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Offically Starting the MAME Project - Need some help.
audiomidiman:
Ok, I believe I have the computer I'm going to be using for my MAME project and here are the specs.
450 Mhz Pentium 2
NVidea RIVA 128 Video Card
Adaptec UW SCSI Card
8 GB UWSCSI Seagate Drive
8 GB IDE Western Digital Drive
320 MB Memory (128 + 128 + 64)
LincSys 10/100 LAN Card
Avance Logic, Inc. Sound Card
For the OS there is Windows 98 Second Edition on there and I have a CD so I can do a fresh installation. However, I do believe I have a copy of Windows 2000 that I can get from work (I actually think we had a license for the computer that I took so I can technically have it).
What should I update first on the machine? Leave 98 on this machine seeing it's only going to be running MAME or Upgrade it to Windows 2000 (I have access to Windows 2000 Server Edition if you guys think that might be stronger). SCSI Drive or IDE Drive? Originally the machine booted off the UW drive however when I moved the machine to a better case I installed the extra IDE drive in it. I'm thinking that I could load the OS, Drivers and MAME apps onto the main drive and then load the ROMS on the second drive. However, I'm also thinking of using the second drive as a backup drive and either Mirror it or just have Ghost RUN every time I do an update to the machine and Ghost before the update and Ghost after. Right now the machine wants to boot off the IDE drive so I'll be unplugging it to force everything on the IDE drive. 8 GB should be plenty of space.
I would prefer to leave it as is and only upgrade things if needed. I'll probably consider getting a newer machine later on when I find a good deal on one with XP or find a more powerful machine w/ Windows 2000.
Here are some questions on the actual MAME that I can't seem to figure out on my own.
1) Advanced MAME is a good front end I'm being told what should I run as the MAME guts? I will most likely be running old school vertical games (Dig Dug, Centipede, Pac Man, Galaga, Mr. Do, etc.)
2) Is the RIVA 128 Video Card good enough? If not, what is an inexpensive upgrade I should move too?
3) I can get two Unused original I-Pac's for $45 (or one for $25 but my friend will be making one or I will be making a small cabaret sized one for my dad). Are these just as good as the new ones? Or should I just spend the $39 for the newer style? Should I leave it Serial for compatibility issues or USB better?
4) Which version of MAME should I use to avoid MAME stealing processing power?
5) Not to sound stupid but I have access to a pretty unused 19" Viewsonic (several years old but was only used for 2-3 weeks for a few trade shows) or possibly a 21-22" older CRT. If I mount it vertical can I tell windows that it's mounted vertical? If not can I tell MAME to do it?
6) Anything I'm missing w/ MAME?
I'll have more questions and will keep sifting through the posts to get answers to my own questions.
Thanks!
Bill
ahofle:
I used to have a 450 P2 and played those classics with no problem. You probably want an older version of MAME however (v0.36 seems to be a good choice). Your video card is fine (upgrading it will probably not get you much improvement). Used IPACs should also be fine, assuming they work. You can tell MAME to rotate your games if you mount the monitor vertically (check the documentation for the command line switches). Not sure about windows though.
yugffuts:
I believe windows requires a video card with specific drivers to do rotation.
ArcadeOS Frontend can rotate, though, so even if windows is sideways, you'll still be able to play :)
pmc:
If it were me, I'd start with Win98-SE on that P2 before messing with W2K. You don't need all the overhead of an operating system for what you want to do. 98 will get you booted into a FE and will run MAME. That's all you need.
I'd stick with the hardware as is, do a clean OS install, and install an old MAME (consider a version compiled specifically for the P2). If it all runs well enough (and it should), you don't need to mess with the hardware at all.
-pmc
tranq:
It might be helpful to make a sticky for the following:
...mine is the stock Intel integrated chip set. In Control Panel, I select the graphics icon, and the fourth tab from left is 'rotation'...
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=61829.0
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