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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Retrofan on August 25, 2010, 12:47:38 AM

Title: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Retrofan on August 25, 2010, 12:47:38 AM
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 (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?
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: fishy_fiz on August 25, 2010, 01:00:32 AM
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).
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Retrofan on August 25, 2010, 01:31:05 AM
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?
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: fishy_fiz on August 25, 2010, 02:19:08 AM
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).
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Retrofan on August 25, 2010, 05:35:17 PM
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...
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Amiga_Nut on August 25, 2010, 07:15:06 PM
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.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Retrofan on August 25, 2010, 08:46:55 PM
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?
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Matt_H on August 25, 2010, 08:53:59 PM
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.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Piru on August 25, 2010, 08:55:34 PM
Quote from: Retrofan;576130
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.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: rvo_nl on August 25, 2010, 08:56:12 PM
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.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Retrofan on August 25, 2010, 09:22:51 PM
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...
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: fitzsteve on August 26, 2010, 12:34:53 AM
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.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: rvo_nl on August 26, 2010, 10:10:22 AM
Quote from: fitzsteve;576298
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.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: foleyjo on August 26, 2010, 10:27:59 AM
Quote from: retrofan;576266
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 ?
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: jj on August 26, 2010, 10:54:13 AM
Quote from: Piru;576259
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
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: jj on August 26, 2010, 10:55:56 AM
Quote from: Retrofan;576266
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...

 
Soft modded original xbox is perfect for mame and also snes and megadrive etc emulators.
 
 
Can pick up sa xbox for £10 and largehardrive for another £20 and softmodding is free.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Amiga_Nut on August 26, 2010, 02:06:27 PM
Running old 80s games of the Donkey Kong era via MAME on ECS/AGA chipset is probably an exercise in futility to be honest. So the AGA not the 060 is the problem at the moment (and when you get some sort of graphics card solution then you can investigate the CPU power shortfall for newer games).
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Gary McCulloch on August 26, 2010, 03:25:41 PM
I have like 7 DVD's full of ROMS.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: jj on August 26, 2010, 04:20:38 PM
Quote from: SpitfireTN;576363
I have like 7 DVD's full of ROMS.

Damm and I am plumb out of medals :laughing:
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: rvo_nl on August 26, 2010, 06:39:44 PM
Quote from: SpitfireTN;576363
I have like 7 DVD's full of ROMS.

Thats odd. I could barely fill one dvd with all mame games that run on an Amiga :)
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Retrofan on August 26, 2010, 11:34:09 PM
I'm starting to look for a GP2X Wiz, which seems the best, but I'm not sure if I can connect it to a tv and plug in a joystick, and which type of joystick is it...
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Gary McCulloch on August 27, 2010, 04:15:23 AM
Quote from: JJ;576367
Damm and I am plumb out of medals :laughing:
Quote from: rvo_nl;576380
Thats odd. I could barely fill one dvd with all mame games that run on an Amiga :)

That's to bad.  I wanted a medal, and there are a tons of original ROMs out there.  If the game was made, there is a ROM for it.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Retrofan on August 27, 2010, 09:27:23 PM
I've bought finally a Dingoo A330 console to play MAME and others. It seems cheaper and better than the Gp2x Wiz, as it has the possibility to connect a wireless controller, that the Wiz doesn't. And the best is that it's around half the prize!
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Gary McCulloch on August 29, 2010, 06:04:01 PM
Hmmm.. this is an interesting way to play old game roms.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Xanxi on August 29, 2010, 06:23:29 PM
I have 60830 version of Mame on my desktop Blizz 1230 IV A1200.
I have only tried 1942 and it is slow as hell and unplayable.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: drHirudo on August 29, 2010, 08:09:38 PM
Unfortunately MAME on AGA and 680x0 is very slow. Even with manual tweakings in the source code it is still slow. There are some individual arcade emulators that run better, but they are not as good as MAME. Putting exec library patch (http://aminet.net/util/libs/execlibrary.lha) and BlazeWCP (http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/Blazewcp) will help a bit, but not much.
Now that AmiMasterGear sourcecode is available (http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/AmiMasterGear_asm), one may take it and use it for the Z80 based MAME games, but it wil be a lot of work to make these games work. Games like Hang On Junior (http://maws.mameworld.info/minimaws/en/set/hangonjr) will work perfectly with the AmiMasterGear engine.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: Crom00 on August 29, 2010, 08:43:55 PM
I have spare parts lying around that make a kick ass mame machine... and said parts are almost 10 years old. (pentium 4 2ghz system) No way I would ever try to do that on an A1200.
More and more selling off all my Amigas and doing the emulation thing looks better and better.
Title: Re: MAME on an A1200
Post by: DyLucke on August 29, 2010, 11:12:37 PM
Quote from: drHirudo;576745
Unfortunately MAME on AGA and 680x0 is very slow. Even with manual tweakings in the source code it is still slow. There are some individual arcade emulators that run better, but they are not as good as MAME. Putting exec library patch (http://aminet.net/util/libs/execlibrary.lha) and BlazeWCP (http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/Blazewcp) will help a bit, but not much.
Now that AmiMasterGear sourcecode is available (http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/AmiMasterGear_asm), one may take it and use it for the Z80 based MAME games, but it wil be a lot of work to make these games work. Games like Hang On Junior (http://maws.mameworld.info/minimaws/en/set/hangonjr) will work perfectly with the AmiMasterGear engine.


Certainlly, i hope somebody with enough skills could implement the AmiMasterGear Z80 core emulation on a new MAME bootleg, that would allow us to play some z80 based arcade games even on a modest 030 /50.

However i guess it could be more reasonable to aim for a new release on MorphOS or OS4, or even on the NatAmi whenever the  project is finished.