Noob questions

[KF2VS]

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a Mame cab for a while now and it is almost complete. I have just gotten the computer I am going to use. It uses the AMD Sempron cpu running at 1.8 ghz with Windows XP. I've been pouring over the different websites reading up on the different front ends. I like what I read about GameEx but I am confused about a few things so bear with me. The machine I have obviously does not have MCE, so is it possible to use GameEx without slowing it down? From what I understand you need the .net framework which is a pretty hefty download. I am trying to understand if this would worki on my setup. The next obvious question is how hard is this to implement. I am just grasping the whole mame concept, and many if not all of the front ends dont really give the beginner much info on how to get started. Any help and info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Adrian

[Adultery]

Hello, and welcome!

For starts...

I use GameEx on my cab and I love it. MameWah seems a little basic for me, and my cab is still impressing the sh*t out of everyone who lays eyes on it - even though my decals haven't come in yet and it's not much to look at physically.

There's a whole community here who live to help people set up any and every emulator possible to make your setup easy to install.

There's a website that can walk you through GameEx configuration tab by tab and step by step. Go there if you need help along the way or want handy links for downloading photos and bezels and such.

The framework download isn't bad if you consider what it does for you, and on a 1.8g processor your speed limits should not even be a concern while using GameEx.

As I said before, almost everyone here has probably had a problem similar to any you'll encounter, so ask if you need further assistance.

Hope that helps!

[KF2VS]

I've checked the link you provided and went to the easy setup but the page is blank. Are they still working on it? I have not downloaded any version of the Mame software yet. Which should I use for GameEx, the command line or Mame32 version? BTW I have a set of ROMS that were given to me but they are something like version .96. Will these work with the current version of the Mame emu?

Adrian

[Adultery]

I've checked the link you provided and went to the easy setup but the page is blank. Are they still working on it? I have not downloaded any version of the Mame software yet. Which should I use for GameEx, the command line or Mame32 version? BTW I have a set of ROMS that were given to me but they are something like version .96. Will these work with the current version of the Mame emu?

Adrian

Wow! Starting out early on.

MAME or MAME32 - up to you which one you use. MAME32 is a front-end version of MAME, most of us (I assume) use plain old MAME or an alternate build like MAMEFX, MAMEPLUS, ADVANCEMAME, etc. The choice is all yours.

The ROM set you have is terribly out-of-date so I recommend auditing your ROMS with clrMAMEpro or what not. That's a whole other beast - get MAME running before you attempt to run a check on those.

The basic config is blank, yes and I am working on it, but the advance configuration section should be nearly 100% so if you don't know what an option does you can reference it before you make any changes.

Hope that helps!

[Will]

As far as which version of mame to use, I recommend using Mame32 despite the fact that adultery said most people use plain old mame. If you use mame you need to specify which options you want to use (resolution, rendering method, etc) on the command line when you run mame (or in GameEx if you use it). If you use Mame32 you can open it and set up all your options with a GUI, then just use mame32.exe with no options and Mame32 remembers your settings. In my opinion this is easier than remembering all the switches. There is really no performance hit in doing this.

And yes, absolutely update your roms before you are finished. As far as getting things set up and going it doesn't make much difference, but there have been HUGE updates since that version and you don't have but probably 60% of the games working.

On the hardware side of things...your processor is plenty adequate for running mame and gameex. If you want some of the extra eye candy (it looks AMAZING even without it!) you'll need a decent video card. My recommendation to you is to go for a gig of RAM, though. I started with 512 and began to get pissed at how long it would take to audit my roms, load gameex, boot, etc. Not necessary but made my life much happier.

Be sure to find a good tutorial for CLRMame before you get started auditing. And be sure to ask questions

[KF2VS]

I currently have 256 megs ram and I wasnt planning on upgrading. I have a certain budget I'm trying to stick with. If upgrading the memory is going to make a HUGE difference in the game play itself then I might consider it. As for the video card, I picked up an MSI card with the Radeon 9550 chip. It has 64 megs of video Ram along with S video output. I'm thinking this will be sufficient.

