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Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
#302139 - 01/07/13 10:40 PM
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I'll admit up front, I tried a Raspberry Pi and I'm somewhat disappointed. I didn't do enough research before buying, I saw that people were running MAME on it, but didn't realize it was AdvanceMAME. Or I should say, I didn't know the difference between AdvMAME & regular MAME. Now I know that AdvMAME is ancient, and doesn't play several of my favorite games.
So, my goal is to have a tiny little box on my entertainment center that can run into my 46" LCD TV (preferably via HDMI), and serve as my arcade box. I plan on having an Xbox wireless receiver plugged into it (and the appropriate xboxdrv stuff set up) so I can use my wireless Xbox 360 controllers.
Obviously, the cheaper the better. I don't want to spend over $200. Any suggestions? Can the FXI Cotton Candy handle MAME, maybe? Is there something better than I'm not aware of?
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Re: Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
[Re: CaptSaltyJack]
#302149 - 01/07/13 11:50 PM
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> Obviously, the cheaper the better. I don't want to spend over $200. Any suggestions?
> Can the FXI Cotton Candy handle MAME, maybe? Is there something better than I'm not
> aware of?
I'm fairly certain it's not going to happen for $200.
Modern versions of MAME require a beefy CPU, preferably Intel if possible. Also, to run at HDMI resolution, I'm pretty sure you're going to need a video card that's better than most onboard solutions.
You could pick up a cheap Core i5 motherboard, CPU, and memory for around $400.
Here's my current "want" list from Newegg if you're curious...
ASUS P8Z77-M LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$124.99 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131832
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K
$219.99 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
$44.99 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314
Then, if the onboard video doesn't cut the mustard, you could pick up a cheap semi-modern video card. I recommend a fanless model if you plan on putting this next to your TV. Something like this...
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5450 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card ( 100292DDR3L)
$16.99 (after rebate) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102882
If you need smaller than Micro ATX, ASUS also makes a some nice Mini ITX boards. This might do the job...
ASUS P8H77-I LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$99.99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131841
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GroovyMAME support forum on BYOAC
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Re: Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
[Re: krick]
#302152 - 01/08/13 01:15 AM
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Why do you need 8GB to run MAME?! Man. I mean, what kind of horsepower did the old arcade machines have? Surely they are not more powerful than a $200 nettop PC? I realize they were machines dedicated to a single task, whereas computers are not and they must emulate. But still. AdvanceMAME, as old as it is, can still play many ROMs and runs fine on low-end hardware. Why can't MAME, what's so different about it?
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| Dullaron |
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Diablo III - Dunard #1884
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Re: Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
[Re: CaptSaltyJack]
#302154 - 01/08/13 01:32 AM
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> Why do you need 8GB to run MAME?! Man. I mean, what kind of horsepower did the old
> arcade machines have? Surely they are not more powerful than a $200 nettop PC? I
> realize they were machines dedicated to a single task, whereas computers are not and
> they must emulate. But still. AdvanceMAME, as old as it is, can still play many ROMs
> and runs fine on low-end hardware. Why can't MAME, what's so different about it?
No hacks in MAME.
Hacks in AdvanceMAME.
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W11 Home 64-bit + Nobara OS / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core 3.59 GHz / RAM 64 GB
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Re: Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
[Re: CaptSaltyJack]
#302155 - 01/08/13 01:33 AM
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> Why do you need 8GB to run MAME?! Man. I mean, what kind of horsepower did the old
> arcade machines have? Surely they are not more powerful than a $200 nettop PC? I
> realize they were machines dedicated to a single task, whereas computers are not and
> they must emulate. But still. AdvanceMAME, as old as it is, can still play many ROMs
> and runs fine on low-end hardware. Why can't MAME, what's so different about it?
Those items were just stuff on my wishlist, so don't read into it.
You don't need 8GB to run MAME, but memory is by far the cheapest part of the equation and going from 4GB to 8GB doesn't really add much to the price and future-proofs you in case you want to run something that DOES require more memory, or if you want to later use the computer for something else. I don't know what operating system you intend to run, but Windows 7 pretty much needs 4GB as a minimum.
Another consideration is the number of memory slots on the motherboard. If you only have two slots and you get a 4GB kit (2x2GB) and want to upgrade later, you need to toss all your existing memory to upgrade. I'd rather just spend a little extra up front and save myself time and money later.
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GroovyMAME support forum on BYOAC
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Stiletto |
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They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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> I mean, what kind of horsepower did the old
> arcade machines have? Surely they are not more powerful than a $200 nettop PC? I
> realize they were machines dedicated to a single task, whereas computers are not and
> they must emulate. But still. AdvanceMAME, as old as it is, can still play many ROMs
> and runs fine on low-end hardware. Why can't MAME, what's so different about it?
The development of MAME over the years has been dedicated to the goal of accuracy and portability, not performance, and the level of accuracy desired by authors can increase over the years without necessarily having end-user-noticeable benefits.
