bkenobi

Since GameExtender is designed to work over a network (or the internet), do you think running the avi's would be a problem? I guess it could be set up to buffer or something (like YouTube, et. al.).

Ummm, way... to go?! hehe

I've messed with Linux a bit over the years, but when I tried to set up a server, it didn't play nice. I settled for 32-bit XP Pro since that's what I normally run, but I know there's a file system limitation I eventually need to work around. I've heard that there are some serious restrictions on the usefulness of 64-bit XP, but that's primarily in the realm of gaming AFAIK. I don't run Vista on any other machine, so I was thinking of keeping everything common, although the thought of using this as a test platform had crossed my mind (since the file system is the same and the RAID isn't the OS drive). I may opt for Vista now that I think more about it.

I don't know for sure, but it might be -[no]autoror - "Automatically rotates the screen clockwise for vertical games." or -[no]autorol - "Automatically rotates the screen anti-clockwise for vertical games."

Sounds to me like the emulation of those Seattle games is just now becoming possible with consumer level computers. If that's true, then currently the only option is the cutting edge (which is currently held by Intel). Given a few months, you will be able to afford the same computing power from Intel OR AMD. Next year, it will be the standard. That's good news, but it's possible that the MAMEdevs might improve/optimise the code now that it can be run and make it work on more moderate machines. Either way, it really depends on what you enjoy playing (like you said)...

Sorry, I can't help with an actual arcade monitor since apparently I'm too cheap to buy one If you rip out the arcade monitor and put in a decent TV or PC CRT, then I might be able to help (btw, don't do that, I'm joking...)

MAME_Loader script

Well, I'm no expert on this problem, but I did just learn something interesting this week. In MAME snaps, GameEx keeps the aspect ratio of the clip the same as the aspect ratio the game plays at. So, if you have a 4:3 game with a 4:3 snap, it will work fine. If you have a 3:4 game and you download the emumovies horizontal version of the clip, it will get all squished up. If you want to avoid this with your clips, you need to use the vertical collection that is recorded without letter boxes in 3:4. Other emulators don't show this information, so it wouldn't be available to GameEx, so if you have a 3:4 game, it will not know that it should be displayed in 3:4. Thus, it will stretch it to 4:3 as it thinks it should be. This is really only a problem (I think) if you set up any custom emu's that run arcade games. Consoles shouldn't matter since they are essentially all designed to run on 4:3 screens. One solution would be using the MAME_Loader script that I posted a couple days back. This will allow you to launch multiple custom emulators using the MAME set and they will appear in a single menu. It could still use more extensive testing, but I think it works...

Why do you need soft15 if you are running a LCD TV? That software is meant to set the resolution of the monitor as close as possible to the original resolution and refresh rate the game was playing at. BUT, you are using an LCD that only has 1 refresh rate (probably), and you want to run in the native resolution whenever possible. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't see why you would want to run that app if you aren't using a CRT...

I suppose I could use the 3Ware auto-carving feature to cut the RAID into multiple 2 TB Arrays and then let WHS recombine them. That seems like a really messy way to do things though, so I'm thinking I'll just get a copy of 64-bit XP.

Maybe, but if you haven't seen one, then you don't know what your missing. So, you could save a LOT of money going with a TV or CRT monitor off Craigslist and still be very happy.

Do you have the MAME source or the MAMEUI source in the compiler's directory? This is designed to work with vanilla MAME, but if you add the extra components that MAMEUI needs, you should be able to get it working (according to reports in this thread). I suggest reading this entire thread as I think it has been answered.

That sucks, I guess I'll have to go with 64-bit XP Pro or Vista then... Actually, what OS would you choose to run for a headless file server (WinXP Pro 64, Vista 64, SBS, etc)? I need a 64-bit file system to address the larger share sizes, but other than that, I don't have any hard core requirements (it's a dedicated file server). I would prefer a non server grade OS since it seems like it would be way overkill and the price might be rather restrictive. I looked into the Linux variants, but they don't seem to solve anything the MS OSes solve other than being free.

