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ArcadeVGA and Windows 98

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dax:
I am having problems getting the ArcadeVGA card under Windows 98 working with a converted NeoGeo cabinet using the AVGA and the J-Pac.  Everything is hooked up right, but a lot of the info that comes with the ArcadeVGA card appears to be inaccurate.  I'm wondering if anyone else has had this experience?  When I follow the instructions, things don't work right.  When I play around with other settings, I can get the system working, but I'm still trying to get this card to display games in the best possible format.  Any advice or recommendations is greatly appreciated!

RayB:
Wow man. Other than mentioning "ArcadeVGA" and "Windows 98", you provided zero *specific* information for anyone to even attempt to help you.

Me, I installed the AVGA card and it was instantly working. I didn't even install the Windows drivers. I left Windows in the default 800x600 vga resolution (or is it 640x480? I'll have to check). I use DOS for the games. So I didn't care or need to change Win's resolution.

dax:
Ok, here are the details:

Neo Geo cabinet, fully-operational, with a Wells Gardner Model 25K7193 monitor with a Zenith picture tube.

I am connecting a P3-550 with 448MB RAM with an ArcadeVGA going into a JPAC. 

Basically, I've had so many problems with the AVGA drivers I was merely wondering if ANYONE was actually running this card under Win98.  I had to do almost the opposite of most of the installation/configuration instructions in order to get this thing to even boot up properly.

Right now, my main problem is, I can only run 640x480 and have it look ok in Windows, but it still seems something is off because the display looks a bit washed out (the intro windows spash screen comes in perfectly but then the desktop seems to switch into a different mode).  I'm running at 640x480x32b with "default monitor".

The AVGA ATI cpanel doesn't recognize that there are ATI drivers installed.  I installed and re-installed everything.  Hardware accelleration in advanced display options causes a BSOD. If I enable "plug and play" monitor it says the equipment is incompatible and screws up the drivers.  It installs two displays and two adapters automatically - even if I remove one.  I guess the AVGA is two video cards in one?  I have the VGA out going to the JPAC and the quality is iffy, but I can see that there is potential and something is set wrong.

I can run the display in 800x600 and 1024x768 but the bottom is pinched and some of the monitor controls up front don't seem to help.  There may be some on the back but it's still pretty bad quality so I keep it at 640x480 because at least that's usable.  I don't know what native resolution i can run windows in and it seems to affect the resolution of the games.

Now on to MAME.....

The side-scroller, horizonally-mounted games look PERFECT.  The vertical games come out MUCH MUCH smaller than I would expect.  I am not sure if this is the best I can do or what, but it sure sucks.  On games like pengo or joust or frogger, the screen is tiny... much smaller than it should probably be.  I tried to run the auto-res utility but it gave me an "Error 53" and wouldn't create ini files.  Furthermore, I tried both with an old version of mame32 and the latest one, and the settings recommend by avga don't work properly... i can't set stretch hardware to OFF because it's greyed out but the avga manual says this only happens if you're not running in 16b or 32b mode but I am.. so it's confusing as hell.  The vertical sync was completely off if I set the 'switch resolutions to fit=ON" as directed in the docs, but if I set it to the opposite, it worked... so at least half the info in the install seems to be wrong - I have to set it to the opposite to get things working.. It's very frustrating.. I'd just like to have some starting point where I can figure out if I'm on track with this.  Andy at ultimarc is awol and I have no place to turn.

dax:
Some additional inquiries....

* what resolution should I run under windows?  what will this monitor support?  I can't figure that out.  It seems to go beyond what it supposedly can handle (i.e. 1024x768) with that same bottom pinching problem.

* What's the best, most trouble-free MAME front end I should consider that will make the games look their best?

* I am taking an older P3-550 PC that I used to run with a computer monitor and a Hot Rod interface and sticking it in an arcade cabinet.. the older versions of MAME I ran didn't seem to have lag/slowness problems as the newer versions... I'm not sure what to do.. it seems like the later versions of MAME are a lot more resource-hungry and require faster cpus?  When I run the latest version of mame32 on this PC, many games are just unnaturally slow... if I was happy with my choice of games with the older version should I go back to it or am I going to have problems with older version compatibility issues with the current setup?  I think I was running .36-39 or something. 

RayB:

--- Quote from: dax on December 22, 2005, 03:16:01 am ---* what resolution should I run under windows?
--- End quote ---

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