Post by Jonathan Leung on Jan 6, 2004 1:13:37 GMT -5
Guardian,
Sorry about deleting your post, pure accident, however I do have the answers to your questions. Here we go...
Question #1. Why that person would want to use Advancemenu in XP? That seems to defeat the whole purpose to me, why not just use Mame32 coded for AMD or Pentium based processors?
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Answer #1: Good Question, Mame32 is a good combination frontend/emulator, however, the problem with Mame32 is it can't be locked and is hard to move around in with a joystick (a la slikstik).
With AdvanceMENU you can lock it where you can't get out of AdvanceMENU so kids can screw with your windows or other configurations and it is designed to work well with just a joystick for movement instead of a keyboard/mouse.
When I see MAME machines out in public, the MAME32 machines go down about every 4 or 5 hours due to someone messing with the configuration with the ones running AdvanceMENU hardly ever have problems.
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2. Could you post your config files here or on the newsgroup that you have found best, so I can use them as a reference too? I am a fairly skilled tech, got everything working fine on Fraggals setup, but a looking at the answers before a test never hurt.
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Answer #2: I have posted all of our configuration files on our web site under the MAME Project: Software Page. If you scroll to the bottom you'll see the document viewer, just select the document you want to see and press go. If you have any specific request about configuration, please post.
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3. You mentioned on the newsgroup that you were going to be switching to XP because of the hyper threading I believe on your processor. Are you going to be giving up AdvanceMenu and move to Mame32? Kind of same question as above, but you may have a different answer for this one I ask, because I may as well upgrade my Mame PC anyday, and throw 1Gig/P2400 or so processor in it if it will run all the games. I might as well skip the Dos setup if it isn't goin to help me.
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Answer #3: We are keeping the AdvanceMENU with WindowsXP setup for the reasons in Answer #1. When I first started with mame, I was in the same boat as you. However, once I saw how people treat arcade games versus just a computer, it was then I saw the need for something "stronger" than Mame32. Something that could be locked and was easy to get around in. The answer came in the form of AdvanceMENU, and now I would never go back. However, for running MAME on my computer I do use mame32.
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4. lastly you mentioned about using Powerstrip (software?) to get the PC resolution in XP to run at 15khz. I wanted to know if you had a process down for this? Do you setup all of windows, configure everything, install powerstrip, then put in your cabinet, and hook to the arcade monitor? I did this with Fraggal, just get it to where the PC monitor kicks off saying it doesn't have a signal, then plug it into the arcade monitor to test out games. The big scare here is this: You have everything running great, your in XP, screensaver kicks in cause you have to go to bathroom, pulled away etc.. monitor is fine. BUT you have a power surge, PC comes back on, or lets even say PowerStrip crashes. Your resolution pops back to 60Khz. There goes your nice arcade monitor? How do you feel about this? I have a d**n good XP clean configuration I run, and can set the MB to not reboot but to stay off, but there are enough unknowns, that I am scarred to loose my nice 27" 15Khz/25Khz Arcade Monitor.
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Answer #4: Ok, not quite sure where the power strip thing came from but I will answer the question about 15khz. We have built a couple of mame cabinets and have accomplished it in different ways every time. Here are the methods:
1.) Use the ArcadeVGA video card. - If you are going to run a windows setup in any form, you REALLY need this card. It has all the frequencies for arcade monitors built into the firmware of the card instead of having software do it. This will make your computer ALWAYS output at 15khz, even on boot up screens. Like you said about the computer restarting, this takes care of that problem easily. This card can be bought at ultimarc.com and I HIGHLY recommend this for your configuration!
2.) Use AdvanceMAME. - With this option, you can use the advancemame setings to get the card to output at 15khz using the settings found on the advance projects web site. I only recommend this if you just want to run DOS. This along with AdvanceMENU work great for giving you at good 15khz signal. See the MAME Projects: Software -> advmenu.rc file for more info on this.
3.) Use ArcadeOS w/arcmon.sys. - Again this is more of a DOS only option. Arcmon.sys is a file that can be found on the www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma web page and is made to output 15khz if it is loaded in your config.sys at boot up. Of course, arcadeos also has an incabinet config that boots up part of this sys file. This will also accomplish the 15khz output.
Again, I will emphasize that if you're running windows, use the ArcadeVGA. There are ways to get around it in windows but it is a pain and will not work as good as the ArcadeVGA.
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Well I hope that answers most of your questions. I know how hard it is to get one of these things up and running (especially the first time!) and the guys in alt.games.mame don't seem to be much help. Anyways, I hope that this did help you and if there is anything else, please post or E-Mail.
