MALA vs Hyperspin

[rockyrocket]

Hope you do get some time drventure as engine18 looks like it has a lot to offer!.
So got bored again and picked up the htpc again, that's it now am leaving it alone.
Edit just could not help myself

[mamefreak2]

This is what it boils down to for me......

Mala layouts can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be, and you don't have to download a bagillion gigs worth of stuff to enhanace the experience.

HS can be as simple as you want them to be too. But if you want more complex, there's a heck of a lot more options for you to do so.

You don't have to download a bizillion gigabits for HS either. See Dazz's example below. Very easy to create a universal theme if that's what you want. Very skinnable, very easy to do.

Don't get me wrong, Hyperspin is extremely impressive, but with all due respect to hyperspin users, if you've seen one hyperspin front end you've seen them all....

Not true actually. I like being able to put my own personal stamp on things and I've done tons of my own themes that are unique to me. My HS system is pretty unique actually and I'm sure it's the same for tons of folks out there. You get what you put into it though. For some who want a quick simple easy to go system and like the look of something else, that's cool. What I like about HS though is that it can give you whatever look you want and I don't think there's another system out there that can do it to this extent.

Also in HS you only have like 4 choices of text font, MALA can use any font on the system.
For example I think it would be impossible to recreate the racing cab design that was posted above with those fonts.

I'm not sure what you need the text font for though. You just create the design in some other program and then export it. You can download wheel art from the site and you can insert whatever logos you want as well. What do you need fonts for in HS?

Well, here’s a counter-opinion: spending hours upon hours designing and tweaking layouts, and assembling screenshots, animations, sounds, graphics, etc. is a whole lot of time spent with no commensurate benefit, other than maybe to scratch some kind of bizarre OCD-induced itch to have everything just so.  The games are just as easy to locate and run from a utilitarian list as they are from a flashy/elaborate one—maybe easier.  I’m not saying that your front end should be an ugly, poorly organized mess—I’m simply saying that the core elements are relatively easy to set up, and going beyond that quickly leads into the worst “diminishing returns” scenario imaginable.   

I mean, I see some of these videos on Youtube where guys have these fancy pictures and media for all kinds of console emulators, and I almost feel sorry for them for the amount of time they must have wasted getting it all running.  I’d be willing to bet that in three lifetimes they wouldn’t spend as much time actually playing those games as they spent setting up the front end.  So what’s the point?   

Well, for some of us putting together themes is actually a lot of fun. Customizing your machine exactly how you want it to look is fun in itself. It's a hobby and I love doing this stuff. I've got several different themes for my Jukebox for example and depending on what mood I'm in will alternate between them. It takes me about 30 seconds to make this change...

When I was deciding on a front end it was HS for me all the way. I haven't used any others so I can't comment on them but I haven't seen aything that allows me to do what I want the way HS can.

Like I said above, it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Me? I like playing around and building themes. It's a lot of fun actually.

This one is quickly becoming one of my favorites...  Not sure if he's got it completed or not though.

!

Perfect example of what I'm saying. You don't want a bunch of themes? Just skin it with a universal theme like this one. Don't like the wheel? Make it scroll games vertical or horizontal... really easy to do.

[severdhed]

just my 2 cents....

i have tried many front ends, and always come back to MaLa...it is easy to use, easy to customize and it just plain works, even on older hardware.  i've tried gamex, hyperspin, maximus arcade,and probably a few more i forget the names of.  none of them were as easy to get working and customize the way i wanted them like mala.

[NIVO]

i prefer to put in the time and effort for Hyperspin. The rewards are great.

[TheShaner]

Well, I started this thread a little while back, when I was just starting to think about my front end.  I have heavily used MALA for some time now and know enough about it to give a good opinion on it.  But before I do that, I am going to go ahead and take a stab at creating a Hyperspin theme for my box.

I want to try and approach it a little differently though.  I want to basically recreate my MALA theme, but with some of Hyperspin's tricks incorporated. 

Here is what I have in MALA right now

When you switch emulators, the arcade machine is replaced with a TV from that era, the console and some box art, but the rest of the elements on the screen stay the same, ie. background etc.

It looks a lot cooler with the dynamic artwork in place.

