Mame in cab thread. Frontends, gamelists, configuration etc.

[cools]

Ordered.

http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/342603"

Could save £40 going with the i3 but seemed sensible to go with the extra, Groovy can use multiple threads better than normal MAME. And 5% single thread extra isn't to be sniffed at.

[markedkiller78]

i5 2400s do the job?

[cools]

I'm using an E5200 in my Pony and its fine for everything pre-Playstation era, and most 2D stuff since then. The 3ghz C2D in work struggles with some 3D stuff but I think that's more down to running them in a weird video mode, there's nothing much 3D I want to run anyway so I've not checked into it much.

CV1000 is the biggy I want to mess around with. The i5 I've picked up is apparently double the performance of either of those. I can run the games at the moment but only at 60/70%

Do you have stuff knocking around or are you buying specifically?

If I had to guess based on what I've tried you should be okay with that but you'd be scraping by

[markedkiller78]

Buying. Just spotted one on AVF for £65.

[markedkiller78]

Any ideas on amd chips? Itx stuff is cheap for AMD.

[pubjoe]

Traditionally Intel has always had the edge due to Mame's need for raw processing power. I assume Intel chips still have that edge but I've not kept up with it for many years.

Worth research if there's a big difference in cost.

[cools]

Big lag behind in performance. Good multicore but single thread woeful.

You must have some PC lying around? Grab a compatible graphics card and see if you get on with it first before spending wads.

I've tried the whole super mini thing multiple times and wasted money and time on it...

[markedkiller78]

Fair point. I have at least 2 64bit chips here. I'll see how I go, I'll be running it 720p so gpu is less of an issue (I think) but thought it would be wise to have thespian of 15k

[cools]

If you're not using HLSL then GPU is a non issue. Mind you even a HD 4000 will do for most of that.

[cools]

I have a case, graphics card, big SSD, HDD (why - I found it sitting idle), JVS-PAC. Fingers crossed the motherboard, CPU and RAM turn up tomorrow.

[cools]

Fair point. I have at least 2 64bit chips here. I'll see how I go, I'll be running it 720p so gpu is less of an issue (I think) but thought it would be wise to have thespian of 15k

Had to swap GFX cards last night (Win 7 on the new box at the moment) so while I had the old machine out I gave GroovyArcade a bash again, with the latest GroovyMAME executable. It works really well, better performance than on XP (some bugs with the beta release I had to work around though). Futari BL was actually playable, albeit in a weird way. I'd reduced the audio_latency to 1.0 prior which made the sound break up very badly throughout, except during the parts of stages where there's clearly programmed in slowdown - when the emulation became perfect. The normal CPU load slowdown just made the audio stutter more, the video itself was fine. Or at least felt fine.

Don't think there'll be much requirement for too massive CPU once the emulation is sorted, though I'm just guessing at that.

New machine boots to desktop in about 7 seconds

[cools]

And emulates SH3 games at about 250% minimum unthrottled, perfect sound. DS MBL is quite difficult with no slowdown. Also quite happy with PSX era stuff (Mr Driller and Tekken Tag are spotless).

That'll do.

[joeblade]

I have a case, graphics card, big SSD, HDD (why - I found it sitting idle), JVS-PAC. Fingers crossed the motherboard, CPU and RAM turn up tomorrow.

What cpu/gfx card did you go with in the end cools?

[cools]

Ahh, sorry.

Case: Advantech IPC-5120
CPU: Intel i5 4690
Mobo: Gigabyte H81M-H
RAM: 2x Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC3-12800 CL9
Gfx: Radeon HD 4350 (note DX10 cards only for Win 7, older ones won't work with CRT_Emudriver)
SSD: 512GB Crucial M4
Backup HDD: 500GB Velociraptor (the SSD is in a swappable bay, so keeping a backup of all the files on another drive means messing with Windows/Linux is easy)

[cools]

I'm struggling to find anything this CPU can't handle that's actually also emulated well (in MAME). Gradius 4 runs fine as long as Groovy doesn't pick an interlaced mode, Cotton Boomerang is poor (though I think that's just a resolution thing as other STV stuff runs flawlessly). System12 is fine, as is Killer Instinct.

