Are you using MAME on Linux?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
cabinets. The more I mess with it, the more I think it's too messy to
do right now. I'm building a cabinet with a vertical monitor and have
no interest in messing with X11. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able
to find a front-end that can handle a rotated screen.

--
Please see my arcade and pinball items for sale:
http://www.videoracer.com/forsale/
Or check my repair logs:
http://blog.videoracer.com/blog/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 23:10:25 +0000, Chris Osborn wrote:

>
> Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
> cabinets.

I use Linux for everything, including my Mame cabinet.

> The more I mess with it, the more I think it's too messy to do
> right now.

I think Windows is too messy and unreliable to bother with, myself. It's
all a matter of perspective, I suppose.

 

[Francisco]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

innocent_lamb wrote:

> On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 23:10:25 +0000, Chris Osborn wrote:
>
>>
>> Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
>> cabinets.
>
> I use Linux for everything, including my Mame cabinet.
>
>> The more I mess with it, the more I think it's too messy to do
>> right now.
>
> I think Windows is too messy and unreliable to bother with, myself. It's
> all a matter of perspective, I suppose.

Same as you, Linux is very versatile for a proyect like this, you can
customize linux much more than you can with windows. I use Gentoo and
AdvanceMAME/MENU on a framebuffer with an arcade monitor. I also have
Stepmania running and I plan to install other emulators too.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Chris Osborn wrote on 03. March 2005:
>
> Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
> cabinets.

Me too. But no cab here.

> The more I mess with it,

You should try XMESS too.

> the more I think it's too messy to do right now. I'm building a cabinet
> with a vertical monitor and have no interest in messing with X11.

You don't need X11 for XMAME. There is a SVGA port for it. No need to
start or even install X.

> I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to
> find a front-end that can handle a rotated screen.

You need not really a front end. You can tell MAME in the config file(s)
to rotate the screen. When you use a frontend it either has an option for
it, or, if not, reads hopefully this config file before.
--
By(e) Andreas
Old school arcade classics at http://www.tombstones.org.uk/~ankman/
Linux without installation? http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
OE user? Ease the pain and try the better newsreader http://xnews.newsguy.com/
Registered as user #289125 with the Linux Counter http://counter.li.org/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 23:10:25 GMT, fozztexx@fozztexx.com (Chris Osborn)
wrote:

>
>Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
>cabinets. The more I mess with it, the more I think it's too messy to
>do right now. I'm building a cabinet with a vertical monitor and have
>no interest in messing with X11. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able
>to find a front-end that can handle a rotated screen.

I also tried it and went back to Windows. No faster, and I was
spending too much time learning to do things I already knew how to do
in DOS/Windows. That is no fault of Linux, but I was working on a
cabinet and wanted to spend the time building, not dinking around.
The thing that finally sent me packing from Linux was an issue with
the GeForce 3 video driver w/TV out. I just couldn't get it working
right.

Tim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Chris Osborn wrote on 04. March 2005:
>
> In article <38pullF5rd55aU1@individual.net>,
> Francisco <fran575@mailandnews.com> wrote:
>>Same as you, Linux is very versatile for a proyect like this, you can
>>customize linux much more than you can with windows. I use Gentoo and
>>AdvanceMAME/MENU on a framebuffer with an arcade monitor.
>
> I dinked around with getting framebuffer stuff working about 9 months
> ago. Now that I'm at it again, I'm wondering if the framebuffer stuff
> can be rotated. The computer I'm messing with this time has an Intel
> 815E chipset, and I thought after doing a google search I saw that the
> framebuffer driver for it *might* actually support rotating directly.

Should work with SVGALIBS. Install this and MAME and tons of other
emulators which have an SVGA port, run. I don't know if SVGA can rotate
natively, but MAME can.
--
By(e) Andreas
Old school arcade classics at http://www.tombstones.org.uk/~ankman/
Linux without installation? http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
OE user? Ease the pain and try the better newsreader http://xnews.newsguy.com/
Registered as user #289125 with the Linux Counter http://counter.li.org/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

In article <only_broken_newsreaders_show_this_in_the_body.m2acpkatgt.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>,
Andreas Kohlbach <ankman@myrealbox.com> wrote:
>You need not really a front end. You can tell MAME in the config file(s)
>to rotate the screen. When you use a frontend it either has an option for
>it, or, if not, reads hopefully this config file before.