The current ROMS and Mame I have were given to me by a coworker. I was able to copy the whole Mame folder from his working mame cabinet. As I said previously they were version .86 if I am not mistaken. I don't know if he is using Mame32 or a command line version since I have not loaded it in the computer I will be using. That being said can someone clarify a few things for me?

1. If I want to update the ROMS I have, do I need to get a whole complete set of ROMS at the current build?

2. I dont what type of Mame software he has now but if I download the latest version of Mame32 will it work with the ROMS I have?

3. What exactly is CLRMame? I gathered it's for auditing the ROMS but does it delete the ROMS that are incompatable with the current version of Mame, does it update the ROMS?

Thanks for all the help

Adrian

[Adultery]

Well for starts...

You don't have sufficient memory to really run much.

If you have MAME .86 (thought you said you had .96 before) you have a loooong way to go - unless you use the build that goes with the ROM set (ie - MAME .86 exe)

You won't get much performance out of a cab using such low specs.

I know that wasn't what you wanted to hear... Sorry.

[KF2VS]

I was under the impression that mame didnt require much in the way of a computer. I've read that there are people running Pentium II computers. If I upgraded to 512 meg will that be a sufficient amount?

I've been doing quite a bit of reading on ROMS. Am I correct that if the ROMS are .96 then the Mame build has to be .96 as well?

Should I just download a complete set of .107 or try upgrading the set I currently have?

Thanks

[Ricci]

In my experience, MAME requires very little as far as hardware requirements. I ran mine on an old 486 for many years in the good ol' days. Memory is the main issue, especially with the higher graphically demanding games, and a good video card never hurts. I just switched to a PIII last year, and my test machine is a P4.

[emphatic]

adultery: Nice website, great work!

ricci: You should look at the advanced setup http://www.hfc-essentials.net/gameex/advan...amesettings.php first of all. If you look at the page, you'll see that it's not that advanced.

And if you just point every path correctly (with copy and paste it's really fast setting things up) getting GameEx to run you games is really a nobrainer. Don't be intimidated by getting the newest roms and so on. Just give it a shot using your current rom library with your current mame version. You can always get the latest version of mame+roms later.

Emph

[Will]

I currently have 256 megs ram and I wasnt planning on upgrading. I have a certain budget I'm trying to stick with. If upgrading the memory is going to make a HUGE difference in the game play itself then I might consider it. As for the video card, I picked up an MSI card with the Radeon 9550 chip. It has 64 megs of video Ram along with S video output. I'm thinking this will be sufficient.

The current ROMS and Mame I have were given to me by a coworker. I was able to copy the whole Mame folder from his working mame cabinet. As I said previously they were version .86 if I am not mistaken. I don't know if he is using Mame32 or a command line version since I have not loaded it in the computer I will be using. That being said can someone clarify a few things for me?

1. If I want to update the ROMS I have, do I need to get a whole complete set of ROMS at the current build?

2. I dont what type of Mame software he has now but if I download the latest version of Mame32 will it work with the ROMS I have?

3. What exactly is CLRMame? I gathered it's for auditing the ROMS but does it delete the ROMS that are incompatable with the current version of Mame, does it update the ROMS?

Thanks for all the help

Adrian

Alright. I am on my lunch break and I am going to try and answer all your questions

First of all let me address your system memory. If you are only going to be running mame from the command line with a simple dos prompt (no Windows) then a 486 MIGHT be good on the older games. Newer games will not run (or be fun at least) on a processor that old. Since you are here in this forum we assume you will be using GameEx which requires WindowsXP. Running XP on 256 megs of RAM is just plain frustrating to me. Mame should be fine (with the exception of a few games), but everyday tasks such as auditing roms will just plain suck. And low rams adds a TON of time to your boot time, and GameEx loading time. I cut my "power on to playing" boot time in half by doubling my RAM to 1 gig. I can only imagine what 256 would be like. I have seen many ads for 512 megs of DDR400 for $30 after rebates. It will be worth it!

Your video card will be fine!