So I am going to try and do something in the same vein, but on Hyperspin.  I will build out the screen elements in hyperspin rather than photoshop so I can transition them into the screen and gain overall control over them.  The key will be though, that I am not going to use any of the crazy game themes out there, my system them will be consistant throughout the games within it.  I would assume this is possible.  If anyone has knowledge to the contrary, please let me know before I get too deep.

I will report in when I have something to show.

[Drnick]

Just create a default theme for each of the various wheels you have and you will be golden.

As for the artwork you can import files from photoshop.  See the following.

http://hyperspin-fe.com/oldsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114:hypertheme-psd&catid=35:help-content&Itemid=136

[TheShaner]

Just create a default theme for each of the various wheels you have and you will be golden.

As for the artwork you can import files from photoshop.  See the following.

http://hyperspin-fe.com/oldsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114:hypertheme-psd&catid=35:help-content&Itemid=136

Thanks DrNick.  I had not realized you could import directly from PS and use it's layers.  That is really awesome!

[mamefreak2]

Just create a default theme for each of the various wheels you have and you will be golden.

As for the artwork you can import files from photoshop.  See the following.

http://hyperspin-fe.com/oldsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114:hypertheme-psd&catid=35:help-content&Itemid=136

Thanks DrNick.  I had not realized you could import directly from PS and use it's layers.  That is really awesome!

I don't have photoshop, I have photopaint. I just create what I want and then export it over in a .png format. If you want to create individual themes you can create a background and then you have space for up to four artwork images. (Those images can be Flash animations too) Then you can use Hyper Theme to animate however you wish. Very cool, very easy to do. 

[TheShaner]

Just create a default theme for each of the various wheels you have and you will be golden.

As for the artwork you can import files from photoshop.  See the following.

http://hyperspin-fe.com/oldsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114:hypertheme-psd&catid=35:help-content&Itemid=136

Thanks DrNick.  I had not realized you could import directly from PS and use it's layers.  That is really awesome!

I don't have photoshop, I have photopaint. I just create what I want and then export it over in a .png format. If you want to create individual themes you can create a background and then you have space for up to four artwork images. (Those images can be Flash animations too) Then you can use Hyper Theme to animate however you wish. Very cool, very easy to do.

Yes, that is how I originally intended to handle the different elements in the theme.  But now, knowing that I can take things straight out of Photoshop, I can use the existing work file with little to no modifications.  Very cool

[cnsf]

I love Hyperspin, but have had problems recently.  I had two Ultrastik 360s that made Hyperspin choke - it took a really long time and testing/research to figure that out.  I swapped them out for standard microswitch joysticks and Hyperspin was smooth again.  Recently, I hooked up an AimTrak lightgun.  It seems (based on extensive testing with and without Hyperspin) Hyperspin causes the AimTrak to be "unrecognized" after some usage in particular games.  Sometimes when I disconnect and reconnect it from the USB port, it works.  Sometimes, I have to shut down and restart - then disconnect and reconnect the AimTrak.  When I use the AimTrak in straight up mame32, it works without any issue.  I considered moving to Mala because I really want the lightgun to work.  I have a "decent-enough" system running an Intel Core2Duo E7500, 4GB Corsair PC6400, Ggigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L Motherboard, and an EVGA 256MB GeForce 8600GTS videocard, OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD boot drive and a mechanical storage drive to house the emulators.  http://www.notrica.com/arcade.

Should I stick with Hyperspin and troubleshoot the AimTrak more or move to Mala?  Based on this thread, there are a lot of Mala fans.

Any thoughts or guidance would be very much appreciated. 

[twistedsistem]

This has been a very informative post and has helped me also make my decision on front end(s) to use.  I like features of both HyperSpin and MaLa.  I am actually going to be using a mixture of the two.  Depending on who will be over playing and what type of display I am looking for will determine which front end I have launch at the time

[hypernova]

Be aware, that just means you'll have two different FEs to babysit on occasion.  Keeping one up to date and looking as good as you want can be annoying enough.

[Unstupid]

I vote for Hyperspin only because I have not seen one instance of MALA that impresses me....   

[kahlid74]

They both require so much damn time to setup right.  I wish I could go back to the mameWah days but after seeing Hyperspin I just can't

[idsane]

I just went through the process of trying to get something 'nicer' for my cabinet than mame32. Something that was very easy for guests to use and looked pretty. I thought I was going to go with hyperspin, and set it up fairly quickly. However, I didn't look forward to paying the money to become a member to download everything, and the way they have it set up with the videos you have to pay more money to buy those from a different site. I also didn't like the fact that I couldn't display any of the cool artwork, marquees, control panels, history file, etc with HS. So yesterday I downloaded MALA, downloaded the mameroom layout for it, and in a very short amount of time had everything up and running and I think it looks great. Looks much nicer than mame32 and easy to navigate. Thanks to the builders of MALA!

