How much to build a good mame setup? I have seen things like Pandoras Box 4 and Game King and it seems people are left disappointed. Everyone says a mame setup is the way to go. Are there any notable games I won't be able to play with a mame setup, games that run on special chips? What will I be missing out on? I have heard it can be done on a low end pc, but then won't I be severely limited then in what games I can play? It seems crazy to me how far video games have evolved with time, yet we can't get the home arcade thing down flawlessly, or even have an snes flashcart with 100% compatibility.......
This is a very popular question. MAME alone is for emulating old school arcade games. Things like Asteroids, Pac-Man, Galaga, etc... You can run those type of games on older hardware. Some folks say they run on old Pentium I or Pentium II boxes like a champ, and you can get those for almost nothing today. Now.... should you want to run newer arcade titles like Killer Instinct, NFL Blitz, or CarnEvil, you will need some more serious hardware. Nintendo, Genesis, and SNES Emulators would also run fine here. Typically Intel processors work better than AMD for MAME setups. We are getting into the really minute stuff here, but it's just what users have reported. To run newer titles you want more ram and a decent graphics card with it's own processor and ram when possible. Mame typically runs better on single core machines as well. Putting it on a Dual Core, Quad Core, or Quad 8 box is overkill as Mame is not going to take advantage of the extra processors. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94866.0 Now.... if you have come this far, why not add newer PC titles to your arcade cabinet as well. Call of Duty, Street Fighter X Tekken, etc..... PS2, GameCube and Wii Emulators would also fall into this category. And in this world, you will need PC specs and a graphics cards that meet the game specs you want to run. See how this snow balled out of control super fast? In short, you can run MAME on a really low end box for no more than $40 - $50 dollars, but the games you will be able to play will be limited to the older "Atari" like games from back in the day. The newer the tiles are that you want to run, the more hardware you will need. So think long and hard about what you want it to be able to play before you start to spec out a PC. I've seen guys build awesome "Mame" rigs for $800 - $1000 that will play just about anything you toss at them, but most die hard MAME gamers say that these rigs are NOT MAME rigs as they have far surpassed what MAME itself can do. Hope the info helps. Also.... Here is a great thread with some hardware spec, and frame rates for specific arcade titles, so you can get an idea of what others have run, and what the end results were. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,72776.0.html?PHPSESSID=bumlcknbd26jp4vl9l241841i5
There are many games that MAME does not support, especially 3D games; but in case you are a 90's arcade person, there are other arcade emulators that might do the job, and if you use Hyperspin or another frontend it is actually pretty nice. About the computer to use, it depends on what you have in mind, retro arcade games run flawlessly on modest computers, but as more resources a game needs, more power the PC has to have. Regaring how much it cost, you have to think about different things. For instance, if you want to build a cabinet, and if so, would it be a tabletop, a candy style cabinet or a stand-up cabinet? What kind of games you want to play? what kind of TV? what kind of controller? To give you a number, atm I'm building an Mame candy arcade cabinet using an Intel Core 2 Duo computer I had hanging around and a nice CRT, besides of that I had to throw ~250€ in, for Sanwa buttons and sticks, usb interface, wood, fiberglass, paint, miscellaneous metal parts, etc. This number can be lowered or raised depending what you have in mind, but besides a computer or TV you are looking at around 75$ minimum I would say. But perhaps other person can give you a better answer.
If you build a cabinet, and start to add support for driving games with wheels, and foot pedals, etc... you can really drive the cost up as well. Typically driving games run best on a cabinet that was designed specifically for that. IE... don't mix driving games and stand up arcade titles in the same cabinet. You really have to think about how you will interact with the game in a cabinet setup. If you are just playing games with a controller, then no worries. But when you add in arcade sticks and buttons like you would in a cabinet, you are going to exclude certain titles as you just wont have the controls to play them well. For example..... N64 games. That controller was a NIGHTMARE. Emulating the games... no problem with a newer PC..... but emulating that controller.... now that's a different story. If your a big N64 gamer, I recommend a usb port on the cabinet where you can simply plug in a N64 controller that's been converted to a USB port, so you have that original authentic gameplay. PS2 emulated games have similar issues with all of the buttons. A, B, X, Y, RT, RB, LT, LB, Right Thumbstick, Left Thumbstick, Right Thumb down, Left Thumb Down....... it gets nutz.... and can really detract from the game play if the controls are not mapped smooth. Playing Resident Evil on a Mame cabinet is REALLY hard because of how messed up the controls map out.
