Unknowable
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:30 pm

showing MAME on a desktop LCD *AND* projector

I just moved over to Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon (from decades of Windows) and installed MAME using the Synaptic Package Manager, which gave me version 0.220. I know there's a more recent version (and that may be the solution,) but this is where I am now. I can easily run MAME just fine on the desktop LCD, but I think it would just about rule if I could get it to output to both at the same time so I can just look at whichever display I want to right at that moment. I want to run in full screen if possible. The desktop LCD is 1920*1080, and the projector *tells Linux* (and Windows before that) that it's also 1080p, but it seems to actually be showing 1280*720 - everything is much larger relative to the desktop on the projector, like my icons and thumbnails and so on.

It looks like I should just be going to Configure Options > Video Options > Number of Screens > 2 . When I do that, the projector goes black and the LCD just shows the standard desktop like MAME isn't running. Although it defaults to opengl, I've tried each of the video modes with the same results. If I run MAME in windowed mode and drag the window over to the projector, when I choose a game the window pops back over to the LCD, but of course still in a window. If I Alt-Tab to get the mouse back I can drag The MAME window over to the projector and play there, but the window is large enough that I can't see the whole thing - the bottom is cut off, even in windowed mode.

I guess if I really had to, I would like to choose which display to use full time - like set the projector as my main display for MAME. Then I could play games with an 8 foot screen. :D I can already run MAME on the desktop LCD only, so that's not really an improvement. I guess if it's really necessary I might could just set both displays to 720p, but I really like all that real estate on the desktop full time.

Is there a way to do what I want? It looks like it's *supposed* to be possible, but maybe I'm just not doing it right. Or possibly that was fixed in a newer version and I just need to upgrade. I do have the debian file of 0.241 - should I just uninstall what I have and try that one first?

Thank you so much for your time and attention. I know it's just old video games, but for a half-century old man, what I want would be pretty dang sweet. :D
Unknowable
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:30 pm

Re: showing MAME on a desktop LCD *AND* projector

UPDATE:

First I uninstalled the version provided by Synaptic and downloaded a more recent version built for Ubuntu. Even though I'm running Mint some Ubuntu stuff works fine. Mint was originally based on Ubuntu, then switched back to being based on Debian. I found the Ubuntu version from the SDL non-Windows download page:

https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/SDL_ ... _Platforms

Got the latest version of MAME in a .deb package from sdlmame4ubuntu (https://sdlmame.wallyweek.org/download/):

64 bit » mame_0.241+dfsg.1-0ubuntu1~ppa1~focal1_amd64.deb

Unfortunately when I go to run the .deb file I get an error from Gdebi (the debian package manager I'm using):

Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: mame-data (= 0.241+dfsg.0-0ubuntu~ppa1~focal1)

Maybe I just need to add the ubuntu repository for that version to work. Wasn't sure, so I just tried getting the Debian package from the same page (MAME's supported non-Windows versions, which leads to https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/mame.) Picked up mame_0.228+dfsg.1-1_amd64.deb (the latest Debian version apparently.) Tried running that through Gdebi and got this error:

Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libqt5core5a (>=5.15.1)

That actually wasn't the first error I got. It wanted a different package first, so I just downloaded that one by hand and ran Gdebi again. Gave me another dependency error, so I got that package. Tried again, another dependency error. Then I noticed there are like 20 dependencies on the Debian site, so I must be doing this the hard way. So I ran the Mint Software Manager. That says it will install version 0.220, which is the same exact package as Synaptic, the one I already had. Didn't bother to download that one. I then put the Debian package (0.228) into my home directory and tried running aptitude (the command line package manager for Debian) in hopes that *that* would somehow work and that got me this error:

USERNAME@ANDROID:~$ sudo aptitude install mame_0.228+dfsg.1-1_amd64.deb
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "mame_0.228+dfsg.1-1_amd64.deb"
Unable to apply some actions, aborting
USERNAME@ANDROID:~$

I did try "aptitude install ./mame_0.228+dfsg.1-1_amd64.deb" as well as with the complete directory path, same result. I'm having kind of a hard time installing the latest version in Linux. Version 0.220 runs fine on the LCD, I just want to play on the big screen too.

Where do I go from here? Do I *need* the latest version to play on both screens at once? Again, your time and attention are greatly appreciated - thank you for your help.
Unknowable
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:30 pm

Re: showing MAME on a desktop LCD *AND* projector

Oh yah, and if it makes a difference, every time I "Fully Removed" a version to try another, I also deleted the /home/USERNAME/.mame directory, as that seems to be holding my config files. Didn't want one version messing up another...

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