Where are the Mame guys at?

keithsarcade

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Yeah I know, wrong forum, but I'm not going to join a MAME forum over a single build and I know theres some Mame users here....

Anyway, I could use some help, particularly with chossing and installing a front end. I pretty much have all the roms I need. My setup is going to be a simple 2 player CP with 8 buttons each (no room for a trackball). I'd like a front end that will show control layouts for each game if it exists. The hardware I'm using is a Dell P4 tower Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 30GB HD, 512MB Ram (I can up that if needed, thats just whats in it now) and I will be using a 21" Trinitron SVGA monitor. I have old versions of emulators on my main computer but I'm sure they are outdated, and half are missing screen filters such as scanlines which I like to use.

I should also mention I'd like to run not just Arcade, but also console emulators as well. Again, I have most of the roms I need.

Ive built a few Mame cabs years and years ago, before front ends were even heard of, but its been too long and I have no clue today.

Looking for some help. Thanks in advance.
 
Hyperspin

You should do a search here on hyperspin. Esseyo put up a video on it and its really slick.

You should check that out.
 
Another vote for Hyperspin. If done right you can setup multiple emulators and launch them from within the FE.
 
There are many front ends and there isn't one that stands out as being universally loved and used by a majority. Depends on what you like, the power of the PC, how many games you want to select from, what emulators you want to front end, etc.

Hyperspin is very flashy with videos of games prior to selecting them to run and professional looking game selections but I've heard many complain that it doesn't work well if you want to be able to select from a very large number of games. Also, you'll want more than 512MB of RAM to use it. It is well worth the look to see if you like it. So are many others.

You'll find more details on the front ends and cabinet building on the arcadecontrols.com website. It specializes more in the build your own / front end area. A couple minutes to join is well worth it.
 
Another vote for MaLa. I'm using Arcade OS skin. Its just a game list and a faded full screen shot of the game behind the list. I ended up hating Hyperspin... Great for showing off for 5 minutes, tedious when the novelty wears off and you just want to get to a game fast.
 
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I ended up hating Hyperspin... Great for showing off for 5 minutes, tedious when the novelty wears off and you just want to get to a game fast.

What setup were you using? It loads fine IMO. My videos are on a netbook running an atom processor. I've seen it run really well on faster machines.
 
I use MALA as well. Well, I will when I get everything set up again. Right now, I am just using the built in launcher in MAME. It isn't pretty, but it works well for testing games.

Hyperspin just seems too busy to me. I would get tired of the animations really quickly.
 
I have Hyperspin and I like the fact that you can put multiple emulators on it,although it doesn't recognize my fceu nes emulator...boo. It does for nestopia,but fceu is better.
 
What setup were you using? It loads fine IMO. My videos are on a netbook running an atom processor. I've seen it run really well on faster machines.

3ghz Pentium 4. Its not the speed of the computer, its the design of the front end.
My MaLa setup scrolls 5x faster and also has a separate side list of recently played games. I don't want to spend 3 minutes scrolling through game lists when it can take 10 seconds.
 
AW
3ghz Pentium 4. Its not the speed of the computer, its the design of the front end.
My MaLa setup scrolls 5x faster and also has a separate side list of recently played games. I don't want to spend 3 minutes scrolling through game lists when it can take 10 seconds.

The speed of the computer does affect how fast it navigates and loads the vid caps and themes. I know this from seeing it run on different machines.

Also, you can customize and navigate by lists as well (letter, favorites, genre, most played, etc). It doesn't take more than a few secs to find and load a game if you know what you want to play.

Maybe you just didn't try all the features? I'm not dissing MALA or any other frontend, just saying Hyperspin is great and runs just fine for me.

Everyone has their own preference though depending on what they want out of their MAME experience.
 
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Mala is very easy to use and it can go vertical or horizontal. What encoder will you be using? The ipac is the Cadillac of keyboard encoders, hands down my personal favorite.
You will need to be very organized and patient when you create your screenshot/cabinet/control panel pics/directories.
 
+1 on Mala. Have you seen the huge setup guide for Mala?

Uncle T's guide to Mala setup will get you doing EVERYTHING on Mala, Daphne included. It pretty much rocks.

If Hyperspin is the sports car of front ends (flashy, power intensive, etc), then Mala is most definitely the SUV. It can do ANYTHING.

Setup guide:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=56010.0
 
OK heres where I'm at (already frustrated :D)

I tried both Mala and Hyperspin. Mala is a little buggy, Hyperspin is having compatibility issues with just about every emulator and rom I direct it to (like I said, my stuff is probably pretty old by now). Either way, I can't figure out how to customize anything. Mala just has a plain jane menu with an SI background, I'd love to give it a custom touch if I use it, but I dont know how. Also each one already has a list of like 5,000 games to scroll thru and I cant figure out how to filter the list without going thru each and every one. Can use some pointers...

Rich, I will probably be using the I-Pac USB since its the cheapest on the market. Ive used the I-Pac before and have been happy with it in the past. I'm not that far along in the project just yet though. Right now I just have the computer on the bench and am trying to determine if its even worth using.
 
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