hi_resurrection

No need to get defensive! MAME is the best emulator out of the lot of them (if you've got the power) and I adore it to bits. That's why I'm so frustrated when it starts running slow. I'm not putting blame on the developers I just can't understand why this has happened to two PCs (they run everything else well, but not MAME) especially when they are as clean as a whistle and running smoothly otherwise; no viruses, no spyware, no uneccessary processes running etcetera). Thanks for making suggestions though, I didn't know the CPU could overheat and affect its performance so badly but the CPU thing is a serious possibility because my computer sounds like it is straining due to the heatwave we are having, although this MAME problem hasn't only just happened, it started around Christmas when it was freezing (and we don't have any central heating!) I'm having it checked out by the guy who built it in a few days.

Please, can somebody spare a few moments to look over the following problem and offer any advice. I am at a loss as to what’s happening with MAME. My MAME version is MAME32 0.104u1 There seems to be something completely weird going on with Mame32. I don’t know what the heck it is. After having my computer for a while MAME seems to have just ignored whatever resources my computer has and games that worked without dropping a frame, have now become a frame-stuttering, sound-crackling mess. NBA Hangtime, WWF WrestleMania, Mortal Kombat 3 and Elevator Action Returns are games I use as benchmarks. These games start crackling and jumping before other games, but titles as memory un-intensive as Bomb Jack and Popeye are also affected. I have two PCs and I actually bought my new one so I could run MAME perfectly (as I used to be able to). My old PC’s specs are; Pentium 4 2.53GHz, 1024MB RAM, nVidia GeForce ti4200 with 128MB RAM. This older machine could perfectly run MAME (including the notorious games I mentioned) with many of the games on the highest resolution. Then after a year or so MAME started dropping frames and the sound crackled on everything that it used to have no trouble with. Now, after six months, my new computer is afflicted with the same problem; MAME crippling itself. This is absurd, as my new machine is a P4 3.21GHz (with HT), 1024 MB RAM, nVidia GeForce 6800 with 256MB RAM, SoundBlaster Audigy 2. More than enough to run anything in MAME easily, bar some of the 3D games, which was proved when I first unboxed it. I haven’t got a clue what’s happened since. You can’t seemingly do anything to make MAME run properly again. You can’t lower the game resolution and settings, you can’t end more system processes on your PC (my processes are already right down to the bare bones, purposely). There are no viruses or spyware items that may be causing it (I’m very conscious about watching for these and blocking them before they can install). Does MAME place any importance on Hard Disk space? Because that is the only area of my computer that has changed since I first bought it (and since it could run MAME perfectly). The amount of files I have on the hard disks has increased dramatically and so has the amount of programs I have installed, but nothing else has changed. In games that don’t drop frames (the older, simpler ones) there are still sound problems. I have linked to an MP3 file of me playing Bomb Jack to show the kind of sound anomalies that are occurring. http://www.newmedia.lincoln.ac.uk/bjtilbro...k_bad_sound.MP3 Things I’ve tried to alleviate these problems are; * reducing the sound card’s hardware acceleration to various levels. * running a game without USB pads * reverting game resolution and graphics quality to defaults (and lower) * running games using Direct 3D alone, Direct Draw on its own and both in combination. * using RDTSC timing * increasing audio latency * deleting MAME’s cfg files * turning off my 5.1 speakers and using headphones The only change I made that has done anything was reducing the sample rate to ‘11025’. Which seemed to stop the sound anomalies in Bomb Jack etc but the sound is (obviously) too low quality to use permanently. 22050, 44100, 48000 sample rates are all as bad as each other when it comes to this problem. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading.

I've been trying to get a Saturn emulator to play 'Radiant Silvergun' after I read in a magazine that Saturn emulation is of satisfactory standard to "play the game in all it's glory" (unlike the current MAME version). I've tried 'Cassini' and 'SSF' but both don't do justice to it. It runs as though in slow-motion. Not ideal when you're trying to find out what makes RS so revered. My PC specs are good enough (I would have thought) but it still moves as though through treacle. (About 20fps) My specs; Pentium 4 3.2GHZ 1GB RAM nVidia GeForce 6800 256MB Which is the best Saturn emulator at the moment and are there any settings that can be used to speed it up? Thanks.

I never use my computer while burning, plus I always end all un-necessary processes. Anyone else know why a certain game might eject the cd during writing process? (In general, doesn't have to be a DC related burning problem if you know of any other reasons). thanks.

