FBA vs. MAME

pjft

Obligatory reference:

AndersHP

@pjft Hehe. But seriously, the tips in this thread should be gathered in some searchable place.

I'd love to check out how other people play my favorite MAME games (which version/emulation is the best) and if there's any other tips to make them run even better, this should be there also.

Pussyfoot

@pjft said in FBA vs. MAME:

@pussyfoot

"The Strikers 1945 II and III games are too slow in FBA."

You need to enable the Kaneko speed hack option in the options menu for them to run well. I might have completely butchered that option name, though.

The FBA compatibility spreadsheet suggested overclocking the CPU. I don't know about a speed hack, but the easy solution is to not use FBA since AdvanceMAME works fine as is.

UDb23

Does anybody know if G-Stream G2020 is playable on Pi3 ? What core?
It was added to MAME with v 115.

LinuxArcadeGuy

@pussyfoot it means overclocking game emulaed cpu not the PI cpu, i set mine to 200% its under quick menu/options when you load a neo-geo based game

Pussyfoot

@linuxarcadeguy said in FBA vs. MAME:

@pussyfoot it means overclocking game emulaed cpu not the PI cpu, i set mine to 200% its under quick menu/options when you load a neo-geo based game

Yes, I know. It's not a panacea. Just use MAME for those games.

markwkidd

mame2003 PRs are very welcome from my experience, so when there is a dipswitch or core setting that seems like a better default, the default can probably be changed.

Pussyfoot

mame-libretro: https://pastebin.com/6wAYWALb
mame-advmame: https://pastebin.com/8JLHcq8x
Final Burn Alpha (fba): https://pastebin.com/LG43KZs7

This is probably the final list. I remember seeing a file that identifies the ones in mame-libretro are using mame 2010 instead of 2003, but I can't find it.

Some final words about this... This is a good start for anyone looking for a definitive rom list of working games using the best emulator for the job as of 2017/11/11. However, this is not perfect by any means. There are games on the list that don't work. I haven't tested ever single game thoroughly to know exactly which emulator is best. (For example, I hear that some games need to be tested on later levels before problems show themselves.) One of the last changes I made was to move the Arkanoid games out of FBA since MAME allows either the joystick or mouse to control. There may be additional games that only work in MAME 2010 or AdvanceMAME that I haven't included. Like I said earlier, if I ever had to do another emulation "box," I'd look into using a x86 solution where I could just use the latest MAME and be done with it and also be assured whatever other emulators used would run better than on any other platform.

GreenHawk84

I'm surprised there hasn't been a Mame-Pi or FBA-Pi optimized just for Pi.

dankcushions

@greenhawk84 said in FBA vs. MAME:

I'm surprised there hasn't been a Mame-Pi or FBA-Pi optimized just for Pi.

there has: mame4all-pi, and pifba. however, if you're on pi2 or pi3 you're mostly better off going for later versions.

caver01

@greenhawk84

Dankcushions said:
there has: mame4all-pi, and pifba. however, if you're on pi2 or pi3 you're mostly better off going for later versions.

Yes, and these being stand-alone, they obviously don't enjoy retroarch setups. For me, the CRT-PI shader is an important feature.

UDb23

@pussyfoot said in FBA vs. MAME:

This is a good start for anyone looking for a definitive rom list of working games using the best emulator for the job as of 2017/11/11.

First thanks again for creating those lists.
I combined all three into one single xls file that lists the roms (sorted by filename) and for each rom shows the suggested (best) core.
Concerning lr-mame, some games require 2010 (vs 2003) to run correctly: eg. Spiders and Sheriff. As screen aspect ratio is wrong in lr-mame 2010 a specific cfg is required to fix the ratio. For the 2 mentioned games I made an overlay that also fixes screen ratio. In the xls files this is specified by rom and includes links to corresponding overlays.
I will add more 2010 required roms in the future when found.

Global "best core" for roms file is available here.

juice

this is great guys thanks alot for this , could you tell me what rom set i need for this configuration. do i need the fba rom set for fba and different rom set for mame 2003.

mitu

@juice Yes, fba and mame2003 have different romset versions - check out the arcade sections in the docs - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FinalBurn-Alpha/ and https://retropie.org.uk/docs/MAME/

AndersHP

@udb23
Great to see a combined list.
I'm really surprised to see that lr-fbalpha is recommended for so many roms. I thought the MAME2003 was "lighter", meaning that the performance on the pi would be faster and better in many cases.

UDb23

@andershp said in FBA vs. MAME:

lr-fbalpha is recommended for so many roms

Can't say why, I just collected the files created in this thread.
I believe "recommended" does not mean best; as far as I know lr-fba is faster due to less precise emulation (playability focused core) while mame tries to exactly emulate the real arcade machine (may impact performance, even on a Pi3)

UDb23

@andershp Mame2003 is "lighter" compared to newer mame releases (newer=more precise emulation)

AndersHP

@udb23 But I thought "lighter" = more precise emulation..

UDb23

@andershp more precise = more processing power needed = even Pi3 may not be able to manage (try a simple game like space invaders enabling with lr mame 2010 and mame overlay and backdrop... Too slow)

dankcushions

fbalpha is performance focused, but it's also a modern emulator. you can't really compare the performance with mame2003 -they're 14 years apart. i think most of the fbalpha code isn't even from a mame base in the first place.

so yeah, sometimes fbalpha will be faster than mame2003, sometimes not, but also it may have better accuracy in most games. mame2003 was accuracy-focused, but as of 2003. fbalpha will likely have the edge on it in most cases.