that's been rewritten and optimized for the Dreamcast hardware.  That can make a huge difference.  It could be you just need a better PC, or a tune-up for your existing PC.

I would be very curious to hear about what can be accomplished with a hacked X-Box, though.

[Chris]

I all ready have mame on my PC but I have some problems using it for fighting games.

[spiffyshoes]

These are the system specs for my current computer

Pentium 4 1.6 Ghz Processor
GeForce3 Ti 200
512 Ram

Maybe I should upgrade it to something better but from what I under stood that should run mame just fine and for most things it does.

[Chris]

It might also be that the hacked Playstation Pads I'm using with Playstation to USB adapters cause the lag.

[Paul Olson]

If your computer won't run them at full speed, the Xbox won't have a chance.  It only has a 733Mhz Celeron.  I think the most notable thing about MAME on the Xbox is the 2 analog sticks.

Paul

[rchadd]

there is xbox version of streetfighter anniversary collection and mvc2 anyway.

so why bother using an emulator?

plus on xbox...

dead or alive ultimate
soul calibur 2

[Byrdo]

I have a ton of old school and a few newer capcom and snk games on my xbox and they all run fine.  Pulling off special moves is a cinch as well, I've never noticed any lag, but because most of the old school stuff seems slow by todays standards I have my xbox running them at 110-120% the speed and it does it without a problem.  Although, I don't use mame at all, instead I use Kawa-x and FBA-XXX but I'm sure if mame is configured right it would work fine because the system doesn't seem to have a problem running most stuff.

[spiffyshoes]

there is xbox version of streetfighter anniversary collection and mvc2 anyway.

so why bother using an emulator?

plus on xbox...

dead or alive ultimate
soul calibur 2

Yeah, they have allot of the newer games but what about some of the older ones.  Some times I like to go back and play X-Men vs. StreetFighter, Marvel SuperHeroes, Samuri Showdown, etc; which they don't have ports for on X-Box.  But it wasn't just the fighters I was conserned with.  I'm mainly conserned with the shooters.  How well does Area51 run on X-Box.  I'm curious because I think it would be cooler to use an X-Box with some X-Box light guns than to use the cheesy looking ActLab ones.  I don't think X-Box is really a viable complete alternative for a PC though now that I think about it.  Because I don't think you could set up a Spinner, TrackBall, etc; on an X-Box.

I have a ton of old school and a few newer capcom and snk games on my xbox and they all run fine.  Pulling off special moves is a cinch as well, I've never noticed any lag, but because most of the old school stuff seems slow by todays standards I have my xbox running them at 110-120% the speed and it does it without a problem.  Although, I don't use mame at all, instead I use Kawa-x and FBA-XXX but I'm sure if mame is configured right it would work fine because the system doesn't seem to have a problem running most stuff.

Thanks Byrdo maybe I'll try seeing if I can speed them up on my PC.  Oh and it's good to finally see you over here on these boards!! 

[daywane]

These are the system specs for my current computer

Pentium 4 1.6 Ghz Processor
GeForce3 Ti 200
512 Ram

I would use MAME 56 final
with your set up you can play all the version 56 roms 100%

[spiffyshoes]

I think it must be my Playstation to USB converters because I tried out my friends IPAC and didn't have any lag problems.  The converters I'm useing are the Kiki-Joy ones from Soyo that you can buy at Fry's Electronics.  Does any one know of some that work better with out lag?  If there aren't any good converters I'll probably just end up hacking some Gravis Game Pad Pro's but I'd rather just get some good converters if I could.

[daywane]

mine have no name on them 
1 is a blue triangle 4 player
the other is small square 1 Playstation and also a slot for n64
I have had no problems with them
PC specs
HP pavilion
700 mghrtz
512 meg mem
windows XP pro (sp1)
radion svid tv out 64 meg
mame 56 final
with a 2 player BLAZE arcade panel for Playstation ( $25.00 EBay  each )
I bought 2 and want more but I have not found them on eBay since

[spiffyshoes]

Wow really I had one for sale in the Buy/Sell/Trade forums.  Would you be interested in it?  I was asking $30 plus shipping.  It is Black with Red Buttons and Joysticks.

[daywane]

Wow really I had one for sale in the Buy/Sell/Trade forums.

[daywane]

I think it must be my Playstation to USB converters because I tried out my friends IPAC and didn't have any lag problems.

[spiffyshoes]

So that one doesn't have any lag at all?  Like the ones I have now the lag isn't very noticable on games like pac-man and such it is just when playing games that require more complicated movements like fighting games.  And it isn't really that they have lag it is more like the game is allot more picky about how the joystick movement is.  I have to hit things just right.  I can do the moves fast It just works more consistently if I do them slightly slower.