[Dekieon]

I tried both Mala and Hyperspin. They are both prety nice, but I prefer Mala over Hyperspin. For me, Hyperspin was just too much flash and not enough photo. I may revisit it in the future, but for now Mala has my vote. It been very straight forward to setup and create a theme for  and does pretty much everything I wanted it to do.

Plus the whole gotta pay for everything for hyperspin is not something I am willing to do considering how much I have spent on the cabinet already and there is a perfectly good free alternative.

[lettuce]

Has to be Mala for me, just due to HS not supporting vertical orientation a great deal.....if at all?, plus Mala can have a much more personal feel. That said HS is very professional looking and would probably grab someone's attention more than Mala

[ChanceKJ]

.

[DarakuTenshi]

I just don't understand you guys... I've posted about this a million times. 

You don't have to stick with the default theming of HyperSpin and you don't have to use the "wheel".  There are several different wheel options, by default the wheel is a wheel, but you have several options of how the "wheel" can appear.  If you want a simple text list, you can have a simple text list.  If you want a coverflow system like XBMC you can create a coverflow looking wheel.  In v1.x coverflow has to be done manually by image manipulation, but in 2.x there will be MANY wheel options.   

HyperSpin v 1.x is almost 100% customizable.  If you don't like the way something looks then change it.  HyperSpin can be as flashy as you want or as boring and mundane as any other front end.  If you don't want all of the stuff flying around, simply create a new theme without it.  The Mala theme that Badmouth posted below can easily be replicated in HyperSpin.  The Maximus Arcade default theme can be easily replicated in HyperSpin.  Almost any theme you see for another front end; HyperSpin can replicate it.

Someone give me a theme from Mala or Maximus that you'd like to see done in HyperSpin... 

Attached is a quick repro of the default Maxmimus Arcade theme appearing in HyperSpin.

Personally I like Hyper Spin, but there is so much work that goes into configuring it. I hope 2.0 is out before I finish my cab so I can see if it will be worth using. There is no way I'm going to go through all that time to customize HS1.0 then switch to 2.0.

But... for the most part I'm sold on HS.

[Richardgregory]

Maximus Arcade is by far the easiest front end I've experienced to date and it's nice looking too.  I wonder why it doesn't seem that popular?

There hasn't been any updates to it in a while, so perhaps the product is dead - not sure.

[DarakuTenshi]

Here is where I am at on my MALA interface. 



I like the choice to go with MALA so far.  It's straight forward, and very responsive.

And I'm sure that looks great on your machine!

[BadMouth]

While I'm still in the Mala camp, a lack of updates for 7z support and a change in joystick reporting in mame.xml has me worried about the future.
I wish Loadman and Swindus would turn over the reigns to someone who has the free time and motivation to make improvements.

When I think about what I would want from a new front-end, it would basically be Mala with:
> improved transparency
> ability to manipulate images; have them angled, angled at a perspective, etc.
> special effects on gamelist text; outiline, shadow, etc.  Not sure how possible that is on the fly.
> the ability to post command lines based on any metadata (right now could be done with plugins based on any info stored in the gamelist)
   I guess to keep it quick, maybe the ability to choose what metadata gets copied to the gamelist would be nice.
> the ability to have arcade games in one list regardless of emulator (I'm currently doing this using SGT's workaround)

[harveybirdman]

While I'm still in the Mala camp, a lack of updates for 7z support and a change in joystick reporting in mame.xml has me worried about the future.
I wish Loadman and Swindus would turn over the reigns to someone who has the free time and motivation to make improvements.

When I think about what I would want from a new front-end, it would basically be Mala with:
> improved transparency
> ability to manipulate images; have them angled, angled at a perspective, etc.
> special effects on gamelist text; outiline, shadow, etc.  Not sure how possible that is on the fly.
> the ability to post command lines based on any metadata (right now could be done with plugins based on any info stored in the gamelist)
   I guess to keep it quick, maybe the ability to choose what metadata gets copied to the gamelist would be nice.
> the ability to have arcade games in one list regardless of emulator (I'm currently doing this using SGT's workaround)

THIS × 1000

Totally in agreement

[yotsuya]

I set up the new Hyperspin in one morning. You just need to tell it where to look for stuff.

