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MAME on a NAS drive?
#254633 - 05/15/11 09:34 PM
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I was wondering about getting a NAS drive and putting MAME ROMs on it, so that more than one computer can use them. Is this possible? Wise? I'm expecting load times may be worse and the laserdisc games could be problematic...
I was thinking of the cheaper end of NAS drives too (more Buffalo than Synology), which presumably won't help!
If I wanted to have the MAME ROMs in one central place but then let more than one PC play them, is it possible to have a centralised high score area/etc? Would it be best to play the whole emulator off NAS drive or have it set up individually on both PCs then point the ROMs and high score paths to the NAS drive?
Cheers for any advice. I realise the best would be to set up a home network, I'm just looking for cheaper options (as I can't really run cables all over the place in rented accomodation!).
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: VirtuaIceMan]
#254634 - 05/15/11 09:51 PM
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This would work for roms but I think you can forget the more load intensive CHD based games as you'll be limited by your network's bandwidth.
For the highscore area, one solution would be to share the various "sta", "nvram" & "cfg" folders but I don't think this will work if 2 mame processes tries to access the same file...
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: VirtuaIceMan]
#254635 - 05/15/11 09:53 PM
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>I was wondering about getting a NAS
>I realise the best would be to set up a home network
I'm confused. You realize that NAS stands for Network Attached Storage right? If you want a NAS then you'd better make sure you have a home network.
I run Mame locally but map every folder to my NAS and it seems to work well. I don play any of the LD or CHD games and my NAS and PC are on the same wire switch so I can't speak to those types of games or wireless connections.
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: Mosquito2001]
#254639 - 05/15/11 11:53 PM
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If two or more MAME processes are run simultaneously, the last MAME process to exit will overwrite the final nvram/cfg/ini (etc) files. Theoretically it should be OK, as long as both players are not playing the exact same game.
However, if two versions of the same games happen to be played at the same time:
Example 1:
MAME #1 is run by the 'host', playing Point Blank 2.
MAME #2 is run by someone else on the network, running the same game. Player gets in the top 10 high scores, puts their initials in and exits MAME.
MAME #1 is closed.
The user of MAME #2 will have their scores overwritten by MAME #1, as MAME #1 writes the game's loaded NVRAM from memory back to disk.
Example 2:
MAME #1 is run by the 'host', playing Point Blank 2.
MAME #2 is run by someone else on the network, running the same game. Player gets in the top 10 high scores, puts their initials in and plays on.
MAME #1 is closed.
MAME #2 is closed.
The user of MAME #2 will overwrite any scores saved by MAME #1, as MAME #2 writes the game's loaded NVRAM from memory back to disk.
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: VirtuaIceMan]
#254655 - 05/16/11 03:32 AM
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I'm running all my emulation stuff off NAS right now, between CD images for my extensive collection of PSX/Saturn/SegaCD/etc discs, cartridge images for the consoles I've collected, and the images for the arcade boards I have. Unless you have gigabit ethernet on that NAS and don't mind it getting thrashed, you're going to probably hit serious problems with laserdisc images.
I'd suggest that you decide ahead of time on whether you're planning to let the stuff be accessed from multiple machines at once so you can set your MAME config(s) accordingly. As someone else here said, you really don't want to share your state directory if there's any chance of people overwriting one another.
I'm also using "USB Detect and Launch" in concert with Microsoft SyncToy to sync save data between an SD card I use on my Wii and netbook frequently and my main archives, as well as to a PSP memstick I have. If you have the inclination, there's a LOT you can do with small tools like this to make life interesting. I'm even syncing all my save data to Dropbox to have a backup on the "cloud" so to speak.
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Try checking the MAME manual at http://docs.mamedev.org
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: Heihachi_73]
#254669 - 05/16/11 01:30 PM
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Yeah I thought that sort of thing might be the case. Cheers for all your feedback and yeah I didn't explain myself too well about the NAS/home network (I meant more a proper network rather than a NAS drive attached to a router alone!).
If anyone has any other thoughts or notes about doing this then please let me know.
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: VirtuaIceMan]
#254674 - 05/16/11 04:01 PM
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| TheGuru |
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MAMEDev Dumper
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: VirtuaIceMan]
#254675 - 05/16/11 04:05 PM
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Using a wireless network to send gigs of data is pretty stupid. Even a wired network isn't fast enough for CHD and LD games. Hard drives are so cheap now that the time spent thinking about the decision to buy one costs more ;-)
For example locally I can buy a 1TB drive for $59. Its much simpler and faster to just use an extra hard drive in each computer and duplicate the data (i.e ROMs) on each one but set the save/high score dir (via mame.ini) to the NAS. Then there's no delay and you can play whatever game you want including CHD and LD games and the high scores will be shared.
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: TheGuru]
#254676 - 05/16/11 04:16 PM
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> Using a wireless network to send gigs of data is pretty stupid. Even a wired network
> isn't fast enough for CHD and LD games. Hard drives are so cheap now that the time
> spent thinking about the decision to buy one costs more ;-)
> For example locally I can buy a 1TB drive for $59. Its much simpler and faster to
> just use an extra hard drive in each computer and duplicate the data (i.e ROMs) on
> each one but set the save/high score dir (via mame.ini) to the NAS. Then there's no
> delay and you can play whatever game you want including CHD and LD games and the high
> scores will be shared.
Yeah I think that could be the best idea, keep CHDs on each PC but the smaller ROMs on NAS. Or something in between the two. My main aim was to be able to play MAME on one of 2 PCs whilst preserving a shared high score (and also saving disk space).
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| R. Belmont |
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Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: VirtuaIceMan]
#254687 - 05/16/11 08:28 PM
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Works great, done it for years.
Caveat: don't even attempt it over wireless (even -N). But with GbE wired connections between the computers and the server it runs fine, including laserdisc CHDs.
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: R. Belmont]
#254780 - 05/17/11 01:46 PM
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Ah I was thinking wireless from router, as don't want wires everywhere... oh dear?
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| casm |
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Re: MAME on a NAS drive?
[Re: VirtuaIceMan]
#254973 - 05/19/11 04:02 PM
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> Ah I was thinking wireless from router, as don't want wires everywhere... oh dear?
Here's the thing: you can run MAME over a wireless network, but, as RB said, it's not going to be the greatest experience. I've been running MAME from a NAS for around a decade now as well, and really recommend keeping to a cabled network depending on what you're interested in playing.
With early games, you probably won't notice the difference compared to a wired connection. But get into newer stuff that uses larger ROM sets and you'll see load times starting to increase; this only gets worse if the game in question has to also load supplemental files such as artwork or samples. It doesn't affect the playability of the game, true, but it's surprising how quickly you'll reach the point where this starts to become considerable.
CHDs and wireless don't mix. My MAME cabinet has run both 802.11g and 802.11n PCI wireless adapters over the years, and about the best I can say for either one is that they mostly work - passable for loading ROMs, but not great at all with CHDs, particularly with laserdisc games. Some games are admittedly more playable than others, but that's not saying very much.
Unfortunately, you may have to run some cabling if CHDs are a factor for you. There just isn't a good way around it.
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