Hello Everybody!
The “best” MAME version I’ve tried for PSP was MAME4ALL v4.9r2 Hi-res, and it’s not that great. It really only works well with earlier arcade titles, and it still lags with some of those.
As an example, Karate Champ’s speech is waaay slooow, no matter what settings I’ve changed. This is apparently due mostly to the limitations of the platform, in addition to limited interest by appropriately skilled coders in optimizing MAME for the platform. I’ve not messed around with the Final Burn Alpha (MAME-based) builds for PSP that much, since most of the games I found in various FBA4PSP compatibility lists weren’t ones that I really wanted to play. Some reports I read by those who tried it liked it well enough, though.
Retroarch for PSP with a MAME2000 core would be interesting to try, but I’ve not yet found a PSP build that included such a core. Though with the added Retroarch overhead, it’s liable to be more limited than the MAME4ALL stand-alone, which is limited enough already. For NEO GEO/MVS and Capcom Play System 1 & 2, I use the NJEMU emulators for each system, which all perform almost perfectly with all but a handful of their entire libraries. There’s an instructional text file included for making cache files for CPS2 & MVS games so they play correctly; this was tricky but necessary to get many titles to work properly.
Another option I’ve used for my PSP retro arcade game needs are the various retro compilations/remakes available for both the PSP itself, and some of the ones for the PS1 (via PSX2PSP). Even some of the systems more successfully emulated on the PSP (NES, SNES, Genesis, GBA), have arcade ports & compilations available for them, all of which play better than MAME on PSP. I personally find it rather amusing to play a retro arcade title, ported to a retro console, which is itself being emulated on a retro handheld - Retroception? This should help: MAME4ALL v4.9r2 Hi-res: NJEMU NEO GEO/MVS, CPS1 & CPS2 emus: List of PSP Retro Compilations: List of PS1 Retro Compilations:.
MAME4All Collection MAME4All Set This disc contains the complete set of MAME ROMs that can be used on any device that runs a version of MAME based on the MAME4ALL source. Over 2200 ROMs Included! Includes all artwork and sample files. If your looking to play MAME4ALL on your phone, psp, or mobile device this set is.