I'm running MAME 214 in my cabinets...is it worth upgrading anymore?

IMBerzerk

IMBerzerk

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I have 5 MAME cabinets total. 1 vertical, 2 horizontal and 1 Cafe ( 2 sided).

Everything I have works good in MAME 214, but apparently things have changed with sounds and maybe other aspects that are more accurate but I only run the old classics...no fighting, adult based, or stuff like that. (I'm still hoping to see a better, complete Space Guerilla ROM some day).

Is it worth the work to upgrade as I'd have to replace all of my ROMs to the new standards.

I ask because I'm getting old now and it's time I had a system to rebuild the PC, game files and all that it needs to get the cabinet running as easy as possible in case my cabinets get "passed along". I want the most reliable and up-to-date stuff so that no one has to go back and try to find anything outdated to make it work.

Thanks!

JamR
 
There is zero reason to update MAME if the games you are playing all run fine. If you're happy with how stuff is running, I wouldn't even bother, and there is also a chance the newer versions don't fix any issues you may be experiencing. MAME updates can also break stuff that works fine so you need to be careful in that aspect.
 
Newer builds continue to require more processing power so there is that also.
I know MAME is optimized for Intel processors also but I have no idea what generation one is recommended as a minimum to run everything playable currently.
 
I didn't even think of that aspect... Very true. I'll stay with what works. Last thing I want in this stage of my life is more headaches.
 
My last upgrade was to enable Akka Arrh. After that, never felt the need to go through the ass pain again (and the recent analog sound routines slow down so many of the classics as to make it far from worth the trouble).
 
purbeast said:
There is zero reason to update MAME if the games you are playing all run fine. If you're happy with how stuff is running, I wouldn't even bother, and there is also a chance the newer versions don't fix any issues you may be experiencing. MAME updates can also break stuff that works fine so you need to be careful in that aspect.
Click to expand...
I've run into this myself. Games that ran great 50-100 versions ago are now broken or they run worse. How does that happen?!?!

Scott C.
 
Could switch to Mistercade, FPGA emulation is better than MAME if you're looking for accuracy. Downside is the selection is smaller but there are tons of Mistercade cores and more being added. They do have a limit though, something like the PSX core uses up almost the entire FPGA so there isn't really room for the additional chips that PSX based arcade games used.

Though with my Mame setup on my PC, I'd just keep it as is if it works. It's annoying that you can download a set of ROMS but they're somehow not the right version that your version of MAME needs and the only surefire way to make sure it works is just by downloading a complete set of ROMS.
 
Texas_Funnyhair said:
It's annoying that you can download a set of ROMS but they're somehow not the right version that your version of MAME needs and the only surefire way to make sure it works is just by downloading a complete set of ROMS.
Click to expand...

The reason ROMS sometimes need updating is because it turns out that previous versions were using a bad set of ROMS and a better (or more complete) dump is now available.

Ugh, don't download a complete set of ROMS. Use a ROM manager. It will tell you what you need or don't need. Save yourself a ton of hassle.
 
journeymandt said:
What version of mame are you running for raster stuff?

Have you found a good version to be running on usbdvg and VCSTM?

Thanks,
Dylan
Click to expand...

Give Arcade64 0.280 a shot. Arcade64 removes all the MESS stuff so it's JUST working arcade games. The built in frontend makes everything a breeze. The only bug I found with it is if you enable scanlines it applies them to vector games. So I created a separate raster.ini with the scanlines effect in it.
 
There are a LOT of aspects to MAME that most people aren't aware of that is responsible for the quirks that those of us who just want to play the freakin games find frustrating, but there are reasons (and reasonable ones) from the dev side.

Open rant/
The stated purpose of the project is preservation of the games and the stuff that they ran on as most of those originals continue their slide into oblivion.

Playing the games as they accomplish this lofty goal is a fun consequence of the goal of preservation.of it all.
Those guys developing this software not only do this shit for free, they are also walking a fine legal liability line of preservation vs. piracy so they deserve a lot of slack for this alone.

We ALL benefit from this effort, even if you are somebody with original boards whose shit blows up and somebody in the MAME dev loop somehow found/created a clean dump of your obscure machine and you can reburn a romset and keep your stuff running.

As they continue to work on increasing the accuracy of the emulation they have developed they learn better ways to go about it and actually keep getting closer to 100% accuracy.
May never get there but they are trying, and it is adding some of the weird stuff (like analog sound from days long gone by now in a digital world) that makes this shit extra crazy.

It is beginning to require some pretty fast hardware to keep up.
Those guys in the 80s and 90s did some pretty amazing stuff with the hardware available at the time and integrating all of this on a program that runs on a PC or a Pi ain't easy.

As far as downloading roms is concerned the hashes for those massive piles of data don't break up nicely on the edges of "All I want is DK Jr and Ms Pac" and the idea of course is everyone sharing the burden of managing stuff they don't want (that others do) in order to get what they DO want (that some might not give a shit about.)
I'm pulling the CHDs right now again as a full file (long story) and I don't want the whole terabyte of this crap of course, but that's part of the deal if you're playing fair.

Back when you needed to have an account in good standing at the PD site if you were even caught with too low a sharing ratio frequently enough you got booted.
No roms for you!

I don't grumble myself anyway.
I can't do any of this stuff myself and am grateful to play these games again, especially on a CRT using real controls in a fashion I can't distinguish from authentic 40 yrs later now.

Rock on devs of all types of game preservation/emulation/recreation/reproduction/etc.
I love you.
Please don't tell my girlfriend.
/End rant :beerchug:
 
The question to ask yourself is... "What am I trying to accomplish?" As stated above, if you're happy with the games that are playing on your current rig, why mess with it? That said, there have been a number games made playable since .214...
 
FrizzleFried said:
The question to ask yourself is... "What am I trying to accomplish?" As stated above, if you're happy with the games that are playing on your current rig, why mess with it? That said, there have been a number games made playable since .214...
Click to expand...
That exactly why.. I'm over 75 versions back from what I have, so there is always a curiosity to what's new and what might be better...but not at the cost of playability and performance.

Thanks for all the excellent insight and advice. I'll experiment on a separate PC, grab a ROM manager and see where I'm at.

JamR
 
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