Your roms are pretty old. As long as you can find an older version of mame to match the roms, you should be able to play most of them. Version .86 is pretty darn old though and will be missing many newer supported games. I doubt you can find a version that old though. Maybe you could copy from your friend. The current version will be much more stable however, and probably give you better visuals. You could learn how to upgrade your current set to .107 but myself I would just start over. Once you are current it is fairly easy to keep up to date. As for using a new mame binary with your current set, my guess is many of the sets won't match the description that the mame binary has, and you will miss out on a lot anyway.

CLRMame is a program that will generate a list of supported games from the mame binary (which contains a full list for that version) and will help you to see how many of your files match what mame has. If they don't match, mame won't play them. CLRMame is smart enough to fix incorrect file sizes, dates, names, etc. It will tell you how many you are missing for the version of mame that you point it at. It will (if you choose the option) delete files that don't belong, and will keep and fix ones that do. It will not upgrade older sets to a newer set--it will simply fix naming errors, etc. Once you know how your collection stands, you can decide what to do next. If you decide to upgrade your current set you would prepare your set for whatever site you use by using torrentzip, and then joining a .107 torrent. Assuming you prepared your set in the correct way, you would be only downloading the ones that are different or new.

Like I said, for such an old set, and with the time it would take to learn all this stuff right now, I would just get a full .107 set and ditch the old one. But I think I would probably do this after the cabinet is built and working. Even with an old set and old mame you will still have plenty of games to play until you can update--getting the cabinet together, and all the software oiled and working is probably more important. For now, go for more RAM--it will make all the difference.

[jthompson]

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a Mame cab for a while now and it is almost complete. I have just gotten the computer I am going to use. It uses the AMD Sempron cpu running at 1.8 ghz with Windows XP. I've been pouring over the different websites reading up on the different front ends. I like what I read about GameEx but I am confused about a few things so bear with me. The machine I have obviously does not have MCE, so is it possible to use GameEx without slowing it down? From what I understand you need the .net framework which is a pretty hefty download. I am trying to understand if this would worki on my setup. The next obvious question is how hard is this to implement. I am just grasping the whole mame concept, and many if not all of the front ends dont really give the beginner much info on how to get started. Any help and info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Adrian

Just wanted to let you know that my cab has a P4 2gig with only 256 megs of ram. Running xp pro with NO extra software loading up at boot time. My cab runs XP, GameEx, and Mame just fine. I don't run any AV software on it because this just slows the system down. To get away with this I just do all my on-line stuff related to games and such on my other PC and then network it over to the cabinet after virus checks and what-not. I have the cab's network card disabled all the time unless I'm updating it. All game auditing and related stuff is also done mostly on my other computer as I generaly test everything on it before installing it on my cab. Sure 512 or 1024 megs or more would be better, but I thought you would like to know it can be done. Don't be discouraged, install GamEx and Mame and see how it works for you, you can always upgrade the memory later if its too slow.

As far as the outdated roms question goes, I would suggest running CLRMame or Romcenter (which is what I use by the way and it works great) or do nothing at all. When GamEx looks at your roms it won't show the unplayable ones so you won't get stuck with a list of Roms that when selected won't play, you'll just get the playable ones (althogh this would be unsatisfactory for me). I hope this helps you. The main thing is just experiment and see what works for you, and don't forget that the GameEx community is here to help if you need it.

Jay T

[KF2VS]

Thanks for the replies guys, you've been a great help. I installed the video card today. It's 64 megs which I figured would be better than using the onboard video and sharing the ram memory. I also copied the roms into this machine from a usb external hard drive that was loaned to me. That took a while. It's true I can always add memory if I have to so it's not something to lose sleep over.

Here is something that will make me toss and turn though....

I didnt have time to fool with it much since I had to get to work, but I managed to hooked up the tv to the s video connection on the video card. Well I am not impressed. I cant make out diddly on the desktop. I havent tried running mame yet but I'm hoping that it looks better than what I've got. I'm sitting here wondering how in the world I'm goingto be able to try it since I wont be able to make out the mame.exe file. I have the resolution set to 640x480 with large fonts but that isnt helping.