I prefer using wheel art to browse, so that's why I've stuck with AtomicFE and HyperSpin. To me, it just looks cleaner and more polished that text.

[Fursphere]

While I'm still in the Mala camp, a lack of updates for 7z support and a change in joystick reporting in mame.xml has me worried about the future.
I wish Loadman and Swindus would turn over the reigns to someone who has the free time and motivation to make improvements.

When I think about what I would want from a new front-end, it would basically be Mala with:
> improved transparency
> ability to manipulate images; have them angled, angled at a perspective, etc.
> special effects on gamelist text; outiline, shadow, etc.  Not sure how possible that is on the fly.
> the ability to post command lines based on any metadata (right now could be done with plugins based on any info stored in the gamelist)
   I guess to keep it quick, maybe the ability to choose what metadata gets copied to the gamelist would be nice.
> the ability to have arcade games in one list regardless of emulator (I'm currently doing this using SGT's workaround)

Hyperspin + HyperLaunch 3

Since the MAME ROM set has every game, just doesn't play them all, use the backend to tell it to use a different emulator for specific games.  Totally transparent to the front end. 

Hyperspin is extrememly easy to setup once you break it down into the different pieces and understand how they interact. 

And I've offered to help people setup Hyperspin a number of times.  The tutorials over on Hyperspin-FE.com are getting better - but they're not written to a non-techy perspective.  I should write one myself...  maybe someday.... 

[BadMouth]

While I'm still in the Mala camp, a lack of updates for 7z support and a change in joystick reporting in mame.xml has me worried about the future.
I wish Loadman and Swindus would turn over the reigns to someone who has the free time and motivation to make improvements.

When I think about what I would want from a new front-end, it would basically be Mala with:
> improved transparency
> ability to manipulate images; have them angled, angled at a perspective, etc.
> special effects on gamelist text; outiline, shadow, etc.  Not sure how possible that is on the fly.
> the ability to post command lines based on any metadata (right now could be done with plugins based on any info stored in the gamelist)
   I guess to keep it quick, maybe the ability to choose what metadata gets copied to the gamelist would be nice.
> the ability to have arcade games in one list regardless of emulator (I'm currently doing this using SGT's workaround)

Hyperspin + HyperLaunch 3

Since the MAME ROM set has every game, just doesn't play them all, use the backend to tell it to use a different emulator for specific games.  Totally transparent to the front end. 

Hyperspin is extrememly easy to setup once you break it down into the different pieces and understand how they interact. 

And I've offered to help people setup Hyperspin a number of times.  The tutorials over on Hyperspin-FE.com are getting better - but they're not written to a non-techy perspective.  I should write one myself...  maybe someday....

Doesn't that require xml editing and manually making changes in hyperlaunch?
I'm already doing that in Mala and it works fine. 
Plus Mala uses the metadata from mame.xml for things like automatic monitor rotation and joystick switching, so all that stuff automatically works when games that run on other emulators are added to the mame list.  It also automatically loads different layouts depending on which way my monitor is currently oriented.

The above was a wish for a front-end that was designed to work that way from the beginning.
It would requiring nothing more than me right clicking on a game and selecting an option to add it to my main MAME list. 

I may  try hyperspin again on the new driving cab setup because there's no automation and it has a much shorter gamelist.
All the arcade games need to be in one list regardless of emulator, and all my pc games and console games need to be on separate lists.
As far as I know, it's possible using the same type of manual xml editing and sorting techniques to do it in Mala.
If not, stop me now so I don't waste my time.  (or just give me copies of your driving cab files after setting it up that way   )

[thatpurplestuff]

As cool as MaLa is (and as someone that owns a Maximus Arcade license), put me down as someone that prefers Hyperspin to both of them... I love the animated themes and I'm probably weird but if you've got things configured correctly it makes it fun to just browse through games before loading one up.  The new Hyperlaunch HQ makes tweaking settings a breeze, and new features like Hyperpause give the ability to pause emulators with a single button and display cool artwork, special moves lists, manuals/guides, videos, etc.

I can definitely see how the default settings might be too flashy and a turnoff for some people, but Hyperspin really does give a lot of power to the end user to adjust things to their liking and make things as simple or as complicated as they want.

