Fit all games on my monitor at 1 resolution (MAME)

[mamerocks87]

I am using gamex as a frontend and command line version of mame. Im also using an arcade monitor. With that said i need a way to make all of the games fit my resolution for my monitor. For example i will open up mega men and it will be fine then i will go to centipede and the top will be choped off. How do i force this in MaME?

-kw

[Minwah]

Use my 'Resolution Tool' (see my downloads page) - this will create game-specific ini files for each game so they pick the best resolution...ensure you follow the instructions in the included readme.

Note that you need to select the best modes (or let the tool above do that for you) and adjust your monitor to get everything to work well.  You cannot force things to 'not be cut off' as such in mame...this problem is due to either poor resolution choice or bad monitor adjustment.

[javeryh]

Use my 'Resolution Tool' (see my downloads page) - this will create game-specific ini files for each game so they pick the best resolution...ensure you follow the instructions in the included readme.

Note that you need to select the best modes (or let the tool above do that for you) and adjust your monitor to get everything to work well.  You cannot force things to 'not be cut off' as such in mame...this problem is due to either poor resolution choice or bad monitor adjustment.

So are you saying I can tell MAME to launch a game with a specific resolution?  I have a Vision Pro 19" from Happs (49-1337-VP2) and I can't seem to get it to display MKII, Tapper, Popeye or any game that is meant to run at a different frequency.  Will this help me?  Thanks!

[Minwah]

So are you saying I can tell MAME to launch a game with a specific resolution?  I have a Vision Pro 19" from Happs (49-1337-VP2) and I can't seem to get it to display MKII, Tapper, Popeye or any game that is meant to run at a different frequency.  Will this help me? 

Yes   Assuming you have an ArcadeVGA card:

MK should run at 401x256 (native mode 400x254)
Popeye should probably run at 512x448 (native mode the same)
Tapper should probably run at 640x480 (native mode 512x480)

The tool can basically do this for you, but it does require a bit of manual setup & understanding*: http://mamewah.mameworld.net/downloads.htm

Edit: * There is a fairly straightforward 'how to' included in the readme, which should help.

[javeryh]

So are you saying I can tell MAME to launch a game with a specific resolution?  I have a Vision Pro 19" from Happs (49-1337-VP2) and I can't seem to get it to display MKII, Tapper, Popeye or any game that is meant to run at a different frequency.  Will this help me? 

Yes   Assuming you have an ArcadeVGA card:

MK should run at 401x256 (native mode 400x254)
Popeye should probably run at 512x448 (native mode the same)
Tapper should probably run at 640x480 (native mode 512x480)

The tool can basically do this for you, but it does require a bit of manual setup & understanding*: http://mamewah.mameworld.net/downloads.htm

Edit: * There is a fairly straightforward 'how to' included in the readme, which should help.

Thank you!  My monitor is an SVGA monitor (not CGA) and I thought I couldn't use an AVGA card with it though...  if I can I will have to pick one up (I'm in the process of building my mame computer but I'm doing all of the setup/testing on my Dell laptop for now)...

[Minwah]

Thank you!  My monitor is an SVGA monitor (not CGA) and I thought I couldn't use an AVGA card with it though...  if I can I will have to pick one up (I'm in the process of building my mame computer but I'm doing all of the setup/testing on my Dell laptop for now)...

Oh OK, sorry I didn't think that screen might be SVGA.  You probably don't need to use the Resolution Tool (although you can) then, just try setting some different modes in your mame.ini file (640x480 is a good place to start).

[thebrownshow]

Hey Minwah, quick question for you while we're on the topic...

With an AVGA 7000 on an arcade monitor, I've always had to shrink down my vertical size in order to fit rotated games on my monitor, with the side effect of having my horizontal games slightly "crushed" -- looking almost "letterboxed" 

If I follow the readme included with your resolution tool, will that still happen?

[javeryh]

Thank you!  My monitor is an SVGA monitor (not CGA) and I thought I couldn't use an AVGA card with it though...  if I can I will have to pick one up (I'm in the process of building my mame computer but I'm doing all of the setup/testing on my Dell laptop for now)...

Oh OK, sorry I didn't think that screen might be SVGA.  You probably don't need to use the Resolution Tool (although you can) then, just try setting some different modes in your mame.ini file (640x480 is a good place to start).

I'll give it a shot.  It's good to know I'm not completely screwed.  Hopefully I will be able to tweak games individually because I wouldn't want to alter the look of the games that currently display fine (they look amazing!).  It would be nice if it was similar to adding something like "-ror" in conjunction with a rom which rotates the display 90 degrees...

[mamerocks87]

So will this really allow me to fit all of my games on my monitor without having to resize everything manually (on my adjustment board) Im a bit confused to what the tool does. I just want it forced to 640*480 so i can have a full screen on my arcade monitor......

[Minwah]

If I follow the readme included with your resolution tool, will that still happen?

Well I think it says in there the disadvantage to my method is games with >256 lines (quite a few vertical games) will be displayed in 640x480 with hardware stretch.  Personally, I prefer this to having letterboxed horizontal games.

[Minwah]

I'll give it a shot.  It's good to know I'm not completely screwed.  Hopefully I will be able to tweak games individually because I wouldn't want to alter the look of the games that currently display fine (they look amazing!).  It would be nice if it was similar to adding something like "-ror" in conjunction with a rom which rotates the display 90 degrees...

Have you tried 'autoror 1'?

[Minwah]

Im a bit confused to what the tool does.

It picks resolutions as near as to the games' native resolution as possible...so it looks as near to the original arcade game as possible.

I just want it forced to 640*480 so i can have a full screen on my arcade monitor......

Then just set 'resolution 640x480' in your mame.ini (& use hwstretch).  However that defeats the point of having an arcade monitor, since all low-res games will need to be stretched up to fill the screen (ie degredating the quality).

[thebrownshow]

If I follow the readme included with your resolution tool, will that still happen?

Well I think it says in there the disadvantage to my method is games with >256 lines (quite a few vertical games) will be displayed in 640x480 with hardware stretch.  Personally, I prefer this to having letterboxed horizontal games.

Ah, thanks.  I'll give it a shot and see what I prefer.  Since I'd say about 90% of the games I play are horizontal, I'd probably prefer that as well.  Thanks for the tip (and for writing the software)!

[javeryh]

I'll give it a shot.  It's good to know I'm not completely screwed.  Hopefully I will be able to tweak games individually because I wouldn't want to alter the look of the games that currently display fine (they look amazing!).  It would be nice if it was similar to adding something like "-ror" in conjunction with a rom which rotates the display 90 degrees...

Have you tried 'autoror 1'?

i'm afraid to ask... what does that do?

[mamerocks87]

error
component 'COMDLG32.OCX' or one of its dependencies not
correclty registered: a file is missing or invalid.

any clue how i can fix this?

[mamerocks87]

i got it working opening games up through the command line but when im run it through gameex, still no effect. is gameex discregarding this somehow? the ini files need to be in the same folder as the mame.ini correct?


-kyle