MAME vs HARDWARE

Emulation has its place, I play mvs emulation on my psp, its pretty good under the right settings, but nothing beats the real thing, when I have the time I set up my supergun and Joystick as that gives the real arcade experience you just dont get from emulation, you can have 100% accuracy with emus but it will for ever feel like fake gaming

Sega32Bit said:

Emulation has its place, I play mvs emulation on my psp, its pretty good under the right settings, but nothing beats the real thing, when I have the time I set up my supergun and Joystick as that gives the real arcade experience you just dont get from emulation, you can have 100% accuracy with emus but it will for ever feel like fake gaming

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I run Mame on one of my cabs. Neo emu is pretty spot on. Unless you're into Neo deep, the average person playing would never notice.

Emulation all the way. If I could do it all over again, I'd be a MAME exclusive whore, all day everyday, the convenience outweighs the shortcomings which aren't many considering how much is available to you. It's hard to let go of hardware 'cause I'm a nutbag, nostalgia, OMG Neo Geo is so kewl, but I'm always with the intent on selling it all someday.

Sega32Bit said:

Emulation has its place, I play mvs emulation on my psp, its pretty good under the right settings, but nothing beats the real thing, when I have the time I set up my supergun and Joystick as that gives the real arcade experience you just dont get from emulation, you can have 100% accuracy with emus but it will for ever feel like fake gaming

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Your not getting a great arcade experience with mame because of your setup. Your using a portable device, with an lcd, and probably not able to run shaders.

I am having a very good experience with my neo geo running mame so far. I still need to order molex connectors for the coin door and wire up the sound. However, I have not been able to find any sort of stuttering or sync issues. Response seems just like my original mvs board. And I am almost finished with a new attract mode layout.

keilmillerjr said:

Your not getting a great arcade experience with mame because of your setup. Your using a portable device, with an lcd, and probably not able to run shaders.

I am having a very good experience with my neo geo running mame so far. I still need to order molex connectors for the coin door and wire up the sound. However, I have not been able to find any sort of stuttering or sync issues. Response seems just like my original mvs board. And I am almost finished with a new attract mode layout.

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Are you using groovymame? Cause it's a crime of you're not.

Kid Panda said:

Are you using groovymame? Cause it's a crime of you're not.

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Of course! Groovymame with original wells gardner k7000. The layout image is a snapshot from my lcd iMac i’m using for development.

Why not both. I use a Pana/Sigma for boards and a VLX/Virtua Stick High Grade for MAME. Hoping to have the space to set it all up at once in the future, dual monitors etc.

The preservation side of things is incredible and HLSL has come a long way. Not saying it beats a real CRT but it's still pretty good to look at. It's inevitable that all PCBs will eventually become faulty or need to be serviced and I just don't have the heart for that these days. Same with monitors and that is pretty much the reason I really like running a neat MAME setup. I just wish there were more USB rotary options on the market.

thermaltreasure said:

The preservation side of things is incredible

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Unfortunately there are still some small issues to figure out.

One I've recently dug is CPS1, CPS1.5 and CPS2 emulation not being perfect speed wise, due to the lack of wait states emulation (something which I discovered has been confirmed since MAME 0.37b).

The point is that until someone gets to work on this, emulation will not be perfect and it will affect gameplay in one way or another.

Meanwhile, there are other systems which have been emulated almost perfectly; by "almost" I say that while there may still be something off, it will not affect normal gameplay.

I have a MAME box with groovymame and CRT (a very nice Sony BVM) and I'll still get original hardware for those platforms that haven't been perfectly emulated yet.
I've just got a CPS2 A-Board, now I'll be out looking for some games (with Progear no arashi being on the top list).

Neo Geo emulation is perfect as far as I can see, but I still got an MVS board and a 138-in-1 as it wasn't a huge investment and it gets me instant-on games.

I play Neo-Geo almost exclusively on emulators just because it is a lot easier to configure and use autofire than on the real thing. Also, the Neo-Geo AES joysticks are absolutely terrible, I can't believe people can actually play with those things.

The only real drawback with playing on emulators is the input lag, but it's not bad enough that I can't work around it.

aha2940 said:

For me, it's nice that emulation exists. It's like a plan B of some sorts, but I will always prefer playing on the original hardware, even if using a multicart.

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Same. There's nothing like original hardware.

Emulation is fine if done properly - that is, scanlines, original controllers, etc.

Most casual fans of retro don't care and can't tell the difference, which is perfectly fine.. but it's always nice to be able to show off original hardware.

pegboy said:

I play Neo-Geo almost exclusively on emulators just because it is a lot easier to configure and use autofire than on the real thing. Also, the Neo-Geo AES joysticks are absolutely terrible, I can't believe people can actually play with those things.

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I only ever play on my AES with NEO-GEO CD Controllers. I have an original stick but never ever use it.. it's just not ergonomic at all.