[Fursphere]

Doesn't that require xml editing and manually making changes in hyperlaunch?
I'm already doing that in Mala and it works fine. 
Plus Mala uses the metadata from mame.xml for things like automatic monitor rotation and joystick switching, so all that stuff automatically works when games that run on other emulators are added to the mame list.  It also automatically loads different layouts depending on which way my monitor is currently oriented.

The above was a wish for a front-end that was designed to work that way from the beginning.
It would requiring nothing more than me right clicking on a game and selecting an option to add it to my main MAME list. 

I may  try hyperspin again on the new driving cab setup because there's no automation and it has a much shorter gamelist.
All the arcade games need to be in one list regardless of emulator, and all my pc games and console games need to be on separate lists.
As far as I know, it's possible using the same type of manual xml editing and sorting techniques to do it in Mala.
If not, stop me now so I don't waste my time.  (or just give me copies of your driving cab files after setting it up that way   )

So...  think of it this way.

Hyperspin - Graphic Front end and Game Database

Hyperlaunch - emulator launching "middleware"

you DO NOT configure emulators in HyperHQ (hyperspin) anymore.  Just the artwork, videos, and game database.   

In Hyperlaunch (3) - you configure the emulator to run the Hyperspin Database (XML) games for any given system.   You also globally configure emulators here.   That doesn't mean ROMs, just emulators.

So this emulator is here (c:\emulator)

Then for the Hyperspin WHEEL (game database!) you say the ROMs (games) are HERE c:\games (whatever you want to call it)

Then you "globally" configure and emulator to be the default emulator for a specific Hyperspin WHEEL (again, game database!).  Hyperlaunch will read that XML and show it in HyperLaunchHQ.  If there is a specific game that doesn't run in MAME for example, but does in DEMUL - you right click on that game and tell it to use DEMUL instead.  (which you GLOBALLY configured already).

So in your Hyperspin MAME wheel for example - all games will launch with MAME.EXE _except_ the one(s) you told to use DEMUL.  (or whatever).   If you have some SNES game that only runs under SNES9X instead of ZSNES - you just right click on that game and "poof", it'll now launch with SNEX9X instead of ZSNES (assuming ZSNES is the default emulator you choose previously)

Hyperspin is a GAME DATABASE with a graphic front end once you move to Hyperlaunch.  Its a collection of games for a system (or systems, like MAME).   Hyperlaunch tells it what emulator to use.

No XML hacking. 

I can go on and on about this.  There are some youtube videos that sorta help - but there is some "assumed" Hyperspin knowledge required.  I can help fill the gaps. 

[blackmoor]

It's just a matter of taste.  I tried Hyperspin and ended up doing everything I could to get it to not look and feel like Hyperspin.
I dislike the whole "wheel" concept, so I guess there wasn't much hope for me. 

I don't like GameEx and the others that look and feel like media center software....because they look and feel like media center software, not like an arcade game.

I use MALA.  It's basically just a gamelist that you choose the font and color for, plus any other pictures, video, or info you want displayed for a game.
You decide what is displayed, where it is displayed and how big it is.
It looks as slick or basic as your background picture editing skills allow. 
If you can draw what you want your front-end to look like in photoshop, you can make MALA look like it.
You can have different themes for different emulators if you want.

I have a very basic theme, but it's exactly what I want.
(the marquee, screenshot, & CP change with the highlighted game)


Driving cab one is more polished


I gotta start doing some different color schemes.......right after I finish the current red and black cab. 


Go to the MALA forum and search for "theme" to see what people have come up with.

The biggest complaint most people have about it is that it can't display tranparent layers correctly, so for example, you can't display the video inside a circle with the edges of the video covered up.

With some work-arounds, it's possible to have all the arcade games show up in your MAME list, even if they use a different emulator.
It isn't easy, but well worth it IMO.

SUPERB Mala layout! please say that a) it´s scalable for low res arcademonitor and b) you´re willing to share it!

As for this thread. been using hyperspin from the start. but latest version of it JUST DOES NOT WORK. So last night learned of MALA and read about it and had it running with all my emulators, showing mp4 videos and myself made basic layouts. all of this in 5 hours. It took 50 hours to make first hyperspin to work and it did NOT work with c64 emulator, and no intro videos in mp4 form.I was ready to give up.

