Am I over complicating things? FE set up.

[92greenyj]

OK, so I am using Atomic FE for my front end. Working on getting it set up and I am worried that the way I was thinking of doing it is too much. Basically what i was planning is a tree set up. first screen would be a manufacturer select screen. followed by a system select screen, then genre selection screens with the games being under the genres. However, as I said, I am concerned this might be too much for someone to navigate. At the same time I think it would be easy for people to find games in the style they like to play.

I.E. (I have more systems and such planned but keeping this short for illustraton purposes)
Screen 1: (Manufacturer select)
MAME
Atari
Nintendo
Sega
NEC
Favorites

Select Nintendo - Screen 2:
NES
SNES
Nintendo 64
Gameboy/Color
Gameboy Advance
Virtual Boy

Select NES - Screen 3:
Platformers
Puzzle/Logic
Driving
Shooting
Fighting
Vs. Fighting
Etc

Select Platformers - Screen 4:
Super Mario Bros.
SMB 2
SMB 3
Kirbys Adventure
etc.

What do you all think? too complicated? would I be better off just doing a system select screen then have it go into the full game list for that system?

I.E
Screen 1: System Select
Mame
NES
Snes
N64
Game Boy/Color
Gameboy Advance
Genesis
Game Gear
Dreamcast
Atari 7800
Atari Lynx
Jaguar
Turbo Grafix 16
etc

Select NES - Screen 2:
NES Full game list

[92greenyj]

35 views and nobody has an opinion?

[arzoo]

Do both - include "All Games" in the category list. For my MaLa tree I have this:

Emulators --> Genre/Year/All/Favorites --> Games

For emulators with a small list (like Daphne) I drop the middle categories and go straight to the games list.

[drventure]

Honestly, I started doing all that, but I quickly found that what works best for me is to throw all the Mala games in one folder, all the pinball in one, etc, and then have a "favorites" where I collect the games I play most.

It's simple.

That said, If I had people over very often, it might be better to organize things a little more.

[DaveMMR]

I'm more about simple lists.   Most people who play my cab get easily stifle by the simple process of even just choosing a game.  I only had two emulators on my list: MAME & Daphne and they were combined with the workaround posted elsewhere.   Plus, the games on the list are hand-selected - "ALL GAMES" is hidden.

Witness people who use self-checkout machines and ATMs.  Some people aren't tech-savvy - even when it's just buttons.  If you're doing categories within categories and having "genre selections", make sure you have detailed instructions in your layout if you want the machine to be user-friendly.

OTOH, if it's just for you, go nuts. 

[syph007]

Definitely keep it simple.  But of course its going to depend on how you play, or want to pick games.

I have a master list (all games minus clones/mature/nonworking/lightgun), then I have a lightgun list, neo geo ( If i feel like being neo geo specific) and  a favorites.  99% of the time I pick something from favorites.

[nickynooch]

Maybe I'm biased because I am a maximus arcade user, but I find picking the system only is the best way to go.

I know my buddies may not want to choose by style of game, platformer, etc., but they sure know to pick "nintendo" from the menu!

[92greenyj]

Part of my reasoning for the full tree with genre set up is that I think it would be easier for certain people to find the type of games they like. For example, my Mother. she likes Pac-Man, tetris, etc. more of the puzzle and logic type games. So i would think it would be easier for someone like her to pick a genre list that only has the types of games she likes to play as opposed to scrolling thru a list of 450+ NES games to find the 30 or so games she would enjoy.

[bkenobi]

Can you filter games?  I use GameEx and there is a simple method to apply a genre filter (or year, manufacturer, etc).  I assume this is available in other FE's too, right?  If so, just put everything together and use the filters to get your specific lists.

[Don]

I use AtomicFE and on the main screen i have:

Arcade
Console Games
    Nes
    Snes etc.
Games by Genre
    Platform
    Fighting etc.
Favorites

This way if people want to play a certain type of game they can look in genre or if they want to browse through a system they know they can. Also i wanted arcade games to be the main focus, hence why they are not mixed with other systems and are top of the list.