Launching 64 Bit Mame Info Repository - Please Contribute

[rdenis]

Well as technology and software changes we will continue to see more and more 64 Bit adoptions of hardware/operating systems/and Mame.  There is very little information currently available from early adopters who have found success.  I would like to gather as much information here from 64 bit adopters.  Please include at least the following info:

64 Bit Mame Version - Mame123u6
How Compiled - MC64 1.12 (Core2, 64 Bit, Intel Quad 6600)

Operating System in Use - Vista 64 Home Premium

Frontend - Mala 1.04 (Launches but is unplayable - had to go back to 32 bit)
Command Line - Launches and runs 64 bit perfectly, no issues

Other Comments:   In addition to compatibility issues with Mala, most owners know the EMS TopGun is currently incompatible with Vista 32/64.  Hkems supposedly has been working on a driver but I am not sure that will ever work because the TopGun is automatically recognized as a Generic USB Hub (rather than an unknown device) in Vista 64.  Unless there is a hardware fix or patch for Vista developed to not recognozie it as a USB Hub not sure whether they will ever have a proper solution.

[Silver]

Have you thought about making a 64bit page on the wiki?

In addition to compatibility issues with Mala, most owners know the EMS TopGun is currently incompatible with Vista 32/64.  Hkems supposedly has been working on a driver but I am not sure that will ever work because the TopGun is automatically recognized as a Generic USB Hub (rather than an unknown device) in Vista 64.  Unless there is a hardware fix or patch for Vista developed to not recognozie it as a USB Hub not sure whether they will ever have a proper solution.

Can I ask what happens if you try and install Smogs Guncon2 driver in Vista/64? (I would imagine you would right click on the "USB hub"->update driver-> point it at Smogs directory. Or does Vista reject it?

[rdenis]

Once I collate some information here I will update the Wiki - good idea!

Yeah I tried to install Smogs driver but two problems arise:

1)  Because it the gun is actually recognized as a "Generic USB Hub" Vista defaults to its own driver usbhub.sys and tells you that is the most up to date driver available.

2)  Even if updating the driver was allowed, since usbhost.sys is the driver used by all USB ports, changing this driver may have certain unintended negative consequences.

Somehow I think this is a MS issue first given when the gun is plugged into a USB port in XP, the OS first recognizes the port is Active and then recognizes an unknown device is plugged in.  Not sure why the OS is not making that same connection in Vista.

[bent98]

Im glad your starting this up. I eventually wantto run XP 64 but need to have mala working. Let me know if you ever get mala working on a 64 bit OS

[rooter]

Im glad your starting this up. I eventually wantto run XP 64 but need to have mala working. Let me know if you ever get mala working on a 64 bit OS

I also am having troubles with Mala in 64bit Vista.  I asked about it on the Mala website, but I didn't get a response.

I would really recommend Vista over XP64.  Yeah, I know, Vista sucks, but I had a never ending run of problems with XP64.  Too many to bother getting into here.  For example, I had a RAID drive that worked 100% in every area except the file browser.  Whenever I went in the file browser, no drives at all showed up.  Some software could only be configured with the "Browse to" dialog (Firefox for one), so I couldn't even set up simple programs.  XP64 was meant for work stations and anything outside that realm seemed to cause me nothing but headaches.  Vista does some annoying things, but at least it usually works.  If XP64 ran as smoothly as 32bit XP, I would use it in a heartbeat, but that's just not the case. 

[Silver]

1)  Because it the gun is actually recognized as a "Generic USB Hub" Vista defaults to its own driver usbhub.sys and tells you that is the most up to date driver available.

Can you not manually select a driver in vista (as in XP)?

[headkaze]

I use XP64 and haven't had any problems. To me it's a 64 bit version of M$'s best OS and I'm very happy with it

[rdenis]

1)  Because it the gun is actually recognized as a "Generic USB Hub" Vista defaults to its own driver usbhub.sys and tells you that is the most up to date driver available.

Can you not manually select a driver in vista (as in XP)?

You can select a driver manually but here is the problem - when you plug the lightgun in, it activates the USB hub fine.  However, the gun itslef is not detected (which is bizarre) and so when you look at the detail of that particular USB port you will see there are no siblings listed for the parent. 

Its really odd - the USB hub can only be activated by having something plugged into it yet Vista refuses to acknowledge something is actually plugged in despite it activating the hub because something is plugged in..... (and round and round we go).

[Silver]

Yes you are quite right - got 64bit Vista up and can't force the install of Smogs driver.

EMS know they have no 64bit vista support, but don't appear to be working on a driver either.

[rdenis]

Yeah my head spun trying to cope with the circular logic....  and you're right EMS seems in no hurry

[loadman]

This is a problem that has to be fixed soon.

