No news so I made a switch to the GameEx frontend. I definitely did not want to make a change and learn a new FE but I'm so glad I did.
Here's my opinions:
- Although I really liked Mala and have used it for the last 4-5 years GameEx has a ton more options and support. They have Steam support, flash game stuff, remote stuff, htpc stuff, and there is a new Evolution version coming soon that is supposed to be even better. Honestly I don't even need a new version because GameEx has everything I need, like, and more. I like fiddling with setups so I'll definitely switch to the new version when it comes.
- The Mala community forum is pretty good but I really like the GameEx community more as they have high score competitions and tracking, they had a theme completion, and just more of a community.
- The only thing I didn't like at first was the GameEx theme editing. There is a steep learning curve with it unlike Mala. I decided to use one from someone else and I really like it. On the plus side of the GameEx themes, I think they are actually better with more functions than Mala such as last game played, most games played, and other functions. Hopefully, their Evolution version will have less of a learning curve.
- I always seemed to have issues with Mala's exiting and pre and post commands not working properly and had to use ahk's and bats to get them to work. GameEx is easier for those issues.
- I'd say that GameEx is probably easier to setup but Mala wasn't too hard either. GameEx can do anything Mala can do and so much more too.
There's more pluses for GameEx, but that's not to say Mala isn't good, but since Mala isn't being supported anymore and there are problems with it that aren't fixed, I made the change to GameEx and am 100% glad I did. GameEx is just an incredible frontend with loads of options and support.