A little bit of advice needed.

[Skeletor101]

Hey,

Having used other frontends, I was recommended MaLa by a friend, I just wanted to know the pro's of using this frontend.

Also I'm a Intense GIMP user and would love to make new layouts for the community.

[harveybirdman]

it's pretty simple to get started, there are some sick plugins that can do everything from making 4 to 8 way stick switching a snap to lighting up LED buttons to show what buttons do what in each game.

It can be used to make simple utilitarian layouts, or bad ass animated showstopper layouts.

lots of expert arcade builders use or have used it (daoldman, drventure, LeChuck, and many many more), so there is a nice network of giants on whose shoulders you can stand.

[Gray_Area]

Wellll, Mala has certain limits (which drventure, for example, is trying to get around). If you want something snazzy, do Hyperspin or GameEx. But if you want to get into development, Mala might be an avenue.

[mike boss]

I've only ever used MaLa, and of people I know that look to other frontends it's mostly based on the menu.
Other frontend applications have a more attractive menu, however in MaLa you can customize it.
One of the biggest things I like is the ease of use in Mala, not only that I can easily create a menu customized to my needs.
I like having a menu that follows the theme of my cabinet, IE - I have a Street Fighter II Dynamo cabinet so my menu is done using art from that game.
It is what it is I guess.

[Vigo]

mala is versatile and you can set up your machine in a layout you like. It isn't the prettiest or shiniest out of the box, but you can make some pretty cool layouts and get most anything you want to work on it without too much effort. I think if it was a bit further developed with its animation and effects capabilities, it would be a near perfect frontend for anybody who wants their own custom design.

The downside is that it can still be buggy in a few avenues, and sometimes problems take a bit of troubleshooting to work correctly. Loadman has been good about addressing any problems.

[CpCaveman]

I agree, mala would be improved with animated transparent gif support (dont know the proper terms for anything really ), animation path editor (wanted arcade logo`s traveling accross the screen can see it can be possible just havent put the work in yet ) , and the ability to change themes/ background picture at a button press  ( have an instruction page by pressing a button instead of setting it up as an option in a in a tree ) those are the ONLY extra things i`d really like from it, as it supplies everything else i need, would reccomend it to all.

[Wade007]

Of all the frontends, the finalists I considered were: Hyperspin, Atomic FE, and Mala.

I ended up choosing Mala because it was FREE, supported PC games as well as ALL other emulators, had nice custom layouts or at least the ability to design your own layout and wasn't overly animated or reliant on movies (like hyperspin).

Read more about my Mala selection and software setup here:
http://www.cheapskategamer.com/pc_game_stories_and_news/building-an-arcade-emulation-cabinetpart-one-software/