[MAME ] Which is the best MAME version for pi ?
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hi everyone
i am new here and i have some questions about mame
mame 2003 or mame 2003 plus which one i should install to my pi ? which one works best with pi 3b+
mame 2003 support just .078 version i think but 2003 plus ?
which one is better to install thanks for reply
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@Azuke Good question, and you are well on your way to finding your own answer with what you have already learned. If you check the docs you quickly learn that there are many versions that span a pretty wide range of rom sets. The rule of thumb is usually that the newer the MAME, the higher the romset, but this requires a lot more computing power, so the LESS the performance. This means you end up needing to strike a balance between performance and emulation accuracy, or performance and rom coverage. Most of us are willing to sacrifice the nuances of emulation accuracy in favor of game playability, so it really boils down to performance vs. ROMs vs. features.
It is fair to argue that the sweet spot on the Pi is lr-mame2003, with 2003+ adding some additional back ported games and features. The feature updates on 2003+ are being replicated into 2003, so the real difference between them will be the additional games that are being back ported.
If you want the most features and the most playability out of MAME on the Pi right now, you are looking at 2003 or 2003+. If you want the most input capabilities and a slightly newer romset, I would recommend AdvanceMAME 3.x. No other MAME emulator on the Pi can match the input matrix flexibility of AdvanceMAME. If, for example, you were building a three-trackball Rampart arcade cabinet, you are probably going to need AdvanceMAME to run it. If you like the zfast CRT shaders and plan to run everything through handheld gamepads, RetroArch is your ticket, and MAME2003+ may be the best option.
You did not mention it, but by all means, do not ignore FBA. It is not MAME, but it has an ever-expanding romset that is beginning to rival 2003 in terms of features and game lists, so check that out too because performance is very good.
Many of us use the RUNCOMMAND feature of RetroPie and end up with a combination of multiple versions of MAME to run our games. For example, anything with complex inputs, or until recently, vector displays, I would run these with AdvanceMAME. NeoGEO games I would run using FBA (the libretro version) and the rest are on 2003 for me. Only games that these cannot play would have me looking to newer versions of MAME, but off the top of my head, I cannot think of any.
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@caver01 thanks for your repply , im look more info about FBA now , and whats the best FBA emulator for pi 3B+ ? And can i run mame roms in FBA i think thats not possible right ? Or how work they there are 3-5 emulators in mame and FBA . And for all theese versions rom set in internet . im confused idk which one i should use in pi 3 and which one i should download maybe @caver01 u can help me for my problems
Sorry for my english when i have mistakes my english is not the best thanks for your reply -
@Azuke you will need to read about the differences and decide for yourself which best suits your needs. This is why we have different ones available. The standalone PiFBA for example is one that does not use retroarch, so you will need to learn more about retroarch to decide if you want those features. If so, lr-fbalpha is the obvious first choice and why it is the default.
I am afraid you have a lot more reading to do. The runcommand feature in RetroPie let’s you specify which emulator you run in a given system group, but the ROMs have to match. Read the docs. Each emulator supports a specific rom set version, and while some individual titles may not change from set set, many do. You cannot just use any rom and expect it to work in every emulator. You need the right set for each one.
FBA ROMs are just like MAME ROMS, but again, the sets differ.
Look, there are a lot of friendly people on the forums who have answered these kinds of questions repeatedly over the years and I occasionally jump in and answer a few myself, but this stuff is complicated and you won’t get all of your answers by asking common questions, as they have been asked before and documentation has been written. Read the docs. Understand how MAME works. Search the forum and read what others have written. The Pi is an educational device, after all, and with patience, you will have a lot of fun learning and configuring yours. Best of luck!
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@caver01 thanks for your answer . Yeah i know i must learn much im new here , my english is not the best thats why i cant understand sometimes whats writen in the docs but i will learn :) so thanks you soo much !
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@caver01 one more question
The lr-fbalpha version is at the moment 0.2.97.44
Can i run on this version 0.2.97.42 ROMs ?
i cant find any .44 rom set just i found is .42 rom set
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@Azuke said in [MAME ] Which is the best MAME version for pi ?:
Can i run on this version 0.2.97.42 ROMs ?
Some roms might run, but it's not the recommended method for any arcade emulator.
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Just came across this link on the forums, this may be what you are looking for as it appears to have the best of everything and removed a LOT of non-working or clone games
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/20348/all-in-one-overclocked-rpi3b-arcade-rom-set-setup
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For me the lr-fba emulator works best when it comes to MAME roms. 99% of the MAME games I wanted to play worked well with lr-fba, and barely any started with mame2003. The only game I had to run using mame2003 was Mortal Kombat as lr-fba didn't seem to support it. Note I have the latest lr-fba version, installed about a month ago.
