The best version of MAME, all things considered?

Little Nemo · Post by **Little Nemo** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:30 pm

At the moment, I use MAME32 version 0.90u1, as well as the Win-Kawaks CPSystem/CPSystem 2/Neo-Geo emulator, because it's so easy to use and much faster than MAME 0.90u1 for those games. My personal computer is an ant compared to the beasts of today, so this works great for me.

Still, Kawaks can't do everything, so I'll need a MAME for all those other great arcade games out there. I'm not sure as to what version of MAME I should actually go for, or if there even is a definitive version. I've also heard about all these other "flavors" of MAME that add all sorts of new things to it... it's very confusing! Can anyone give me a hand?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:39 pm

I use Mame32 as it allows you to select the resolution for each game (easily). I like the MameFX front end better, but I've not seen the options for resolutions in it (Auto only) and if it's something the Arcade VGA doesn't support (anything w/ 224 lines instead of 240) it will interlace the picture instead of finding the closest neighbor. Quite annoying.

I'm not sure about lag issues though. Maybe Reckless can jump in here. He seems to know a lot on that issue.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:47 pm

I use MAME32 (now MAMEUI32) whenever I can, but lately I've been spending more time with MAMEPlus! for its highly configurable autofire facility.

Little Nemo · Post by **Little Nemo** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:51 pm

MAME32FX looks interesting, sort of like that MAME Plus! I've heard about. It seems to have that autofire feature as well... maybe I should go for one of those two.

Thanks for the info, any idea what specific version number(s) I should target?

Shalashaska · Post by **Shalashaska** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:51 pm

+1 for MamePlus

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:31 pm

wolfmame 0.99

bitkid · Post by **bitkid** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:25 am

I use nFBA personally. MAME is great for a lot of purposes, but I find that nFBA has a much better user interface. It runs in a window by default which is great for me since I do a lot of muti-windowing on my compy.

Smraedis · Post by **Smraedis** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:53 pm

freddiebamboo wrote:wolfmame 0.99

^ This and .98 are what I usually use.

LtC · Post by **LtC** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 1:52 pm

Does someone have any accurate information about the input lag differences between versions? If there are any that is.

Also: Used to use MAMEUI32FX until I had issues with recording inputs, now mostly using wolfmame.99.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 2:25 pm

mameui32....the easy interface and screen settings menu are great when running in a cab and you want native resolutions

LaserGun · Post by **LaserGun** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 4:07 pm

I mostly use Wolfmame .99 now but also have .106, for latest MAME updates I use FBA and MAMEPlus!.

dmauro · Post by **dmauro** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 4:11 pm

I'm running 128 with some of the diff patches from cabmame (the sound sync patch is great) and a high score/disclaimer bypass diff. For some reason I'm having trouble getting some of the cabmame diff patches to work with the auto-compiler I'm using, so the Frogger/Galaxian resolution fix and the resolution switching patches aren't working.

I'm running this in a cab and all I had to do was install Soft15KHZ and get my mame.ini all set up for all the games to work in their natural resolutions.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:37 pm

I use AdvanceMAME .106 with the linux framebuffer drivers with my 15/31khz monitor. It generates a nearly-perfect video mode for just about every game I've thrown at it. Takes a while to get set up, but once you do it's a thing of beauty.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:51 pm

jonny5 wrote:mameui32....the easy interface and screen settings menu are great when running in a cab and you want native resolutions

The only thing I don't like about it is that the interface is somewhat ugly, and it lists roms that require a parent thread (usually japanese versions [originals] which I play) as sub-items. Makes my favorites all fucked up.

Mame32 Plus looks nice, but maybe not updated as much?

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:32 am

MAME Plus is updated pretty frequently. You can change how it displays games so parent sets aren't grouped together with their children, by the way. It's been a long time since I switched from UI to Plus, so I don't know what features the current build of UI has, but considering that Plus adds some functionality there doesn't seem to be much reason to use UI over it.

Concerning system resources, Aaron Giles' site has a chart that shows how processor usage changed over versions. Might be useful to the people with older machines.

According to this thread, input lag was a problem for MAME builds from .99 to 123u5. There's also an incredibly detailed guide elvis wrote that shows how to completely eliminate input lag on a Linux box, though it seems like a lot of work to go through, and AdvanceMAME isn't being updated with new games anymore.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:41 am

GaijinPunch wrote:The only thing I don't like about it is that the interface is somewhat ugly, and it lists roms that require a parent thread (usually japanese versions [originals] which I play) as sub-items. Makes my favorites all fucked up.

That is indeed a problem with how the MAME project was set up in the first place. Lol, originals as "child" ROMs...how clever. That said, MAMEUI32 doesn't have much facility to make that easier.

One thing I always find myself having to do when starting up MAMEUI:

Right click on the tabs up top, click "Customize Fields," move about half of them off to the left. Sorting through fields is MUCH faster. Honestly, who needs shit like Type (raster and vector, HOW USEFUL) and Samples (aka is it properly emulated or analog / solid state stuff that confuses the brain), Directory (i.e. MAME's very special name for the game), etc. ?