Mala is perfect, I recommend it to everybody sincerely!

I would like that layout for mame. Others can be my basic layout, which is black screen with system name on top, 2/3 screen shoving picture/video of selected game and on the right side is game list and on bottom of it selectedgamenumber of total number of games. Took the black layout and modified it for my needs. But Mame would definitively deserve this layout!

EDIT

took a crappy video of my machine with mala. Latest mala developer version 1.82 and CCCP codec pack, with ffdshow mala keeps crashing.

[BadMouth]

SUPERB Mala layout! please say that a) it´s scalable for low res arcademonitor and b) you´re willing to share it!

I've never been able to figure out how to get the layouts to scale; always just make them to match my resolution.
These are 1024x768 IIRC.
The first one and my console ones are available here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134977.0.html

[wp34]

SUPERB Mala layout! please say that a) it´s scalable for low res arcademonitor and b) you´re willing to share it!

I've never been able to figure out how to get the layouts to scale; always just make them to match my resolution.
These are 1024x768 IIRC.
The first one and my console ones are available here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134977.0.html

Thanks!   

[Brian B]

I'm aware this thread is quite old, But i've had it with HyperSpin and have switched to MaLa.

After weeks of trying to setup HS i've given up. i've made a dozen attempts, tried a handful of "easy" "step by step" instructions, youtube tutorials, etc. And its all just BS.  I can't fathom why you need such a complex and user unfriendly system. why do i need to go to 5 websites to get parts to build this monstrosity of a FE? With something so flashy and cool looking, why in the hell do i have to edit ini files? why the hell can't i shut of those aggravating, patronizing, and downright demorilizing sound effects that blast over my speakers when an error pops up?! 

The HS Team says that they "look down on" those prepackaged hard drives that you can buy. We'll i see this as it being their fault in the first place. Don't make such an overcomplicated system if you're not willing to see people who understand it make a buck of those who don't that just want to play bloody games. As a last resort i was going to drop $240 to buy one of those drives just to get something that works, but then in a last ditch effort i decided to try another highly rated FE, MaLa. and boy am i glad i did! 

I see what some people have done to customize the MaLa layouts, and i've played around with it a bit. Its just simple and works. Not 4 fu**ing executables from a dozen different websites "hyper" this and "hyper" that. 

HS Team, trust me, i get it, "People want customization options".  screw that, power users want customization options.  The average newcomer wants something cool thats EASY TO SETUP.   Make a "HyperSpin Lite" that looks like the same wheel system, but has one EXE file that includes easy to setup options that i can download in one place. Want to keep the association with your partners for game media? great, have an in app option for downloading and subscribing to media from them. Have an easy to configure initial setup that lets you pick game systems, and point to rom and emulator folders. ...i could go on. If you make HS easy to use, easy to setup, and easy to configure then EVERYONE wins. More people will be encouraged to get involved with this hobby and spend more money at our favourite Arcade parts shops. Those shops would get better and we'd also have a larger community.

the point is i was able to setup MaLa in 5 minutes to where it took me almost 5 weeks to do in HyperSpin. Thats not right. Why is it quite a bit more simple to make a Dell Mini 10v into an OS X 10.6 hackintosh then it is to setup HyperSpin?!  Thats not right.

 

I realize this is an old topic, but after being out of this hobby for a couple of years I came back to start in again on my arcade project.  After getting MAME set up I thought I would try Hyperspin.  The graphics don't bother me and the ability to integrate different emulators in the future seemed like a plus.

However, like the other poster I quoted I met with nothing but difficulty.  I am not super-technical, but can usually "fight" my way through things.  I may be crazy, but if a software suite is not exactly plug and play I expect directions of some sort.  I realize the software is free, so I take what I can get.  I watched a couple of videos, read through the forum, wiki, some threads, etc.  I then followed some step by step instructions to get Hyperlaunch(?) working.  Anyway, I could not even get MAME to start after a few hours (mostly of loading .NET and other stuff).

Honestly, people who say they got HS working so easily--I envy you.  I kept trying over and over to make the game list small so I could at least get one game working and couldn't find any explanation on how to do it.  Just simple frustration.

For those who want the flash, HS seems to be the answer.  I also looked at Maximus, but there isn't much support.  The big plus for MaLa is all the people on this forum who use it and are helpful in figuring things out.