During the planning stages of this endeavor I decided to go with a tv. I dont plan on using this pc for anything other than mame so from what I've read the TV was supposed to work fine. Now I am not so sure. My concern is that once I install gamex I wont be able to see anything or take advantage of the layout in gamex. What does everyone suggest?

Adrian

[emphatic]

Thanks for the replies guys, you've been a great help. I installed the video card today. It's 64 megs which I figured would be better than using the onboard video and sharing the ram memory. I also copied the roms into this machine from a usb external hard drive that was loaned to me. That took a while. It's true I can always add memory if I have to so it's not something to lose sleep over.

Here is something that will make me toss and turn though....

I didnt have time to fool with it much since I had to get to work, but I managed to hooked up the tv to the s video connection on the video card. Well I am not impressed. I cant make out diddly on the desktop. I havent tried running mame yet but I'm hoping that it looks better than what I've got. I'm sitting here wondering how in the world I'm goingto be able to try it since I wont be able to make out the mame.exe file. I have the resolution set to 640x480 with large fonts but that isnt helping.

During the planning stages of this endeavor I decided to go with a tv. I dont plan on using this pc for anything other than mame so from what I've read the TV was supposed to work fine. Now I am not so sure. My concern is that once I install gamex I wont be able to see anything or take advantage of the layout in gamex. What does everyone suggest?

Adrian

S-Vhs isn't any good for reading small text on the screen, but for playing games or watching movies however, this it quite alright. What GameEx does that's gonna be of great help to you is that it will be a visual aid for you on your low resolution screen (tv) with it's large fonts and clear layout.

Install GameEx, set up your computer to load it with windows (Start menu -> Autostart) for example so you won't have to search for you tiny little icon. Try it with a 800 x 600 resolution.

Emph

[Ricci]

Component video is best or HDMI..s is crappy, rca is barely watchable depending on your card and or monitor.

[TimeBandit]

Thanks for the replies guys, you've been a great help. I installed the video card today. It's 64 megs which I figured would be better than using the onboard video and sharing the ram memory. I also copied the roms into this machine from a usb external hard drive that was loaned to me. That took a while. It's true I can always add memory if I have to so it's not something to lose sleep over.

Here is something that will make me toss and turn though....

I didnt have time to fool with it much since I had to get to work, but I managed to hooked up the tv to the s video connection on the video card. Well I am not impressed. I cant make out diddly on the desktop. I havent tried running mame yet but I'm hoping that it looks better than what I've got. I'm sitting here wondering how in the world I'm goingto be able to try it since I wont be able to make out the mame.exe file. I have the resolution set to 640x480 with large fonts but that isnt helping.

During the planning stages of this endeavor I decided to go with a tv. I dont plan on using this pc for anything other than mame so from what I've read the TV was supposed to work fine. Now I am not so sure. My concern is that once I install gamex I wont be able to see anything or take advantage of the layout in gamex. What does everyone suggest?

Adrian

Adrian,

I'm running a HTPC at 720x480 using component video out (best my analog TV supports). The resolution is extremely low for desktop use, but works just fine with Media Center and Game EX. You should be fine running your ROMs since most don't support higher resolutions. The only issue that you might encounter is if you want to run Amiga games or the like which require a higher resolution.

S-Video can only provide low resoultion support and the quality is okay. You will have to make a judgement call on the ROM game quality assuming thats your main concern. As you step up, you will probably want to go with a EDTV or HDTV that will support higher resolutions. These digital TVs support digital connectors. When you reach that point, you will want to get a new video card with a DVI connection (unless your onboard video has this already). DVI (or HDMI with an adapter) supports true digital high resolution and the quality will be as sharp and crisp as a high quality monitor.

The quality of your connection will matter so go in the following order from analog to digital.

Analog (from lowest quality to highest): Composite, S-Video, Component

Digital (higher resolution support): VGA, DVI (HDMI).

Hope that helps.

[Will]

I know you said you budget was of major importance on your project, but just so you know...TigerDirect has 21' monitors for $80 after rebates. GameEx offers external apps, web browsing and other options that make having a monitor nice. And $80 isn't too bad. And as long as you built a sturdy cabinet