23 replies to this topic

[Shooby Doo]

I'm starting on my cabinet and have some free computer parts to work with, but they're fairly old. I did some testing to see what the minimum requirements to run mame are. I got the games I want to play up and running on a very old pentium II (not the PC I'm planning on using, just testing), but they all ran in slow mo, even the old ones.

I've got an old celeron that was purchased in 2000, but I'd have to get a hard drive to get it running again, and probably some memory to run anything decently on it. I think it has 128 now. It used to run windows 98 but was planning to put XP on it.

Seeing as how this celeron is a few years newer than the pentium II, I'm HOPING it would run the games at a regular speed, but I'd hate to spend the money and time with it only to be a waste of both.

I know the right thing to do is build me a PC to spec, but I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible and leave the option for a newer PC in the future. So my question is to anyone who's familiar with mame, do you think it would be worth fixing up this celeron or is it wishful thinking? Classic 1980's games are a must as well as Street Fighter 2. I'm not too concerned with games newer than that.

[spalmer]

I have run Mame on a celeron before with little issues with the older classic games. Street Fighter 2 might be pushing it a little. MK3 likely will not run well.

Edited by spalmer, 30 January 2009 - 08:52 PM.

[Noah Fentz]

What are your system specs, Shooby?

[Shooby Doo]

I'm pretty sure the Celeron is 800mhz with 128 megs RAM with on-board graphics. I did some more testing last night with the Pentium 2 and got it to play some games pretty good. It's 448mhz with 320 megs RAM and an ATI 3D Rage Pro, drivers dated 1998. The audio was a little "skippy", but I'd think the Celeron could fix that. I didn't notice much frameskip and it played at normal speed (Marvel vs Capcom!). I'm still not sure though.

[Mr. Pacman]

Theoretically its possible. Practically not 100%. Many games (especially from the 90s) have problems even with my 1.5Ghz core 2 duo laptop...better save some money and get a little motherboard (mini pc) and a nice 2.0 Ghz core 2 duo and 1gb memory running on XP...they are cheap enough nowadays and will play at least 95% of the games...

[Shooby Doo]

Thanks It's the truth I knew but didn't want to face. The funny thing is, I have the cash. I'm just a cheapass who wants to build an arcade cab cheap so I can say to my friends "This only cost me $300".

I think I may go ahead and at least get a hard drive, as they're getting cheap as dirt, and put it in the sucker and install xp and mame, and if it's not up to par, I'll use it in the new PC, which I'm going to do in the long run anyways. I guess I'm more concerned with getting the cabinet built, but I at least want to play some games on it when I get it done. If I can only play pac-man for the first couple months I'll be happy. Last nights tests on the pentium 2 gave me some hope.

There's a Goodwill near my house that keeps a good stock of random sized monitors for $10 to $15 bucks, and I'm going to order one of those 2 player arcade controllers to build my cabinet around which I think will be the most expensive thing. And I work at a sign shop and can custom cut plastic for trim & edging & matte for the monitor. I want it cheap, yet look professional. I'm good with woodwork and my dad is a master carpenter (and has the good tools at his house). I'll post my progress & pics as I go.

[Mr. Pacman]

Yes, if you can, post some pictures of your cabinet when its done...these are very interesting projects...also consider buying the DIY arcade controller kit...it might cost less from the ready to play version..

Edited by Mr. Pacman, 31 January 2009 - 03:20 PM.

[xzotic]

Ive got a cocktail cab running a celeron 300a overclocked to 450mhz running a huge collection of games perfectly. will only struggle with the most modern games everything else is sweet....

been reliable and operating for about 8 years with just a cmos battery change. I say go for it!

[faralos]

well I havea pent 3 with the intel graphics and MOST newer pins run pretty good, except for multiball which makes the pin stutter (think back to the old NES screen-flashing days!) it does this only on the newer pins (Medieval madness, STTNG, Star Wars, tales from the Crypt, Cirqus Voltaire being the worst!) I also turn off the fading light effects and sometimes must run it at 800x600 to increase the ball speed a bit and reduce the stutter. but the older pins run great! I only have 2 512mb ddr ram and don't have the $ for any more upgrades. I recently lost my eighty g hard drive (it crashed) so am forced to piggy-back 2 40g's drives but even though they are both in there it reads as two seperate ones instead of adding them together to make an eightyg as was my intention so in actuality I'm running at half power with one fortyg and the other one is a storage drive. (don't really understand how that works as I've yet to see anything actually being stored on it, maybe it uses it as a backup unit I'm not that tech-savvy and don't really know how it's used)
But in the future I'd suggest upgrading it or just buying something bigger that will handle the newer pins AND FP which won;'t even run anymore on mine since I switched drives! good luck with that older computer..