There may be a fe FE's out there with flashy 'bling bling' Layouts but MaLa still has a place in a lot of cabs due to its simplicity and flexiablity..

So I guess this is a priority.  I would hate to think people are switching away from mala for a silly reason like this .

Hang in there 

[rdenis]

Good to hear LM!   Mala and LEDBlinky are my favs so being able to run a 64 bit version will be huge.  For now I run 32 bit and if I really want 64 I launch from command line.

[rdenis]

Aah ha!  Possible solution on lightgun issue for us 64 Bit owners posted in main forum at http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=78377.0

[massive88]

I use XP64 and haven't had any problems. To me it's a 64 bit version of M$'s best OS and I'm very happy with it

Headkaze, are you running Gamex then as a front end in XP64?  Does it run 64bit mame binaries without a hitch?

Ive been trying to get mala or mamewah to work in 64 bit, mamewah I cant get to work at all, but if I cant run the binary (mala) to work, its not worth it anyway.  This has been driving me nuts.

[headkaze]

Headkaze, are you running Gamex then as a front end in XP64?  Does it run 64bit mame binaries without a hitch?

Ive been trying to get mala or mamewah to work in 64 bit, mamewah I cant get to work at all, but if I cant run the binary (mala) to work, its not worth it anyway.  This has been driving me nuts.

A few people seem to be having this problem. I don't run GameEx on my 64-bit machine (it's a dev machine) but I just tested it for you and GameEx seems to run Mame64 fine.

This is probably a long shot but have you tried all the video options in mame.ini ie. gdi, ddraw and d3d?

[massive88]

A few people seem to be having this problem. I don't run GameEx on my 64-bit machine (it's a dev machine) but I just tested it for you and GameEx seems to run Mame64 fine.

This is probably a long shot but have you tried all the video options in mame.ini ie. gdi, ddraw and d3d?

Let me clarify, mame runs beatifully on my rig, the problem is the front end.

Mamewah I cannot get to even fire up.

MaLa, when I point it to the 64 bit mame version, runs, but is unplayable.  The speed is about half of what it should be, the keystrokes are completely unresponsive.  Basically I am seeing the same results as posted here - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=77163.0

I tried Maximus Arcade, and it seems to work correctly, navigating the lists however was horrendously slow...

I tried to install GameEx last night, and it pointed me to the dotnetfx.exe, when it was done downloading, it errored out saying it could not install on a 64 bit OS, and the GameEx install bombed out completely.  I thought about grabbing the NetFX64.exe and installing that, then seeing if GameEx can go through the install.

Did you install a fresh copy of GameEx or just copy over your 32bit files?

[headkaze]

I understand your having problems running Mame64 through Mala. Still I thought changing the display method might have something to do with it. It's worth a try (and just to help narrow down the problem).

Yes, looks like GameEx auto-downloads the 32-bit version of the .NET Framework. So you will need to download .NET 2.0 for x64 and install that before installing GameEx. So you are right in installing NetFx64.exe and then GameEx should detect .NET 2.0 installed.

[massive88]

I understand your having problems running Mame64 through Mala. Still I thought changing the display method might have something to do with it. It's worth a try (and just to help narrow down the problem).

Yes, looks like GameEx auto-downloads the 32-bit version of the .NET Framework. So you will need to download .NET 2.0 for x64 and install that before installing GameEx. So you are right in installing NetFx64.exe and then GameEx should detect .NET 2.0 installed.

Re MaLa: Ill check it out, maybe its selecting some option that is different from the default mame.ini  Running vmame from the command line rocks its socks off, but MaLa kills it.  Maybe it is as simple as some video option, or some other switch that MaLa is using that the default ini is not.  Ill definitely look into it.

Re GameEx:  Cool, thanks for the affirmation.  Ill be trying that out shortly then.

[clok]

One more vote for more info on 64-bit stuff since it seems to be a pretty substantal speed inprovment. I'm heading that way (currently building the box) but it seems most front ends dont like 64.

[SailorSat]

Actually the problem is the MALA Keyhook.
I use UltraStiks and don't have any problems with MAME via MALA, however if I press any button the thing gets SLOOOOOW...

[massive88]

Actually the problem is the MALA Keyhook.
I use UltraStiks and don't have any problems with MAME via MALA, however if I press any button the thing gets SLOOOOOW...

Is there any way to fix it?  I still cant get MaLa to run 64bit mame, 32bit is fine.

AtomicFE seemed to have all sorts of problems in 64bit XP, though Im not super familiar with it, it locked up my system completely several times.

Mamewah wont come up period for me.

GameEx does run mame64 without a hitch.  Although I had problems playing my preview vids without gameex hanging.  I didnt look very far into it though.

[SailorSat]

AdvMENU works BUT needs to be recompiled with a newer SDL.
(I also fixed various other XML related thingies)