Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets
Which front end for a driving cab?
scoodidabop:
Hey guys! I recently acquired a knackerd-up Daytona cabinet that I'll be converting into a MAME/Model 2&3/PC racing cabinet and I'm wondering what you guys are using for a front end. I'm an experienced Hyperspin user but thinking it would be nice if gameex or Mala allows for a single list for all games, as opposed to Hyperspin with will require some additional navigation for selecting different emulators.
BadMouth:
I'm using Mala with SGT's all in one list workaround: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,68419.0.html
You basically point Mala to a batch file instead of MAME. Mala passes the path and rom name onto the batch file and the batch file posts the appropriate command line based on the path the rom was found in. The bonus of doing it this way is that Mala still pulls the info from mame.xml and pics from the MAME folders.
Everything just shows up as a MAME game.
There are a few snags that people usually hit the first time around, but once you wrap your head around what's going on, it's really easy to accomplish whatever you want.
The main ones I remember are that you have to manually type in the path to mame.cmd because mala won't let you select the .cmd file by browsing.
The other has something to do with showing/hiding working games or parents/clones.
IIIRC you have to show the non-working games even if you've changed the status in the xml to working. It's been a while, so that might not be it exactly.
Always refresh the main gamelist in Mala after making changes to mame.xml
I believe people have worked out a way to do the same thing with Hyperspin.
Some people have run Hyperspin in pinball mode and swapped in a steering wheel in place of the wigging joystick.
Howard wrote a front-end called Checkered Flag specifically for driving cabs, but I never took the time to test it out.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141041.msg1459529.html#msg1459529
Fursphere:
I personally use HyperSpin, but its a lot of work to setup.
Mostly because you need to either
1) Manually create your game list
2) Hack down the HUGE game lists to only have the games you want
Both are daunting tasks.
It never dawned on me to use HyperPIN for a Driving Cab... I may have to explore that.
scoodidabop:
I don't mind hacking down xml files to get my games list right. I already have a really nice slimmed down MAME game list with a good 'Driving' genre setup so that would be fairly simple. It just seems like scrolling through the different emulators first before finding the game you want will be a bit of a chore.
That Mala thing looks good but creating all those bat files deters me from that approach.
BadMouth:
--- Quote from: scoodidabop on March 18, 2015, 02:52:03 pm ---That Mala thing looks good but creating all those bat files deters me from that approach.
--- End quote ---
meh, it's one big batch file with a different section for each emulator.
I can post mine from my old driving cab, but it might be Sunday evening before I find the time.
Sticking only with arcade games, and only games that play well on your cab, you'll probably only end up with 50-70 games total.
IIRC, I had 65 spread out over 6 or 7 different emulators. It would suck to have to switch to a different gamelist depending on emulator.
Here is an earlier version of the one for my regular cab:
--- Code: ---if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\pc" goto pc
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\cavesh3" goto cavesh3
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\daphne" goto daphne
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\m2" goto m2
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\m3" goto m3
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\atomiswave" goto atomiswave
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\naomi" goto naomi
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\Makaron" goto Makaron
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\Makaron2" goto Makaron2
if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\other_emus\taitox" goto taitox
mame64.exe %1
:pc
cd \Emulators\other_emus\pc_games
%1.lnk
exit
:cavesh3
cd C:\Emulators\cavemame
mame64.exe %1
exit
:daphne
SET DAPHNE=C:\Emulators\Daphne\daphne.exe
cd ..\daphne
if "%1" == "astron" start/wait %daphne% astron vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\astron.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "badland" start/wait %daphne% badlands vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\badlands.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "begas" start/wait %daphne% bega vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\bega.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "cliffhgr" start/wait %daphne% cliff vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\cliff.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "cobram3" start/wait %daphne% cobra vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\cobra.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "dlair" start/wait %daphne% lair vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\lair.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "esh" start/wait %daphne% esh vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\esh.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "galaxyr" start/wait %daphne% galaxy vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\galaxy.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "istellar" start/wait %daphne% interstellar vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\interstellar.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "lair2" start/wait %daphne% lair2 vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\lair2.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "mach3" start/wait %daphne% mach3 vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\mach3.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "rblaster" start/wait %daphne% roadblaster vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\rb.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "sblazerp" start/wait %daphne% blazer vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\blazer.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "spaceace" start/wait %daphne% ace vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\ace.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "superdq" start/wait %daphne% sdq vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\sdq.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "usvsthem" start/wait %daphne% uvt vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\uvt.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
if "%1" == "gpworld" start/wait %daphne% gpworld vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\gpworld.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
exit
:m2
cd \Emulators\model2
closemul.exe emulator_multicpu.exe zip %1
exit
:m3
cd \Emulators\supermodel
supermodel.exe %1.zip -res=1024,768 -fullscreen
exit
:atomiswave
cd \Emulators\demul057
start nomousy.exe /hide
closemul.exe demul.exe -run=atomiswave -rom=%1
nomousy.exe
exit
:naomi
cd \Emulators\demul057
start nomousy.exe /hide
closemul.exe demul.exe -run=naomi -rom=%1
nomousy.exe
exit
:Makaron
cd \Emulators\Makaron
closemul.exe NAOMI.exe %1.zip
exit
:Makaron2
cd \Emulators\Makaron
closemul.exe NAOMI.exe %1.dat
exit
:taitox
cd \Emulators\other_emus\taitox
%1.lnk
exit
--- End code ---
I may have uploaded my files to the google drive that was set up for BYOAC driving stuff.
If so, I'll post it sooner.
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