[daywane]

Hmmmm. I just rememberd I have EZ mame on that cab . In the "Tab" menu I can set up turbo buttons and quick keys for games like that. ( I never could get those moves down so I seup as hot keys) I forgot about that. I don't play those games much but My kids friends do and , well I built the thing, cant let some teenage kid come over and whip my butt so I cheated.

[Layer01]

there is xbox version of streetfighter anniversary collection and mvc2 anyway.

so why bother using an emulator?

plus on xbox...

dead or alive ultimate
soul calibur 2

Yeah, they have allot of the newer games but what about some of the older ones.  Some times I like to go back and play X-Men vs. StreetFighter, Marvel SuperHeroes, Samuri Showdown, etc; which they don't have ports for on X-Box.  But it wasn't just the fighters I was conserned with.  I'm mainly conserned with the shooters.  How well does Area51 run on X-Box.  I'm curious because I think it would be cooler to use an X-Box with some X-Box light guns than to use the cheesy looking ActLab ones.  I don't think X-Box is really a viable complete alternative for a PC though now that I think about it.  Because I don't think you could set up a Spinner, TrackBall, etc; on an X-Box.

I have a ton of old school and a few newer capcom and snk games on my xbox and they all run fine.  Pulling off special moves is a cinch as well, I've never noticed any lag, but because most of the old school stuff seems slow by todays standards I have my xbox running them at 110-120% the speed and it does it without a problem.  Although, I don't use mame at all, instead I use Kawa-x and FBA-XXX but I'm sure if mame is configured right it would work fine because the system doesn't seem to have a problem running most stuff.

Thanks Byrdo maybe I'll try seeing if I can speed them up on my PC.  Oh and it's good to finally see you over here on these boards!! 

there is no point in getting an xbox for shooters as its only got two native xbox shooters one sucks and the other you can get on pc. and stuff like Area 51 (IE: CHD games) simply will not run on an xbox, and that means you miss out on all the awesomeness of zinc games as wel, and playstation emulation etc... on the other hand the xbox emulates the gb, gba, gbc, gg, genesis, sms, snes, nes, all those old consoles perfectly, so depending on just how much you want to/ need to emulate, make your choice that way.

but in my case i had originally thought of getting an xbox to run my mame cab, things it had going for it were, price, house of the dead 3, guilty gear xx, dead or alive, and it could sort of run stepmania....but then i got HOTD1, 2 and 3 on PC ( 3 looks better on pc too)  and Guilty Gear XX,  and stepmania can support near unlimited songs on the pc as opposed to about 200-300 on the xbox and so my 1000+ list blew that limit...so i got a TV and  a PC, cost less than the (supped-up) xbox i was planning on getting, i was sure i could run all the games i wanted to, had a much higher compatibility rate, greater options (playstation emu for ex) and have not regretted my desicion one bit.
and for all the "other" console games i may want/need i have a PS2 with a 180 gig HHD 

[spiffyshoes]

Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with my PC and my PlayStation2.  Any fighter that I can't get in mame I can get for the PS2 except maybe Dead or Alive 3.  But I also get Tekken 5 and Virtua Fighter 4 which I couldn't get for XBOX.  There are also a ton of light gun games for the PS2 (Time Crisis I,II,&III, Virtua Cop, Vampire Nights, Resident Evil Dead Aim, Point Blank I,II,&III, Area 51, Maximum Force, Ninja Assault, Silent Scope I,II,&III, and probably more).  I can get House of the Dead 1,2,&3 for the PC but I don't know that I'd really want to use those space gun looking act lab guns.  Maybe when there new models come out they will look cooler or maybe some of the other forth coming PC light guns will be good alternatives.  For driving games can get the GT4 Racing wheel which can be used on both PC and PS2 for all my my driving game needs so I could use it both with mame and my PS2 driving games.  I also would get Trackball and Spinner support with my PC which I wouldn't get with an X-Box.  And I can use a 49-way joystick on my PC for emulating analog controls in N64 games like SuperSmashBrothers etc;  Also with a PC I get Daphne and Zinc wich currently don't have Xbox versions of them.  So yeah, I really don't see X-Box as being a viable alternative for me right now.

I was only considering the XBOX if it could get the Area 51 and Maximum Force running at full speed because both games run slow on my PC and the Playstation versions don't look as good.  I might just need to optimise some setting in mame to get them to run better but probably I just need a faster PC for them.  For now though the Playstation versions look good enough though.

As for getting some converters that don't lag on the PC I decided to try the Radio Shack one and it works perfect.