So I have basically every home console I could want. I just want to be able to run games like this And the games that came before it. Basically cutoff at the year 2000 tops. I don't want it in a cabinet. Will I be able to get to this point within the $800-$1000 price range? What would a guy want ideally to run these games? I plan to build an arcade stick and run it through my xrgb into my HDTV. Not factoring in the cost of building the fightstick, can it be done on $800-$1000 budget?
Yeah..... for sure, you could build that for $800 - $1000 bucks. Depending on how you are going to install it, you can trim costs in a lot of areas. For example.... If you plan on building your own stick, which I recommend by the way, If you build the stick housing a tad larger, you can mount your motherboard and hard drive right in the stick, and you don't need to invest in a PC case. lol You really just have to think about function over form. Honestly, If you wanted a PC case, I'd toss it all in the cheapest $40 case I could find. Don't spend hard money on LED's, and "Alienware" look alike cases when you could put that money in extra horse power or storage. Parts List: - Case (If you decide you need one.) ($40) - PC Case Cooling Fan Most PC Cases come with them installed, but if you ditch the case, make sure you get a case fan so you can get some air flowing in your setup. - Power Supply You don't need 1000 watts here either as you are just powering the PC, a medium range graphics card, and a few hard drives. Remember... your not going to be adding DVD / Blue Ray burners, or a lot of other internals that require a power draw so skimp here. Double check your graphics card however, as it will draw some juice, so make sure you got enough to make it happy. - Motherboard Here you are looking for something that will support at-least a dual core or quad core proc. Yes, Mame (The older games) won't be able take advantage of multiple cores, but if you want to start installing newer PC games, it will be nice. Also look for something that supports 8-16gb of ram. Also... look for motherboards that DO NOT have onboard VIDEO as you will be getting your own graphic card. This is not a must have, but often if you get a board with no video, you can pick up some extra stuff at no additional cost.... like extra usb ports for example. You don;t need a lot of expansion slots, and if you are going ot install it into your control stick, you might want to look at t he Micro-ATX form factor boards. They are super small, and they can pack a punch, but they are just not very upgradeable, so make sure you choose right from the start. -Processor The faster you can get the better off you will be. Intel Core i3 would do you fine... if you can stretch the budget here I'd go i5. i7 is overkill IMO. Too much horse power and you need that extra money spent in other areas to keep your budget where you want it. - Ram At a minimum I'd be looking for 8GB of Ram. If you can afford it, 12GB or 16GB would be better. - HDD1 - this is for your operating system only. (150GB SSD = $50) I recommend a smaller Solid State Drive here. You will get better performance, boot times, etc and you have a 2nd HDD for storage, so it doesn't need to be super large. - HDD2 - This is for your game storage. At a minimum, I'd go for a 3TB hard drive. ($99) If your budget allows, swing for a 5TB drive. ($$140) If you can't afford the 5TB out of the gate, you can always upgrade this later REALLY easy. Having two hard drives easily allows you to upgrade the OS without effecting your entire setup. Look at 5TB external Sata drives..... right now the External usb drives are about $50 less than just plain internal drives. Pull the hdd out of t he enclosure and save your self $50 large! - Graphic Card be prepared to spend a little money here... but nothing crazy. ($150 range should suffice) I'm using the Zotac GeForce GTX 950 right now. It's a decent mid range card. I picked it up cause it had great Amazon.com reviews. http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-GeForce...13P30O54/?&tag=bom-tomshardware-20&ascsubtag=[site|thaus[cat|[art|[pid|B013P30O54[tid|14600532343042335[bbc|LEPRIX Just make sure you double check your output connections here too. If you want to hook it up HDMI, make sure your graphics card as HDMI outputs. I'm assuming yoru going HDMI out to your TV. You don't need a DVD drive anymore so skip it, unless you want to toss one in. You can install the OS from USB. -Operating System You CAN pay for the OS, but there are ways in which you can save that money as well. ($0.00) When possible I recommend Windows 7 installations. If the newer hardware would take Windows XP I'd still be recommending that, but your going to want a newer OS for driver support with your newer hardware. No need for Windows 8, or Windows 10. They will just suck up extra system resources, and we's rather those be left for game play. I'd also look into Hyperspin. It takes some getting used to as far as configuration goes, but it's by far the slickest front end that's out there. It's also free, but it does require a decent machine to run it on. Pretty much anything you are building new will run just fine on it, so no worries there. Whew....... I'm out of breath. That should give you a good ballpark arena to work in. Good luck on the build.
