Author Topic: Most popular release of MAME? (Read 4100 times)

rbarr110 · « **on:** July 09, 2009, 01:12:43 pm »

I was recently "forced" into setting up my mame cab again after my hard drive had a meltdown and tried version 131 and 132. So far I not too happy with them, compared to my old 101 that I had on there.

So I am thinking of trying other releases. From what I understand, starting with 107, mame has started to use more of the PC hardware than it used to. I also hear alot of people using 127.

So I guess I am taking an unofficial survey of what version people here seem to prefer and give it a shot.

Thanks

Paul Olson · « **Reply #1 on:** July 09, 2009, 01:28:48 pm »

I upgrade whenever I have the time. If a game I play a lot is updated, I will definitely upgrade. If you are trying to run it on old hardware, probably .120 or older. That is around the time Donkey Kong sound was properly emulated, and the cpu requirement jumped quite a bit for that game. If you want to use really archaic hardware, I think some people are still using .37b.

moonchilddave · « **Reply #2 on:** July 09, 2009, 01:42:48 pm »

I'm actually running quite a few different versions of mame with a mamewah front end. Thanks to the game specific ini files I can set up some games to run on older versions of mame while others run under .131. What I did was a little time consuming - but yeilded very nice results. For games I had issues with I consulted MAWS for the specific rom to see what the update points were and what they included. I found that basically the point where they started to include the discreet sound, that things really slowed down... So I'd set the game to run under the version just before they implemented that. I think I have about 7 or so different versions of mame on my system as a result.

I'm running versions anywhere between .55 and .131 with the bulk of things that I had to change running under either .83 or .123.

rbarr110 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 09, 2009, 01:52:58 pm »

My hardware isnt too old. I am running a 1.67 Ghz CPU (Atlon 2600+) and I think 512 mb of DDR, and one of the last AGP cards and ATI X800 (or something like that). Its not great but is solid.

Paul Olson · « **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2009, 01:55:17 pm »

my 1800+ had a hard time running DK after the sound was emulated. I think my 2500+ did as well.

Ummon · « **Reply #5 on:** July 09, 2009, 06:42:20 pm »

I actually don't like the emulated sound in DK. It's really bass-heavy. However, I like the color rendering. And it seems to play differently - perhaps more unpredictable. I generally play on .104 . However, for vectors, I've found .69 is best. They're really defined, like in newer mame, but still have sparkly stars and stuff. (For some reason, the directdraw rendering in mame changed after .69 or something, so the vector lines are not as defined.) Of course, I don't really care about the newer SF and X-men games that are available after .104 . Oh, and for my main game-playing I use Advancemame, and .104 seems to best version.

Paul Olson · « **Reply #6 on:** July 09, 2009, 07:20:52 pm »

Ummon - If the sound is emulated properly, the difference is probably in the speakers. Do you have a subwoofer in the cab? I agree with you. DK seems harder in MAME to me as well. Although lately my dedicated has been just as brutal.

garnerb350 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 10, 2009, 09:28:37 am »

Friend of mine gave me a set of .117( without chds) when i first started this addiction ...My cab has ver.129 ( full set)...

maybe it was my first time with MAME...but 117...i thought was good....it got this noob hooked...

I dont like the emulated DK sound....but I can live with it...117 using the old samples to me sounded "authentic"

Quote from: Paul Olson on July 09, 2009, 01:28:48 pm

I upgrade whenever I have the time. If a game I play a lot is updated, I will definitely upgrade.

How are you able to check if a game is updated alot? Do I check the whatnew file on the mame site?

MKChamp · « **Reply #8 on:** July 10, 2009, 02:31:02 pm »

Quote from: garnerb350 on July 10, 2009, 09:28:37 am

How are you able to check if a game is updated alot? Do I check the whatnew file on the mame site?

http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/ MAWS will tell you...

pmc · « **Reply #9 on:** July 11, 2009, 09:53:52 am »

Quote from: rbarr110 on July 09, 2009, 01:52:58 pm

My hardware isnt too old. I am running a 1.67 Ghz CPU (Atlon 2600+) and I think 512 mb of DDR, and one of the last AGP cards and ATI X800 (or something like that). Its not great but is solid.

I'm running a similar machine except with onboard video. No AGP card in the slot. I went from 0.75 to 0.94 simply because of the timing of when I did the upgrading. I'm still at 0.94 because I haven't a clue where to go next and I don't want to upgrade to something that runs lousy or breaks something that's working well (i.e., make it worse). I like to keep it simple. And I only tend upgrade when something makes me. But I know I'm probably missing out.

I tend to play games from the classics to about 1989 or 1990 and not much after that.

I'll be watching this thread for guidance too...

zorrobandito · « **Reply #10 on:** July 13, 2009, 01:11:41 am »

0.99 with some exceptions (Virtua Racing, Killer Instinct and just recently Phoenix) running dedicated instances of later MAME versions.