And what's another good thing about lr-fba? You can save game states there which is impossible with mame2003 and others. That's a big plus, right?
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@Carnivore said in [MAME ] Which is the best MAME version for pi ?:
And what's another good thing about lr-fba? You can save game states there which is impossible with mame2003 and others. That's a big plus, right?
Mame2003 also has save states - but they're game dependant: some games support save states, some don't, depending on the MAME driver behind the game.
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@mitu Well, so far I've failed to save state of any of my MAME game using mame2003 emulator. Either I'm unlucky when it comes to my personal taste in games or it's that mame2003 is inferior to fba when it comes to supporting save states :)
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@Azuke From my test the binary lr-alpha in Retropie repo is NOT .44 (which is not released yet but in WIP).
Probably is a very old next .43 or the .43 because Mortal Kombat for example, does not work.
If you install from source instead Mortal Kombat works as it should in .44 WIP -
@steptoe @Menion @Carnivore thanks all for your replys i think i will download FBA Emulator and fba rom set . And maybe i can run mame2003 roms in fba i will try and share my experince ..
chiasoo
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@Azuke said in [MAME ] Which is the best MAME version for pi ?:
And maybe i can run mame2003 roms in fba i will try and share my experince ..
It might be better not to share the results of using the wrong romset. It will only confuse people. Just use the proper ROMs as we have recommended.
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@caver01 What do you mean? You mean if I run most of my MAME roms using FBA I'm doing it wrong way?
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@Carnivore He means that using a ROM coming from another ROM set is not guaranteed to work, so testing the FBA roms with MAME2003 and reporting "it doesn't work" is useless - since the wrong ROM set is used.
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@carnivore mitu says EXACTLY what I mean:
@Carnivore He means that using a ROM coming from another ROM set is not guaranteed to work, so testing the FBA roms with MAME2003 and reporting "it doesn't work" is useless - since the wrong ROM set is used.
This gets into some of the subtleties of how ROM sets evolve over time, but it is simply bad practice to knowingly use a ROM from the wrong set. Reporting results back here would merely confirm that a single game ROM may not have changed between ROM sets. The danger is that someone reads this and starts to ignore the ROM set versions explicitly required by the emulator they have chosen. Then, they post troubleshooting messages here confirming what we already know--they have the wrong ROM set--with misleading support for their decision like, "well, it failed on game XXXX but game YYYY worked fine". Nobody wants to waste time wading through these situations when we already know the answer--always use the correct ROM set for the emulator.
Now, can you use the wrong ROM anyway? Sure, and you may get away with it for a lot of titles. Just don't ask for help troubleshooting when you try this and fail--because we already know the answer.
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@caver01 said in [MAME ] Which is the best MAME version for pi ?:
@Azuke Good question, and you are well on your way to finding your own answer with what you have already learned. If you check the docs you quickly learn that there are many versions that span a pretty wide range of rom sets. The rule of thumb is usually that the newer the MAME, the higher the romset, but this requires a lot more computing power, so the LESS the performance. This means you end up needing to strike a balance between performance and emulation accuracy, or performance and rom coverage. Most of us are willing to sacrifice the nuances of emulation accuracy in favor of game playability, so it really boils down to performance vs. ROMs vs. features.
It is fair to argue that the sweet spot on the Pi is lr-mame2003, with 2003+ adding some additional back ported games and features. The feature updates on 2003+ are being replicated into 2003, so the real difference between them will be the additional games that are being back ported.
If you want the most features and the most playability out of MAME on the Pi right now, you are looking at 2003 or 2003+. If you want the most input capabilities and a slightly newer romset, I would recommend AdvanceMAME 3.x. No other MAME emulator on the Pi can match the input matrix flexibility of AdvanceMAME. If, for example, you were building a three-trackball Rampart arcade cabinet, you are probably going to need AdvanceMAME to run it. If you like the zfast CRT shaders and plan to run everything through handheld gamepads, RetroArch is your ticket, and MAME2003+ may be the best option.
You did not mention it, but by all means, do not ignore FBA. It is not MAME, but it has an ever-expanding romset that is beginning to rival 2003 in terms of features and game lists, so check that out too because performance is very good.
Many of us use the RUNCOMMAND feature of RetroPie and end up with a combination of multiple versions of MAME to run our games. For example, anything with complex inputs, or until recently, vector displays, I would run these with AdvanceMAME. NeoGEO games I would run using FBA (the libretro version) and the rest are on 2003 for me. Only games that these cannot play would have me looking to newer versions of MAME, but off the top of my head, I cannot think of any.
For 005 game mame 2003 doesn't have samples. I use mame 2010 for it. But as you said mostly Mame 2003, AdvMame, then FBA.
Does FBA support savestates? -
@jamos For me it does, and does it for any game I've tested so far.
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@Carnivore how about AdvanceMAME 3.x?
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