Fighting game for a 400mhz PC.

[markb]

I have just finished building a small portable 2 player mame machine however none of the decent fighting games seem to work at a reasonable frame rate therefore for the last week I have been searching (and buying) for a standalone fighting game that has the following:-

Run on a 400mhz PC
Compatible with Windows XP
Have a 2 player option
Configurable controls to utilise the Ipac ve
Doesn't require a CD to be present (It doesn't have a Cd-Rom)

Does anyone have any ideas as I have already bought 2 titles and downloaded some more freeware from Tucows and I still haven't had any luck.

Thanks

[paigeoliver]

Um, your problem is that you are running Windows XP on a 400 mhz PC.

Your second problem is that you are probably trying to use a current version of MAME. Use mame .55, all the fighting games in it should run full speed.

It is also highly likely that your computer doesn't really have enough ram for XP, few 400 mhz computers will have 256 MB of ram, and that is the REAL minimum for XP (ignore whatever they say it is, XP eats 200 MB of ram on boot up alone).

[markb]

Your right XP is a memory hog however it is more stable than Win98 which is what I am after as I do not want to keep attaching a CD-Rom to install drivers etc. BTW I've got 256mb installed.

I never thought of trying one of the older versions of Mame I'm going to give that a shot and try running some of the games.
Also thinking about it I've just bought a copy of Virtua Fighter 2 which requires the CD to run, however if I mount an image of it onto the harddrive using something like daemon tools that will probably work as well.

[Thenasty]

you're gonna be fighting with your cab/machine and you gonna win, cause your faster and your machine is SLOW 

[markb]

Thanks Paige, ran version 0.55 and have now got about 10 fighting games to work at a reasonable rate.
Also mounting the cd to a virtual drive using daemon tools worked for Virtua Fighter 2, I'm going to use that method on my main rig so I don't have to change over CD's all of the time and where hardrive space isn't an issue.

[paigeoliver]

Also, Windows 98 is really stable if you have nothing installed other than drivers and video games. I have never seen a blue screen of death on a gaming-only windows 98 install.

[Chris]

On a 400MHz, I'd use DOS instead of any version of Windows.  Might get you where you want to be for MAME fighters.

--Chris

[greywolf22]

Just thought I'd chime in,

Depending on your HD size you can always install the WIN98 CAB files if the biggest concern regarding win98 is the need to constantly insert the CD to install drivers...I know thats what I do.

[NIVO]

another alternative here would be a usb 5.25 enclosure for a cdrom if your pc has usb ports(it should unless its ancient history). Perhaps you are trying to keep your costs down which i understand, but not having a cdrom, for just these kind of instances is like cutting off your hand, your gonna need it at some point.

[markb]

Firstly I'll post a quick picture as it will explain some of the limitations:-



It's a 400mhz celeron, 10gb hardive, 256mb ram, network card an TV-out.

Size and access were the reasons I didn't put in a CD rom, I would have had to have a door or such and also after everything was in there I'd have been lucky to fit in a floppy drive.
I do have a network card in the back so installing anything can be done via it. I was planning on using a USB pen to do it but I got fed up of that pretty quick.
A good idea on the external cd rom drive though so I'll keep my eyes open for one as it will be useful for that and a few other things.

As for Win98, I use it on my main Cab and I actually prefer it to XP except for the fact as mentioned i need to keep putting in the disk to install drivers. I'll try putting the cab file on the hard-drive as suggested as it drives me nuts that whenever i put in/re-install hardware it asks for the CD.

Dos is an unknown quantity for me (mame wise anyway) so I would have to learn, aside from that I wanted to get away from a keyboard and try and only use a serial trackball for inputs.

Cheers for the tips everyone, some good one there.