The harshest I can find is MK4 but it copes at 150%.

[cools]

It's the initial catagorisation method I'm interested in.

Filed, or Tagged.

The beauty of tags is that you shouldn't have to specify if you're searching for a manufacturer, or game type, you can be lazy in choosing variables, and hard to define games don't have to be pigeon holed.

With games, there's so much overlap between genres. For example, mature games are a nightmare to catagorise with the filing method.

Mame has a large but manageable database size, multiple genres, and a huge userbase (tags work best with community input). I can't think of a more perfect subject for tagging. A tag selection 'cloud' is also ideal for frontends too.

Tagging now available in Attract Mode. Dead simple implementation.

Example:
Romlist is c:\attractmode\romlists\mame.txt
Favourites (plain text list of romnames) is c:\attractmode\romslists\mame.tag
Tag files (plain text list of romnames) in c:\attractmode\romlists\mame\ - Cave.tag , Shooter.tag etc

Filters can be built based on the usual stuff, but use the tags.

Requires a keyboard for filter/tag setup, but in theory it would be possible to scrape say history.dat into .tag files...

[joeblade]

I'm struggling to find anything this CPU can't handle that's actually also emulated well (in MAME). Gradius 4 runs fine as long as Groovy doesn't pick an interlaced mode, Cotton Boomerang is poor (though I think that's just a resolution thing as other STV stuff runs flawlessly). System12 is fine, as is Killer Instinct.

The harshest I can find is MK4 but it copes at 150%.

Checked this cpu and it's actually pretty near to my i7 2600k which runs everything fine.

Some STV and Cave stuff seem to be the best for taxing the cpu (unless it's another resolution issue but i doubt it with kuro), radiant silvergun and ibara kuro being good examples.

Updated HS to 0.153 earlier and it was a rather painless affair surprise, surprise. Modified xml went in nicely and hypersync updated everything it could, still missing some art though as is always the case with HS!

[cools]

Indeed. I assume you'e overclocking that one? Would be interesting to see a raw MAME benchmark between the two.

[pubjoe]

DisplayCollapse view

It's the initial catagorisation method I'm interested in.

Filed, or Tagged.

The beauty of tags is that you shouldn't have to specify if you're searching for a manufacturer, or game type, you can be lazy in choosing variables, and hard to define games don't have to be pigeon holed.

With games, there's so much overlap between genres. For example, mature games are a nightmare to catagorise with the filing method.

Mame has a large but manageable database size, multiple genres, and a huge userbase (tags work best with community input). I can't think of a more perfect subject for tagging. A tag selection 'cloud' is also ideal for frontends too.

Tagging now available in Attract Mode. Dead simple implementation.

Example:
Romlist is c:\attractmode\romlists\mame.txt
Favourites (plain text list of romnames) is c:\attractmode\romslists\mame.tag
Tag files (plain text list of romnames) in c:\attractmode\romlists\mame\ - Cave.tag , Shooter.tag etc

Filters can be built based on the usual stuff, but use the tags.

Requires a keyboard for filter/tag setup, but in theory it would be possible to scrape say history.dat into .tag files...

Thanks. I must give Attract Mode a try.

By the way, what's the best way you can think of to have a 'switch game' button in Mame?

I'm thinking of doing away with a (visible) frontend completely when the PC boots, and instead have a few favourites which can be cycled through at the press of a button - like an MVS Select button (and probably using savestates). As far as I'm aware, Mame can't do this, but Groovy does have a game select so it's nearly possible.

I know I could do it with a little on-exit script which modifies a list and relaunches, but this is much messier than I'd like - and there'd be a couple of extra resolution switches during the process of relaunching.

I suppose there's editing the source, but...

[cools]

If you fixed the resolution you could just call mame from a batch file with game switch on quit? And use save states to bypass self test routines.

You'd need a fast machine with a fast access drive.