Improved Mame Compatibility?

[silvercroc]

I've got roughly 17gig of Mame games at the moment, is it likely that i'd be able to stick all the roms onto an SD card at some point on the Pandora and most of the games will be playable, considering the spec of the device?

 

[schnitzelboy]

it really depends on what game they are, and what mame version they are.
But theoretically, if your not playing area 51 or so, yeah you should be able to play all those games on one massive sd card!!

 

[Uukrul]

The MAME version is also very important because after .106 they changed the video renderer to a sloooowest one so, IMHO porting a version newest than .106 would be a waste of time.

 

[Mr Wendal]

Well MAME isn`t being worked on for pandora - yet.

You can play any of the arcade games that work with the Final Burn Alpha emulator.
List of Final Burn Games here:
http://www.barryharris.me.uk/article_view.php?id=71

 

[silvercroc]

Well MAME isn`t being worked on for pandora - yet.

You can play any of the arcade games that work with the Final Burn Alpha emulator.
List of Final Burn Games here:
http://www.barryharris.me.uk/article_view.php?id=71



so the final burn for the portable consoles doesn't play many games?!

mainly after turtles, simpsons, cadillacs etc?

 

[---_Won_---]

Oooo I was going to make a thread asking the same question, I got beaten to it again..

My problem is that I got given 5 CD's worth of MAME many years ago, they all work with MAME32. But when I try to run them using XMAME in Linux, they don't work, nor with MAME-Plus, or SDL MAME...

So I spent most of the morning editing the bin files or turning them into bin files to make them work..I was on the phone to my boss at the time when Gauntlet ll decided to work, and blerts out the intro music at 1000Db "what the hell was that" errrr oh nothing heh heh....Anyway I also wanted to know what version of MAME is going to be ported to the panda, so I know if I need to edit all my roms...Oh well it will keep me busy until release day.. :lol:

 

[gruso]

Franxis (who, for those who don't know, is the dev who brought MAME to the GP2X), isn't very interested in Pandora. He said recently said that even if he brought MAME to Pandora, RAM limitations would prevent the more recent versions from being used.

I’m sure someone will do an “unofficial” port of MAME4all, but compatibility will be unchanged of course (MAME4all is a port of MAME 0.37b5, circa 2001 I think).

In order for Pandora to have better MAME compatibility than GP2X, a good dev will have to take the project on and port one of the later versions of MAME from scratch.

 

[silvercroc]

Franxis (who, for those who don't know, is the dev who brought MAME to the GP2X), isn't very interested in Pandora. He said recently said that even if he brought MAME to Pandora, RAM limitations would prevent the more recent versions from being used.

I’m sure someone will do an “unofficial” port of MAME4all, but compatibility will be unchanged of course (MAME4all is a port of MAME 0.37b5, circa 2001 I think).

so there's a possibility that Mame may not be on pandora at all?

even if it went unchanged the 2000 odd roms he got working previously would be fantastic on it!

 

[gruso]

I'm sure a port is inevitable, never fear. As long as we don't get our compatibility hopes too high - but as you say, what we've already got on the GP2X is awesome enough for now. If someone does a quick port of that we're laughing.

 

[silvercroc]

I'm sure a port is inevitable, never fear. As long as we don't get our compatibility hopes too high - but as you say, what we've already got on the GP2X is awesome enough for now. If someone does a quick port of that we're laughing.

fingers crossed as that's the main reason i want a pandora, what with the keyboard and web access being a bonus!

 

[slaanesh]

The MAME version is also very important because after .106 they changed the video renderer to a sloooowest one so, IMHO porting a version newest than .106 would be a waste of time.

MAME is designed to work with modern PCs which have CPU speeds measured in Ghz, not Mhz.
The typical PC today runs at 2Ghz which is ample speed to run most games that the latest version of MAME supports.

Handheld's have no where near this capability. Look at the current (and some not-so current) handhelds that have versions of MAME:

GP32 = 133Mhz
GP2X = 240Mhz
PSP = 333Mhz
Zodiac = 200Mhz
NDS = 66Mhz
Nokia Ngage = 100Mhz


There's a big difference, so you need to make compromises. The best solution is to step back in time and use a not-so-recent version of MAME as they tended to run somewhat faster however with reduced compatibility.

One of the big speed bumps in MAME history occured at 0.53 - when video went to 16-bit only. Before that MAME would use either an 8-bit or 16-bit.
This is one good reason why handhelds tend to have versions of MAME before 0.53.
ie. MAME4ALL uses 0.37b5 and previous to that used 0.34.

With more powerful handhelds coming out Real Soon Now, like the Wiz and Pandora it's possible that we can start using some later versions of MAME.

As a starting pointing, using the existing MAME4ALL will give us a good indicator of what is possible. Remember, many games do not currently run fullspeed on the GP2X even when aggressively overclocked to 300Mhz.

Whilst I'd like to see the latest version of MAME running on a Pandora I don't think it's going to be very useful. The older versions have pretty much all the interesting older classics anyway - later versions seem to add many esoteric games that i've never heard of - let alone seen.

The best thing to happen in the latest versions of MAME is discrete sound - this means full sound for those older games that previously relied on those horrible samples! I've already back-ported this into MAME4ALL to a degree, and whilst it does work - it needs loads of CPU grunt to run at fullspeed.

 

[craigix]

Franxis and Slaanesh are on the free Pandora list if they want one

 

[ish420]

Franxis and Slaanesh are on the free Pandora list if they want one

for MAME, GO FOR IT.
I would love to play the classics without needing a bunch of separate emus.

 

[slaanesh]

Franxis and Slaanesh are on the free Pandora list if they want one

I'd love to have a Pandora to get MAME up and running - I hope Franxis would too. Thanks Craigix, that's really - I know this sounds corny - an honor! PM sent.

 

[sold]

Nice.

 

[Rivroner]

Yujuuu! ^_^

I think that Mame in Pandora can get XBOX Mame (0.84 or so i think)

 

[Joshwaan2k]

Yeah guys that's the sprint give me Mortal Kombat 2 full speed please

 

[trooper]

Franxis and Slaanesh are on the free Pandora list if they want one

I'd love to have a Pandora to get MAME up and running - I hope Franxis would too. Thanks Craigix, that's really - I know this sounds corny - an honor! PM sent.


WOW, Nice one.

Trooper

 

[Parkydr]

Franxis and Slaanesh are on the free Pandora list if they want one

If you're looking for more emulators on the Pandora, wouldn't it have been better to tell the people on the list that they were on it?

 

[Franxis]

Franxis and Slaanesh are on the free Pandora list if they want one

Thanks but i will wait for the console to be sold. I have a lack of spare time, i don't know if i will have enough time and interest to do the port, i want to see the console in action, and finally messing with the old GP2X prototype wasn't a very pleasant experience.

It also seems Slaanesh is interested, i'm sure he will do a great work . Go, go, go, Slaanesh B) !.