Yah I know MAME can rotate the screen itself, I just need to have a
menu system that can handle a rotated monitor.

I'd much prefer to go with Linux, but in 10 years of using Linux (on
over 20 computers), they *all* run headless. Well, except for my
TiVo.

These days my Windoze boxes are running headless too (but I use VNC to
get on them). The computers I sit in front of are
NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/OSX.

Ok, not to turn this into a religious war...

--
Please see my arcade and pinball items for sale:
http://www.videoracer.com/forsale/
Or check my repair logs:
http://blog.videoracer.com/blog/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

In article <38pullF5rd55aU1@individual.net>,
Francisco <fran575@mailandnews.com> wrote:
>Same as you, Linux is very versatile for a proyect like this, you can
>customize linux much more than you can with windows. I use Gentoo and
>AdvanceMAME/MENU on a framebuffer with an arcade monitor.

I dinked around with getting framebuffer stuff working about 9 months
ago. Now that I'm at it again, I'm wondering if the framebuffer stuff
can be rotated. The computer I'm messing with this time has an Intel
815E chipset, and I thought after doing a google search I saw that the
framebuffer driver for it *might* actually support rotating directly.

--
Please see my arcade and pinball items for sale:
http://www.videoracer.com/forsale/
Or check my repair logs:
http://blog.videoracer.com/blog/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

In article <u75h21dskutuk91sc9102uq3n23scr3t9v@4ax.com>,
Tim O <timo56@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I also tried it and went back to Windows. No faster, and I was
>spending too much time learning to do things I already knew how to do
>in DOS/Windows. That is no fault of Linux, but I was working on a
>cabinet and wanted to spend the time building, not dinking around.

Yah, that's sort of where I am right now. I want to get this cabinet
built and done with, and not spend several weeks essentially building
a Linux setup from scratch. Doing just about anything with Linux
requires lots of tinkering and fiddling and recompiling and fixing
bugs in the software you download. But on the other hand it can be
stripped down to do just what's needed and nothing more.

--
Please see my arcade and pinball items for sale:
http://www.videoracer.com/forsale/
Or check my repair logs:
http://blog.videoracer.com/blog/

 

[Francisco]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>
> Should work with SVGALIBS. Install this and MAME and tons of other
> emulators which have an SVGA port, run. I don't know if SVGA can rotate
> natively, but MAME can.

I've had lot's of problems with SVGALib, mainly fatal crashes on resolution
changes. Maybe it was my hardware combination, but never had such problems
with Framebuffer. Not sure if it can be rotated since I've never thought of
doing it, but doesn't advMAME do it?, I'm almost sure advMENU does.

 

[Francisco]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Chris Osborn wrote:

> In article
>
<only_broken_newsreaders_show_this_in_the_body.m2acpkatgt.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>,
> Andreas Kohlbach <ankman@myrealbox.com> wrote:
>>You need not really a front end. You can tell MAME in the config file(s)
>>to rotate the screen. When you use a frontend it either has an option for
>>it, or, if not, reads hopefully this config file before.
>
> Yah I know MAME can rotate the screen itself, I just need to have a
> menu system that can handle a rotated monitor.
>

AdvanceMENU can do it...

> I'd much prefer to go with Linux, but in 10 years of using Linux (on
> over 20 computers), they *all* run headless. Well, except for my
> TiVo.
>
> These days my Windoze boxes are running headless too (but I use VNC to
> get on them). The computers I sit in front of are
> NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/OSX.
>
> Ok, not to turn this into a religious war...
>

You started... ;-)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Chris Osborn's last words before the Sword of Azrial plunged through his
body were:

> In article <u75h21dskutuk91sc9102uq3n23scr3t9v@4ax.com>,
> Tim O <timo56@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>I also tried it and went back to Windows. No faster, and I was
>>spending too much time learning to do things I already knew how to do
>>in DOS/Windows. That is no fault of Linux, but I was working on a
>>cabinet and wanted to spend the time building, not dinking around.
> Yah, that's sort of where I am right now. I want to get this cabinet
> built and done with, and not spend several weeks essentially building
> a Linux setup from scratch. Doing just about anything with Linux
> requires lots of tinkering and fiddling and recompiling and fixing
> bugs in the software you download. But on the other hand it can be
> stripped down to do just what's needed and nothing more.

