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[Amiganaut]

I have sucessfully compiled and executed Advmame on the XO. I had messed around with Xmame originally to no success, but Advmame compiled with little trouble (once I had installed the correct prerequisite SDL devel library!). I have tried it with several roms and it does indeed work.
Here are the binaries:
<a href="http://files.filefront.com/advancemame+olpctargz/;9449967;/fileinfo.html" title="advancemame-olpc.tar.gz">advancemame-olpc.tar.gz[/url]
<a href="http://files.filefront.com/advancemenu+olpctargz/;9475723;/fileinfo.html" title="advancemenu-olpc.tar.gz">advancemenu-olpc.tar.gz[/url] - optional frontend for AdvMAME

Alternatively, you can try compiling it yourself if you're feeling adventurous, just get the latest source from advancemame (google it) and make sure you YUM INSTALL SDL-devel . Be sure to run the configure script with the option --disable-fb

That's it!

[unrequited]

I don't have a compile setup, is there any way you could tar and then host the relevant binaries?

[Amiganaut]

I definitely plan on doing that, but first I need to write an install script to make things easier. I am at work right now so it will have to wait. I hope to have it hosted by the weekend. I

[cmonkey]

Have you tried SDLMame?  As far as I know, its the only version of MAME for linux that has been updated in the last couple of years.

[Amiganaut]

Okay, here it is! 

<a href="http://files.filefront.com/advancemame+olpctargz/;9449967;/fileinfo.html" title="advancemame-olpc.tar.gz">advancemame-olpc.tar.gz[/url]
<a href="http://files.filefront.com/advancemenu+olpctargz/;9475723;/fileinfo.html" title="advancemenu-olpc.tar.gz">advancemenu-olpc.tar.gz[/url] - Frontend for MAME

Please note that AdvanceMAME does not come with any ROM files; it is your responsibility to provide those. Also, it is command line only; there is a frontend called AdvanceMenu which I have also compiled.

You will definitely need to play around with the video and audio options for each game to find the optimum balance. Older, simpler games tend to run nice and fast, while newer stuff with lots of graphics can be slow.

Please give it a try, and let me know how it works for you!

[unrequited]

It is slooooooooooooooooooooow for TMNT and TMNT2. I think a lot of it is because of the res-lock to 1200x900. These games run almost 100% speed at 320x200 (the lowest resolution), but really bog at 3x even 2x.

[Amiganaut]

I decided to give SDL Mame a try, to see if it would give better performance. It gives a better appearance than Advancemame initially, but is very slow and unplayable. It seems AdvMAME's method of scaling the screen gives better results for the XO. But you can try for yourself.

<a href="http://files.filefront.com/sdlmame0122+olpctargz/;9472981;/fileinfo.html" title="sdlmame0122-olpc.tar.gz">sdlmame0122-olpc.tar.gz[/url]

[kwlrraivtufyy]

Thank you for the instructions!

Unfortunately when I try "yum install SDL1.2-devel"  I get the message back "No package SDL1.2-devel available.  Nothing to do"

So when I try to run "advmame joust"  I get the error message :"The event keyboard driver cannot be used with the SDL  video driver   video_init failed"

Am I typing something wrong?  Is there a method to check what packages are available under yum so I could pick something appropriate?

-Thanks!

[Amiganaut]

I typed the name of the package wrong, it should be "yum install SDL-devel"
You only need it if you're compiling the source yourself. You don't need to install anything from yum to get the game to work, only to mess with the source code. (BTW the command is "yum list" to see what's there)

The binaries I posted should work with a standard XO. WHen you go to terminal, type the following:
su
advmame <gamename>
(this of course, presumes that you own the relevant ROM images and have them installed in the default directory.)

[beagley]

To make this simpler for the newbies who have not installed an activity from the command line before... how should someone install your latest tar?

Can I just click from the links in the above post while browsing, or do I need to download one of them, put them on a zip key, transfer them to an appropriate location on the XO and then unzip?

I also notice you have to links posted, one "mame" and one "menu", and I'm not sure if I need both?

-d

[Fred Doolie]

I have sucessfully compiled and executed Advmame on the XO

and I thank you!

Suddenly that $300 I spent for my XO isn't so much after all. I will be content  to use it as an ebook reader (it it ever comes!) but if it runs MAME games too......WOW!!!!

Try to find an ebook reader that will handle PDF files properly and in color; just try!
None will handle color and the ones that handle PDFs are only 8-scale grey screen, cost gazillions of dollars and don't do anything but read ebooks. The XO does other stuff too.

[Amiganaut]

It's been a while, but I've learned how to vastly improve advmame's playability, as well as sdlmame. I was suprised to see how fast Xmame was with Xvideo acceleration on the XO, so I played with some config settings. You need to edit your advmame.rc file, which should be lurking in /home/olpc/.advance/ . Set the following:
device_sdl_samples 2048
device_sound sdl
device_video_output overlay

Your games will now be fullscreen, and the audio should play a lot better, too.

For sdlmame, you can make it a lot better if you use the command line option -yuvmode yuy2 or set it in your mame.ini file.

[jevfro]

So when I try to run "advmame joust"  I get the error message :"The event keyboard driver cannot be used with the SDL  video driver   video_init failed"

Interesting, I've got the same problem ....  Guess I screwed something up on the install.  I have to use the virtual terminal to even get that far. in sugar terminal activity gives "advmame: command not found" paths are probably screwed up somehow? what's the best approach to fix this? clean install of sugar and try it again a little more carefully?