Mala Setup Help (noob)

[CWorley]

I trying to setup Mala for a simple cocktail machine (only for classic MAME vertical 4-way joystick games).  This will be my first build.  I won't start building the cabinet for a few months, but would like to get the computer part of it ready.  I'm having a few problems.

First, how do I switch layouts in Mala?  I downloaded one of the user created layouts from the Mala website, but can't figure out how to use it.

Second, how do I restrict the roms list to only my small set of roms?

Finally, where can I find an updated controls.ini file?  I've tried a few and get an error after compiling Mala that says something like "no controls file set".

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[loadman]

I would start with the wiki and the pinned links at the top of this forum. 

[fallacy]

Mala definitely not the most self explanatory program out there. I guess loadmans crazy ideas make sense one you figure it out.

In mala options “Gui” “Other Emu Config” and “Game List” tabs are what you want to be looking at.
“Gui” points to your layouts. Then go to “Other Emu Config” < New and give it the same name that shows up in your “Gui”.

“Other Emu Config” is where you assign the emulator, roms snaps etc…

“Game list” is where you can assign a customer game list to that emulator.

[Well Fed Games]

I was recently given this link to controls.ini:

Controls.ini link

Not sure why a file talked about so much and apparently integral to MALA is so hard to find!

I have just been using MALA for a couple of weeks, setting it up for a vertical 4-way controlled cab... and loving it so far, thanks to this forum and lots of googling!

[Garetmax]

I know what you mean about the controls.ini file and not being able to find it.
It seems like all emulator websites point to an old link and not this newer one.

I don't remember how I found it but I was amazed when I did.

Here's the website fot it.
http://controls.arcadecontrols.com/controls/controls.php