multiple mame version

[tak]

I'm very new to mame. I found this frontend and I love it. I have bunch of games that I run with mame32 118, but I run killer instinct on mame32 103 since it doesn't run well with 118. I set up GameEX with 118. Of course some don't run in 103 so I'm stuck with using 118.

From searching and reading this forum, I gathered that I just need to set up 103 version as another emu, so I tried to go through setup wizard and used custom setup>clicked Emulation Selection and Emulation Setup as one of you posted (sorry I don't remember whom the credit is due). I'm clueless with command line stuff, so I set up working path to c:\mame32u103 and rom path to c:\mame32u103\roms since that's where my mame32 103 and roms are (actually kinst rom is in C:\mame32u103\roms\kinst. This folder contains kinst roms and chd file). I entered mame32.exe into command line. Both start page name and title text were set to "Killer instinct", so when I launch GameEX, it does show up under emulated games. When I click on play this game, the screen goes blank and nothing happens. I hit esc and it registers as being played.

I'm clueless, so I'm sure I'm missing something obvious. Your help is greatly appreciated, especially some step by step instructions. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm excited to learning this great frontend. Thanks.

[LB11]

You should move the rom to C:\mame32u103\roms\ and leave the CHD in the kinst folder

Then where it asks for roms you should have it set to the above path.

Working path should be s:\mame32u102\

and the command should be mame32.exe [rom] -rp "[rompath]" <add whatever other arguments you want here>

I believe that is right.

[tak]

Thanks, I'll try that tonight. A related question. When setting up the emulator in emulator selection within setup wizard, why mame isn't listed on the right? Since I didn't see it, I just deleted everything on the left column (there were 10 initially) and typed in a name in the first slot and enabled it, then went onto the next step. Did I mess up at this step (missing important configuration files, etc?) What does -rp mean?

[Brian Hoffman]

  tak said:

I'm very new to mame. I found this frontend and I love it. I have bunch of games that I run with mame32 118, but I run killer instinct on mame32 103 since it doesn't run well with 118. I set up GameEX with 118. Of course some don't run in 103 so I'm stuck with using 118.

From searching and reading this forum, I gathered that I just need to set up 103 version as another emu, so I tried to go through setup wizard and used custom setup>clicked Emulation Selection and Emulation Setup as one of you posted (sorry I don't remember whom the credit is due). I'm clueless with command line stuff, so I set up working path to c:\mame32u103 and rom path to c:\mame32u103\roms since that's where my mame32 103 and roms are (actually kinst rom is in C:\mame32u103\roms\kinst. This folder contains kinst roms and chd file). I entered mame32.exe into command line. Both start page name and title text were set to "Killer instinct", so when I launch GameEX, it does show up under emulated games. When I click on play this game, the screen goes blank and nothing happens. I hit esc and it registers as being played.

I'm clueless, so I'm sure I'm missing something obvious. Your help is greatly appreciated, especially some step by step instructions. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm excited to learning this great frontend. Thanks.

Id recommend upgrading to mame 120 as Kinst isnt broken anymore.

[bkenobi]

This has been requested a few times in the past. Seems like it's about time someone who has this set up correctly add it to the Emulators INI database so that it can be selected and easily installed (just like ZSNES, Nestopia, etc.).

[Brian Hoffman]

  bkenobi said:

This has been requested a few times in the past. Seems like it's about time someone who has this set up correctly add it to the Emulators INI database so that it can be selected and easily installed (just like ZSNES, Nestopia, etc.).

Well Id use batch files... I mean your only going to use this the play the FEW games that your main build wont play.

So

Romfilter=*.bat

Rompath=Folder where batfiles are

Working path=Folder where batfiles are

command="[rompath]/[romfile]"

Sample batch file

@echo off

cd

c:\mame103\

mame.exe kinst -joy

Make a batch file for each game and call it a day..

[tak]

Thanks guys. I'm glad to hear that kinst is fixed in 0.120. Is the same true for kinst2? Actually, I didn't know that kinst was broken in earlier versions, I just thought it got slower somewhere along the development.

[Brian Hoffman]

  tak said:

Thanks guys. I'm glad to hear that kinst is fixed in 0.120. Is the same true for kinst2? Actually, I didn't know that kinst was broken in earlier versions, I just thought it got slower somewhere along the development.

Well It did work but was horrable slow even on modern systems... Broken isnt the most accurate term... But unplayable yes

and yes kinst2 works good also...

[enoch]

  Brian Hoffman said:

Well Id use batch files... I mean your only going to use this the play the FEW games that your main build wont play.

Actually, some might use it for various whole versions on one system. I think I was the first to ask about this...maybe a couple others have, but I think it's pretty uncommon, as most people either have an arcade monitor and run native, or they don't and they don't. In my case, I have two 27's on one system, one switches, one doesn't, and sometimes regardless of monitor I like to go nude, so to speak, with hwstretch or D3D sans effects.

[Brian Hoffman]

  enoch said:

Actually, some might use it for various whole versions on one system. I think I was the first to ask about this...maybe a couple others have, but I think it's pretty uncommon, as most people either have an arcade monitor and run native, or they don't and they don't. In my case, I have two 27's on one system, one switches, one doesn't, and sometimes regardless of monitor I like to go nude, so to speak, with hwstretch or D3D sans effects.

Yeah not alot of people emulate/simulate scanlines... I output to a TV it ISNT arcade perfect... however I dont have those Jaggies taht CRT and LCD Monitors have... So it was a compromise... As Im sure you are aware those scanline artworks arent arcade perfect for every game..