Edited by faralos, 01 February 2009 - 04:10 PM.

[Shooby Doo]

Thanks for the advice faralos. I'm sure I won't be able to run any vpinmame tables on it, but I wasn't planning to anyways. This is going to be strictly for arcade games, and MAME does better on older computers than vpinmame.

I'm getting some parts ordered today and try to get this celeron going, and hopefully start on the actual cabinet next Saturday. My goal is to spend no more than $300. If the computer won't work, I'm going ahead with the cab and bump it up to $550. It'll be worth it.

well I havea pent 3 with the intel graphics and MOST newer pins run pretty good, except for multiball which makes the pin stutter (think back to the old NES screen-flashing days!) it does this only on the newer pins (Medieval madness, STTNG, Star Wars, tales from the Crypt, Cirqus Voltaire being the worst!) I also turn off the fading light effects and sometimes must run it at 800x600 to increase the ball speed a bit and reduce the stutter. but the older pins run great! I only have 2 512mb ddr ram and don't have the $ for any more upgrades. I recently lost my eighty g hard drive (it crashed) so am forced to piggy-back 2 40g's drives but even though they are both in there it reads as two seperate ones instead of adding them together to make an eightyg as was my intention so in actuality I'm running at half power with one fortyg and the other one is a storage drive. (don't really understand how that works as I've yet to see anything actually being stored on it, maybe it uses it as a backup unit I'm not that tech-savvy and don't really know how it's used)
But in the future I'd suggest upgrading it or just buying something bigger that will handle the newer pins AND FP which won;'t even run anymore on mine since I switched drives! good luck with that older computer..

[Mr. Pacman]

Thanks for the advice faralos. I'm sure I won't be able to run any vpinmame tables on it, but I wasn't planning to anyways. This is going to be strictly for arcade games, and MAME does better on older computers than vpinmame.

I'm getting some parts ordered today and try to get this celeron going, and hopefully start on the actual cabinet next Saturday. My goal is to spend no more than $300. If the computer won't work, I'm going ahead with the cab and bump it up to $550. It'll be worth it.

If Mame works in Linux, you could try running it with a less cpu consuming OS...or else try to get rid and optimize everything you don't need in Windows, perhaps with a tool like nlite...http://www.nliteos.com/ and x-Setup pro (you don't need to buy it..it works fully as shareware and you will only need it for some days...) http://www.x-setup.net/

[Shooby Doo]

I was considering something like that too. I'm kinda using my pentium 2 as a template because it's really old and I'm running a very barebones XP on it, and it fully boots in about 30 seconds. It's set up to my TV and stereo and I use it as a media/DVD player, jukebox, and even audio mixing. Of course I don't have it hooked to the internet which lets me disable and uninstall all kinds of useless slow-down stuff, but for as old as it is, it performs really well. I'm hoping to get a some better performance out of this unit, and maybe use linux if need be.

I'm going to make a Goodwill trip in a couple hours and see what kind of computer parts I can find. I'm getting excited. Hopefully I'll avoid frustration. It all works perfect in my brain!

[Shooby Doo]

It's been moving a little slow, but only because I've been sticking to a budget... and coming out pretty good. I still don't have the computer running, but I'm waiting for a 120 gig hard drive that I found online for $30. I bought a 19" samsung monitor at a Goodwill for $9.99. It should work great for this cab, and now I have all the dimensions to start building it.

Here's a simple mock-up for the sides. I found the dimensions for a Centipede machine online and used some of those measurements, such as joystick & overall machine height. I'm gonna use straight cuts, as I don't want spend too much time cutting out curves. This first time around I'm gonna keep it simple. This is also first draft - I'm sure I'll modify it.