Thanks for the replies, but the problem isn't with the Dreamcast reading the disc, it's that the writing process stops halfway through on my PC. This must be caused by something specific, does anyone know what? (BTW I am burning at the lowest possible speed purposely, for stability I thought)

Is anyone able to offer any help with getting Tetris 4D for Dreamcast burned correctly? I have the file 'Dreamcast-Tetris 4D (AUTOBOOT CDI)' and I have tried burning it through Nero, Alcohol (on PlayStation disc settings) and Discjuggler on the same settings that work with other DC games I’ve burnt successfully. With this game the burning stops halfway through the process and ejects the (ruined) disc from the drive. Is there a special way to burn certain DC games? Or a preferable way that stops this happening? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi. I didn't know where to ask this but I thought I'd try here. I am thinking about buying a DVD recorder so I can back-up all my VHS tapes and also record everything from now on in digital. I am thinking about buying one with a hard drive. The thing I want to know is whether you have to burn the recorded material to DVD. Is it possible to use the stored video to either burn a data disc or simply LAN it across onto my PCs hard drive? I don't like the idea of not being able to view my videos on my PC without burning a DVD first. I have looked around shopping sites to see if such things exist but it seems as though the stored material has to be burned onto a DVD. I'm not really bothered if the DVDs I burn cannot be played back on ordinary DVD players as I only want to watch them on my PC. Sorry I rambled on but I just wanted to make sure you understand what kind of product I am after. Thanks for reading and I hope you can help me.

This book is complete bull$hit. If anybody reading this is thinking that any of this tripe is close to truthful, or that it may help you with women, you want to book a psychiatric ward for yourself for the next month or two. How the hell can anybody assume such rubbish? I’ll let you in on a little secret that is seemingly unbeknownst to the author; ‘All women are DIFFERENT’. You can't generalise women any more than you can men. I don't find a "sexy young woman" attractive "INSTANTLY". Nowhere near. I need to get to know someone well before I even start to fancy them. That's just me personally. Well, me and hundreds of thousands of other guys, I’m guessing. The ‘ideas’ in this 'text' are absurd: 'women don't want attention', 'they wanted to be treated crap', 'they don't like presents', 'they don't like a sensitive person to spend their time with'… There’s probably a technical term for the kind of women this guy has dated; 'twisted b!tches' springs to mind. That's if he actually based this on any of his own experience. He's either A) Only dated screwed-up tarts with no self-respect or b ) never actually talked to a woman. This book is supposedly about how to keep women. His advice obviously doesn't work a toss because these 'hundreds' of women leave him just the same. His advice only needs to work once, so how come he's not married? His ideas about what women want are utter, neanderthal garbage. It's all stuff that's easier for him. Take them for granted, don't buy them presents, don't give them any 'hand', don’t be thoughtful, don’t buy them flowers. Next he'll be saying "fall asleep after sex", "Go out with your mates on Valentine's day", "Forget her birthday", “leave the toilet seat up”...It's okay, this is what women want. They've just been sending out signals that regular, sane males can't read properly. My God, the things people say to try make themselves feel better about being ugly AND thoughtless…

I'm interested to see how emulation fans play their games. From Street Fighter to Galaga, from SNES to Zinc. How do you like games to come across? I HAVE to use the sharpest possible image, but I also like scanlines from time to time. Vote here.

I wonder if someone can tell me how to put a game in direct 3D mode (1792x1344 resolution) and still use 75% scanlines simultaneously. Whenever I try I get a letterboxed screen or borders on all sides (with the game image centered). Is it possible to do this? I always use max resolution/RGB sharp, but for a certain game where I want scanlines I don't want the blurry default image 'underneath' the scans. Thanks.

I tried that, it told me to select one file and didn't extract any. Anyway - the new version of WinRar worked.

He sounds nice. Anyway - I had an old version of WinRar andthe new one recognised the 7zip files and extracted them all.

Hi, I downloaded a complete set of NES roms from a file sharing program and there are 1000+ 7 zip files that need extracting to total 10700+ roms. Unless I did each one automatically (as if) they are unusable. Is there a way to extract all the files so I can get at the 10000 roms? By the way - the roms started off in a rar but I don't think that is important. thanks.

Couldn't someone just have a 20mb or more program that takes all the code from other emulators such as zSNES and Gens? The guys should all collaberate and make an ultimate emulator.

Well I hope you are able to do it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> very funny.....It's got nothing to do with whether I can do it. It's whether the people who enjoy doing this sort of stuff can do it.

Thanks for the advice. It sounds okay but nowhere near as useable as it could be. Somebody still needs to make a standard in console emulation the way MAME has for coin-ops.

MESS isn't even trying to be anything like comprehensive though. That just seems like a bunch of people trying to cram as many weak emulators for obscure systems together as they could to acheive some kind of record. Somebody should seriously attempt to do this. For the good of all mankind. Well...for gamers.

