decisions for MAME machine

[Jason Stewart]

On 03/06/04 11:14 -0400, Steve Tremblett wrote:
> 
> I'm making a MAME cabinet and I'm starting to evaluate as much
> MAME-related software as I can find.  Seeing as there is some Linux
> software out there, I was wondering if anyone has done a project with a
> FreeBSD box?  A lot of these projects use DOS SVGA - how does FreeBSD
> compare in terms of performance/usability?  What about Linux?
> 
> experiences/advice/warnings welcome!
> 
> I am already familiar with various "sucks" or "rules" opinions - stick
> to the topic plz! :)
> 
> cheers,
> lazybones

Basically you'll have to use xmame or advancemame/sdl. I haven't used
advanceamame on FreeBSD (which is what you will need if you want to
run the games with the best video modes or if you want to run the
games on an arcade monitor), but I've run xmame successfully.

The performance is about the same as linux and a bit worse than pure
DOS (dos doesn't have any other background processes running and uses
very little memory).

I've been in the process of building my own cab for the past year, and
it's a huge job. I'm planning on writing an ebook about this in the
near future so people can learn from my mistakes.

Make sure that you read *all* of the docs with the mame software that
you choose and get a video card that can have it's VGA registers
reprogrammed by svgalib. The Trident Blade64 is what I use.


Good Luck,
Jason