Attached Files

•  Arcade_Cab.jpg   72.78KB   12 downloads

[kristian]

Most good old classics run with cheap computers...use older MAME version if possible....for some reason they had much lower system exceptations...maybe they had hacks in the code or whatever....

[rygar]

Back in the days I had an arcade cabinet with Celeron 300 overclocked to 450. I was using a real arcade monitor through Arcade OS. Link to the Arcade OS: http://www.mameworld...a/frontend.html.
Later I ve sold the cabinet to a friend of mine and he still has it and it is still running perfectly. The games that I have played on it were Capcom classics like SF2, Final fight, Captain commando and all of those were running great on the Celeron.

[Shooby Doo]

Awesome , that gives me more hope. I'm still a newbie to MAME, but learning fast. While waiting for my parts I've been playing around with mame and it's set up. Right now I'm using MAMEUI as a front end, which is kind of nice and has some nice options, but I'm not sure how well it will work in the cabinet with joystick controls. I was originally planning on using MALA, which right now I know little about, but have a big how-to document on how to set it up with mame and other emulators. http://malafe.net/ I believe it's designed specifically for cabinets. If it's too complicated I'll check out Arcade OS.

One thing I really like is I have mameui and the roms on an external hard drive, so I just usb it to any computer and play some arcade wherever I'm at. I like that you don't have to install anything - it makes it really easy to test on different computers.

[xzotic]

Awesome , that gives me more hope. I'm still a newbie to MAME, but learning fast. While waiting for my parts I've been playing around with mame and it's set up. Right now I'm using MAMEUI as a front end, which is kind of nice and has some nice options, but I'm not sure how well it will work in the cabinet with joystick controls. I was originally planning on using MALA, which right now I know little about, but have a big how-to document on how to set it up with mame and other emulators. http://malafe.net/ I believe it's designed specifically for cabinets. If it's too complicated I'll check out Arcade OS.

One thing I really like is I have mameui and the roms on an external hard drive, so I just usb it to any computer and play some arcade wherever I'm at. I like that you don't have to install anything - it makes it really easy to test on different computers.

Use Arcade OS - It's underrated...perfect for cabs...mine frontends my cocktail cab and it displays vertical and auto flips when the other player grabs the stick to scroll through the selections. It's one of those programs that just works. it also doesn't look too bad by loading flyers etc in the background and even has a 3d rotating screenshot random screensaver! Not to mention that my O/C celeron loves it!

Other frontends may be more suitable for newer systems...

[Shooby Doo]

I didn't think about system requirements for the front end, so yeah, I think I'm gonna try Arcade OS and see how that works out. I just got my hard drive delivered a couple hours ago so hopefully I'll get this computer up & running this weekend.

[Shooby Doo]

OK, I'm on to something, but hit some snags. Different versions of MAME do different things. I'll try one version, and Street Fighter 2 plays at 59 fps. But Bad Dudes plays at 13 fps. Another version will do Bad Dudes at 44 fps, and SF2 at 11. And I've yet to get Double Dragon past 14 fps.

And I can't get Arcade OS to show a list of ROMS. The documentation on it is outdated and I'm outdated on my DOS commands. It's been YEARS since I did anything in DOS. Its looking for a file needed to list ROMS that doesn't come with any version of MAME I got.

The fact SF2 plays so well gives hope, but I'm not there yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Shooby Doo]

Now this is just a nightmarish headache. I love working with computers, but I HATE working on them. I learn enough to get me by and the rest is a headache. My "feeling" that I can get it to work isn't enough to keep me pushing on it. I could invest more money and time to get this up and running, but I think I'll cut my losses and just buy a cheap-o PC to run the games with up-to-date MAME and an up-to-date front end, like I should have in the first place. I just want to play some games without having to study about how to fix an old-ass computer.

I did get the PC up and running with a slipstreamed mini-xp that runs faster than any other OS I had on that PC. Unfortunately I have no use for it now. Oh well, lesson learned.

I've never built a PC, but I've repaired and replaced parts in a number of them over the years. I assume it wouldn't be too hard for me, but to be honest, I'm afraid of running into another headache on this project, so I think I'll get me one of those cheap AMD X2 dual core PC's they sell for $279. Certainly one of those babies would do me OK?