Mame Version Confusion

[cadmium]

I'm in the process of modifying an old gutted cabinate to run mame (and other emus). I have a fairly complete mame romset (for v .125 I think).

I get that some games may be broken as mame progresses or that they might not work as well.

I also have seen specialized versions of mame that improve performance or add features, but most of these seem to be discontinued (power mame?).

So my questions are what is the best version of mame (or varient) to run the widest variety of games (pac-man to 90's fighters)?

And, Is it worth trying keep my romset updated to the latest with clrmamepro?

[Avrus]

"best" version is sure to illicit quite a debate.  There is a sizeable group convinced that older versions of Mame run older games faster, and more reliably.

There is the other group (myself included) that believes the newer versions will have the most correct, bug free, and emulation accuracy.  I also feel that the newer versions run faster than the older versions. 

[gonzo90017]

I also feel that the newer versions run faster than the older versions. 

Not true!

All kidding aside. I doubt it. They might run faster on newer pc's. But older pc's can't handle newer versions of mame.
They'll run games a lot slower. But here's the deal. If you're using a recent pc go with the latest version of mame. But
if you're using an older pc, go back some mame versions.

[cadmium]

Okay, here's another potentially dumb question. Do newer versions ever (or often?) break games?

[Ginsu Victim]

Yep

[Avrus]

Told you there'd be a debate. 

I'd love to see a scientific benchmark of modern MAME compared to say 0.97 on an older computer and as well a value score for reliable emulation as well.

Again keep in mind that MAME's goal is the most accurate emulation possible.  So while new versions might break one game out of 8,000 -- the amount of bug fixes since 0.97 is staggering. 

[gonzo90017]

I'd love to see a scientific benchmark of modern MAME compared to say 0.97 on an older computer and as well a value score for reliable emulation as well.

No debate there. 

Newer version are more accurate. Older versions are faster.

[u_rebelscum]

Newer version are more accurate. Older versions are faster.

In general, yes; but details may differ game to game, and PC to PC, and exact mame version to exact mame number.

Example: on rastan on my work P4 or personal laptop PM with same settings, the speed basically did not change between mame 0.37b15 and 0.106 (~325 fps), and jumped UP from 0.107 to 0.114 (~360 fps).  On my desktop athlon64 at home, however, the chart was very different (and more "normal"): the trend was generally downward with the same settings, but had a hew cases where the speed increased with the next version(s).  One thing I noticed was if I used the default settings of the version being tested, even on the P4 & PM the chart was more "normal".  (Note that rastan was the except of the raster games I tested, though.)

Let me see if I can dig up the charts (the benching was done when 0.114 came out).

[cadmium]

At least there seems to be some distinction, newer machine - newer mame. Older machine - older mame.

Or, at least there is no "magic version" that everyone is running and there's no "wrong version" to run.

[Avrus]

At least there seems to be some distinction, newer machine - newer mame. Older machine - older mame.

Or, at least there is no "magic version" that everyone is running and there's no "wrong version" to run.

Essentially that's correct.

[Ummon]

I think on Aaron's blog, there's a link to overall Mame benchmarking he did using a PIII 933.

[erictrumpet]

I don't have a lot of PCs to run MAME on, I have just always used the same box. It was new when I first discovered MAME, now years later I am still using the same machine for my cab. Is this generally considered to be an "older PC" by today's standards for the current version MAME? Or is it more than enough horsepower for the latest MAME release? It's a P4 2.8GHz w/1Mb RAM. Just wondering how it stacks up and if I would regret upgrading to the latest release.

Eric.

[retrometro]

"best" version is sure to illicit quite a debate.  There is a sizeable group convinced that older versions of Mame run older games faster, and more reliably.

There is the other group (myself included) that believes the newer versions will have the most correct, bug free, and emulation accuracy.  I also feel that the newer versions run faster than the older versions. 

Well the reason for the debate is obvious (at least to me!).  It's because what you wrote is true for both scenarios.  The accuracy isn't debatable.  Is is most certainly getting more and more accurate with each release.  Take discrete sounds for example.

But if you go to some of the emulation boards for handheld devices like the gp2x and psp forums, you'll see that developers for mame ports will agree that the earlier versions for the most part is significantly faster for a majority of the games that will run properly.  That last part is key... Take 0.034 to 0.037 for example, you're looking at about 1100 working games as opposed to the 6000+ today.  The mame executable has gone from several megabytes to over 30mb. 

I'd say the advice is if you like the core original set of 1000 or less games for 0.034 and don't mind sampled sounds and some bugs, there's no reason to go above.  If you care about accuracy and being able to play more game accurately, then keep going up the versions and stop when your favorite games slow down or break.

After 0.034, I think the next favorite versions are .103 and .106