Keatah Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 How do you game in MAME? Do you carefully and selectively build a collection of your favorites, perhaps having a hundred games or so? Or do you just go hog wild and have every MAME game ever emulated? All 6000+ of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mxyzptlk Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrorussell Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I have picked some uber-classic stuff like Pac-Man, Ms. Pac, DK, Galaga, etc. but also anytime I want to do a gaming review video for YouTube I'll pick that game. Usually an obscure one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I usually start with the games that I already own from all the late-90s commercial compilations that I've collected; these only function well under old versions of Windows now, so I'd rather play those games in MAME instead. I then fill in a few other favorites. Tweaking the controls and other settings for every game takes time, so I've never had more than a few dozen games set up at once. Most of those other thousands of games don't interest me, and besides, I already have enough games to keep me busy for the rest of my life. Regarding controllers: on computers that I also use for other purposes, and on which I only play in short bursts, I make do with a first-party PlayStation controller connected through a USB adapter. Recently, I've also acquired an X-Arcade, and I'm in the process of planning a dedicated emulation machine for longer gaming sessions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I'd love to have a collection of a hundred or so of my favorites but can't seem to find the working roms for the version I have (and no, I'm not asking for links to rom sites) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 Don't be 'fraid to set up multiple mame configurations spanning different versions. And certain mame versions handle different eras' games better or worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Don't be 'fraid to set up multiple mame configurations spanning different versions. And certain mame versions handle different eras' games better or worse. Absolutely. I tend to use MAME 0.74 for most of my games; it's pretty old, but it seems to work better with my ROM sets and with older PC hardware. Some of my "regulars" weren't supported in MAME until later, so for those I switch to the newest version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 I'm doing 0.68 for the majority of the simpler games. Pac-man, galaga, I robot, Tac-scan, Tempest, time pilot, Gyuss.. typical early 80's games. And then the latest version 0.149 or so for a few pre-1980 Atari B/W games. Ironically but not inexplicably, I find better support for a lot of these simpler & obscure games in the later versions of mame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I wish I kept my older version of Mame in my cabinet. The newer versions of screwed up quite a few of my old 80's favorites.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted September 1, 2013 Author Share Posted September 1, 2013 It's not like you can't put it back.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 I wish I kept my older version of Mame in my cabinet. The newer versions of screwed up quite a few of my old 80's favorites.... Every version of MAME ever released is still available for download: http://www.mamedev.org/oldrel.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaughan Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 (edited) Mame is extraordinary, it really is. I have 8000 working ROMs. However, that's only because I got obsessive. The truth is my interest in it - as in PLAYING the games - is very limited. My interest is Space Invaders up to and including the era of Gaplus, Metro Cross, and Trojan. The majority of my time is with the classics - Asteroids, Missile Command, Pac Man, Donkey Kong etc. I'd say there are 200 or so titles I'm truly going to play. The other 7800 are just there. As good as Mame is, I've long been an advocate of finding a version that works for you, and staying with it. There is no benefit to continual upgrades, unless there is a particular game you want. I do have a custom folder with all my favorites in them. Edited September 1, 2013 by Vaughan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrorussell Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 I'm thinking of just downloading a good, round number like version 150 and stopping there. No more updates. My dream is to find sound for a lot of obscure games that isn't currently emulated, mostly of the early 80s. Maybe I should give up hope.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted September 1, 2013 Author Share Posted September 1, 2013 It's certainly possible to have a different version of mame for each and every game you want to enjoy. At 95megs per instance the storage space is insignificant and not a factor. In fact, with backward compatibility taking a back seat (no pun intended), it *is* all that more important to keep older versions that work correctly for specific rom sets. While a one-exe-does-all is possible, that is obviously not the case here. Programming philosophies change over time, become more bloated and inefficient, all that. Reason enough to use earlier versions. Shit..man.. Getting people to just even consider using multiple versions of mame is harder than getting them out of the closet - if you catch my drift.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Yea, but how do I get the roms back to the state they were in in a previous version? That's the main problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Yea, but how do I get the roms back to the state they were in in a previous version? That's the main problem. Get a set of rollback ROMs and use clrmamepro to rebuild the set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 What was the version of Mame where they made that change that caused all types of sound syncing problems with older games? I'd like to rollback to prior to that big mess. Mame has gone downhill from there as far as I'm concerned... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrorussell Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 When I record my games in MAME the recording playback doesn't seem to always work in my Windows Movie Maker (the screen width is squished, overlays don't work, etc.) so I sometimes have to record with outside hardware, like Hypercam 2 and Expression Encoder, both of which pick up little sounds in the background so I have to be perfectly quiet while playing (tough to do when I suck and want to swear). There's a topic for a different thread: how do you record your games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 What was the version of Mame where they made that change that caused all types of sound syncing problems with older games? I'd like to rollback to prior to that big mess. Mame has gone downhill from there as far as I'm concerned... What games in particular are you referring to? I'm not aware of any popular titles which are affected by known sync issues. It's possible something else is causing your issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rxd Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 What games in particular are you referring to? I'm not aware of any popular titles which are affected by known sync issues. It's possible something else is causing your issues. It was .112u3 What a mess that caused... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 It was .112u3 What a mess that caused... That was a very transitional time for MAME. A lot has changed since then. If the problems in question are still an issue with 0.149, I'd like to know what specific games are you continuing to have issues with whose driver is listed as 'good' (not 'imperfect' or 'preliminary'). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 (edited) Yea, but how do I get the roms back to the state they were in in a previous version? That's the main problem. Get a set of rollback ROMs and use clrmamepro to rebuild the set. goldenegg's answer is correct. As for myself about 8 years back I started to archive to DVD-r [now to bluray-r] my roms + all other pertinent files before I go to a new version. Since I only update after every 2-3 new releases this works for me. Edited September 3, 2013 by JL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Protip: unpack the ISO full of roms BEFORE spending 20 years auditing the games, and wondering why not a single game works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Protip: unpack the ISO full of roms BEFORE spending 20 years auditing the games, and wondering why not a single game works. MAME roms should remain compressed, except CHD files. While they will work uncompressed, there's no reason to do so. Also, auditing ROMs shouldn't take more than 5 - 8 minutes, unless your computer is especially slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 MAME roms should remain compressed, except CHD files. While they will work uncompressed, there's no reason to do so. Also, auditing ROMs shouldn't take more than 5 - 8 minutes, unless your computer is especially slow. The torrent I got had an .iso file(at a whopping 27 gigs) full of .7z files. I unpacked the iso file just to get the .7z files ,and leaving them compressed as .7z files. MAME took it just fine. I thought mame only took .ZIP files. I ran the audit, and the games worked. Why MAME bothered with scanning a whole .iso file is beyond me. I didn't even think it would bother scanning for those files. As an added bonus, I found out 7-zip in all its freeware glory can read ISO files. So no finding a poorly-written ISO file mounter for discs anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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