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Author Topic: (Old Question, New Answers?) Best Emulators to use with MaLa ?  (Read 4110 times)

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mike boss

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I know it has been asked before, but I wanted to ask again.
Has anything changed ?

When I put together my Mario MAME (MAME in a Nintendo Mario Bros cabinet....I know, I know how dare I) I wanted it to have EVERYTHING! I had planned on doing a blog, or to a lesser extent keeping a spreadsheet and documentation of what all was involved.

What emulators I used, was I able to configure them to match the default MAME keys (I get stuck on that, but I'm no good with Auto Hot Keys, scripts, etc....I'm lacking when it comes to being PC savvy!) Do the emulators close on escape ? What emulator did I use ? etc etc

Needless to say I did not document such info. The last few nights I've been playing around with my Mario MAME cabinet. I've been doing some tweaks, like enabling the RUN button in MK3, and changing the button mapping for certain games in MAME (again MK!).
And slowly but surely I've been booting up the emulators and playing a few games.

For the life of me I do not recall which emulators I used, and if I was able to configure the keys. For some reason I had 3 SNES emulators installed. I got one to close on esc using a wrapper that I found online, but then noticed I'd get some fatal Mala error at times.

Long and short of it (sorry to rant) I'm debating pulling out an old PC I have that I may or may not use in a bartop project.
I'm torn between a Pandora's Box 3 I picked up, or the PC. Part of me wants to take the PC and start one by one installing emulators, configuring them and ACTUALLY documenting the info. Once the PC is done, COMPLETELY done and working I'd swap it out. The process takes time and I was wondering if anyone has recently taken on such a project.

I haven't done much home work as of late, but I remember that a newer version of Project 64 would allow full mapping of the keyboard (allowing the use of MAME defaults). If I remember correctly that was one issue I had, the inability to use default MAME keys with Project 64. I know that Dreamcast emulators gave me the same issue.

Anyway if anyone has any info that would be of help I'd love the input, advice, tips, tricks, criticism, etc.

Thanks all

EDIT - This interest was recently sparked when a friend of mine picked up an 8TB Hyperspin image on an External HDD. He was having a sh*t ton of issues. It prompted me to fire up my cabinet and start testing the emulators. I have NO CLUE why I have 3 SNES emulators, but I know I reported it as working to my buddy. But now (tonight) when I played the machine the emulator was not closing on ESC. It remained running in the background. I decided I would work with Snes9x and the wrapper I had. I ponted Mala to the exe that included the wrapper. But now I get an error after playing a few games.

I also have another question, can I hide emulators in Mala ? If I do not want to delete the other 2 SNES emulators, but I'd like them not to show up for now, can I hide them ? Does such an option exist ? This way I would not need to set them up again, simply make them visible again ?
« Last Edit: July 05, 2016, 11:39:58 pm by mike boss »

mike boss

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Re: (Old Question, New Answers?) Best Emulators to use with MaLa ?
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2016, 11:11:57 am »
I guess nobody has put a cabinet together recently. LOL

I'll be getting on this soon..............I hope!
I'll try to keep detailed info on what I use/how I configure everything.

bmanbdaman

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Re: (Old Question, New Answers?) Best Emulators to use with MaLa ?
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2016, 03:09:01 am »
I use zsnes without a wrapper and never have hiding issues and exit works just fine.

For key mapping issues you can try AHK (AutoHotKey) or another mapping app.

For saving a config you can use the MaLa backup feature and save the setup. No way of hiding an emu I know of but you can put a Gamelist with one game in there and hide AllGames.


mike boss

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Re: (Old Question, New Answers?) Best Emulators to use with MaLa ?
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2016, 09:05:37 am »
Appreciate the info.

I'm torn what to do with my newest project, PC (and MALA), Pandora's Box 3, or Pi ?

So many options.

diverdown

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Re: (Old Question, New Answers?) Best Emulators to use with MaLa ?
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2016, 01:15:41 am »
Part of me wants to take the PC and start one by one installing emulators, configuring them and ACTUALLY documenting the info.


I also have another question, can I hide emulators in Mala ? If I do not want to delete the other 2 SNES emulators, but I'd like them not to show up for now, can I hide them ? Does such an option exist ? This way I would not need to set them up again, simply make them visible again ?

I just bit the bullet and pulled out an old P4 PC and replaced with an I5 8Gb 980GTX Win 10 wiz bang PC - From scratch I have installed:

Mala
Mame (current last week)
epsxe - playstation
Dolphin - Gamecube
Daphne - laserdisc
?? - NES
SNES9x - SNES
?? -N64
Kega Fusion - Genesis
nullDC - Dreamcast

and as I am not home I cant remember the rest (?? means I cant remember them either)

All work from Mala and play maximised (i.e. just like a mame game would) and the ESCAPE Key brings me back to that emulator game list.

I have used a Tree in Male

Arcade
Nintendo
---->NES
---->SNES
---->ETC
SEGA
----->genesis

etc, etc.

I do have the odd occasion when exiting the non mame emulator Mala loses focus or crashes - and as the project s only a week or two old I am living with this.

I did find that some of the command line switches were actually different to those found on google etc.  I would go and do Wii - but it is a cocktail cab.

So it is doable.

I started here:



Download the MALA FE with included emulator from the link - most worked out of the gate
« Last Edit: September 04, 2016, 01:29:38 am by diverdown »
If it ain't broke give it to me...i'll soon fix that

mike boss

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Re: (Old Question, New Answers?) Best Emulators to use with MaLa ?
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2016, 07:02:38 pm »
I really need to revisit my project and sort this info out.
I have some issues on my MARIO MAME where in the SNES emulator when I exit it tells me the emulator is still running.
I know for some reason I have 2 (or even 3) SNES emulators running.

I know one has a wrapper.... but that is the extent of my memory. LOL

I want to know which SNES emulator works best, boots fullscreen, and quits with exit.
As I said I need to get back on this, sort it out (TAKE NOTES!) then remove the non required SNES emulator.
It just complicates my entire set up. LOL :dunno

EDIT - for my new project I'm going Raspberry Pi!