60 in 1 vs MAME vs Dedicated Board

jot3

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I've heard some mixed stories about the 60 in 1 boards. I'm wondering how close they are to the real boards. As many have probably experienced, MAME is fun, but it has limitations on reproducing the sounds on certain games as well as other twitches from time to time.

I'm wondering if the 60 in 1 games are really all hardware best cloning the actual game or if it is just an emulator on board??

Also,is the 60 in 1 boards software emulated or hardware emulated?

Thx for any info you can provide. I'm not sure if I'm asking my questions clearly, so hopefully they make sense. I figure if the 60 in 1 board isn't exactly the same as the arcade board, then I'll go dedicated. Games like Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers never seem to sound correct with MAME, so I've never experienced the 60 in 1 board.
 
Donkey Kong on 60-1 plays very close to real.
Donkey Kong Jr. has some funky sound variations, like climbing.

for what you pay which is in the $75 range anymore. it's a great bang for the buck.
don't like it, throw it away.

I put a 60-1 together for my wife's daycare and the kids absolutely love it. it's bullet proof and easy for them to navigate.

for myself I have the phoenixarcade board, but it has a cost and it's not nearly as userfriendly.
 
I enjoy the 60in1 for what it is, but if its a game you REALLY like, just get the real deal. The 60in1 isn't perfect, but I do play mine a lot.
 
The 60 in 1 is nothing more than MAME on a board, with very limited game support. A really OLD version of MAME, at that. Any glitches you notice in current MAME will probably be on the 60-in-1. The only advantage is that they are relatively cheap and easy.

They work fairly well for what they are. Sound in some games is a bit off, etc. But by and large, it's passable. Die hard gamers like myself will notice the difference, but casual people will not. They're fun, easy, and JAMMA.

If you want authentic - the only way to go is the real thing though.

-Ian
 
I've thrown together mame setups for about the same cash output, since all I really need is the JPAC ($54) and a 20w sound amplifier ($21). The PC is usually something saved from the trash (we toss out machines older than 5yrs where I work), $0. I then get to hand pick what games I want to load (the less, the better actually - keeps it uncluttered) and I know how to tweak settings to get rid of sound stutters, screen tearing, making it as close to original as possible. I prefer the real deal, but only have room for 18 games, so typical "joystick" games get represented by the multi-game machines (one for vertical games, one for horizontal). The XX-in-1 boards are good for less savvy enthusiasts, I just prefer the freedom of creating my own experience, from the "attract mode" sounds it plays to the screen saver videos or snapshots I choose to feature.
 
I've thrown together mame setups for about the same cash output, since all I really need is the JPAC ($54) and a 20w sound amplifier ($21). The PC is usually something saved from the trash (we toss out machines older than 5yrs where I work), $0. I then get to hand pick what games I want to load (the less, the better actually - keeps it uncluttered) and I know how to tweak settings to get rid of sound stutters, screen tearing, making it as close to original as possible. I prefer the real deal, but only have room for 18 games, so typical "joystick" games get represented by the multi-game machines (one for vertical games, one for horizontal). The XX-in-1 boards are good for less savvy enthusiasts, I just prefer the freedom of creating my own experience, from the "attract mode" sounds it plays to the screen saver videos or snapshots I choose to feature.

there are cheaper alternatives to a jpac, i think groovy gamer gear has a interface for 30$ and get a 10$ set of pc speakers to use and your good
 
Do not get them.

Almost all the sounds are bad, and some have bad color. Some have bootlegged ROMS.
DK has more "smooth" sounds and some are too high pitched.
DK Jr. has some odd sounds, I haven't played that one much on those boards.
ALL the Pac-Man series have bad sounds. Pac-Man sounds like the Plug & Play version.
Those are the only games I've played on them, but I've veard there are more bad games on there.
There are bootlegs, be careful.
I would avoid them.
 
Do not get them.

Almost all the sounds are bad, and some have bad color. Some have bootlegged ROMS.
DK has more "smooth" sounds and some are too high pitched.
DK Jr. has some odd sounds, I haven't played that one much on those boards.
ALL the Pac-Man series have bad sounds. Pac-Man sounds like the Plug & Play version.
Those are the only games I've played on them, but I've veard there are more bad games on there.
There are bootlegs, be careful.
I would avoid them.

and the average user would not notice these. i know its emulated so it doesnt bother me if they are a little off
 
I can not stand Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, but I'm just a purist when it comes to gameplay.
 
The 60 in 1 is nothing more than MAME on a board, with very limited game support. A really OLD version of MAME, at that. Any glitches you notice in current MAME will probably be on the 60-in-1. The only advantage is that they are relatively cheap and easy.

Mame .36 circa 2001. 11 years old, cross-compiled to the low power processor, full of input lag, horrendous sound, bad (fake) colors before all color proms were dumped for mame.

But for $70 they're good for a LOT of people--just not us purists.

