MALA + MAMEui + ROMlister Questions

[mike boss]

Working on a new project and looking to use Mala for the 1st time.
I picked up this old Nintendo cabinet that I plan on restoring (if you can call it that) to a DK JR.



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I currently have a working MAME cabinet and use MAME32(ui) v 124 (or whatever you want to call it).
I have the ROM set + CHD set that goes with it. Im quite comfortable using that version of MAME.
Anyway for the DK JR project I'd like to use the awesome skin from John's Arcade that I did see was hosted on this site.
Obviously to do so I need to use MALA. Can I use the MAME32(ui) with MALA ?
Has anyone tried ?

Lastly, I created a custom ROM list using ROMlister which is optimized for this cabinet (IE 1 button games, horizontal, 4 or 8 way joysticks).
How do I get MALA to only load and display these games ?

[kegger]

You can use romlister to output and xml file for your game list then point Mala to it.
As for using Mame Ui I think you can use it but I would just download the regular mame command line version
to match your rom set seeing you are using Mala for a FE their really is no reason to use Mame Ui

 

[mike boss]

I appreciate the info. I've never used any other version of MAME, but I'm sure I can figure it out.
Thanks for the help.

[NOP]

You can use romlister to output and xml file for your game list then point Mala to it.

Not quite.
Romlister can output mala game list files (*.mlg).
save the list as that type into the mala folder.  Start up mala, right click on the screen and select list.  It should show you all the .mlg files you have in that folder.

[mike boss]

Awesome, thanks.
So once I've done that I assume MALA will only display items on that list ?
Making selecting a game much quicker since the list would be stripped down from 6000+.
I only need to do that one time, then each time I start MALA/MAME the select ROMs will be playable ?
(Novice questions I know, but I'm new to this)

As mentioned above goal is to have games optimized for the DK cabinet. One button or less, 4 way or 8 way, and horizontal display.

[kegger]

You can make a Mala game list to show only the games you want in the Mala game list format .mlg
that is one way of doing it as NOP mentioned. But you would still have 6000+ games in the master list
which some might not suit your cab requirements.

Or you can use Romlister to create a custom xml file for mame and name it Mame.xml and point  Mala to it in options
so it will create a master game list with all games that fit your criteria making all the games in the master list compatible with
your DK Cab  then if you wish you can create different list's from that for favorites and such in the mlg format
 

[NOP]

Or you can use Romlister to create a custom xml file for mame and name it Mame.xml and point  Mala to it in options
so it will create a master game list with all games that fit your criteria making all the games in the master list compatible with
your DK Cab  then if you wish you can create different list's from that for favorites and such in the mlg format
 

oh bloody hell.  I'd never thought about that before!  
Wow.
Apologizes for correcting your absolutely correct advice.

[kegger]

No problem at all.    

[mike boss]

Thanks guys.
Hoping to get a used/new (used pc, new to me) computer this week.
Would like to begin this project. Also going to try instant sheller.
Wish me luck !
Again thanks !

[mike boss]

Happy to say that Saturday night I picked up the PC I will be using for this project.
Its an IBM something, P4, 1.6 with 256 MB of RAM and a 40 Gig HDD.
I'm hoping its ample for what I want to do.

I downloaded the newest version of MALA and the command line version of MAME that matched my already existent ROM set.
I'm now going thru the process of moving over all the ROMS and other related files.
I'll try my best to follow the guide created by Uncle T.

I did a little messing around yesterday, but didn't have much time.
I was trying to get it to display the skin created by John's Arcade, but I was unable to do so.

[kegger]

I have Mala setup to use emulator names to match the layouts.
So you could try naming Johns Layout to let's say Mame.mll
But I do see how he made his so just replace the standard.mll and art files with his and it should work.

I really can't try Johns layout files as I use a horizontal monitor and his layout is made for vertical I think

[mike boss]

I logged some major hours today working on this PC. I got MAME + MaLa installed and working. MaLa is almost fully configured.....
I think ? 

I managed to figure out the skin issue and get it to display the awesome skin found on John's Arcade. The image itself is small (600x480?), my resolution cant go that low. So it's not filling up the screen. I'll need to look into that.

Today I've spent WAY WAY too much time on the PC, so I'll tackle that on Tuesday.

[mike boss]

Made some good progress with the PC.
I've also begun creating some custom layouts.
Perhaps I'm not looking in the correct place, how do I get MALA to start right when my PC boots up?
Or does anyone know if that is something INSTANT SHELLER will do for me ?