Noob questions :) (Sorry)

[S0L]

Hello,

Long time reader, first time poster!

I've finally got my Mame box up and running, and I'm trying to find the best version of Mame to use with it. Spec wise its:

P3 800
GeForce 6200 128MB
384MB Ram
TinyXP Beast Edition (Reduced XP, loads nice and quick!)

I'm using MameWah as the front end.

I tried the latest version of Mame, but it chugs.... At present I've dropped back to 0.62 (since Mame32 062 runs lovely), but when I try and update the game list in MameWah, it fails...

My guess is that 0.62 doesn't support the -listxml option? Anyone know which is the earliest version of Mame that does? I'm hoping someone knows off the top of their head, but worse comes to worse, I can grab old versions upwards of 0.62 and keep trying till I find one that does...!

Anyway, I digress, given such a rudimentary spec, any recommendations of which version of Mame to run, preferably one that plays nice with MameWah.

In terms of the most advance game I want to play, it's probably something like Metal Slug (1). I realise that may be pushing it slightly, worse comes to worse, I'll have to put my hand in my pocket, since the core of the machine is built from 'leftovers'

Ta in advance!

---
S0L
---

[Howard_Casto]

I hate to say it, but I'm not sure you have enough ram even for tinyxp.  Your solution might be to run windows 98se.    800 mhz isn't exactly lightning fast, but it should be good for the classics and early to mid 90's games, which is all you are going to be able to play with those specs, even if you use an old version of mame.

That video card is a tad on the old side, what settings are you using in terms of video options?  My guess is setting the directx version to 8 instead of 9 in mame might help a lot.

(Btw if you are using a fe you shouldn' t be using mame32, it can complicate things.)

[S0L]

Thanks for the advice!

I did originally have Win98SE on the machine, and swapped over to TinyXP as I was having some wierdness with the video card drivers (at this point it had a Riva TNT in it).

I find TinyXP boots quicker, and runs much better than 98SE, which surprised me somewhat. Looking at the system performance, I'm not really digging into the virtual memory, so I stuck with it as it seemed better overall.

Believe me, the 6200 although getting to be chuggy by modern standards, is a big improvement on the TNT. Spefically the TV output which works now. I don't have a monitor connected to the box, it plugs direct into a TV via Composite of S-video, and everything is controlled via joyticks/buttons connected via an Mini IPAC.

I did some testing yesterday, using Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja as a rough benchmark, and this is how I spotted the speed difference between Mame .118 and Mame32 (062).  There is a drastic difference between old Mame (smooth as a dime and entirely playable) and new Mame (chug city!).

I'm guessing there is a sweet spot somewhere between game support and speed, just I've not played around enough with the different versions of Mame to know what it is.

That and I'd like a version of Mame that works with MameWah to get the game list automatically without having to learn all about ClrMame...!

BTW - I don't use Mame32 with MameWah, I was just running some performance tests whilst I had the mice and keyboard hooked up, I suspected mixing the two would be bad news...!

I did suspect that it might not have enough horse power for Metal Slug - but it is more the classics that I really want

---
S0L
---

[gonzo90017]

I have a 400mhz It has 256mb of ram it runs very well with 128 but Neogeo games load faster with 256. I'm  running an Nlited version of XP I made myself. It has just about everything stripped out more than the so called tinyxp version. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59373.120 One big problem with tiny xp is that alot of drivers have been removed.
I can run just about every game at full speed with no frameskip. You just need to know what emus to use.


CPS1 and CPS2 =Nebula
Winkawaks= Neogeo
Modeler= System 32
Raine=             Everything
Mame37b16=  that's left

You should be able to run most games full speed with that setup. But it would be better if you used the command line version of mame. Specifically Fastmame. Which is a optimized version. http://files-upload.com/files/173598/fastmame084u3.zip

As for the game list not showing up I recommend you use rom_folder_vs_dat_file for your list generation method. You can download the dat for your mame version here http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/MAMEBeta/MAMEBetaHistory.php Just make sure you download the one marked as (cm) Unzip it in your mame folder and point your .INI to it. Example:

### mame37.ini (mamewah v1.62) ###

emulator_title                            Mame 37

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  e:\VideoGames\mame37\roms
rom_extension                             zip
dat_file                                  C:\videogames\mame37\new.dat
nms_file                                  auto:[emuexepath]\[emuexename].nms
catver_ini_file                           auto:[emuexepath]\catver.ini
list_generation_method                    rom_folder_vs_dat_file

### Execution Settings ###
pre_emulator_app_commandlines             C:\videogames\mame37\nodelay.exe {nowait}{autoquit};C:\videogames\Xpadder\xpadder.exe mame37 {nowait}{autoquit}
emulator_commandline                      C:\videogames\mame37\mamewpp.exe [name]{autodosbox}
post_emulator_app_commandlines           
general_app_commandlines                 

### Artwork Settings ###
artwork_image_paths                       E:\videogames\glaunchsnaps;E:\videogames\fastmame71\marquees;E:\videogames\fastmame71\cpanels;E:\videogames\icons
movie_preview_path                        E:\videogames\videos
movie_artwork_no                          1
enable_fuzzy_search                       0
history_dat_file                          auto
history_dat_artwork_no                    2

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               1
select_random_game                        0
saver_type                                movie
movie_path                                E:\videogames\videos
movie_fullscreen                          1
quit_delay                                0
saver_commandline                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                               
lcd_display_file_path                     
description_display                       [description]{scroll}

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0

[S0L]

Thanks for that, that's very, very helpful!

