Administration and Frontend shifted entirely to Android or iOS Tablet

[AGarv]

Admin functions on MAME cabs are a necessary evil.  At the worst, it means a row of extra buttons that guests never quite understand and unwittingly wreak havoc with. At not quite the worst, it means a secret combination of shift functions that no guest will ever figure out.

Frontends are also a necessary MAME evil. Game selection requires that you exit the current game before choosing a different game.  This is a complete buzzkill playing with guests; all gameplay stops while one person scrolls through a massive list of possible games, trying to make a choice.

Tablets have basically become amazing in the past two years.  For a few hundred dollars you can get a high resolution IPS display, WIFI/Bluetooth and a snappy processor in a device that weighs 2 lbs.

Is there a GOOD way to offload ALL administration and game selection to a tablet? In other words, is there a GOOD way to keep the MAME machine display in 100% gameplay mode at all times, with _everything_ else MAME related done behind the scenes on a tablet?

[Haze]

not yet complete control, but recent MAME versions do have the option to run a built in web server which does allow you to connect via mobile device and change some settings.

how far people take that is up to the people who want to further develop it however.

it's mainly going to be aimed at the MESS side of thing, because often MESS systems want to take over the full keyboard, so remote management is kinda handy, but it could have uses in MAME too.
I write a (tiny) bit about it here
http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2013/09/17/mame-mess-ume-0-150/

although there has been at least 1 important bugfix since that so you might want the UME 0.150x1, or better UME 0.150x2 build I posted if you're going to test it to get a glimpse of what might be possible,
http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2013/10/02/ume-0-150x1/
http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2013/10/08/ume-0-150x2/

however, like I said, it's not really got much in the way of interesting functionality at the moment.

[yotsuya]

Frontends are also a necessary MAME evil. Game selection requires that you exit the current game before choosing a different game.  This is a complete buzzkill playing with guests; all gameplay stops while one person scrolls through a massive list of possible games, trying to make a choice.

I would respectfully disagree. Part of the fun with guests is going through the list and seeing what games trigger memories. Sometimes the conversations that come out of that are even more fun than the games.

[ppv]

I agree with Yotsuya. Also, well curated categories goes a long way to help people find something they want.

[AGarv]

I agree that cutting down the total number of games on the frontend, and introducing categories helps guests (a LOT actually).  My own experience has been that the transition and selection phase are an overall downer.  I like the idea of being able to browse games on the tablet while the current game is running.  Maybe even pass the tablet around to queue up a "play list".

Probably the simplest solution is to set up the tablet as a second monitor (requires the use of an app like any of these: http://mashable.com/2012/11/01/tablet-second-monitor/) with enabled mouse emulation (cuts out your trackball games though, unless MAME and your OS both support multiple mice).

Then set up the secondary tablet screen to show the frontend, and map the up/down/select etc., keys to any keys not used by the arcade panel.  A super-simple GUI program with direction keys, select, pause, exit, etc., could be shown alongside the frontend and allow for tap controls.

That is all still pretty clunky, though.  It's also not something that has safeguards for handing the tablet to a guest (for "browse only" purposes).

Seems like there should be a simpler way.

[SavannahLion]

I was thinking very nearly along the same lines last night when I spotted 7" Android tablets on eBay for <$70 a pop. No bluetooth but they do have WiFi.