MAME any progress on a new version?

I was just wondering if there was any progress on a new OS4 version of MAME? It's been quite a while since the last update.

There are no major bugs that I know of but mouse support (for shooting games) would be nice.

@RacerX

The problem is that whereas with most programs, where each evolution of the program increases speed, with MAME each revision increases accuracy at the cost of speed.

In other words, our current CPUs are really too slow to run the more modern versions of MAME.

That said, I still want to try one day. :)

@Spirantho

You might still try the 0.120/0.121 version. This one is still fast enough to play CPS2 games or Psikyo games (SH2) at full speed on a G4 (at least without SDL. I'm not sure a plain port would manage it). Tell me if you need help to port the MorphOS version to OS4, btw.

@Fab

I can remember that with my micro amiga one and a G3 at 800 Mhz i can run without problem all the 2D games of the mame ( snk and capcom game ) and also some 3D game like street fighter ex plus alpha..

Porting MAME from MorphOS would be really really apprecied expecially when Steffen H. become so silent ...

@nubechecorre

For neogeo games, in the 0.9x times, even a G3@600 would handle them without any frameskip IIRC. As for capcom games, while cps1 (final fight for instance) was no problem, cps2 (sf alpha serie, marvel vs whatever, ...) surely doesn't run without frameskip on A1. And I've seen it myself.

About Street Fighter EX running fullspeed on A1, this sounds like wishful thinking. A G3@800 could at most run it at 50% speed (and I'm generous), and that's without considering the overhead caused by SDL.

Now maybe you don't consider a game not running at fullspeed like a problem. But when you actually want to play the game, it is. :)

@Fab

XMAME ran all my beat'em ups (X-Men vs Streetfighter, Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter Alpha 1 and 2, etc etc) at a silky smooth 59.8fps on my A1XE G3 @ 800mhz.

@jahc

I saw super gem fighters (also CPS2) on Kal-L's A1 XE G4, and it was running at 45 fps, so frameskip was needed.

@Fab

The Morphos version?

I think MAME for Morphos is faster than our OS4 version.

What number version is Morphos MAME?

On OS4 xMAME is fast but not as it should be because it is a PC port,is right?

I would like to know more how the Morphos version is and the OS4 version both compared.

@samo79

Yeah that's what I like!

Specially if Mame on Morphos is on 0.120/0.121 or a newer version than the 0.97 that is the latest and the unique I remember for AmigaOne.

Quote:

@samo79

Yeah that's what I like!

Specially if Mame on Morphos is on 0.120/0.121 or a newer version than the 0.97 that is the latest and the unique I remember for AmigaOne.

Is there a page or link to the OS4 MAME port?

@jahc

xMAME runs Capcom games and NEO-GEO ones at 60 fps on my A1
XE G3/800 Mhz blastingly fast on window not as fast on fullscreen.
Did you run the beat'em'ups on fullscreen or window?
I have the same model of AmigaOne as you.

But sometimes I get a problem with Spy Hunter at fullscreen the sound turns noisy and unaudible.

Someone knows why?

And I saying this because recently I buyed and replaced
my Soundblaster128 with a new ESI JULI@ that was recommended by someone on AmigaWorld.

Any have noise or similar with ESI JULI on any program?

@MamePPCA1

Regarding speed of morphos port, I mainly optimised blitting speed. About 4 times as fast as plain sdl port. But blitting time is only a fraction of the whole emulation process during a given frame of course. So for instance, SDL routine needed 4ms to display a 320x240-16bits surface, while i got it down to less than 1ms. So if you consider a game running at 60fps, you need to complete the whole emulation in less than 16ms. So 3ms is always good to take. For older games that only need a fraction of these 16ms, it can give sometimes a 100% speedup or more. But it's still good to take for systems that are close to use all the cpu.

But in the end, it's mostly the cpu speed that is the limit of course, optimisation or not. And for bigger games, this blit optimisation tends to be less important.

The other advantages of the morphos version is overlay output, builtin gui with snapshots support, history/gameinformation and so on. It's just feel less alien than a SDL app.

@Fab

Your words make me happy, altrought I dind't doubt it as I saw your version running very well (and fast) at many Pianeta Amiga's events during these years

So now, my hope is that we can find some good coder to port it on OS4, anyone ?

@MamePPCA1

Quote:
I ran fullscreen, but I setup several 384x224x16 type screenmodes in my radeon monitor tooltypes, so there was no scaling required. It was the perfect arcade emulator for me, with my x-arcade stick.

I sold the unstable A1 early this year, and it died about 6 months later for the person who bought it off me. I'm a happy Sam440ep user now. Though, XMAME on that speed machine is too slow to be enjoyable. :( I think there might be a couple of system optimisations that could be made though, such as graphics copying speed in drivers, etc. I dont know too much about this sort of thing, so I wont elaborate (incorrectly). Oh, theres also a possibility that recompiling or patching software for the 440ep could speed some apps up, because some ppc software do functions (I cant think of a better word, this isnt my forte!) that the 440ep has to emulate. I'll do some investigations with my people tonight. :)

@Spirantho

Quote:
Each release gets slower? Sounds like windoze...except for the 'increases accuracy' part!
Quote:
How about someone just adding mouse support to the current OS4 version?

@samo79

Yes we need a good coder to port MAME from Morphos to OS4!!!


It would be great to see how fast the arcades can run on a version no SDL dependant.

Are there other ports portable for OS4?

@jahc

SAM CPU is just too slow for cps2 systems, especially with current mame version (same for a G3@600), and that would be even without sound or display output. The most obvious solution would be to speed up the 68k emulation, which is not that trivial. Some intermediate layers could be tweaked too, and the cps video driver itself may be improved, but all this is not that easy and may not be efficient enough.

A better solution for SAM would be to port 0.3x to 0.6x MAME versions that were about 30% faster.

@ALL

Excusme but...
Why dont focaliza on a 0.6.x version of MAME to port to AOS4 ?
As many SAM 440ep was sold I think that the better way to support that customers was to port a mame usable on that board...
And IMHO the better games to play with MAME was the games until 1990-92(The 2D games...)/NeoGEO/cps1 that was pretty well supported on 0.6.x excpet rare cases... right?
So...why dont port it and focus on optomizing that version?
Just my 2 cents...

Cya!

@Tuxedo

Maybe because some have G4 processors and can take advantage of recent release ?