Shuffle those away and notice the lack of screen clutter (and a corresponding amount of space to stretch out the Name field so you can see what the bloody game is called) and a very noticable speed boost searching and scrolling through the games.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:31 am

Mortificator wrote:MAME Plus is updated pretty frequently. You can change how it displays games so parent sets aren't grouped together with their children, by the way.

I assume Mame PLUS Gui is what I want yeah? Mame Plus is command line.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:48 am

Wait a day or so for MAME Plus! (GUI) to get up to speed with MAME .130u3 if you're remotely thinking about playing anything lightgun-based, MAMEdev improved (according to them anyway) crosshairs somewhat.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:17 pm

Update: MAME Plus finally updated to 130u3, it's a good upgrade so far.

There are three executables in the folder now: the previous mamep.exe and mamepui.exe, but they've now added a (small) mamepgui.exe which looks and works more or less just like MAMEui32. Hooray!

Dandy J · Post by **Dandy J** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:23 am

raine owns any mame (even wolfmame .99) for battle garegga...0 input lag

batrider plays good too but the music is mesed up

TodayIsForgotten · Post by **TodayIsForgotten** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:42 am

Dandy J wrote:raine owns any mame (even wolfmame .99) for battle garegga...0 input lag

batrider plays good too but the music is mesed up

What are you referring to input lag? The response of the ship with a controller? I couldn't tell a difference with mame 130u2 vs raine side by side.

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:45 am

I have like nine different folders, mostly different versions of wolfmame. Wolfmame is great. It's a bitch until you realize you can just keep them all in seperate folders as you need them, but point them all to a single roms folder in the options so you never have to move stuff around.

If you want to watch replays you download from MARP or whereever, you have to get the exact version of MAME that the replay was originally recorded in. So yeah they don't make it easy. Just do what I suggested about pointing to a single roms folder though and it should be much less of a hassle.

nimitz · Post by **nimitz** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:37 pm

There is no "perfect" version of mame.

I have about 10 versions currently installed, all serving a different purposes.

-newest mameFX gui.............................//fast and easy, autofire, has some bugs
-newest mame console version...............//The main build, useful to check mameFX bugs
-newest wolfmame console version........//Some input delay fixes, recording
-garemame............................................//Garegga
-wolfmame gui 0.99..............................//Save states
-wolfmame gui 0.101............................//Batrider (this version had no input delay with batrider)
-wolfmame gui 0.106............................//Semi-official mame replay version

and other wolfmame versions to watch replays.

emphatic · Post by **emphatic** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:42 pm

I'm currently setting up MAME + GameEx for a friend and he's going to use it in his NAOMI 31kHz cab. I'm going with MAME32UIFX as it has high score support as well as autofire (should he want to use that).

I just tested playing Flying Shark with it and the sound was kinda shifty. Any video settings I should stay clear of? There's one called Sync video to audio (maybe it's sync audio to video) for example that I suspect could be the culprit.

nimitz · Post by **nimitz** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:00 am

yes, always disable this.

This is a problem with mame since they changed the display drivers (i think) in .106uX

Ruldra · Post by **Ruldra** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:11 am

People says wolfmameplus 106 has a ton of input lag but I've been using it for a long time and never noticed any.

How exactly do I verify input lag?

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:41 am

Pause, hold down a direction, then hit frame advance (shift + p). Keep hitting it and count the number of frames it takes for your ship to start moving.

Keep in mind that often the game itself has its own input lag, so your goal is to compare and see that your version of MAME isn't adding any additional frames. One way is to conduct this test in the service menu, and another less indicative approach (since additional lag can vary from game to game) is to load up some old game like Donkey Kong and try that.

Old versions (~.99 and earlier) are good, as well as recent ones (.123u5 and later).

I've used various versions before, mainly for certain features like kaillera, but for a long time it's been recent MAME Plus. MAME Plus and MAMEFX are gamer-focused, unlike official MAME32/UI. I don't know of any reason why any of us would want to use MAMEUI over MAME Plus.

I also use WolfMAME .99 some for better save states and recording. To play online, NFBA is much more reliable than any MAME, but of course it doesn't support as many games. If MAME must be used for online, go with MAME++ .117. It's hard to find, so ask me if you need it.

MadScientist · Post by **MadScientist** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:46 pm

Naomi progress;

http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2009/05/0 ... e-i-stand/

null1024 · Post by **null1024** » Thu May 07, 2009 8:50 pm

I'm using .128 [for Radiant Silvergun, .129+ drops the speed by FAR], .129 [for everything else, works like a charm], and .130u1 [for the G-Net games, too lazy to update.].

Also, more Naomi progress: http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2009/05/06/texture-fixes/

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:17 pm

MAME Plus! 0.131 input lag check:

1 frame in Truxton II (possibly actually 0 depending how this works)
4 frames in Battle Garegga
3 frames in Gradius - PlayChoice-10
2 frames in Gradius II - GOFER no Yabou Japan New Ver.
2 or 3 frames in Mahou Daisakusen
2 in Galaxian
2 in Flying Shark

w/Saitek Eclipse keyboard