Finally got around to remove the features I wasn't going to fix, and fix the ones I needed. After 6 months between revisions, and me mentioning my vapor ware products... I was influinced on many fine titles (Diakata, Duke Nukem Forever to name a few...)
Of course the two screenshots I took at 1am last night, neither has anything interesting on it or new... sigh...
Why?
Q) hey, it looks like other frontends... why would I use yours?
A)
1) I spent a good amount of time making my frontend work with multiple ControlPanels, storing mames configuration files and copying them around for the right games (so you only need to configure 4way games once, or 4player setup can be different then 2player games.). I also have disabled / but can get anyone interested / encoder support. Where you setup files to configure your encoder, then I will call them when needed. This can be by Control Panel, Game or Emulator (but only mame support is in).
2) Its open source... and written in a development system where the tools are free. So you don't like something, go change it
3) Because I wrote it... and if nobody uses it... I will be sad..
Whats new?
Well, I completely rewritten 90% of the code. Mainly for personal use initially... then recently adding some way to configure it without the source around.
Skinnable
Favorites
Will configure everything if no config files exist... Easer to setup
In FE configuration
Mame cfg handling (configure 4way games once... for them all)
Config set per Control Panel
Encoder configuration... NOTE: I just removed this because it doesn't work well on my 98 machine... but it's works in 2000/Linux. If anyone would like to have your encoder updated when you change control panels, games, or emulators, please let me know (I will compile it with it enabled).
The list really goes on. Mainly under the hood.
Now... has anyone noticed that it looks similar to ArcadeFX and RD? Well, up until 2 days ago, I was running Eds (ArcadeFX) images with my skinner. Why? Because I'm not as artistic... I wrote my frontend to look like his screenshots (Awok2k days
)... Then when he released, I had a skinner to make mine look like his a few days later. Just putting credit where credit is due.
I forgot to mention Doug Hansen for the cabinet image. I was going to use it normal, but when I copied it in Gimp with the magic want, that is what I got... and I like it
Well, The longer list of whats left out.
1) Encoder support (mentioned above... worked great until I got it on my 98 machine... so taken out last minute)... but it is pretty cool.
2) More emulators. I added support to add them, but never got around to finishing them. (was kinda hoping that Howards middle wear pieces would come out and save me some work). And yes, I removed the generic emulator driver... so it's mame only for the time being.
3) Transparent front image. I was hoping to put animated transparent gifs or something over all the beans. Never got around to it (and I don't have an easy way to create images... sigh)
4) Index configuration in game... have to modify the index.properties
5) Removal of the mame -listinfo > listinfo.txt run before. I can capture it... just didn't write it that way.
6) Checking to see if the roms actually exist... Yes, I assume you have them all.
NOTE: YOU WILL NEED JAVA JDK OR JRE VERSION 1.4.
http://java.sun.com to download 1.4 (JDK if you plan on modifying the source and JRE if not)
ftp://http://ergotech-usa.com/~drake/jfront.zipftp://http://ergotech-usa.com/~drake/jfront_src.zipWell, I will probably try to get a few more items working (encoders mainly), so I can start with all my new ideas... for 2 weeks I had to decide not to add anything just so I could get it actually...well...running