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IS my computer up for it - Or time for a step up?


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Hey everyone.

 

Having fun trying to set up my mame machine.

 

I have used fraggel’s boot cd to set up mame on my computer. Here are the specs.

 

P3 500

256 SD Ram

 

Now, once I have all the front end up and running I will be getting an JPAC and a ArcadeVGA card.

 

I am a bit worried about the loading times from ArcadeOS. Seems to take 2-3 mintues to load a game like wonderboy. Does this sound right?

I have had some great tips from people on here (ozstick) who helped me with smartdrv.exe to try and speed things up ( they have a little)

 

Edit: it's interesting that it seems to be only the load time - games run fine. EG sf2ce takes 4-6mins to load but plays fine

 

Why question is am I flogging a dead horse

 

Should I pull apart a P4 512 ram and use that? What would be the load times then?

 

I just don’t want to spend 250+ on a JPAC and ArcadeVGA on a computer that isn’t up to the job.

 

What would you do?

 

Any advice would be great!!!!

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Your computer is fine, I think Fraggles boot cd and ArcadeOS are the problem. Try Dos 7, Gamelauncher & Mame V0.36final this will run Wonderboy on a P1 200.

 

 

OK will do. :)

 

anyone have a good link to setting up the above. I am pretty crap with that type of thing

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Hey everyone.

 

Having fun trying to set up my mame machine.

 

I have used fraggel’s boot cd to set up mame on my computer. Here are the specs.

 

P3 500

256 SD Ram

 

Now, once I have all the front end up and running I will be getting an JPAC and a ArcadeVGA card.

 

I am a bit worried about the loading times from ArcadeOS. Seems to take 2-3 mintues to load a game like wonderboy. Does this sound right?

I have had some great tips from people on here (ozstick) who helped me with smartdrv.exe to try and speed things up ( they have a little)

 

Edit: it's interesting that it seems to be only the load time - games run fine. EG sf2ce takes 4-6mins to load but plays fine

 

Why question is am I flogging a dead horse

 

Should I pull apart a P4 512 ram and use that? What would be the load times then?

 

I just don’t want to spend 250+ on a JPAC and ArcadeVGA on a computer that isn’t up to the job.

 

What would you do?

 

Any advice would be great!!!!

 

 

This is a reply from a forum re: the latest incarnation of Fraggal's BOOT CD, and it's SLOW LOAD TIMES

 

 

<quote>

yeah...have the same thing here...

 

The problem is that on the newer build of Mame there is a loot of sound checks and other things that makes the game start up slow.

 

I have been told that to revert to an older mame build before the sound check thing will speed up the load times.

 

 

Like Mame 0.92 that not have this problem.

</quote>

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Ok I have re-fromated and re-installed fraggels cd - with much better results.

 

I have pulled out the old stopwatch and recorded the loadtimes from the font end.

 

Wonderboy 23sec

goldenaxe 25secs

SF2CE 27secs

 

What do you make of these times. I am much happier with these. Would an older version of Mame or some more RAM make much of a difference?

(keeping in mind that for me to install an older version of Mame would be he a nightmare - Have no ideo about DOS etc)

 

PS> Also just want to say thanks to everyone who has helped me out - really wouldn't have gotten this far without this site. Looking forward to to the day I can help others out.

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Also are there any recommendations for sound cards that I could pick up on ebay that will work with DOS/acrdadeOS/JPAC

 

I currently have a creative CT4810 and from all reports that I have read there is no driver for DOS.

 

Thanks

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Also are there any recommendations for sound cards that I could pick up on ebay that will work with DOS/acrdadeOS/JPAC

 

I currently have a creative CT4810 and from all reports that I have read there is no driver for DOS.

 

Thanks

Yes. Any old Creative SoundBlaster card, Has to be ISA slot card. Works straight out of the box in most cases.

 

Ok I have re-fromated and re-installed fraggels cd - with much better results.

 

I have pulled out the old stopwatch and recorded the loadtimes from the font end.

 

Wonderboy 23sec

goldenaxe 25secs

SF2CE 27secs

 

What do you make of these times. I am much happier with these. Would an older version of Mame or some more RAM make much of a difference?

(keeping in mind that for me to install an older version of Mame would be he a nightmare - Have no ideo about DOS etc)

 

PS> Also just want to say thanks to everyone who has helped me out - really wouldn't have gotten this far without this site. Looking forward to to the day I can help others out.

 

Is this with the current ver 4.02 of Fraggal's BOOT CD?

 

An older version of Mame would help with load times I believe. If you can live with the current load times, I would, unless you want to do a mame version transplant.

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An older version of Mame would help with load times I believe. If you can live with the current load times, I would, unless you want to do a mame version transplant.

 

yep that's the version I have. Load times aren't too bad. How hard would an mame version transplant be from DOS?

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dos drivers are easy to get for SB PCI cards too. But like Pinny say's ISA straight out of the box is easier.:D

 

If you still have windows you can do a straight change of mame there.

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dos drivers are easy to get for SB PCI cards too. But like Pinny say's ISA straight out of the box is easier.:D

 

If you still have windows you can do a straight change of mame there.

 

Thanks there is an ISA card on ebay that I will bid for

 

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ISA-Sound-Card-Sound-Blaster-16-Pro_W0QQitemZ300002930549QQihZ020QQcategoryZ3701QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

I presume I have a ISA slot - trying to check now

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dos drivers are easy to get for SB PCI cards too. But like Pinny say's ISA straight out of the box is easier.:D

 

If you still have windows you can do a straight change of mame there.

 

Excuse my stupidity but are you guys saying that DOS natively supports the SB ISA cards without the need for additional drivers?

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Excuse my stupidity but are you guys saying that DOS natively supports the SB ISA cards without the need for additional drivers?

 

The one time I tried it, it worked. I took it out of a busted P1 and placed in the other working P1 and sound worked straight away in dos. I don't think I had to point to it in the autoexec.bat file either. If you ever see em grab em!:D

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Some more on the forums regarding load times on Fraggal's BOOT CD

 

<quote>

I have not used it myself...

 

Not sure if the versions of mame on the CD have this, or if it was ever in Advmame. But in some mame builds a validity check was introduced which slowed down loading. You could turn it off in the .cfg or .ini, look for this setting,

 

skip_validitychecks

</quote>

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