I've edited your title to be a proper question - you're not writing clickbait articles - try to make the title a brief summary of the question or topic! Your question is really rather vague, though. You give no indication of what you think a "MAME setup" is. So the answer is that it'll cost as much as you want to spend. (OK, so your second post gave a bit more of a glimpse, but not a huge amount.) Some of this will be relevant, some won't - it's the sort of thing you need to decide before asking the question, though: Do you want to be able to play games on the sofa, on your television, like an Xbox? Well... buy a modded Xbox with MAME! That's a really cheap option. However, do you have a television or not? Are you going to use Xbox S controllers or a Hori arcade stick? If you have everything and just need the Xbox, dirt cheap. If you're after the stick, add a fair bit... and if you want a 4k television - add a lot! Or did you want a proper arcade machine? Then you have to decide whether to build or buy a generic cab. Do you want wood or a Japanese metal cab? The latter will be more expensive... unless you're going for a top knotch custom build. Table or stand-up? Are you going to get a bar stool with that? That's part of a "MAME setup" unless you want to stand up and play! The cheapest option in that sort of field is really going to be a crappy generic cab, plus an old PC which will be cheap. Are you going to use an original arcade monitor, a CRT PC monitor or an LCD? If the former, you'll need a graphics card that outputs the correct signal - they're not that cheap. And you'll need some form of control interface, which could be a dedicated purpose-built one or a controller ripped apart and bodged. Or maybe you want a hybrid - perhaps a Mini ITX PC and a "proper" arcade controller? What kind of games will you be playing, though? 4 way stick? 8 way stick? 1 player? 2 player? 4 player? Rotary controller? Driving games? Gun games? Light gun or Operation Wolf style? Are you going to gold plate it? That'll increase the cost a lot! And yes, what specific games? In short, you have to answer that question yourself by actually deciding what a MAME setup is to you. You can then look at specific parts IF they're needed. No, MAME doesn't play every arcade game ever. Far from it. No, it's not the same as playing an original machine - especially with a PC monitor. It's not bad, though.. in most cases.
quick answer, if you want to stick to 2d games, 300€ should be ok, add about 100-200 € if you want to push into stv-naomi zone you don't need expensive graphic cards since mame uses CPU power This, so many routes. Dedicated Mamecab, candy cabs, superguns, bartops...
If you are looking for just MAME games up through 2000 (that means you can play most games that were released just before the NAOMI), you can build this fairly cheaply. I would say $40 tops. You can buy a barebones Core 2 Duo based PC with 4GB RAM off eBay for $20, add in a HDD, and away you go. This system I just described is my base system when I build any CRT based MAME cab (I know you mentioned you aren't throwing it in a cab). I add in a Radeon HD4000 or HD5000 card so I can run Calamity's CRT Emu drivers which allows me to interface to an arcade CRT. You won't need this but again it works for me. Also, I am running HyperSpin as my front end which is a resource hog, but this PC suits my purposes just fine. But, if you turn on HLSL, you'll need a beefier PC. Probably a modern CPU that is no less than 4 years old with 8GB of RAM. MAME looks like crap on modern displays. HLSL allows for that oldschool scanline look which is really good, but you can't beat a CRT display for MAME. The only last bit of caution is the PC I described above for my purposes just will sit in a cab for the rest of its live. It won't ever browse the Internet. It won't ever play any music. It won't ever stream a movie or even play one from file. It has a specific dedicated purpose. If you are building a PC and will be using it for something other that emulation (like modern gaming), then get the best PC for your budget. If dedicated for MAME games up through 2000, You can do that for forty bucks.
I noticed that nobody has mentioned Raspberry PI. There is a cheap solution in this. You can use the PI with a case and some cheapo USB controllers for several systems, or you can build a whole cabinet. You can even fit that thing inside a working jamma cabinett with a real arcade screen if you want to go full scale. The Pi has its own MAME port. Here is a link to a nice project you can look into. https://idmedia.no/projects/retrobox/
I am a big fan of the RPi and have been devoted to them since the RPi1. Eventually, I will pick up a TTX2 to run on of my cabs. Problem with RPi and TTX2 is that they are one trick ponies. I don't think the OP wants to pigeon hole himself to just MAME. A PC here gives him the most flexibility: emulation + modern gaming + multimedia + general computing.
