forums.marpirc.net

I've noticed a great deal of submissions being done lately with m35b13. I was wondering if there was a special reason for using this beta for games that are previously available under earlier betas or better yet, available under mame34 final.
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Which brings me to a previous subject. If a game is fully functional under the latest final version of MAME, then it would make verifying much easier for everyone as we could keep less versions of MAME on our collective hard drives. So the advice is, try to make your recordings with the latest MAME final if your game is available and functional with that version. For all recordings being made during this latest beta cycle for mame35, it would be appreciated if once the final version comes out, to re-verify that the inp works with the final version and then edit your recording to show that it is now playable under mame35 final.

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I know this is a large task for some, but it would simplify the verification process. Any thoughts on this?

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JoustGod

--
pinballwiz1@msn.com

There is a problem with your suggestion. Because many roms changes
from version to version,people like me,who has all perfect romsets
uptodate for the lastest beta,we no longer have the old romsets.
Today i tried to playback Neil Chapman's Ms.Pacman recording with the
current romset,on mame30,wich Neil used. I discovered mame30 looks
for some files that are no longer in the romset.

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Stig

--
sremnes@samsen.com

I have every mame from Mame 30 onward... it takes about 36.5 megs on
my hard drive out of 6 gigs. It doesn't take that much space because
I have a program called UPX - it's like winzip... it zips up your
executables. (The reason I say this is some of the earlier versions
on this page are not "zipped".) I also have created an
enhanced "playback.bat" batch file where I just type "playback
<gamename> <gamerecording>", and I get a list of all the mames from
mame 30 to mame 35 beta 13. All I have to do is select the right
one. It makes my playbacking much less tedious. If I get requests,
I will post the source on here so you can use it.(it's all ASCII
text). It is somewhat lengthy... 2.89K... but I'm sure it's nothing
this board's server can't handle...

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Don't get me wrong, do I say this because it's ok to do such a
thing? Nope. I'm sure people can't sacrifice 36.5 megs of hard disk
space just for all the mames just so one plays back recordings, and
that's it. I'm also sure that I'm guilty of doing what you said
JoustGod. (I know of an easy example... my 10 yard fight
recordings...) Perhaps what can happen is that the CGI script will
reject games that were recorded in beta cycles and only accept games
that were made in final releases... IF a game was working at a final
release. There are several games which were supported WAYYYYYYY back
in the mame series, but are just now working. A good example is the
original F1 Dream. It certainly wasn't working back when mame 34 was
released. It became working in the mame 35 beta cycle... WITHOUT the
4th track bug! Woohoo!(Yes... I didn't put in that recording just
for ten points.)

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So to make a long story short,(I know... too late ) I concur with
what JoustGod is saying... I need to make a better habit of recording
games in final versions if they're working at that point... and I
think others should try to do the same.

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Thanks for reading my thoughts on this matter...

--
goldengameboy@geocities.com

I wholeheartedly agree, JG. (wow, I'm busting phat rhymez) Although
I'm not sure if all the recent "offenders" read this board, but oh
well. I certainly hope that none of the contributors that are UL'ing
MAME 0.35 beta 13 recordings are always overwriting their old version
of MAME and just using that... because if you want to play recordings
back you're going to have to keep a variety of MAME versions on your
HD

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If a game is working perfectly in 0.34 Final, then by all means that
should be used. But in the case of games added during the 0.35 Beta
cycle, then it doesn't matter... just use the newest one. It's also
understandable to use one of these 0.35 Betas when improvements are
made in the emulation of existing games. Or, if you can show
restraint, wait for the 0.35 Final to UL recordings. (yeah, RIGHT!)
For now though, since Zwaxy is away, try saving yourself a little time
and recording games with 0.35 Beta 12... then you won't have to put
"0.35 Beta 13" in the subject, and then you'll have to go back and
edit the description once the database has been updated.

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On a strange note (I won't "embarass" the individual here... heh), I
had someone complain that I used 0.34 Final for a recording rather
than the newest beta... mainly because it screws up .CFG files, which
I understand. But still, it was an odd complaint. (no offense
man!)

--
lordbbh@aol.com