Even ArcadeSD, while leaps and bounds better, still isn't the same as a real board. If you want 100% purity, then you must go with a real board -- emulation simply won't be the same.
 
there are cheaper alternatives to a jpac, i think groovy gamer gear has a interface for 30$ and get a 10$ set of pc speakers to use and your good

I've seen USB widgets down at the $20 mark to run joystick & button inputs, but the JPAC also has a video amplifier on-board (and a full jamma interface) which I need. The unamplified signal yields a very bad picture. I like the $21 amp because it can drive the 8ohm speakers already in the cabinet and has mounting ears, giving me a volume control right inside the coin door. But yeah, it'd be neat to see just how little you can spend on this...
 
I enjoy the 60in1 for what it is, but if its a game you REALLY like, just get the real deal. The 60in1 isn't perfect, but I do play mine a lot.

Agreed.

Even though I'm putting in a 60-in-1 board in a cabinet restore project for games I like / want to have there are a few classics that I want to be original / dedicated (Ms Pac man + Centipede). As much as possible I want original boards and original cabs, but one must prioritize based on budget and space available.
 
Don't need uber-fancy menus. I don't need 3,232,538 games. Just the classics with accurate and consistent performance.

Agreed. This is why I don't do MAME or the 1000-in-1 boards. I absolutely think having all that actually dilutes what you have with too much noise. Hell, I'm hoping I can "turn off" games in a 60-in-1 so I can whittle it down to the 20 or so I want... the rest is just Clutter, and I hate clutter.
 
I just started but as much as possible I'd like to play with the real deal. Emulators are nice but they never work quite right which is why I bought the machine I have. I wanted to play things just like they were back in the 90s and also to get games that may never see the light of day again legally.

Mame is ok, 60-1 ok but off but nothing beats the real deal as long as it lasts...
 
I have a mame machine for the fighter games running Game EX and such, as I have limited cab space...lol.
I agree I don't need 3 million versions of the King of Fighters.

My problem is how to sort through all the ROM and such. I don't want to delete one by one. I don't have time for that. Not sure if there is a program that can do that for me.

Anyways, I also have a 60 in 1 and it gets a lot of play and for the price I can't complain. Yep sounds are a little off and such. But it's nice that I can turn off the offending games. However I do like the Speedy Pac-Man Jr. that is a challenging game.
 
there is a high probability that you may have played a multi board in a dedicated machine in an arcade or location before.
if you set it to just one game you don't get the multi menu.

and if you aren't familiar with the sound or play variations, then it may well go unnoticed.
 
Emulators are nice but they never work quite right...
Mame is ok, 60-1 ok but off but nothing beats the real deal as long as it lasts...

This is true for many games, but some are reaching a point of dead-perfect emulation. MAME is still evolving. The main problem with the multi-boards is that they're just not up to speed yet.

Donkey Kong, for example, is now 99.9% in MAME. The only difference at this point is a very slight one in the jump sound. The walking sound on the multi-boards still sounds like crap, but newer multis will solve that.

I'm confident that emulation of most or all games will eventually be perfect. When they start re-making these multiboards using the latest emulation, they're going to be nigh-indistinguishable.

What will never be replaceable (short of reproductions) is the particular aesthetics of the cabinets. The question is how much that matters, and everybody has to answer that for themselves. It'll also be different by game. A dedicated Tron cabinet will always be something special, both aesthetically and in terms of controls. The cabinet is a goddamn beauty and nothing is going to work like the spinner but a spinner. But a Mortal Kombat? You're not losing much. With a few exceptions, cabinet design really became kind of utilitarian and uninteresting by the mid 80's (intentionally to at least some degree). I'm not sure how much if any of the JAMMA era needs to be preserved.
 
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MAME is still evolving.

The problem is Mame is evolving to be the emulator for ALL things and not specializing on anything or the original goals.

There are large fights going on about what direction it should take, especially after the introduction of a whole bunch of non-arcade-videogame (in the sense we all consider that to be here) including gambling machines.

There are many, many, many old bugs that simply are not fixed because the intent seems to be:
1) Add as many new roms / platform support as possible
2) Constantly change the underlying frameworks to some new 'architecturaly pure-er' design that will support some new game better causing breakage of old games that aren't retested.

I stopped acquiring complete distributions around .128 or so IIRC. Lightly browsing some of the blogs and forum posts there seems to be a lot of disagreement from the oldtimers to newtimers of the direction. It doesn't seem to be the same community it once was with many different goals and therefore more problems.

You need one or two people with a hard passion for a certain set of games and with knowlege to deliver excellent, bug free implementations of them. You can't do that with Mame and 6000+ roms. THerefore you get the others of the likes of JROK and Multi-Williams board, Clay and his classic multi's that shared the same hardware, and to a lesser extent the all-in-one ArcadeSD (showing you can't do it all with all the little issues here and there), to Mike and the multi-pac's, to others that concentrate on one hardware solution and deliver at 100%.

You just have to be satisifed with those limited choices if you want 100% authentic multi's, otherwise you live with the issues delivered by the ones with more selection.
 
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