System Requirements

Mame32 runs on Microsoft Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, and Windows Vista.

Because of the wide range of arcade hardware supported by Mame32, system requirements vary considerably. The more complex the original arcade hardware, the more CPU power is needed to emulate it. Mame strives for accuracy in its emulation; as such, over time, the performance point shifts as the underlying engine has been reworked and refined. Early games now require a bit more PC processing power to run than they did in earlier versions of Mame. This is typically not a great concern as modern PCs can run these early games easily at thousands of times their original speed. More recent games can often take upwards of 512M of memory, and AMD Athlon / Pentium 4 chips to emulate at 100% speed with effects. For those wishing to upgrade their systems; Mame32 benefits most from adding more CPU power, then memory and upgraded video card.

Currently there are games supported in Mame32 which are not playable at full frame rate on today's PC hardware. Many of these are mid to late 90's and beyond advanced 3D games which Mame32 renders in software for accuracy sake. It is estimated that approximately 10-20GHz machines would be necessary to run them. As of Mame32 version .104.2 there are about 167 games out of 6031 that fall into this unplayable due to high emulation demands category.

2006-02-17 10:36 PM -0800 / john iv