MALA vs Hyperspin

[TheShaner]

Well, I am knee deep in Hyperspin setup.  I am not sure what it is about it, but I am having second thoughts.  Maybe it's all of the stuff flying around the screen, Im not sure.  I did a MameWah config a few years ago and liked the results, but it is pretty bare.  Ive heard a lot about MALA, but have never messed with it.  I would be curious to hear some views on each. 

[harveybirdman]

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.

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....

[Los Abrazos Rotos]

I've tried them all and nothing competes with GameEx in my opinion

[Cynicaster]

I’ve only ever used MaLa so this comes without the benefit of comparison, but I think it’s great.  

All I wanted was a utilitarian interface that shows useful information—game names, screenshots, manufacturer, year of release, marquee, etc.—and I had no trouble at all getting MaLa up and running.  It seems to run with fairly low overhead, as even the 8 year old PC I use in my cabinet runs it no problem.

You can make custom layouts, gamelists, include other emulators, etc.  All of the core functionality that I have wanted is included.  The only complaint I have is that it has a tab to configure background music that plays while you browse your games, but it doesn’t work.  Other than that, I’d recommend it.  

[harveybirdman]

 The only complaint I have is that it has a tab to configure background music that plays while you browse your games, but it doesn’t work.  Other than that, I’d recommend it.  

Try disabling fades, I'm using background music and hoping for a bug fix on the issue you are referencing.

/hijack

[Cynicaster]

 The only complaint I have is that it has a tab to configure background music that plays while you browse your games, but it doesn’t work.  Other than that, I’d recommend it.  

Try disabling fades, I'm using background music and hoping for a bug fix on the issue you are referencing.

/hijack

I've tried everything, I give up.  If you go into the menu and manually start the music, it works, but it doesn't automatically start the next time you load up MaLa, which kind of defeats the purpose for me. 

[BadMouth]

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.

[JayB]

I really like Hyperspin, even did the audio for the start up video and have it running on my main machine. Visually, it's very impressive.

Now, and this is what made me consider using another frontend for this other machine I've just built. With Hyperspin you've got all the visual stuff for each game which looks great but, I wanted to keep a theme that was consistent with the look of my machine when scrolling through the games lists. I chose Mala for that one as the main menu screen stays in context which was important to me and I have a video preview for the chosen game. I think Hyperspin works really well but, all the visuals can pull you out of the theme of the machine, well unless it's just called "MAME Arcade" or..well you get the idea

This is the video of my machine. I just wanted the player to stay in the theme of the machine and that allowed it perfectly. 

[Le Chuck]

I was a FE whore for years, making my own and modding others.  I would waiver between super simplistic GameLauncher style and the wheel style to that crazy ass one in the mid 00s that was a VR arcade your navigated an avatar around in. 

I use MALA exclusively now.  Whether I'm making a machine for myself or for a friend or client MALA gives me the flexibility to do what I need to do simply and quickly.  Others can do more for sure but MALA does everything I need.  Plus I've got DaOld Man's plugins to play with in MALA and I am not giving those up.  You can't make me.   

[Nephasth]

I've got Hyperspin on the big Beast and love it. But for the little Beast and all future builds using a computer, I'll most likely go with MALA.

[Dazz]

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.

[Le Chuck]

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.

Honest questions that pertain directly to my rigs:

Can HS tell my 4way/8way servo controlled joysticks which setting to move to based on the MAME INI? 

Can HS be rotated on the fly and have MAME orient its rotation based on HS's current setting?  Can that rotation be automated from w/in HS?

Thanks

[DrChek]

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.

[Nephasth]

Why does HS only recognize 2 joystick devices?

Sorry, not trying to jump on the bandwagon here, but this was an annoyance when setting up the Beast.

[Le Chuck]

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

Not from MALA or Maximus but can you make HS look and act like Urban Interactives Star Wars FE?  If you can do that then I have some serious uses for HS. 

His loader, which you can get here, is in the May 5 2009 post.  Here's an early vid of his launcher, the current version in the download link is better:

[BadMouth]

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

Make an Alien Abduction theme for TheShaner's cab and save him the trouble.  
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=117641.0

Animations that go along with his theme and don't suddenly change when the highlighted game changes would be pretty cool.