This has been brought up before and yes you were one of the users here that have recently created topics about this. Its just not alot of peeps do this.. And in this forum youll either get alot of feedback on a topic or you wont... Generally within 24hrs of your post topic the most vocal users here will respond.. Otherwise it could just be that the handfull of peeps that go out of the way and help either dont know for varous reasons.

Wow now Im just rambiling and mispelling words.. Heh what else is new? Pehaps I should go to bed

Later guys

Brian Hoffman

[Brian Hoffman]

  LB11 said:

You should move the rom to C:\mame32u103\roms\ and leave the CHD in the kinst folder

Then where it asks for roms you should have it set to the above path.

Working path should be s:\mame32u102\

and the command should be mame32.exe [rom] -rp "[rompath]" <add whatever other arguments you want here>

I believe that is right.

Wouldnt you want a map file for this? lets face it mame roms are not named the most elegantly?

I mean [Rom] would be the name of the ZIP

[enoch]

  Brian Hoffman said:

Yeah not alot of people emulate/simulate scanlines... I output to a TV it ISNT arcade perfect... however I dont have those Jaggies taht CRT and LCD Monitors have... So it was a compromise... As Im sure you are aware those scanline artworks arent arcade perfect for every game..

- actually, a lot of people use the {new} effects on LCDs. I dont' have one, anymore, but this computer has a high-res CRT, and the lines don't quite add up with the graphics in an authentic way. The old effects, however, do. The problem is using them with hwstretch, as you get this horrible vertically graduated shading and overall dimming. On my non-switching CRT - using mame32 .104, DD, scanlines 25%, resolution set to desktop (or some specific resolution), and in some cases upping the (mame) brightness to 130 - I've gotten some very authentic-looking results.

So that makes four available versions: one DD+hwstretch for each monitor (accounting for differences in display color and brighness that requires adjustment in mame), one for native, and one for scanline effects.

- Jaggies?

- tv?...what connection format?...what mame flavor?

[Brian Hoffman]

  enoch said:

- actually, a lot of people use the {new} effects on LCDs. I dont' have one, anymore, but this computer has a high-res CRT, and the lines don't quite add up with the graphics in an authentic way. The old effects, however, do. The problem is using them with hwstretch, as you get this horrible vertically graduated shading and overall dimming. On my non-switching CRT - using mame32 .104, DD, scanlines 25%, resolution set to desktop (or some specific resolution), and in some cases upping the (mame) brightness to 130 - I've gotten some very authentic-looking results.

So that makes four available versions: one DD+hwstretch for each monitor (accounting for differences in display color and brighness that requires adjustment in mame), one for native, and one for scanline effects.

- Jaggies?

- tv?...what connection format?...what mame flavor?

Jaggies= The jagged edges of low rez pixels being displayed on a high res monitor.. Just doesnt look pretty

Tv= Simple toshiba I believe its 27 inches. Using Svideo and and an Nvidia card... I believe Im running at 800 x 600 res.

But when I compare my TV running street fighter 2 at 800x600 VS an lcd at 800x600 it is night and day diffrence.. The TV looks much better.

Im running the newest (vanilla) mame 120 u2

[enoch]

How are you getting SVGA on a tv? And, have you tried Advancemame?

[bkenobi]

Many NVidia cards have SVideo out built in. I suspect that's what Brian is doing. That's how I get video out of my Radeon.

[enoch]

No no. I meant the resolution SVGA (800*600). I didn't think a standard definition tv would accept above 640*480. At the very least, I thought it was desirable to run an SD tv at that.

[Brian Hoffman]

  enoch said:

No no. I meant the resolution SVGA (800*600). I didn't think a standard definition tv would accept above 640*480. At the very least, I thought it was desirable to run an SD tv at that.

I use Svideo and Weh I output to TV it lets me choose eiher 640x480 or 800x600... So I choose 800X600

[bkenobi]

I use SVideo out as well and have everything set to 800x600. BUT, you are correct that this is not the actual resolution sent to the TV. TV's can't display above ~500 lines which is typically sent as stretched 640x480 I believe. In any case, the drivers take care of it and I don't have to worry about what it's actually doing...it's just there.

[enoch]

Hm. I tried it out once, but maybe the card (ATI radeon 7000) was crappy or something, cos it was very fuzzy, and it was hard to get it centered using the ATI control panel. Having messed around with advancemame a bit lately, and gotten some interesting results on my PC and presentations monitors, I'm interested in trying it with a tv, but I don't have one handy anymore.

[bkenobi]

It's going to look fuzzy if you try to view the desktop. There is no way around low resolution! I kinda just got used to having a crappy windows desktop display on the TV since ideally I will never need it. I set up a second account to login remotely and manage anything that way.

[enoch]

Hm, I hadn't thought of doing that in that situation. And, I mean REALLY blurry. I think that card has died since, If I come across a tv, I have better cards now to try out.

[Brian Hoffman]

  enoch said:

Hm, I hadn't thought of doing that in that situation. And, I mean REALLY blurry. I think that card has died since, If I come across a tv, I have better cards now to try out.

Well the windows desktop is blurry but I use Gameex as my SHELL so I never even see it... And I have to say that the games look beautiful.

[bkenobi]

Same here. Windows desktop is REALLY blurry! But, GameEx looks great as do all games I've played on it. I have another machine running a CRT monitor and it looks great in Windows and great for the games as well. The difference is my TV is 27" but the monitor is only 19". I would take the 27" in a second!

[enoch]

Well, I obviously had bad component(s). Not only was windows blurry, but games looked like they were in the midst of fire - the image was wavy, like heated air. Of course, certain levels of Magic Sword look like this, but it's supposed to.

ben: did you get my request in the favorites.ini thread?