Which emulator are you using for MAME

[angelobodetti]

I've been using MAMEUIFX 64 and getting the no nag version from Hyperspin. I am a year behind on my romset and am currently getting version 0.185.

Should I get the Arcade64 0.185 no nag - Which is the new version of MAMEUIFX?

Or is there something better I should be using for LaunchBox and my MAME set? 

Most important thing to me is that it works and works well with my XBOX 360 controllers as well as RocketLauncher - I do not use shaders. I do however use RocketLauncher for Bezels and Fades.

Any tips appreciated

[SentaiBrad]

I just use regular MAME and MESS.

[Lordmonkus]

I use the stand alone command line Mame or Retroarch Mame but using MameUIFX or Arcade64 as is it known as now will work fine as well.

Whichever you are most comfortable setting up will be good.

[angelobodetti]

Maybe i go the retroarch route since controllers are so easy.

Any major difference between retroarch mame and native mame?

[Lordmonkus]

Honestly, it's a toss up. I bounce back and forth between the two.

Stand alone Mame has HiScore support while I couldn't figure out if Retroarch does and it's just you have to jump through some hoops to get it working or not. Stand alone also now has port audio which gives you 0 latency audio if you want it but that requires exclusive audio so you can't use the same system for other audio features. This may or may not be something you want to use. I don't use this on my main system since I like to listen to MP3 music while playing.

Retroarch Mame is easier to get up and running since you don't have to fiddle with ini files or telling it where your rom folder is and it's shaders are better out of the box if you like (but you said you didn't so)

To me it's a wash and it's just personal preference with neither having a distinct advantage.

[neil9000]

I have said it before but will again, i personally use MAMEUI 64 all the benefits of vanilla MAME with a easier to use mouse ui, no need to edit ini files and such choose your options in the ui and the ini is automatically written to.

[Lordmonkus]

The ini file takes me all of 2 minutes to edit.

Turn sleep off, skip info on and put in my HLSL shader settings which is the most work but that's just copy / paste.

I will add though that the only Retroarch Mame I would use is the latest if you have an up to date rom set. For older rom sets the older Mame cores are not as good as their corresponding stand alone versions.

[neil9000]

The HLSL settings can be applied in the ui on MAMEUI 64. Each to there own though, its my personal preference, but it is just that, personal. So use whatever you are most comfortable with using, the "best" emulator is always the one "you" prefer to use.

[angelobodetti]

Yes "best" to me is usually easier - RetroArch is my preferred because of controller support. So if the MAME core is just as simple for controllers as everything else then that's probably the way I should go.

[Lordmonkus]

Yup

Can you manually tweak HLSL settings in the UI version though without having to edit the actual raster.ini file though ?

Because out of the box HLSL is shit but BGFX does a fine job if you don't want to muck about with tweaking. Personal preference here as well but I like tweaked HLSL over BGFX.

Edit: Retroarch Mame controls work mostly out the box but for certain games like Street Fighter and twin stick shooters you will need to change them using the Mame "Tab" key menu.

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

Edit: Retroarch Mame controls work mostly out the box but for certain games like Street Fighter and twin stick shooters you will need to change them using the Mame "Tab" key menu.

Thats actually why i personally dont use the retroarch version, i could never get it to behave itself quite right. Although that was a while ago now, and i found MAMEUI64 and found that easy to use so sat myself there. I am sure it has got better, as retroarch has itself, but im sort of a old fart set in my ways now.

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah that was one of the problems with the older versions. The latest core based off of 183 (I believe) fixes that.

Nothing wrong with using the UI version at all

[angelobodetti]

4 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

Yeah that was one of the problems with the older versions. The latest core based off of 183 (I believe) fixes that.

Nothing wrong with using the UI version at all

Yea I had issues with MAMEUIFX remembering controls so I had to set my controls then make the file a read only.

[Lordmonkus]

I don't remember ever having that issue in stand alone Mame at all and I haven't touched a UI version of Mame since 164 I believe it was. Since getting used to editing the ini with the command line version I haven't even looked at the UI version.

The UI version is really nice though for its rom audit feature and finding problematic roms and fixing them though.

[NLS]

I use normal official MAME, which, remember is NOT only command line, but for several versions has a rather rich GUI.

I also use QMC2 for when I want the "native Windows" feeling.

Of course also use LB for the cabinet feeling.

I have abandoned all alternative builds, esp. those that don't actually add anything better than stock MAME (most of them) and/or don't respect release version freezes etc. (which some may remember even led mamedev team to make a blog post about).

 

[angelobodetti]

Got it up and running with RetroArch. My issue now is that I use RocketLauncher and the RetroArch module in RocketLauncher does not support the system name of "Arcade" so it will not launch any games.

Is there a setting you know if in RL to shut that off?

If I rename Arcade to MAME in LaunchBox will it screw anything up? Playlists or anything else get messed up? I know some people had issues in the past with Playlists when their platform name was MAME.

Thank you!

[Lordmonkus]

No clue, I don't use RocketLauncher at all.

It mostly likely would mess with playlists changing the platform name but it shouldn't be anything too difficult to fix. You could open the playlist xml file and replace the "Arcade" value with "Mame"

[SentaiBrad]

The recent MAME core (no year) is actually based on .185.

[Lordmonkus]

I haven't updated my Retroarch Mame core in a little bit so mine is still based on 183.

[DOS76]

I like using stand alone MAME personally and by researching the settings in the ini file it gave me a ton of insight into how MAME settings work on multiple monitor setting inis up by screen orientation by drivers all things that the UI version does for you except you don't get to understand how it works. I recommend reading through this document here to learn a ton of stuff about MAME

http://docs.mamedev.org/