Michael's MAME Machine

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Revision as of 20:13, 5 December 2012 by Msemtd (talk | contribs)
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Michael playing on the MAME machine during Barcamp 2011

Home arcade machine revamp

Update 01/10/2012

New screen - huge CRT VGA monitor with some screenburn and limited resolution


Update 08/10/2012

Performance woes with SDLMAME in fullscreen.

  • tried a fresh PC with oodles of CPU/RAM - same result!
  • registered on SDLMAME forum but registration needs approval - still waiting
  • posted findings on MAME subreddit - general advice is "you need a much faster PC/GFX card to run SDLMAME these days"
  • need to obtain and drop back to ancient xmame version
  • find or make a slimmer case for new PC

Update 12/10/2012

  • xmame (0.106-3.2 from http://packages.debian.org/source/squeeze/xmame I think) installed from the Debian package
  • scaling problems again and now ALSA sound issues which might be down to the slow video rate
  • a lot of messing around found a good video setup:
    • xmame -video-mode 1 -fullscreen -fm 640x480x16 defender
  • still need to work on the video modes and the general settings for performance
  • wahcade setup required
  • keyboard setup for all games




The development pages from some years back: http://www.tecspy.com/arcade

    • recover games (and most importantly, the high scores) from the dead laptop
      • HDD totally dead :( Need to obtain ROM sets again
    • mamed front end http://phulshof.home.xs4all.nl/mame.html - compile and tweak
    • better linux distro base - have kubuntu 7.10 - want Knoppix 6
    • rewire controls matrix - should take a couple of hours
    • Noisy fan on PC - heatpipe? ideas please
    • Priority! Gauntlet rev 14 http://www.rom-world.com/file.php?id=23575

Update: 22/07/2011

I have now replaced the replacement PC! Seems to work mostly but some full system freezes have happened :(

MAMED has now been built and it works! After all these years the SDL libs are still compatible.

The keyboard controller seems to work!

  • more button wiring to do
  • more tweaking of mamed config
  • more USB PlayStation2 contollers on the way

TODO: Michael Erskine 09:06, 7 December 2011 (EST)

  • replace LAN cable run from members room
  • minimal Xorg server installation with BlackBox window manager or equivalent
    • replace GDM with straight startx as low-permissions user
    • replace XFCE with plain X init straight into mamed front end
  • screen bezel fitting
    • mark screen geometry when bezel fitted and screen in position
    • router work on sizing and chamfer
    • blackout tape and foam padding

Update: 05/04/2012

The machine is now in the studio (again!) and we have a working PC with a recent Xubuntu, functional mame install and all three DVDs of ROMs installed. The next stage is to get the mamed front-end starting automatically as an unprivileged user.