Which Version of MAME is Best For Older Games?

[phantomfriar]

Hey everybody,
I have a new PC but really don't care about any, say, post early-'90s arcade games. I was wondering if there's a "standard" older version of MAME that works best for older, vintage arcade titles, and if anyone could recommend one.

The new version I have has messed up controls on numerous old Atari games (like Paperboy, Star Wars, etc.), and the Mame version I have for Xbox does exactly the same thing on the same games.

If anyone could give me some recommendations that'd be great!

[Cirrus]

I think that older versions of MAME probably play the games the same as newer ones. With each release, they just add more games, and tweak others to perform better.

I would doubt that any older versions would play any game better.

Maybe try asking around in the Arcade Alley forum.

[Flack]

The reason those games aren't playing well is because of the games' original controls, not the version of MAME. Both of those Atari games used analog controllers, which is pretty hard for a digital keyboard/joystick to emulate. I feel your pain, as those are a couple of my favorite games as well. I've had some luck playing Star Wars by using the mouse instead of a joystick. It takes a little getting used to, but the controls are much more precise once you get used to it.

[it290]

Yeah, just get an analog stick for the likes of Star Wars. A PS2 Dualshock works nicely. Works well for the driving games too, although obviously a wheel is preferable there.... oh yeah, and Marble Madness is sooo much better with a trackball.

I wish someone would make a bike handle controller so that Paperboy could be played the way it's meant to be. I never felt that any of the home ports did it justice.

[Cauterize]

I use the Mouse for Star Wars, works great!

[phantomfriar]

The reason those games aren't playing well is because of the games' original controls, not the version of MAME. Both of those Atari games used analog controllers, which is pretty hard for a digital keyboard/joystick to emulate. I feel your pain, as those are a couple of my favorite games as well.

Hmm...I don't know. When I start up, say, PAPERBOY in the MAME on the Xbox and the PC version I have (I believe it's .89), the controls are funky right from the start. They immediately "pull" to the left, and don't seem to be centered right on. It's the same on STAR WARS. The controls aren't centered right when you start the game, and I know it's not my controller because it's doing it on both the Xbox MAME and my PC MAME.

Older versions of MAME on my ancient PC, they're at least centered properly. I know what you mean on the analog element, but it seems to be worse in newer MAME versions -- like a glitch or something that's developed in the old Atari coin-ops.

[it290]

Many arcade games with analog controllers have calibration options in the test menu. Try using those and see if it helps.

[Sylentwulf]

Actually, older versions of MAME DO run classic games better depending on your computer. Newer versions that support more game take bit longer to load them up, and require a faster computer.

Ask this question at www.arcadecontrols.com forums.

[Mayhem]

They've also broken the Galaxian driver in 0.94 as some of us have just discovered...

[AlanD]

In my MAME machine which is a 1.2GHz processor I use MAME .78. It runs the older games pretty well and also does a fairly good job of playing the NeoGeo and such. Of course it doesn't play some of the largest games and most processor intensive ones that well but then again neither does my computer.

[Nature Boy]

In my MAME machine which is a 1.2GHz processor I use MAME .78..

I'm another .78 user and I played with Star Wars just the other day. You can tweak the speed and sensitivity, as someone mentioned, after hitting tab. (I haven't tried it with my DualShock yet - I should though).

So they're up to .94 now. Wow.

[Jorpho]

Actually, older versions of MAME DO run classic games better depending on your computer. Newer versions that support more game take bit longer to load them up, and require a faster computer.

That sounds odd...

I believe the offiicial MAME FAQ does say that recent versions of MAME are indeed optimized for more recent, multiprocessor games, whereas older versions were optimized for simpler games.

[zektor]

This is true. You will notice that many times when Mame is ported to a slower machine (Dreamcast, PalmOS..etc) they always use Mame v0.36..or a version around that period. Mame has almost always been known for accuracy and not for optimization. But the older versions were written with machines of that period in mind, and run quite well on them. So, if you have a very slow PC and just want to play some games from the early and mid eighties, Mame v0.36 will do the trick.

[Nature Boy]

Mame v0.36 will do the trick.

How easy is it to get roms from an earlier version like that though? The reason I stick with .78 is that my dad bought one of those 'complete rom sets' for the price of the discs back when it was new (and gave it to me for Xmas) so I don't have to search for anything. Is it not a pain coming up with version specific roms? Or is .36 so univerally used as you've described that they're availablity is still really common?

[AlanD]

Oops double post

[AlanD]

If you work with torrents or the newsgroups, look for a file called MAME Rollback which should have the changed roms for pretty much any version you want to assemble. It doesn't include all the roms - just the ones that have changed over the years. Samples usually are not included but they are not hard to come by.

As for updating to a new version (say from .78 to .95 which is the latest) I would hit up the newsgroups.