Uhm, I kinda beg to differ. I have 4 machine running linux, and installed
various distros on many more, and I've never had to spend weeks
recompiling anything. Last machine I setup was my webserver and it took me
just a couple hours to get it setup, configured, and upto date. This
machine here (my main desktop) I got going in a half hour.

 

[Francisco]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Hellmark wrote:

>
> Uhm, I kinda beg to differ. I have 4 machine running linux, and installed
> various distros on many more, and I've never had to spend weeks
> recompiling anything. Last machine I setup was my webserver and it took me
> just a couple hours to get it setup, configured, and upto date. This
> machine here (my main desktop) I got going in a half hour.

I had to compile a lot, I use Gentoo :-D
But really, I didn't had much problems either, just with SVGALib. I think
it's just a matter of what you know better. I'm sure it would take me much
more time if I wanted to make something special in windos than in linux.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Chris Osborn wrote:
> Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
> cabinets. The more I mess with it, the more I think it's too messy to
> do right now. I'm building a cabinet with a vertical monitor and have
> no interest in messing with X11. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able
> to find a front-end that can handle a rotated screen.
>

In the spirit of curiosity, How many people are running MAME on an
/XBox/ in their cab?

--
Thnik about it!
Dead_Dad

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Francisco wrote on 04. March 2005:
>
> Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>>
>> Should work with SVGALIBS. Install this and MAME and tons of other
>> emulators which have an SVGA port, run. I don't know if SVGA can rotate
>> natively, but MAME can.
>
> I've had lot's of problems with SVGALib, mainly fatal crashes on resolution
> changes. Maybe it was my hardware combination, but never had such problems
> with Framebuffer.

Had this too. It failed recognizingmy graphic device. Have a look into
/etc/vga/libvga.config and tell it about your card.

> Not sure if it can be rotated since I've never thought of
> doing it, but doesn't advMAME do it?, I'm almost sure advMENU does.

AdvMAME also only uses the xmame command line options, as probably all
front ends do. If AdvMAME can't then it has no option for it.

If you want a fix position for all games just "hard config" it in the
xmamerc and it will always be rotated.
--
By(e) Andreas
Old school arcade classics at http://www.tombstones.org.uk/~ankman/
Linux without installation? http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
OE user? Ease the pain and try the better newsreader http://xnews.newsguy.com/
Registered as user #289125 with the Linux Counter http://counter.li.org/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 23:41:18 GMT, Dead_Dad
<XXXspamtrap007@yahoo.comXXX> wrote:

>In the spirit of curiosity, How many people are running MAME on an
>/XBox/ in their cab?

I considered it since I have an XBox that I rarely use, but it has a
pretty slow processor. If anyone has one, how does it handle fast
action shooters like Mars Matrix? Seems like it'd suffer from slowdown
pretty badly.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Tim O wrote:
> On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 23:41:18 GMT, Dead_Dad
> <XXXspamtrap007@yahoo.comXXX> wrote:
>
>
>>In the spirit of curiosity, How many people are running MAME on an
>>/XBox/ in their cab?
>
>
> I considered it since I have an XBox that I rarely use, but it has a
> pretty slow processor. If anyone has one, how does it handle fast
> action shooters like Mars Matrix? Seems like it'd suffer from slowdown
> pretty badly.
>

OTOH, you can't beat the price or the simplicity of not having to deal
with fifty thousand different drivers.

Plus, if you were to write a frontend that, for each ROM, used the
earliest version of MAME that ran that ROM well, you could run a /lot/
more games at full speed. You could even use catver.ini for a
preliminary sort.

--
Thnik about it!
Dead_Dad

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 00:07:25 GMT, Dead_Dad
<XXXspamtrap007@yahoo.comXXX> wrote:

>OTOH, you can't beat the price or the simplicity of not having to deal
>with fifty thousand different drivers.
>
>Plus, if you were to write a frontend that, for each ROM, used the
>earliest version of MAME that ran that ROM well, you could run a /lot/
>more games at full speed. You could even use catver.ini for a
>preliminary sort.

Do you think modding the XBox, installing the OS and possibly adding a
larger drive would be simpler than rounding up drivers? I'm not so
sure. To me, the Xbox mod is one of those things to do as a hobbiest
experiment, not because it's easy. I still think it's kind of cool,
but the specs of the XBox seem about right for the low price.
What it is 500-some MHz?