On TinyXP, I picked that as I figured the driver side would be better than 98SE, and sure enough, it picked up everything bar the videocard (which I expected). I'll have a run through that thread though, any increase in loading and performance is only a good thing in my books!

For MameWah I am using the command line version of Mame, so I'll give Fastmame a go. Hopefully should be a straight drop in!

I didn't quite get how you could generate the game list otherwise, so that's also very, very helpful. It's certainly the first job that will get done once I'm back home and I've got the box fired up

So again, thanks for the tips, that may just sort me right out!

---
S0L
---

[gonzo90017]

Maybe I didn't explain it well enough. You download the dat file for your mame version.
 http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/MAMEBeta/MAMEBetaHistory.php

So if you're using mame 62 you download the dat for that version, put it inside your mame folder then unzip it.

Then you open up your mame.ini
You know, the one inside your Mamewah folder. Look for this line: dat_file  and put the full path of your dat file.
So in my case it looks like this: dat_file                                  C:\videogames\mame37\new.dat
Then look for list_generation_method  and change it to  rom_folder_vs_dat_file
So it should look like this: list_generation_method                    rom_folder_vs_dat_file

Although with Fastmame 84 you should be able to generate a list with the xml method. But for older mame versions you should use the above method.

With your pc, you should use Nebula to run all your NeoGeo and Capcom games. You could use winkawaks but you would need to use a wrapper to be able to load games through Mamewah. Nebula can be run from the command line just like mame. For nebula you HAVE to use the above method to generate a game list since there is no XML.
You can find the dat here http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/Nebula/

[spystyle]

...
P3 800
GeForce 6200 128MB
384MB Ram
TinyXP Beast Edition (Reduced XP, loads nice and quick!)
...

Good choice on the OS

You can buy RAM for almost nothing these days, see pricewatch or ePay, first look up your motherboard to see what type of RAM it takes.

I think MAME32 or MALA would run well on that. Any version 55-80. Avoid CHD files, they are big and run slow.

Cheers,
Craig

[S0L]

Maybe I didn't explain it well enough. You download the dat file for your mame version.
 http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/MAMEBeta/MAMEBetaHistory.php

So if you're using mame 62 you download the dat for that version, put it inside your mame folder then unzip it.

Then you open up your mame.ini
You know, the one inside your Mamewah folder. Look for this line: dat_file  and put the full path of your dat file.
So in my case it looks like this: dat_file                                  C:\videogames\mame37\new.dat
Then look for list_generation_method  and change it to  rom_folder_vs_dat_file
So it should look like this: list_generation_method                    rom_folder_vs_dat_file

Although with Fastmame 84 you should be able to generate a list with the xml method. But for older mame versions you should use the above method.

With your pc, you should use Nebula to run all your NeoGeo and Capcom games. You could use winkawaks but you would need to use a wrapper to be able to load games through Mamewah. Nebula can be run from the command line just like mame. For nebula you HAVE to use the above method to generate a game list since there is no XML.
You can find the dat here http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/Nebula/

Heyup,

No your explanation was perfect!

I started by dropping Fastmame on there, and since that did the trick with the list generation, I kind of stopped there

I did grab and read up on ClrMame, though, so the link you gave me for the dat files came in handy, but for sorting out the roms from my newer set, rather than creating a game list.

Surprisingly enough, Metal Slug runs fine via Fastmame, you get the odd drop here and there, but it's perfectly playable. So though I'm going to take a look into the other emulators you suggest, right now I'm pretty much up and running, and will probably spend more time playing games then tinkering with the setup!

So again, thanks for all the help!

...
P3 800
GeForce 6200 128MB
384MB Ram
TinyXP Beast Edition (Reduced XP, loads nice and quick!)
...

Good choice on the OS

You can buy RAM for almost nothing these days, see pricewatch or ePay, first look up your motherboard to see what type of RAM it takes.

I think MAME32 or MALA would run well on that. Any version 55-80. Avoid CHD files, they are big and run slow.

Cheers,
Craig

Yeah, you can never have too much memory, but I just popped in what I had to hand. I'll take a look on the bay to see whats out there.

I'm not to worried about the CHD's - I might take a look at Mala though. I do like the look of the interface. Mind you I'm pretty much happy with the controls that MameWah provide...

---
S0L
---

[gonzo90017]

I'm pretty much up and running, and will probably spend more time playing games then tinkering with the setup!

No problem.
Wish I could do that. I'm just trying to have everything perfect.