Problems with Mame and roms

[primetime34]

So I am trying to use Mame....all the roms work through the letter m....from n to z they run very, very slowly...even Pacman.  I have .113 set.  I have tried running it through mamewah and mame32.  The problem is the same.  What are some possible issues?
Could it be that the computer isn't powerful enough?  I don't think it is that since every rom before n works fine
Could my roms be messed up and I need to re-download n-z?

Any other thoughts?  Thanks.

[Minwah]

Could it be that the computer isn't powerful enough?  I don't think it is that since every rom before n works fine

Yes it could be.  If they worked OK on an old MAME version it is probably just the changes in MAME (ie the newer the slower, more or less)

Could my roms be messed up and I need to re-download n-z?

Nope, they wouldn't run if the they were bad.

What FPS are you getting?  Hit F11 to get that to display...

[primetime34]

Could it be that the computer isn't powerful enough?  I don't think it is that since every rom before n works fine

Yes it could be.  If they worked OK on an old MAME version it is probably just the changes in MAME (ie the newer the slower, more or less)

Could my roms be messed up and I need to re-download n-z?

Nope, they wouldn't run if the they were bad.

What FPS are you getting?  Hit F11 to get that to display...

If it is the computer, why would roms a-m work find but roms n-z not work?    My computer is 1.8 ghz P4 with 256 MB of RAM

My FPS says 33/61.

Thanks.

UPDATE:  2020 Baseball works just fine....Frogger doesn't.  It has nothing to do with the alphabet it seems, just some games work and others don't.  I can't imagine Frogger takes more juice to run than 2020 baseball??!?!?!
2020 Baseball, I Robot, and others run at 59-60 fps while Frogger, Pacman, NBA Jam, Punch-out, and more only run at 32-34 fps.  How do I change that??

[Havok]

Try an older version of Mame, most likely you don't have the horsepower to run some of the games (whether they really need it or not)

http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

[primetime34]

Could it be my video driver?  When I turn down my resolution all the way and change color from 32 to 16 bit the performance improves to about 80% fps instead of the 50%.  I'll try that and report back.


UPDATE:  I deleted my driver and used a windows VGA driver...set my resolution to 640x480 and color to 16 bit and the games seem to work fine now.  I will test multiple, but I think that fixed it. 

UPDATE2:  Well Pacman and frogger work, but games like NBA Jam don't.  I found out I have a 32 MB ati video card.  The lower I set the resolution the higher the fps, but only to a point.  Then they don't work anymore.  Is it my video card???  I am trying to install an older version of mame32fx (i want high scores ) to see if that works.  Thanks.

UPDATE3:  I have solved the problem.  I went into Mame32fx and changed it from Direct3d to Directdraw.  While I can't see the lettering on the inserted screens (like ok to play or video emulation isn't perfect or screens brought up by tab) perfectly, I can see it and the games all work now!!!  This is awesome.  Thank you to everybody for their help.

[u_rebelscum]

Could it be my video driver?  ...

UPDATE3:  I have solved the problem.  I went into Mame32fx and changed it from Direct3d to Directdraw.  While I can't see the lettering on the inserted screens (like ok to play or video emulation isn't perfect or screens brought up by tab) perfectly, I can see it and the games all work now!!!  This is awesome.  Thank you to everybody for their help.

Basically your video card is not good at D3D.  So yes, directDraw is your quick answer. 

[primetime34]

Could it be my video driver?  ...

UPDATE3:  I have solved the problem.  I went into Mame32fx and changed it from Direct3d to Directdraw.  While I can't see the lettering on the inserted screens (like ok to play or video emulation isn't perfect or screens brought up by tab) perfectly, I can see it and the games all work now!!!  This is awesome.  Thank you to everybody for their help.

Basically your video card is not good at D3D.  So yes, directDraw is your quick answer. 

Is there any real, visible drawback to using directdraw instead of D3D???

[u_rebelscum]

Is there any real, visible drawback to using directdraw instead of D3D???

Aaron Giles has a detailed blog of the differences.  A simular version is included in mame/docs/newvideo.txt.

But the short is d3d is better at overlays, bezels, and effects.  DD is better for older cards.  DD + no stretch is better for original resolutions.

[primetime34]

Any recommendations on a system's specs to run games?  Right now my brother has a P3, 1.0 Ghz processor with 256 MB of RAM.  Can he just add more ram or a nicer, newer video card to get games to work??  Thanks.

-EDIT
Would moving to an older version of MAME disallow me using any new games that have been added since the older version???

[mwatson]

Any recommendations on a system's specs to run games?  Right now my brother has a P3, 1.0 Ghz processor with 256 MB of RAM.  Can he just add more ram or a nicer, newer video card to get games to work??  Thanks.

I'm actually researching this part right now - from what I've read, you can never really have a fast enough PC. From your current specs you'll likely be able to play most of the older (<=80's) games. If you really want to run the most amount of games, I'd upgrade all three for the best result.

Though I'm trying to figure out if it would be better to buy myself a 3.4 Pentium D (dual core) or a slightly faster Pentium 4 for MAME usage. I don't want to cut myself out of future compatibility if MAME will benefit from dual cores.

Would moving to an older version of MAME disallow me using any new games that have been added since the older version???

Yea if you go back to an older version you'll lose any fixes or new games that the later versions have added, but MAME will run faster on your machine .

[MustardTent]

I remember MAME 0.89 running particularly well.  Give that a try (still plenty of great stuff supported there).

[shorthair]

I have a 1.8 P4, five years old now, and with the 64mb integrated video, I can run anything before '95 on any Mame .106 or under.  I'd just upgrade your video card (say, at least 128mb) and then you'll be able to run .113 just fine, especially if your slot is AGP.