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Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
#356842 - 07/24/16 12:36 AM
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I tried two versions of MAME on the Raspberry Pi:
AdvanceMAME is based on a MAME version from 2005. Unfortunately, if I use vsync, the scrolling isn't really smooth. That was a problem even with the official MAME until the whole rendering engine was replaced with version 107. And without vsync, you get screen tearing.
Then there was PiPlay/PIMAME. This one is based on some ancient DOS-version of MAME that's so old that it cannot even play "VS. Super Mario Bros." yet. (That's the game that I use when checking the scrolling quality since it's a game that allows you to have quick and constant scrolling when you just run through the level.)
So, is there any way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi with good vsync and a decent support of games?
Instead of vsync, an alternative would also be if the emulator speed simply locks to the refresh rate of the TV screen to do the graphical updates during vblank to prevent tearing.
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Re: Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
[Re: DaRayu]
#356843 - 07/24/16 12:54 AM
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Stiletto |
They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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Re: Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
[Re: DaRayu]
#356849 - 07/24/16 06:15 AM
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> I tried two versions of MAME on the Raspberry Pi
This guy has a lot of good advice: http://choccyhobnob.com/
I am pretty sure the first thing he'd tell you is to ditch that and upgrade to the Raspberry Pi2 or Pi3. Then you could run latest MAME and a decent selection of 80's games.
- Stiletto
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Re: Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
[Re: DaRayu]
#356850 - 07/24/16 06:53 AM
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The ODroid C2 has double the CPU of the Pi 3 for $5 more. That's the sweet spot right now, though we haven't been able to get some good benchmarks yet to see how the performance is.
Anything older than a Pi 3 is right out-- you'll be stuck with ancient builds of MAME that are missing a lot of newer games, you won't be able to get official MAME team support on builds that old, and the games will have bugs that will have been fixed years ago on newer builds. In short, you'll have a completely miserable time.
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---
Try checking the MAME manual at http://docs.mamedev.org
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R. Belmont |
Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Re: Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
[Re: DaRayu]
#356853 - 07/24/16 10:16 AM
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> So, is there any way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi with good vsync and a decent > support of games?
An original Pi has around the same CPU power as PCs that were common in 1999 when MAME was first becoming a thing, which is why you're stuck playing versions of MAME from around that time on it (and why it was $30!) The Pi 3 bumps that forward to around 2005, which isn't ideal, but it does start to make using real current MAME for some games possible.
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Re: Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
[Re: Firehawke]
#356862 - 07/24/16 07:25 PM
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I could actually upgrade to another Raspberry Pi. The only things that are important to me are:
It needs to have a composite output because I want to play the games on my CRT TV. Mine has it. I have model B, revision 2, 512 MB. Do the newer Raspberry Pis have a composite output as well? I've only seen newer ones without it.
It needs to be able to play "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior". And "VS. Super Mario Bros." for scrolling tests.
And the scrolling needs to be smooth. No judder, no tearing. MAME v106 was pretty crappy in this regard. MAME v107 introduced smooth scrolling without tearing when enabling vsync. I don't know whether a Raspberry Pi port of MAME would suffer from the same problems when using an older build or whether this is only a Windows thing. In any case, AdvanceMAME did have problems with the scrolling with vsync.
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Stiletto |
They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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Re: Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
[Re: DaRayu]
#357595 - 08/11/16 09:05 PM
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Re: Best way to play MAME on a Raspberry Pi
[Re: DaRayu]
#357725 - 08/14/16 08:47 PM
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The composite output on the Raspberry Pi was moved for the Pi2 and the Pi3, it's still there but no longer has its own port. It's now built into the audio jack, you need a special cable, something like this to use it.
lr-mame2003 in Retropie will play anything you want to play at full speed on a Pi3. Most of it will run on full MAME 0.176 if you want to go to the effort of setting it up over downloading a ready built distro.
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