Sorry about deleting your post, pure accident, however I do have the answers to your questions. Here we go...
Question #1. Why that person would want to use Advancemenu in XP? That seems to defeat the whole purpose to me, why not just use Mame32 coded for AMD or Pentium based processors?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer #1: Good Question, Mame32 is a good combination frontend/emulator, however, the problem with Mame32 is it can't be locked and is hard to move around in with a joystick (a la slikstik).
With AdvanceMENU you can lock it where you can't get out of AdvanceMENU so kids can screw with your windows or other configurations and it is designed to work well with just a joystick for movement instead of a keyboard/mouse.
When I see MAME machines out in public, the MAME32 machines go down about every 4 or 5 hours due to someone messing with the configuration with the ones running AdvanceMENU hardly ever have problems.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Could you post your config files here or on the newsgroup that you have found best, so I can use them as a reference too? I am a fairly skilled tech, got everything working fine on Fraggals setup, but a looking at the answers before a test never hurt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer #2: I have posted all of our configuration files on our web site under the MAME Project: Software Page. If you scroll to the bottom you'll see the document viewer, just select the document you want to see and press go. If you have any specific request about configuration, please post.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. You mentioned on the newsgroup that you were going to be switching to XP because of the hyper threading I believe on your processor. Are you going to be giving up AdvanceMenu and move to Mame32? Kind of same question as above, but you may have a different answer for this one
I ask, because I may as well upgrade my Mame PC anyday, and throw 1Gig/P2400 or so processor in it if it will run all the games. I might as well skip the Dos setup if it isn't goin to help me.--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer #3: We are keeping the AdvanceMENU with WindowsXP setup for the reasons in Answer #1. When I first started with mame, I was in the same boat as you. However, once I saw how people treat arcade games versus just a computer, it was then I saw the need for something "stronger" than Mame32. Something that could be locked and was easy to get around in. The answer came in the form of AdvanceMENU, and now I would never go back. However, for running MAME on my computer I do use mame32.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. lastly you mentioned about using Powerstrip (software?) to get the PC resolution in XP to run at 15khz. I wanted to know if you had a process down for this? Do you setup all of windows, configure everything, install powerstrip, then put in your cabinet, and hook to the arcade monitor? I did this with Fraggal, just get it to where the PC monitor kicks off saying it doesn't have a signal, then plug it into the arcade monitor to test out games. The big scare here is this: You have everything running great, your in XP, screensaver kicks in cause you have to go to bathroom, pulled away etc.. monitor is fine. BUT you have a power surge, PC comes back on, or lets even say PowerStrip crashes. Your resolution pops back to 60Khz. There goes your nice arcade monitor? How do you feel about this? I have a d**n good XP clean configuration I run, and can set the MB to not reboot but to stay off, but there are enough unknowns, that I am scarred to loose my nice 27" 15Khz/25Khz Arcade Monitor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer #4: Ok, not quite sure where the power strip thing came from but I will answer the question about 15khz. We have built a couple of mame cabinets and have accomplished it in different ways every time. Here are the methods:
1.) Use the ArcadeVGA video card. - If you are going to run a windows setup in any form, you REALLY need this card. It has all the frequencies for arcade monitors built into the firmware of the card instead of having software do it. This will make your computer ALWAYS output at 15khz, even on boot up screens. Like you said about the computer restarting, this takes care of that problem easily. This card can be bought at ultimarc.com and I HIGHLY recommend this for your configuration!
2.) Use AdvanceMAME. - With this option, you can use the advancemame setings to get the card to output at 15khz using the settings found on the advance projects web site. I only recommend this if you just want to run DOS. This along with AdvanceMENU work great for giving you at good 15khz signal. See the MAME Projects: Software -> advmenu.rc file for more info on this.
3.) Use ArcadeOS w/arcmon.sys. - Again this is more of a DOS only option. Arcmon.sys is a file that can be found on the www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma web page and is made to output 15khz if it is loaded in your config.sys at boot up. Of course, arcadeos also has an incabinet config that boots up part of this sys file. This will also accomplish the 15khz output.
Again, I will emphasize that if you're running windows, use the ArcadeVGA. There are ways to get around it in windows but it is a pain and will not work as good as the ArcadeVGA.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I hope that answers most of your questions. I know how hard it is to get one of these things up and running (especially the first time!) and the guys in alt.games.mame don't seem to be much help. Anyways, I hope that this did help you and if there is anything else, please post or E-Mail.