Example: The most recent version of AdvanceMAME likely used compressed audio samples (WAV files) to reproduce the analog circuitry that produced sound in Donkey Kong. Modern MAME has an analog-audio simulation component that actually attempts to simulate this circuitry's effect, which can be rather costly in performance.
The development of AdvanceMAME has stopped. The development of MAME has continued for many years since.
You should give the FAQ a read, especially
THIS PAGE: http://mamedev.org/devwiki/index.php/FAQ:Performance
- Stiletto
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Re: FAQ
[Re: Stiletto]
#302158 - 01/08/13 02:19 AM
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Interesting. And sad.  Ah well, I suppose I'll put this off till some other day, and sell my Raspberry Pi (shouldn't be hard, they're in demand).
Thanks!
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| Stiletto |
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They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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> Interesting. And sad. Ah well, I suppose I'll put this off till some other day, and
> sell my Raspberry Pi (shouldn't be hard, they're in demand).
>
> Thanks!
Why sad?
You never mentioned what games you're trying to run. Given that knowledge, we _might_ be able to come up with a minimum-spec system that can emulate your games.
You may also enjoy Bryan Ischo's MAME Bench project, where he bench-tested thousands of games in MAME 0.136 on an Intel Atom 1.6GHz. Just to give you an idea.
http://www.ischo.com/mamebench/
My point is: Raspberry Pi, no.. but you start talking higher-end Android device, then maybe. And some of those can be had for a few hundred dollars.
- Stiletto
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Re: FAQ
[Re: Stiletto]
#302160 - 01/08/13 02:35 AM
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Sad because I was excitedly buying the Pi and various components to set up this living room arcade setup. And AdvanceMAME won't run Rastan, various games have missing sounds (Donkey Kong), etc.
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| B2K24 |
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MAME @ 15 kHz Sony Trinitron CRT user
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| R. Belmont |
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Re: Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
[Re: CaptSaltyJack]
#302198 - 01/08/13 05:52 PM
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> Why do you need 8GB to run MAME?!
You don't. MAME will run happily in Win7/8 with 2 GB, and you could probably get away with less if you wanted to. That said, if you ever want to keep up with development and compile off SVN every week or something, more memory makes that go faster.
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| R. Belmont |
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Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Re: FAQ
[Re: B2K24]
#302199 - 01/08/13 05:54 PM
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> You give the Ouya a look? I'm not sure if you can run the MAME4Droid on it or not.
Ouya has the same internals as the Google Nexus 7 tablet, which runs MAME4Droid Reloaded (MAME 0.139, so not totally latest but it should cover what the OP's after) reasonably well for 8 and 16 bit games (Space Harrier even manages 60/60 with sound, but other Sega multi-CPU games get stuttery).
That said, Tegra 3's getting pretty long in the tooth and there will be better Android solutions than the Ouya soon (Nvidia's just-announced Android gaming handheld should be ideal for modern MAME CPU-wise with 4 Cortex-A15 cores, but pricing remains to be seen).
ETA: I should note that ARM solutions currently don't have a backend for MAME's recompiler, so certain classes of games that run well now on low-end x86 won't work as well on those systems: Killer Instinct, CPS3, and Kaneko Super Nova being the 3 notables.
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| B2K24 |
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Re: Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
[Re: CaptSaltyJack]
#302287 - 01/10/13 09:26 AM
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Re: Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
[Re: CaptSaltyJack]
#303178 - 01/24/13 05:38 PM
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> Why do you need 8GB to run MAME?! Man. I mean, what kind of horsepower did the old
> arcade machines have? Surely they are not more powerful than a $200 nettop PC? I
> realize they were machines dedicated to a single task, whereas computers are not and
> they must emulate. But still. AdvanceMAME, as old as it is, can still play many ROMs
> and runs fine on low-end hardware. Why can't MAME, what's so different about it?
For a simple MAME rig, you could just about pick up an old Pentium 4 or even an early Core 2 Duo from an e-waste or junk pile on the side of the road. Throw on XP and you have a decent gaming rig, provided the board and/or the PSU wasn't trashed. A Pentium 4 should be able to run anything right up to and including the PlayStation era (although the latter might be a bit slow; Tekken Tag runs at around 70-80% on my 2.8GHz Prescott test rig, while Tekken 1 is almost full speed).
If you go even older, I have also run MAME 0.147 on a 1.2GHz Celeron and 256MB SDRAM without trouble, although such a system is pretty much limited to the 8-bit era (although Street Fighter II and other 16-bit era games can run at 100% using earlier builds of MAME, like 0.89 which has been on that particular machine since that build was released).
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Smallest possible box I can run MAME 0.147 on?
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[Re: 
Ah well, I suppose I'll put this off till some other day, and sell my Raspberry Pi (shouldn't be hard, they're in demand).