Why can't somebody make a GAME emulator? ie - It's the same as MAME but for all console games. It would basically incorporate modified versions of all the best emulators - RockNES for NES, Gens for MD, zSNES for SNES, Magic Engine for PC Engine or whatever, into one giant emulator similar to the way MAME emulates multiple chipsets. It would be a rock solid emulator that perfectly emulates each game and comes with a front-end GUI listing all available games. When you put in the applicable version of a game it verifies it just like MAME does. All games, across all formats, would be instantly accessible to retro fans like myself without quitting and browsing through loads of folders to open up different emulators. You could sort games by type and format so you could browse just through your SNES or MD games for example. And it would be the perfect way of chronicling videogame history right from the very beginning. This project would grow and grow and eventually it would even include 'ISO' files of PlayStation2 and XBOX games. This wouldn't be anything like meaningful piracy, because by the time any PC could emulate those games at full speed and support for them was included (by the team) we'd all be buying Playstation 5 games. I can't believe nobody has thought about contacting the makers of emulators about collaborating on such a project. This could rival MAME for infamy/popularity/acclaim. Sure, Nintendo and other devlopers would probably come after it in an attempt to shut it down but the same applies to any emulator. They'd just keep fobbing them off with same stuff MAME has been using for all these years. "it's about preserving these games' history". "You can only make dumps of games you own" etcetera...

Yeah, me too. I find that I enjoy games more if I have breaks often. Playing a game for 3 or 4 hours in one sitting just makes me hate the game as I get tired of it. Whereas breaks mkae you want to go back on it the next day or whatever.

How will downloading it make it fail? It'll just spread it. I think they'll be glad that people are downloading it just so it can spread the message. You are stupid. Well no crap this won't be on any store shelfs. Retailers won't even sell AO games. It's not about being PC, it's about being a decent human being who respects people despite their ethnicity or religion. If decrying a racist work makes people PC fools in your eyes then so be it. What if there is a really well made puzzle game but it deals with trying to stuff as many Jewish people into a gas chamber or oven, would you still play it because "it's a good game?" But I do agree that so far everyone's reaction here has been pretty stupid. And about this being a good game, it is highly unlikely that it's a good game. But hey, if you want to try it out just to see if it's a good game then go right ahead. I expect the game to be like Postal 2 but extremely lame without much of the freedom or gameplay. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well said Gryph. You replyed well to all the stupid posts. As for the people making this cancer of a game - I hope they all choke on their severed nut sacks.

No I am not wrong, the create a wreslters look like total crap compared to the regular wrestlers in the game. Have you nto played Def Jam FFNYC? Those created fighters look as if they could have been made for the game. They even talk and have there own pic on the VS screen that comes up before matches on loading times. I also hated how You could not Mirror a striking move or how you can't have a non tie up move as your finisher. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes you are wrong (mostly at least). The created characters do look a little worse, but that is because the in-game models of the real superstars are 'that damn good' (sorry). Whereas all of Def Jam looks like complete balls. The CAWs do look as good as the regualr characters, they are both rank smelling. The CAWs on SvR are awesome - you can create almost anything or anyone with all those options. It's like saying Tekken 5 has better customisations - yes they look a lot better, but that's because Namco only had to include a handful of items. Def Jams create modes are just as limiting. I still think a lot of the CAW attires could be better. Suits look like daft cartoons for example, and some of the textures could be a little more detailed. Still, my CAWs are still awesome - especially He-Man and Lion-O. EDIT - yeah, get back on topic everyone. I can't wait for SvR2006 as it will be released around the same time as Raw and Smackdown come to the UK, hopefully I'll be going to both events.

I fixed the b@stard. I registered to xpforum.co.uk and someone on there linked me to this guide on Microsofts help and support page. The solution I tried searching on Microsofts site but I couldn't find it myself. So if anyone else has this problem, follow the guide I just linked to. Thanks for the help guys.

I tried that but there are 2 folder file types - folder and file folder. I can set folder to default open but open isn't an option with file folder. I don't know what the difference between folder and file fodler is, but the file folder must be the most important as that is the one that cannot open without right-clicking the folder first. I don't know why the hell there is an option to search a folder when it is double clicked - it's completely useless. BTW - I'm sorry for all the late replies but I cannot check it all the time because it's my secondary PC that is affected and I only use it at University. Any other ideas? Thanks.

Sorry for the late reply. Under Directory/Shell I only have 4 options - find, Winamp.Bookmark, Winamp.Enqueue and WinAmp.Play. What do you suggest now? Thanks

Yeah that's about right. Stories are needed in RPGs because they are basically story driven games. Obviously I don't mind stories in games where that is nearlly the only focus but thinking stories are essential in other genres like FPSs and Action games is daft. I personally don't like RPGs because I prefer classic gamey games such as fighting games, racing games and light gun games (and lots of others) where the main focus is trying to better yourself and beat others (head to head or for the highest scores ect). But I do see the appeal of RPGs - they are just not games to me.