MAME on an A1200

[Retrofan]

Hi:
I've got some time with the Amiga (5 months or so) and yes, I've heard about MAME for Amigas, but only for OS4 in an Amiga Future Magazine.
 
The thing is that this afternoon I've found in Aminet, searching for other things, the MAME for 060 (http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/mame060#contents)
 
I've installed it (I have a Blizzard 1260) and, to my surprise, it works!. I've tried Galaga, Asteroids and Shinobi and Rolling Thunder even, but as you can imagine they play, but very slowly.
 
I've got the blizzard running with a 71E41J mask, two fans (above and below it) and overclocked to 66 mhz.
 
Has anyone an Amiga running MAME? Shall I overclock mine up to for example 75mhz? Which should be the minimum configuration to run it?

[fishy_fiz]

I used to use mame a lot on amithlon/os3.9 and pretty much all games it supported worked nicely,... not really relevant to your question, but it was fun
As for your question, a gfx card will help somewhat, but if you dont have one I recommend trying an earlier version as typically mame gets slower as the revision numbers grow (Im assuming 060 is the revision number rather than an architecture spcific compile ? I might be wrong, but I know there is mame v0.60 for 68k amigas (latest version available for 680x0 I beleive)). I must admit though Im surprised Galaga doesnt run well on an '060.
Anyway, there's quite a few versions of 680x0 Amiga mame, cant hurt to try some others
 http://caesar.logiqx.com/php/emulators.php?id=amiga is a good place to start (although there are other versions too).

[Retrofan]

Thanks, but I forgot to say it's a desktop Amiga: no graphics card.
Is there a good MAME version for it? What's worse is the speed and the music...
And excuse my ignorance, but what's the best hardware add on for graphics for a desktop A1200?

[fishy_fiz]

Unfortunately there's no real options for gfx cards for an 680x0 a1200 in its original caseing. With a blizzardppc you can use a bvision, but for 680x0 based amigas you'll need to use something like a mediator (pci busboard), which means removing it from its casing and towering it. About all you can do is try lowering color depth and/or resolution of your Workbench, trying fblit (probably wont help a lot, but might a little) and tweaking mame usage (lowering sound bitrate/disabling sound/etc.). As for which version is the best for your setup I cant really remember, but I think maybe Amame is a good place to start (its on aminet I believe).

[Retrofan]

Hi:
I've just made a bad video with my mobile of my Amiga working, if someone wants to see it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1_2UAP2VbU
 
I've tried overclocking it to 80mhz, but it plays the same way. If you read the MAME instructions, it says it's made to use with a graphics card. I've left the Amiga with 66Mhz again...

[Amiga_Nut]

More than likely an issue with the AGA chipset speed rather than brute force CPU speed. Same thing with PCs at the time, ISA was useless for MAME, you needed local bus or PCI (with the same CPU speed) to get it working usually.

[Retrofan]

What I would like to hear is that the new Indivision Aga Flicker Fixer would include some kind of gfx effects. That would be the best they could do. I've heard it will be the best they've done and it's worth to wait for it to be for sale, but don't know if they can do something like this or which will be the improvements... Coudn't they make it?

[Matt_H]

The Indivision does nothing for the underlying chipset. It just lets you see the output on modern displays. It won't make any difference in graphics performance.

[Piru]

Thanks, but I forgot to say it's a desktop Amiga: no graphics card.
Is there a good MAME version for it? What's worse is the speed and the music...
And excuse my ignorance, but what's the best hardware add on for graphics for a desktop A1200?

Nothing you throw at your A1200 will make MAME run at acceptable speeds.

[rvo_nl]

Im a big, BIG fan of MAME on Amiga and own every game that works with the last version released for OS3 + PPC (0.37b3). Playing games like King of Fighters and Streetfighter II is really fun and they look (and play) absolutely great.
 
Now, the bad news.. I have the fastest ppc for a1200, and I have a bvision. I also have a 060 and I tweaked my system to the max. But still I am not able to play games newer than say, 1990, without disabling sound and using frameskip. There is no way a 060 alone is able to do so, especially not on AGA. You might be able to play some really basic stuff like Pacman and Kungfu Master, but thats about it.

[Retrofan]

And a question about MAME. I believe there's somekind of console that can play it's games directly on tv. Which is it?
 
Edit: Oh, I forgot to add... at a reasonable prize...

[fitzsteve]

OMG! Great thread!

I've been trying out the 060 version of Mame and its awesome, games like Donkey Kong, full speed

Solomans Key (one of my all time fav arcade games) with a bit of frame skip its awesome!

Final Fight, LOL - Slow Motion version :lol: But it works and with the RTG (Voodoo via Mediator)

I'm running Blizzard 1260 @50mhz + 128mb/Mediator/Voodoo 5 5500/Soundblaster 128.

Guess the Graphics card makes all the difference?

Steve.

[rvo_nl]

OMG! Great thread!
 
I've been trying out the 060 version of Mame and its awesome, games like Donkey Kong, full speed
 
Solomans Key (one of my all time fav arcade games) with a bit of frame skip its awesome!
 
Final Fight, LOL - Slow Motion version :lol: But it works and with the RTG (Voodoo via Mediator)
 
I'm running Blizzard 1260 @50mhz + 128mb/Mediator/Voodoo 5 5500/Soundblaster 128.
 
Guess the Graphics card makes all the difference?
 
Steve.

I believe the PPC helps aswell. final fight *almost* plays full speed with sound enabled. I know because I like that game a lot so I fiddled around with it. Without sound it is very playable.

[foleyjo]

and a question about mame. I believe there's somekind of console that can play it's games directly on tv. Which is it?
 
Edit: Oh, i forgot to add... At a reasonable prize...

gp2x ?

[jj]

Nothing you throw at your A1200 will make MAME run at acceptable speeds.

I am sure sometime in the distant past I had a ppc port of mame running on my a1200 at a decent enough speed to play shinobi,  but I could be very mistaken