[TheShaner]

Awesome, I am glad I have opened a can of worms and have gotten people talking.

I was initially drawn to hyperspin because of its robust nature, and honestly the themes looked neat. But after messing with it for a while I realized that having the whiz bangs flying around was a little too cartoony for the feel that I am trying to accomplish. I am a somewhat special case though I think.  It sounds like I can go in and create a good theme to do what I am looking for, but there are two problems I see with that, and they are probably just my ignorance. Ease of customization and more importantly the core cartoony interface. That wiggling joystick that keeps popping up is just annoying. Like I said, I'm sure I am just ignorant, bit I haven't figured out a way to make that cool.

Dazz, I'm not trying to rip HS, I think it is super cool, and appears to be coded rock solid, I've even donated to become a gold member, but I cannot create a creepy experience with a cartoony core interface.

Please correct me if Im wrong, I would like to use your front end.

[TheShaner]

Oh and thanks for the prompt badmouth, but I'm a designer by trade and I'll be damned if anyone is going to design the frontend but me, I have a vision!  If you've seen the project you should be starting to see that unfold.

[Le Chuck]

Oh and thanks for the prompt badmouth, but I'm a designer by trade and I'll be damned if anyone is going to design the frontend but me, I have a vision!  If you've seen the project you should be starting see that unfold.

When I was 13 I made a putty nose that looked like a big dick hanging off my face.  I wanted to be Cyrano de Begerac for Halloween.  My mother told me it looked like a dick and I told her I had vision.  Sometimes you have vision and sometimes you have a dick on your face.  I'm not saying you have a dick on your face, I'm just saying that you never know. 

[TheShaner]

Awesome le chuck. I really don't know how to respond other than to say I hope my vision doesn't end up looking like a cock on my face.

Thanks for the sage wisdom ... I think.

[Le Chuck]

Awesome le chuck. I really don't know how to respond other than to say I hope my vision doesn't end up looking like a cock on my face.

It won't.  Your CP and wicked kickplate curve keep you well out of cock range already.  Just thought that anecdote was germane. 

 

[RetroBorg]

Can HS tell my 4way/8way servo controlled joysticks which setting to move to based on the MAME INI? 

I use HyperSpin to switch my 4way/8way servo controlled joysticks but it isn't using MAME.INI, I just get it to check a list of 4/way games, there is a delay in launching the game when I use this script though but my computer is quite old. I'm sure it could be done using MAME.INI if someone wrote a script to do it.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?11271-Need-help-with-a-script-for-switching-Magsticks-with-a-servo&highlight=servo

Can HS be rotated on the fly and have MAME orient its rotation based on HS's current setting?  Can that rotation be automated from w/in HS?

Not at the moment but HyperSpin 2.0 will support vertical monitors and widescreen monitors, I can't answer the switching on the fly but I'm sure Dazz would know.

[RetroBorg]

Not from MALA or Maximus but can you make HS look and act like Urban Interactives Star Wars FE?  If you can do that then I have some serious uses for HS. 

His loader, which you can get here, is in the May 5 2009 post.  Here's an early vid of his launcher, the current version in the download link is better:

That looks cool!

[RetroBorg]

Awesome, I am glad I have opened a can of worms and have gotten people talking.

I was initially drawn to hyperspin because of its robust nature, and honestly the themes looked neat. But after messing with it for a while I realized that having the whiz bangs flying around was a little too cartoony for the feel that I am trying to accomplish. I am a somewhat special case though I think.  It sounds like I can go in and create a good theme to do what I am looking for, but there are two problems I see with that, and they are probably just my ignorance. Ease of customization and more importantly the core cartoony interface. That wiggling joystick that keeps popping up is just annoying. Like I said, I'm sure I am just ignorant, bit I haven't figured out a way to make that cool.

Dazz, I'm not trying to rip HS, I think it is super cool, and appears to be coded rock solid, I've even donated to become a gold member, but I cannot create a creepy experience with a cartoony core interface.

Please correct me if Im wrong, I would like to use your front end.

