FE Review: AdvanceMenu 5.5 out of 10

[SirPoonga]

http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/

Read the website for features.

Ok, this one is easy to review:)  I am doing this one now out of need.  I couldn't get any other linux FE running without some type of error.  If anyone uses gxmame and can tell me how to get past the -nohotrod option doesn't exist error I'd appreciate it.  This was the ONLY FE I could get running on Redhat 9.0.  I had a couple running on Redhat 8.0 though.  Part of the problem I think is went going to RH 9.0 I used newer versions of the FEs and they weren't "complete".

I installed it both on linux and windows.  It works about the same on each:

First, AdvanceMenu is difficult to get setup the way you want.  It takes time and patience.

Both linux and windows versions worked upon install and adding the emulator clause in the config file.
However, for linux I could not get it to work with xmame, I had to use advmame.  If someone knows what error 127 is please let me know!  I prefer xmame over advmame for ease of configuration.
Everything can be configured from this file.  Also most of the configuration can be done from the in program menus.

Navigation is simple.  It can be navigates witha  one player jamma setup.  However to access all the features the FE assigns many of the F keys to certain functions.

Pros:
Lots of customization.  Can use catver.ini and other files to sort games.  
Many different ways of viewing the games.  My favorite is the 4x3 grid view of snapshots.  Though I would still stick with the classic list of games and snapshots.
http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/menu-snapshot.html
It can support a couple of different emulator, but basically just mame, mess, and their derivatives.
Supports background mp3s and many different image formats.
The display can also be rotated so you cocktail users might want to look into this.
Statistics.  The FE keeps track of time spent in games and how many times the games were played.
Can lock a user from configuring the FE from menu.
Same config file between the linux and windows versions.  Makes it easy to port

Cons:
Lots of configuration.  This will take alot of time to get the FE to show the information the way you want to have it shown.
No skins, at least from what I can tell.
Documentation is obscure.  It can be difficult to find the information you are looking for because the documentation is broken up into many files.  Knowing which file you need to be looking in is part of the battle.
I couldn't find out how to make it go fullscreen.  I could specify 1152 (the resolution of my desktop) but then that isn't truely full screen.  However, with hiding the taskbar and playing with that number I can make it appear fullscreen in both linux and windows.

There are probably features I have missed.  The sheer amount of time it takes to futz with the configuration it was keeps this FE from being a high score.  However the side effect of this is the flexability of displaying the information you want.

This FE does do the basics with some extras.  The amount of time it takes to configure the FE to get the desired results is what keeps this FE a low score.  If you can get past that this is a great FE to try out with the many different modes of displaying the game list.

Score:  5.5 out of 10.