Dark Jaguar said:

...the convenience outweighs the shortcomings which aren't many considering how much is available to you.

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Sometimes the shortcomings are on the other side. The first Ridge Racers through MAME can be set at 60fps and progressive, while the original was interlaced only. No way I'm going back to the PS2-era flicker.

pegboy said:

I play Neo-Geo almost exclusively on emulators just because it is a lot easier to configure and use autofire than on the real thing. Also, the Neo-Geo AES joysticks are absolutely terrible, I can't believe people can actually play with those things.

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make your own stick or mod an existing one with a DB15 - it's easy and worth it. Then you could add a JNX Lazy Finger or build a rapid fire circuit... where there's a will.

I agree, the way things are today, playing the original hardware has never been better, except for the prices.

To me what really shines about emulation is the convenience, you can play a lot, stuff you'll never be able to afford, in my case tons of games. The thing is dedication, is easy to be distracted with emulation, you're shooting for that 1CC run and if you start faulty you swap the game for something else...I tend to do that a lot, but with original hardware is such a PITA, specially with PCBs, I just keep playing the same shit over and over for a good month, sometimes more. Another thing that is great about emulation is stave states. If you're organized you can have sorta "practice" mode for any given game, just to learn the stages better, finally break that wall and what have you. I know a lot of people consider it cheating, I dunno, you're still getting better regardless.

When I found out about emulation my mind exploded, someone told me about it and I couldn't believe what they were saying, it really is a gift. I know it's a touchy subject, rom whoring was awful back in the day and for a while there...after I understood what was happening and what piracy was doing, it made me angry, to see SNK slowly fall apart partly due to it. It took me a while to be more acceptant to emulation, but ever since I've played emulation a lot more than I play my actual games. I guess it depends on the situation, I will always and ultimately prefer to play original hardware, maybe 'cause I'm nostalgic, clingy to stuff but emulation is so convenient.

It's 2017 and I have never emulated neo-geo in my life. Dunno what that says about me. Says a lot though I guess

So when was the last time you played Neo?

Dark Jaguar said:

So when was the last time you played Neo?

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Hahaha... tuché.

Dark Jaguar said:

I agree

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I love the AES sticks, lol. I won't deny there's better out there, but I think they still hold up especially when compared to most other sticks from the same era--I even think they've got the Hori's from back then beat.

Mame is quite accurate, some bugs still remains, like the 3rd terry stage in garou with the messed up bridge animation, more known bugs can be seen here http://tinyurl.com/lxazbs7

jhonny d said:

Mame is quite accurate, some bugs still remains, like the 3rd terry stage in garou with the messed up bridge animation, more known bugs can be seen here http://tinyurl.com/lxazbs7

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The bridge animation is no longer incorrect on more recent versions of mame.

I prefer running my schmups off PCBs, partly to take advantage of the slowdown, and partly to get better implementation of stuff like scanlines than what I seem to be able to manage in PC emulation or some reason (yeah, I know, I must be doing it wrong, but something just feels off.) My A1200 with a flash hard drive setup does a better job than resized emulation app windows emulating Amiga games too.

For everything else though... I'm not always shy about using emulation. I have most of the Neo games I want to play in hardware, but sometimes get lazy and fire up an emulation anyway. It's hard to beat convenience when you just want a quick play on your usual PC.

I agree about the Neo sticks being a bit iffy for enjoyable play. Even the kidney ones leave me a little less than thrilled. Maybe I should try the Neo CD pads.

In any case, if not for emulation, I doubt as many folks would be as aware of the old games, perhaps especially Neo stuff. I played a lot of Neo games for the first time in emulation.

heihachi said:

I love the AES sticks, lol. I won't deny there's better out there, but I think they still hold up especially when compared to most other sticks from the same era--I even think they've got the Hori's from back then beat.

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I dunno man, maybe the 2 I have are just worn out or something but they are virtually unplayable to me, especially with the diagonal movements. The weird rotating knob doesn't help matters either. I just don't get it.

MetalSludge said:

I prefer running my schmups off PCBs, partly to take advantage of the slowdown, and partly to get better implementation of stuff like scanlines than what I seem to be able to manage in PC emulation or some reason (yeah, I know, I must be doing it wrong, but something just feels off.) My A1200 with a flash hard drive setup does a better job than resized emulation app windows emulating Amiga games too.

For everything else though... I'm not always shy about using emulation. I have most of the Neo games I want to play in hardware, but sometimes get lazy and fire up an emulation anyway. It's hard to beat convenience when you just want a quick play on your usual PC.

I agree about the Neo sticks being a bit iffy for enjoyable play. Even the kidney ones leave me a little less than thrilled. Maybe I should try the Neo CD pads.

In any case, if not for emulation, I doubt as many folks would be as aware of the old games, perhaps especially Neo stuff. I played a lot of Neo games for the first time in emulation.

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Your issue isn't emulation, it's the fact that you are not using a crt. Crt has the best implementation of scanlines.