You can pretty much make HyperSpin look anyway you want it too, including removing the wiggling joystick if that's what you want to do.

[Los Abrazos Rotos]

Hyperspin just felt like a giant mess to me, way too much going on!  Mala didnt really grab me, though I liked it much more than hyperspin.  Gameex works best for me, its regularly updated, very professional, clean, simple to use and setup - it ticks all the boxes.

[edin_dave]

INteresting to see everyone's opinions.

I myself have tried Maximus Arcade, MALA, Hyperspin and GameEx to see which suited my needs/tastes best..
Maximus Arcade was in the lead until I found out I couldn't buy ot anymore, GameEx was too much media centre oriented for me. Hyperspin looked great as well, but took too much configuring to download the fonts and game titles etc for everything.

Mala won. After reading the Wiki and getting things straight in my head, it offered the ease of development that suited me. There are options in Maximus Arcade that I really liked that I haven't found in Mala yet, but it offers all the main tweaks that I need.

It really is down to personal preference - how much custom artwork you want to create, whether you want I make all your own templates etc.

All of the front ends had good points, all of them had downers.

I realise that this post ultimately doesn't resolve anything for you ,but I'd recommend at left giving Mala a go. I had a basic version of my vision up and running in literally 10 minutes. I couldnt do that with any of the others.

Just my opinion.. Everyone in different
 
Good luck, and let us know how you get on!

[Dazz]

Why does HS only recognize 2 joystick devices?

Sorry, not trying to jump on the bandwagon here, but this was an annoyance when setting up the Beast.

Why would you need more than 2 joystick devices in HyperSpin?  HyperSpin is used to ONLY select the games.  Do you really need more than 2 devices to select games?  Once the game is selected it's up to your Emulator to support the necessary controls.

Awesome, I am glad I have opened a can of worms and have gotten people talking.

I was initially drawn to hyperspin because of its robust nature, and honestly the themes looked neat. But after messing with it for a while I realized that having the whiz bangs flying around was a little too cartoony for the feel that I am trying to accomplish. I am a somewhat special case though I think.  It sounds like I can go in and create a good theme to do what I am looking for, but there are two problems I see with that, and they are probably just my ignorance. Ease of customization and more importantly the core cartoony interface. That wiggling joystick that keeps popping up is just annoying. Like I said, I'm sure I am just ignorant, bit I haven't figured out a way to make that cool.

Dazz, I'm not trying to rip HS, I think it is super cool, and appears to be coded rock solid, I've even donated to become a gold member, but I cannot create a creepy experience with a cartoony core interface.

Please correct me if Im wrong, I would like to use your front end.
 

If you have the images or graphical skills; then creating a custom theme to fit your needs is extremely easy.  You can remove all of the "core cartoony interface".  The animated joystick can be removed by de-selecting the "Special Artwork A" from the Special Art tab of your well settings.  "Special Artwork B" is the "Free Play" / "Press Start" text which can also be disabled.   These are on a per-wheel/emulator basis so you can have them enabled for one wheel, but removed on another.

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.

In v1.x there are 5 font styles.  I think in v2 we have 10 currently.  We can take suggestions for fonts to add.

Hyperspin just felt like a giant mess to me, way too much going on!  Mala didnt really grab me, though I liked it much more than hyperspin.  Gameex works best for me, its regularly updated, very professional, clean, simple to use and setup - it ticks all the boxes.

Game Ex is great... if you want that Windows Media Center look.  Most people that have a cabinet want a more "arcade" like experience and want to loose the Windows aspect.  Game Ex is good with what it does and I'd use it if I had a media center type setup, but I don't see how anyone would like it in a dedicated cabinet setup.

[TheShaner]

Dazz is there any other way to filter your game list other than only applying themes to the ones you want in the list and selecting themes only?

[Le Chuck]

Dazz, you didn't address either of my posts with HS questions.  Can you please answer them?

Why does HS only recognize 2 joystick devices?

Sorry, not trying to jump on the bandwagon here, but this was an annoyance when setting up the Beast.

Why would you need more than 2 joystick devices in HyperSpin?  HyperSpin is used to ONLY select the games.  Do you really need more than 2 devices to select games?  Once the game is selected it's up to your Emulator to support the necessary controls.