My MAME cab got the newest set of video and sound card drivers that
was available when I built it. The hardware isn't cutting edge to
begin with, so I doubt it will ever be updated. Pretty hassle free. It
fact, it all worked with just the XP supplied drivers. Since MAME
doesn't take much advantage of 3D hardware, I don't think I even
gained anything by using the official drivers (I don't use any of the
D3D scanline effects).

Let me know if you decide to do this, I'd love to hear about it.

Tim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

In article <BPMVd.11088$Pz7.3515@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com>,
Chris Osborn <fozztexx@fozztexx.com> wrote:
>Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
>cabinets. The more I mess with it, the more I think it's too messy to
>do right now.

I started a blog about what I'm doing to get MAME going on
Linux. Perhaps if I get it all working it will evolve into a
distribution, but probably not. The main reason I am starting from
scratch is because I want the computer to do nothing more than run
MAME and have a menu. Maybe some other emulators/games and jukebox
support, but that's it. No file serving, no ssh, no sendmail.

So far I'm struggling just with getting advmame to run. I *was* able
to boot AdvanceCD and it seemed to detect the video and audio hardware
and I was able to play a game with sound. So there's hope!

Link to the blog is http://blog.videoracer.com/blog/

--
Please see my arcade and pinball items for sale:
http://www.videoracer.com/forsale/
Or check my repair logs:
http://blog.videoracer.com/blog/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Chris Osborn's last words before the Sword of Azrial plunged through his
body were:
> In article <BPMVd.11088$Pz7.3515@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com>,
> Chris Osborn <fozztexx@fozztexx.com> wrote:
>>Just curious how many people are actually using Linux on their MAME
>>cabinets. The more I mess with it, the more I think it's too messy to
>>do right now.
> I started a blog about what I'm doing to get MAME going on
> Linux. Perhaps if I get it all working it will evolve into a
> distribution, but probably not. The main reason I am starting from
> scratch is because I want the computer to do nothing more than run
> MAME and have a menu. Maybe some other emulators/games and jukebox
> support, but that's it. No file serving, no ssh, no sendmail.

You do realize you can choose what packages get installed when you do a
typical install, don't you? Don't have to roll your own on it.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

Tim O wrote:
> On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 00:07:25 GMT, Dead_Dad
> <XXXspamtrap007@yahoo.comXXX> wrote:
>
>
>>OTOH, you can't beat the price or the simplicity of not having to deal
>>with fifty thousand different drivers.
>>
>>Plus, if you were to write a frontend that, for each ROM, used the
>>earliest version of MAME that ran that ROM well, you could run a /lot/
>>more games at full speed. You could even use catver.ini for a
>>preliminary sort.
>
>
> Do you think modding the XBox, installing the OS and possibly adding a
> larger drive would be simpler than rounding up drivers? I'm not so
> sure. To me, the Xbox mod is one of those things to do as a hobbiest
> experiment, not because it's easy. I still think it's kind of cool,
> but the specs of the XBox seem about right for the low price.
> What it is 500-some MHz?
>
> My MAME cab got the newest set of video and sound card drivers that
> was available when I built it. The hardware isn't cutting edge to
> begin with, so I doubt it will ever be updated. Pretty hassle free. It
> fact, it all worked with just the XP supplied drivers. Since MAME
> doesn't take much advantage of 3D hardware, I don't think I even
> gained anything by using the official drivers (I don't use any of the
> D3D scanline effects).
>
> Let me know if you decide to do this, I'd love to hear about it.
>
> Tim
>

As I recall, an XBox has an Intel PIII-733 w/128MB RAM & an nVidia
graphics sub-system, though I came across a company that can double the
processor speed and RAM. (While losing XBox gaming, unfortunately)

--
Thnik about it!
Dead_Dad

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.mame (More info?)

In article <pan.2005.03.07.17.01.51.450030@example.com>,
innocent_lamb <innocent_lamb@Remove.This.tombstones.org.uk.And.This> wrote:
>There was some semi-serious discussion on the xmame mailing list about
>creating some sort of "Arcade Linux" some time ago. It never quite got
>off the ground as I recall, but if you're interested in this you
>might want to poke your nose in there and see if anyone else wants to
>play in that sandbox too.

I guess I should take a look at their archives to see where they
got. Might have some useful info. I'm not gonna touch X11 though.

I'll keep posting my progress to my blog.

--
Please see my arcade and pinball items for sale:
http://www.videoracer.com/forsale/
Or check my repair logs:
http://blog.videoracer.com/blog/