HELP PLEASE WHY DO I NEED A FRONT END

[PEPEART]

HELLO PLEOPLE WHY I DO KEEP TELLING ME I NEED A FRONT END TO RUN MAME? I AM GETTING A TRIDENT BLADE WITH 8MB OF VIDEO SO I CAN RUN WINDOWS ATRAIGHT TO THE MONITOR, I ALSO WNAT TO RUN DIFFERENT EMAULATORS FOR DIFFERENT HOME SYSTEMS LIKE NINTENDO AND SEGA, BUT WHAY DO I NEED A FRONT END? AND IF I DO WHICH ONE IS THE BEST TO RUN UNDER WINDOWS? THHANK YOU PEPE

[SirPoonga]

You don't really need a frontend, they just make life easier.

[ArcadeFX]

You don't NEED a front end really.  It is like driving to work in a Pinto or driving to work in a Testaroso.  Both of these will get you to work just find but which one woudl you rather drive?  

[Lilwolf]

I never used one at all until I built my cabinet.  then I didn't have a keyboard and could start them.  I also wanted friend to be able to play without me telling them how.

It's also nice to have one front end or gui that can run muliple emulators (mame is GREAT, but for almost every other emulator is better for their games.  Mainly because most of the mame drivers are written by people that have created optimized versions in the past).  

last, I didn't want my cabinet to look like it was built ontop of windows.  I wanted it to 100% have it's own look and feel.

[Howard_Casto]

Actually in your case you probably will need a front-end since you want to run multiple emulators.  Unless your arcade display is really really good, it's going to be hard to see when navigating in windows.  Also alot of emus are command line based (zinc comes to mind) and unless you want to have a keyboard under your arcade controls to type in the launch commands your going to need a fe to help you out.