Ummon's point is well taken regarding vector games but I've had some good results playing with a vector.ini and tweaking some of the settings (do a search on here - there are loads of posts about it). But for performance vs accuracy, I've found 0.99 is the best.

Beretta · « **Reply #11 on:** July 13, 2009, 04:26:51 am »

fastmame .56 seems to have the best speed/games supported balance.
can get a lot of games running on some very modest hardware.

in my testing i found that games actually played bettered (the ones i tested) on .55 or .56 rather then .37b16, although a lot of people consider that a baseline version to measure against.

only problem is i like the sharp look of direct 3d stretched with filtering off.. which apparently did'nt get added till .68, but near as i can tell there is no .68 fast mame.

so in .55/.56 you have to put up with nasty blurring when you stretch, (unless someone knows a way around this?)

btw im looking for a mirror or archive of fast mame versions.. i made a thread a while ago, i'd like to get a hold of .70 and all of the .9* releases.

Lilwolf · « **Reply #12 on:** July 13, 2009, 06:02:04 am »

btw, this was why I created multimame years ago. I wanted to be able to use different versions of mame all in one executable. Mine specifically was analog mame for some games, and there are a few games broken every release. I could just say use the old version.

Hornpipe2 · « **Reply #13 on:** July 13, 2009, 10:45:17 am »

dmamepp .106, the last release of dosmame.

Ummon · « **Reply #14 on:** July 13, 2009, 08:45:48 pm »

Quote from: Paul Olson on July 09, 2009, 07:20:52 pm

Ummon - If the sound is emulated properly, the difference is probably in the speakers. Do you have a subwoofer in the cab? I agree with you. DK seems harder in MAME to me as well. Although lately my dedicated has been just as brutal.

Yeah, I do have a sub, but that's the only game that sounds tubby. It may be accurate, but I prefer the samples. The gameplay currently is probably more accurate, though - which is why I flip between new and old when playing it.

sham69 · « **Reply #15 on:** July 14, 2009, 05:02:23 am »

So whats the recommendation for running Tekken and Soul Blade etc.
I have a 1.99ghz pentium 4 with 256mb Ram and an ATI Radeon 128mb pci Sapphire.
Currently using the latest version of commandline mame.
Cheers.

sham69 · « **Reply #16 on:** July 16, 2009, 06:33:05 am »

Sorry las post was a bit vague.
I am looking for the best version of commandline mame to run to get tekken and soul blade and some of the
other 3d games working.
They currently run but are quite slow.
Thanks.
Sham

zorrobandito · « **Reply #17 on:** July 16, 2009, 08:17:56 am »

Switch to Zinc for these, it's a pain to set up but once it's done, you'll appreciate the acceleration that Zinc brings. Depending on your FE, you can have them selectable from the MAME game list but executing Zinc instead.

sham69 · « **Reply #18 on:** July 16, 2009, 09:29:20 am »

Cheers for the reply.
I already have zinc installed , most of the rom's don't work?
I tried the tekken ones from mame.
I think 1 of them worked but was really slow.
Will check it again and let you know whats happening.
THanks.

Beretta · « **Reply #19 on:** July 16, 2009, 01:59:57 pm »

i've never used zinc, im curious how good is the emulation?

what kinda hardware would you need to run most of the games?

i got a celeron 2ghz, and a athlon xp 2400 laying around im planing on using.

zorrobandito · « **Reply #20 on:** July 16, 2009, 09:21:56 pm »

Quote from: Beretta on July 16, 2009, 01:59:57 pm

i've never used zinc, im curious how good is the emulation?

what kinda hardware would you need to run most of the games?

i got a celeron 2ghz, and a athlon xp 2400 laying around im planing on using.

That should be just about the right hardware specs. I'm running Athlon XP 2800 and I think it's more than enough.

The emulation is good (though not perfect) and uses a few acceleration tricks that the MAME Devs eschew in favour of perfect emulation. It's the emulator itself that's painful. It hasn't been updated in years but is worth the struggle (which shows just how advanced it was in the first place).

LeedsFan · « **Reply #21 on:** July 18, 2009, 07:10:33 pm »

Quote from: Ummon on July 09, 2009, 06:42:20 pm

I actually don't like the emulated sound in DK. It's really bass-heavy.

This is exactly what it was like back in the day. I remember when I first got Mame and ran DK and I thought to mysef "the sound isn't right". Now it is!!!

Someone mentioned that you kinda get used to what effects you hear in Mame. Gotta say that is gonna happen. But I remember when I first played DK on Mame and I can remember thinking "the sound is too tinny". Mario's running action was just too high pitched.

vidmouse · « **Reply #22 on:** July 21, 2009, 12:03:26 pm »

I had to use CLRMAMEPro to dial back some of my set back to v.36 to work with PalmMAME, that was a bit of a pain but the results were great... and it's really great to be able to game on the go. Works with PSP mame as well.

On my cab I'm running 127. was running 103 until fairly recently...


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