Having said that, for those who have never used Mala the installation and BASIC setup is almost as simple as starting a game directly from MAMEUI.  It is literally as easy as running the program and clicking launch!  The gamelist editor lets me click on a couple of roms, save a new list and use it for testing in the program. Then it is just a matter of adding pics, etc. to various folders and it just seems to work--at least so far.  I downloaded a layout file and you just click it in the options and there it is!

I'm really not interested in taking hours to set up the arcade machine.  I just want to relive some of my childhood playing games from days gone by...I'm sure I'll have some questions in the future, but I was able to get all my controls (2 joy, 1 track, 1 spinner) all up and running.

B.

[Slippyblade]

I'm in the "I wanted to like HyperSpin, but couldn't" camp. 

I *think* I DL'd all the parts I needed.  There were so many links to so much crap, and there's basically nothing spelling out what part does what to who or for how many cookies it gets done.  When I fired the .exe it ran and presented me with wheel after wheel of stuff that I didn't have and I could find no way to limit to what I DID have.

When I looked at Mala there was one zip that I DL'd and unzipped into a directory.  Ran the .exe and it asked me some basic setup questions, then presented me with a simple and functional list of the stuff that I actually had.  Making separate lists was simple.  Even the layout editor that is included in the single zip file was easy to use and I had my first custom layout within an hour.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I put in about 20 hours and got a good HS setup going.  the key is to start basic (mame) and add from there.  If you think setting up HS/HL is hard, try running Demul in HS.   

I did that for a commission I built for someone else.  I still run mala on my own rig. 

[drventure]

You know, Hyperspin looks really good, but after hearing anecdotes like these, I'm inclined to stick with Mala.

I know it. It works. It's easy (and UncleT's guide is a godsend for setting it up). It's extensible. And with Engine18, it's easily extensible with .net.

I wish it had a little better support for animations or video for some of the larger elements (like the whole background), and the key color transparency is SOOOO 1990's  , but with the plugin capabilities, there's possible ways to get that going even.

So it's all good.

 

[Mordwaffe]

Dazz, Im just looking for slick examples.  No need to clarify slick, just shoot some winners my way.

Any timeframe on 2.0?

This one is quickly becoming one of my favorites...  Not sure if he's got it completed or not though.

!

I like this layout; I have considered Hyperspin (have it downloaded) but I am not a huge fan of the GBs of movies; so seeing a setup that uses just box art is ideal to me. Is there instructions on setting it up like that? or a download for that theme?

[wp34]

I'm in the "I wanted to like HyperSpin, but couldn't" camp. 

I *think* I DL'd all the parts I needed.  There were so many links to so much crap, and there's basically nothing spelling out what part does what to who or for how many cookies it gets done.  When I fired the .exe it ran and presented me with wheel after wheel of stuff that I didn't have and I could find no way to limit to what I DID have.

When I looked at Mala there was one zip that I DL'd and unzipped into a directory.  Ran the .exe and it asked me some basic setup questions, then presented me with a simple and functional list of the stuff that I actually had.  Making separate lists was simple.  Even the layout editor that is included in the single zip file was easy to use and I had my first custom layout within an hour.

This is exactly where I'm at.  I can fire up HS and it does look more "modern" than Mala. But I can't for the life of me configure the menus.  I'm leaning towards sticking with Mala.

What is funny is that I prefer just using the command line.  The front-end is only for my family.

[ChanceKJ]

I eventually switched to Maximus. Now I've got it in two builds and I'm not looking back. 

[Cryofax]

I use Hyperspin. It has a steep learning curve and several times I was ready to throw up my hands and walk away from it, but something kept compelling me to stick with it. I'm glad I did as I was able to build a nice global widescreen launcher that handles about 25  game systems + WMC + My recorded media (which I can access and view outside WMC) + Streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo) all launchable and previewable inside Hyperspin.

I also spent quite a bit of time maximizing efficiency. Using a lot of tricks to get it run to smoothly and keeping CPU usage to a minimum. Still the whole thing at times does have a feeling of being in a state of chaos, as programmers seem to come and go, there are bugs to  work around etc. The community around it is quite active but not always helpful with your problems. There will be a lot of researching, trial and error.

[bulbousbeard]

I was so unimpressed by every frontend I tried (MALA and Hyperspin included) that I made my own. I couldn't even imagine going back to MALA or Hyperspin now.