That's what I've done with my cabs. I upgraded my main machine and used the old parts in the cab. Since most emulators don't require that much power, a 2 year old pc works fine!

If you are going to buy a video card anyway, definitely look at getting a decent one (like Brian said)! Don't spend $500+, but at least look at something in the ~$100. If you get much less than that, you might as well go onboard (although remember that onboard video shares/steals system memory). I am running a couple AMD X2 systems with GeForce 6150 and 7xxx onboard cards. They work fine for typical stuff and MAME seems to work fine on them too. Whatever you do, just make sure you are buying a card that's at least better than the onboard solutions!

I read it ran a 64-bit file system. Is that incorrect? I'm mainly concerned about being able to access more than 2TB on a single share, so this is critical. I know how the system is intended to be setup (with the multiple various sized drives all being lumped together), but I've read nothing saying that it can't accept hardware RAID setups. Crap, I actually found out today that I should be getting it next week.

I wanted to bump this to see if anyone had tried it. One of the reasons I wrote this was because there were a couple requests for this functionality of late. For example, a couple people indicated they wanted to pick 32- or 64-bit MAME for specific games. I'm using it for my own needs, but hopefully someone will find it useful...

Is that the entire error, or is there more? Also, you will need to indicate what exactly you are trying to do (compile 64-bit MAME with x, y, and z patches).

If you are strictly referring to MAME with your questions, you should be fine with an onboard graphics card. MAME doesn't use any 3D or even 2D acceleration, so any modern computer's onboard card should suffice. As for memory, I seriously doubt that you would see any difference in speed of MAME if you bought the low spec vs the high spec memory. I would think you should be fine with 2GB of value ram (good brand's have value lines like Kingston). Keep in mind that if you choose to get 4GB+ of memory, you will need a 64-bit OS to address it all. As for the sound card, you can use the onboard card just fine. You may notice some performance increase if you opt for an addon card, but it depends on what CPU and how much memory you get. For reference, all of my computers have onboard sound and have for the last ~10 years. The quality they produce is perfectly adequate in a modern system, so unless you have special needs or some burning desire, you should be fine. And YES, the motherboard matters! It's more a matter of brand than what's on it though. If you get a POS board (PC Chips, ECS, etc), you may be fine. However, I have had bad experiences with these boards and given a choice, I would opt for a good brand for about the same price.

I wouldn't call it a cheap os. I would call it a specialized OS. Basically, MS stripped everything out of the Windows Server 2003 that a home user wouldn't want/need and added some cool features that require addins and/or heavy configuration to get going right. One nice thing is that it's supposed to be completely headless like a true server should be. I haven't purchased my WHS software yet, but I plan on getting it soon for my RAID server. It's currently running 32-bit XP, but I need to get it running a 64-bit OS so that I can address larger than 2TB (when I add the next drive to it).

Thanks Brian!

Wow, that's weird. It looks like it initializes the emulators more than once. I doubt it's related, but I haven't seen that before in my logs. I'll have to pay closer attention.

Are you talking about the animated background, or are you talking about a preview of the game? If you are using the movie as a preview (a small video where the snaps normally go), then there was just a thread where Circo put a link to his Emumovie FAQ. Long story short, GameEx requires you have the non-letterbox movies (3:4) for vertical games in order for things to work correctly.

It looks like GameEx doesn't support UNC naming. If that's the case, you will have to map the drive to a drive letter. If it's not working, it might be because the server is set to a power saving mode where it takes too long to respond to GameEx and thus times out. In any case, this sounds like a network setup problem to me. That is the type of thing professionals take careers to master! However, there's no reason why it can't work for you, it just might take some ingenuity.

Not strictly required... You can either set everything you want via the command line OR via the MAME.ini file. I personally prefer using the ini file to set everything up and have a clear command line that only sends the name of the rom. Of course, it's up to each user which way they want to go.