I would want this feature as well, to make sure that the FE is as guest proof as possible.  On a machine like The Beast or any 4P panel I would want every joystick to do the same thing in the FE so whoever walks up to my panel, no matter which joy they walk up to can select a game and get going.  Ideally I would think you would want your FE to meet the needs of the user rather than admonishing the user for wanting something outside the limitations of your FE.
 

[Nephasth]

Why does HS only recognize 2 joystick devices?

Sorry, not trying to jump on the bandwagon here, but this was an annoyance when setting up the Beast.

Why would you need more than 2 joystick devices in HyperSpin?  HyperSpin is used to ONLY select the games.  Do you really need more than 2 devices to select games?  Once the game is selected it's up to your Emulator to support the necessary controls.

Well, LeChuck gets it.

[lanman31337]

Can you put a space and another character, so that up arrow or I could be joystick up for player 1?  I too have a 4 player control panel and a huge schlong on my nose, so it would definitely help.

[TheShaner]

[DaveMMR]

I like Hyperspin. I used it for quite a while and even submitted a couple of themes for it (not the best but decent stopgap offerings). I may use it again. But I went back to Mala for a number of reasons:

1. Hyperspin needs a relatively beefy computer. The machine in my cab is not a slouch for basic MAME usage but chokes on the HS animations, transitions, etc. I turned off everything but it's still a little too slow and defeats the purpose.  Not the FE's fault - it works fine on my main computer. But I wasn't ready to upgrade the cabinet computer for the benefit of the frontend.

2. Mala is a bit more flexible than Hyperspin. Where Mala and HS share a similar feature, it seemed a bit easier to work it with the former. This may change with HS 2.0; we'll see.

3. Game lists. I never figured out a proper way of making a game list in HS - though I just used the "themes only" setting so that only themed games show up. For this reason, I think HS is much better with a smaller list of specific games.  I do tend to keep my list small but when I wanted to add that obscure gem, it's a lot more work than just "adding to list", unless I wanted a bunch of games with a generic theme (again, defeating the purpose).  

They're both great frontends - it just all boils downs to wants and needs.

[MTPPC]

I think MALA works great. I had it on two machines, but when one started having focus problems, I jumped to hyperspin. I found that if you make HS jump to favorites straight off, it's much more usable.  Then If I want to go to the "all games list" I just hit the genres wheel and look for any games that aren't in favorites. If I like the game, I add it to favorites and the next time I start that emulator, it's there and I don't have to look around for it.

[mhermann]

+1 for Hyperspin. I had no problems setting it up and configuring it. Any issues I had were specific to the emulator I was using. Looks the best in my opinion.

[wp34]

Those are some nice looking themes BadMouth--especially the driving one. 

I need to give MALA a fresh look.

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.

[drventure]

Those are some nice looking themes BadMouth--especially the driving one. 

+1, that driving cab theme looks great!

[Rok]

I use Mala here. Two reasons:

1) Mala is super simple.

2) My cabinet just doesn't have enough horses under the hood to run HS.

HS is a solid FE though. Props to the devs.

[Los Abrazos Rotos]

 Quote from: Dazz on Today at 07:18:17 AM
Game Ex is great... if you want that Windows Media Center look.  Most people that have a cabinet want a more "arcade" like experience and want to loose the Windows aspect.  Game Ex is good with what it does and I'd use it if I had a media center type setup, but I don't see how anyone would like it in a dedicated cabinet setup.
[/quote]

Have to disagree, mine certainly doesn't look like a media centre.  I like frontends to be simple and functional - the games speak for themselves.

[BadMouth]

+1, that driving cab theme looks great!

Those are some nice looking themes BadMouth--especially the driving one. 

I need to give MALA a fresh look.

Thanks. 

wp34, For your cab, instead of the usual circuit traces or lines, I think you should have Tron Legacy concept art in the background:
http://godsofart.com/tron-legacy-concept-art
I like the ones of Flynn's Arcade.

Throw some semi-transparent boxes on top of that outlined in glowing borders and you've got a nice looking theme without too much work.
Just my opinion.