Which Front-end

[Mike Wazowski]

Dear all,

A few years ago I build a cocktail table with MameWah as front-end. Benefit of this was that I could hide the Windows start up and the programme worked with the controls.
Yesterday I downloaded the a new version of Mame because I started a new project. It seems that MameWah does not work with the latest version of Mame.

I would like to now which todays front-end I could use with the functions of MameWah. MaLa Frontend?

Pleas advise.

[Dcpmark]

From my research the 3 most popular frontends appear to be Mala, Hyperspin, and Maximus Arcade. Maximus is not currently under active development, but it's pretty.nice in its current form. That is what I chose recently.

[Sparkolicious]

I like hyperspin.  Some folks would argue that it is difficult to set up, but I haven't had much of an issue with MAME.  Some of the consoles take a little effort and tweaking, but with a small donation you have access to everything you need.  I have managed to get through all of my setup using information available on the forums. Now with hyper sync, you can automatically download themes, artwork, and vids for dozens of systems without having to search anywhere.  It is really neat!

[BadMouth]

I would like to now which todays front-end I could use with the functions of MameWah. MaLa Frontend?

What functions are you referring to?

[shponglefan]

I like Mala.  Easy to set up, can look really nice (w/ proper design/layout), not too flashy.

[ThumperSoup]

I'm in the midst of putting my cocktail cab together, and I'm going with Mala. I was going for something simple, and it seems to do the job. I wish there were a few more pre-made layouts that worked for a cocktail that will need to switch between horizontal and vertical, but I found one or two that will do the job.

[Mike Wazowski]

The nice things about Mamewah was that I could start the computer without interference of Windows, select games/ options and shut down with the joystick and buttons.

This is what I am looking for. Any idea?

[Unstupid]

For my next project I'm using Hyperspin, but Im building my own theme. 

[gonzo90017]

What do you mean it doesn't work? Could you post the .ini file you're using. I'm sure your just not using the right parameters to generate the list.

[cmoses]

I like HyperSpin myself. I have it on my full size arcade cabinet and I am building a cocktail cabinet currently. A user over on the HyperSpin forum named jeepguy81 created a great cocktail theme. He is in the finalizing stages and will be posting the complete version shortly. It shows how customizable the HyperSpin FE is.


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk HD

[danny_galaga]

Another vote for Mala. I have it in my cocktail, which has a rotating monitor, so it's a nice touch that Mala can be set up so the menu orientation is always correct- horizontal or vertical (",)

[welshjpc]

I've gone for Maximus, maybe its the choice of newbies but it's my first attempt and it covered all of the bases that I personally required, as well as LOADS more that I don't (but may do in the future now!).

[ABACABB]

I went with GameEx and love it.  I am really surprised that no one mentioned it here so far.  It seems to be very popular and more importantly is is being actively developed and supported.  If you are just starting out, why would you choose something that is no longer being developed or supported??

GameEx has it's own support forum and tons of help there.  The developer himself usually replies to questions within a day or so.  I highly recommend this one.

[Dawgz Rule]

+1 for GameEx.  Excellent support community and has a lot of nice features.

[mgb]

I really like Mala.

[eds1275]

I really like Mala.

I love it too, but it isn't without it's problems (background music!) The big upside for me is the low cpu usage though. My machines are resurrected computers from the past, and that helps a great deal.

[Gaaargh]

I'm another vote for MaLa. I used it on my cocktail Pac, with a text-free menu I 'shopped. It's lightweight, but has options for bigger performance - animations, music, lighting control, etc. plenty to like.

[mgb]

I really like Mala.

I love it too, but it isn't without it's problems (background music!) The big upside for me is the low cpu usage though. My machines are resurrected computers from the past, and that helps a great deal.

yeah I'm sure it has issues but I wasn't aware of an issue with background music. I keep my frontend pretty simple. but I will say that I have it set up with a simple greeting message and that has been hiccuping lately but I thought it maybe had something to do with ledblinky starting up.

As far as frontends like Hyperspin go, I think they're very cool and I'm using Hyperspin on another more modern pc but for my arcade machine, I also have an older Pc (p4) that just runs better with a simpler frontend.
I like the frontend bling of Hyperspin but at the end of the day, its the games I enjoy most, not the list that I pick them from.