> In RetroPie, when an arcade game doesn't start, you can pull up a menu to choose a > different emulator. The choices that appear to me are... > > lr-fbalpha2012 > lr--fbneo-neocd > lr-fbneo > lr-mame2000 > lr-mame2003 > lr-mame2003-plus > lr-mame2010 > > I've never heard of the first few. Hoping there is a quick answer to this. Which one > of these will properly run the most games?
You use a real PC and the latest version of MAME. The latest build of MAME listed there is over 10 years old. You're not going to get a good gameplay experience on a cheap shit-box of a Raspberry Pi.
Additionally, I'd like to draw your attention to the forum rules, particularly rule 8:
8. Discussion concerning license violating MAME builds, or links posted to websites containing them, is absolutely not allowed
MAME2003 and its ilk very much are license-violating, as they involve backporting changes from the latest version of MAME to an old version to which the license does not apply. I'm sure "gamez fan" will have some choice words to say about this, since he's a "contributor" (more like a thief) to MAME2003, which is something he tries to hide and never seems to mention when he's acting like a little bitch to actual MAME devs on these here forums, but it's the truth.
> In RetroPie, when an arcade game doesn't start, you can pull up a menu to choose a > different emulator. The choices that appear to me are... > > lr-fbalpha2012 > lr--fbneo-neocd > lr-fbneo > lr-mame2000 > lr-mame2003 > lr-mame2003-plus > lr-mame2010 > > I've never heard of the first few. Hoping there is a quick answer to this. Which one > of these will properly run the most games?
Assuming you have a Pi4 and not a potato (Pi3 or lower), use the latest possible version of MAME that the Pi can run e.g. 2016 or later, and preferably not through RetroPie/RetroArch as that can cause issues when running MAME, not to mention the lr-mame cores shown above being way too old for any sort of use (even lr-mame2010 is pushing it in terms of accuracy). Likewise, Final Burn Alpha is also way too old to be of any use unless the device is as powerful as a PC from last century, so use Final Burn Neo if you absolutely have to.
If you only have a Pi3, your options are going to be very limited, as you're basically looking at a low-end (e.g. Celeron) PC from roughly 2002 in terms of processing power. If it's a Pi Zero, expect it to be curb-stomped by a Pentium 3 866 running Windows 98 SE.
It really depends on what game you're trying to play and what ROM you're actually using. Depending on the game, each of these cores may be expecting a different ROM, and it's possible that whatever ROM you have isn't going to work with any of them.
The short answer is that you should choose ONE of them, track down or assemble a set of ROMs specifically meant for that version, and not bother with the others.
The older a core is, the less accurate the emulation is going to be... though the tradeoff is that they often run faster, which is why people are still using them. 20 year old versions of MAME are going to have poor emulation in many cases, but it might be all that your Raspberry Pi can handle.
Here's what each of these cores actually are:
lr-fbalpha2012 - Based on FinalBurn Alpha v0.2.97.29, though apparently with some drivers from 0.2.97.30 backported into it. If you've never heard of FBA, it's another arcade emulation project similar to MAME... it supports fewer games and is less mature overall, but it can sometimes be faster.
lr-fbneo - I think this is based on FinalBurn Neo v1.0.0.0, but the RetroPie docs claim it uses the FB v0.2.97.44 ROM set... it's possible those are the same things, but I don't really know. FB Neo is basically the new version of FB Alpha, with the name change being due to some drama I won't go into here.
lr-fbneo-neocd - Also based on FinalBurn Neo, but this is specifically just the parts that emulate the NeoGeo CD home console. Not an arcade emulator and probably not what you're looking for.
lr-mame2000 - Based on MAME 0.37b5
lr-mame2003 - Based on MAME 0.78
lr-mame2003-plus - Based on MAME 0.78, but with various drivers backported from later versions of MAME.
lr-mame2010 - Based on MAME 0.139
Do NOT just download a random torrent of MAME ROMS and expect it to work with any given version of MAME.
>> lr-fbalpha2012 >> lr--fbneo-neocd >> lr-fbneo >> lr-mame2000 >> lr-mame2003 >> lr-mame2003-plus >> lr-mame2010 > >> I've never heard of the first few. Hoping there is a quick answer to this. Which one >> of these will properly run the most games?
>Assuming you have a Pi4 and not a potato (Pi3 or lower), use the latest possible version > of MAME that the Pi can run e.g. 2016 or later, and preferably not through > RetroPie/RetroArch as that can cause issues when running MAME, not to mention the > lr-mame cores shown above being way too old for any sort of use (even lr-mame2010 is > pushing it in terms of accuracy). Likewise, Final Burn Alpha is also way too old to be > of any use unless the device is as powerful as a PC from last century, so use Final Burn >Neo if you absolutely have to.
>If you only have a Pi3, your options are going to be very limited, as you're basically > looking at a low-end (e.g. Celeron) PC from roughly 2002 in terms of processing power. > If it's a Pi Zero, expect it to be curb-stomped by a Pentium 3 866 running Windows 98 > SE.
A whole lot of hardware there, to be overclocked, for some power hungry game putting stress on hardware that will eventually reenact late comic Sam Kinison's scream routine.
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