Anyone running a frontend as your shell?

[mhoward211]

I was curious if anyone has had any luck with running any of the front ends as your shell as opposed to Windows?  I know Skeleton talks about his experience with it on his website.  I guess what I am trying to find out is if it is a lost cause and I should just give up hope on having a Windows based system and return to DOS.

Thanks all!
Michael

[Dink]

In a word, NO.

I think everyone has different needs for a frontend.  If you are using an older PC that is dedicated to some of the DOS emulators then an older DOS frontend might do.  If you using many of the newer Win32 emulators on a faster machine then a Win32 front might serve your purpose.  The problem is that there isn't an easily configured Win32 frontend that works with all the emulators.

In summary, Windows is a great frontend for a MAME cabinet.  Make your icons big, and setup some groups with shortcuts, and use a Windows compatible trackball.

Again, everyone has different needs and is looking for different output/control.

I run 9 different emulators plus PC games on my cab, with a SVGA monitor, so I start most things with the trackball anyways.  Mame32, VPinMAME, 1964, Project 64, Daphne .99.4, Daphne .99.5, Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Apple ][e, etc.  I lose some of the arcade cab realism but I can run everything I want in Windows 98.

[)p(]

I was curious if anyone has had any luck with running any of the front ends as your shell as opposed to Windows?  I know Skeleton talks about his experience with it on his website.  I guess what I am trying to find out is if it is a lost cause and I should just give up hope on having a Windows based system and return to DOS.

Thanks all!
Michael

yeah...i run my fe as the shell on my cab most of the time...I don't want to see that windows taskbar when booting for a split second...but every frontend should be ok  

Peter

[Howard_Casto]

The problem is that there isn't an easily configured Win32 frontend that works with all the emulators.

In summary, Windows is a great frontend for a MAME cabinet.  Make your icons big, and setup some groups with shortcuts, and use a Windows compatible trackball.

Where have you been?  My front-end will do all of that... it will even run all of the games you mentioned, plus it has built in functions to shut down windows when it exits if you so choose.  

Windows, itself, simply put, is a hideous shell for a mame cab.  Why?  

You need a mouse or a trackball.    

You need to have fonts turned way up, which makes many emulator menus unreadable.

No matter what you rig up it looks like windows. (bah! bah! bah!)

It makes your cab seem less authentic if people have to muck around in windoze to launch things.  


Use emuwizard, use 3darcade, use gamelauncher, but please don't use windows.  There are plenty of great windows front-ends out there with the arcade cab in mind, and with the use of my wrappers virtually and of them can run virtually any emulator.  

Remember friends don't let friends uglify their cab with windoze.

[mhoward211]

Looks like I will your FE a try tonight Howard.  I noticed on your website a post in which you replied to a question on this board about a 429 error I believe.  Anyways, you go on to say that XP already has several of the files included that has been giving the errors in Win98.  Do you use/recommend XP over Win98 as the OS with your frontend?

Thanks,
Michael

[Dink]

Where have you been?  My front-end will do all of that... it will even run all of the games you mentioned, plus it has built in functions to shut down windows when it exits if you so choose.  

Windows, itself, simply put, is a hideous shell for a mame cab.  Why?  

You need a mouse or a trackball.    

You need to have fonts turned way up, which makes many emulator menus unreadable.

No matter what you rig up it looks like windows. (bah! bah! bah!)

It makes your cab seem less authentic if people have to muck around in windoze to launch things.  

Use emuwizard, use 3darcade, use gamelauncher, but please don't use windows.  There are plenty of great windows front-ends out there with the arcade cab in mind, and with the use of my wrappers virtually and of them can run virtually any emulator.  

Remember friends don't let friends uglify their cab with windoze.

The trackball on my SlikStik works like a champ in Windows.

I didn't make my icons or text big.  I don't need too on my 21" SVGA monitor.  I just suggested it.  In fact, having every game we play on one page is nice.

I don't find anything wrong with a Windows interface.  It's one less thing have to configure.  And, the clincher is that my kids know the Windows interface and can launch games FASTER than ANY frontend out there. Intuitively.

I had a friend ask if I could just have a Windows interface so he didn't have to figure out which button to push or how to select with a joystick button combo.  Hmm, took the frontend out and now everyone can use my cabinet without frustration.  Added a little theme adjustments, and its not so Windows looking.

I couldn't get Lazarus to work on Windows 98 very well.  It wasn't easy with all the support files, configuration, .ini file editing, etc.  Me being a Senior Systems Engineer, Micosoft, Novell and Cisco certified makes me kinda scared.  At least I think I'm no dummy.

Everyone has different needs.  Mine (and the users of my MAME cab) were solved with ones less piece of software (no frontend, no gum wrappers).

[Random24]

Here is something I posted in a previous discussion:

Getting a Front-end to run as a shell in XP and start with no user intervention
You cannot do this if your computer is part of a domain. It must only be part of a workgroup.

• Create a user that will be the auto-login user. (User should have admin rights at this time)
  
  
• Configure XP to automate the logon process if your computer is not part of a domain.
  
  
  • Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2.
    
  • Clear the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer check box.
    
  • Click Apply.
    
  • Enter the user name and pwd you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
    
  • Click OK again and you're all done.
  
  
  
  
• Setup your FE the way you want it.
  
  
• Open regedit and browse to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon"
  Look for a string entry called 'Shell'. If it is not there, create a string entry and name it 'Shell'. Set the value of this entry to the name and location of your Front-end. For Lazarus, the shell entry may be "C:\Lazarus\Lazarus.exe" or wherever your Lazarus executable is located. For explorer, the entry is simply "explorer.exe".
  
  
• Log out as the auto-login user and log back in as another user with administrative rights.
  
  
• Change the auto-login user to a standard user. (This way people don't have more access than you want them to have.)

[Howard_Casto]

Looks like I will your FE a try tonight Howard.  I noticed on your website a post in which you replied to a question on this board about a 429 error I believe.  Anyways, you go on to say that XP already has several of the files included that has been giving the errors in Win98.  Do you use/recommend XP over Win98 as the OS with your frontend?
Thanks,
Michael

It will work in 98 you just need to get all of the extra necessary dlls/ocx's/ect, which I don't include.  Also If you enable settings that you can only use in xp/2000 (which I have labeled pretty clearly but apparently some of my users can't follow instructions )  It will crash.  There's nothing wrong with the fe in this case, but how you have it setup.  Lazarus has next to no error handleing as it slows down development.  

I use xp because I have a powerful machine and enjoy the added features it brings.  It will run on 98 with help, but as I program it in xp I am sometimes unaware of some file that 98 needs, ect, that's why I dont' bother with adding any extra support files.

I reccomend xp for anyone who can run it and don't need 98 for dual mice support, ect.    

[Howard_Casto]

I couldn't get Lazarus to work on Windows 98 very well.  It wasn't easy with all the support files, configuration, .ini file editing, etc.  Me being a Senior Systems Engineer, Micosoft, Novell and Cisco certified makes me kinda scared.  At least I think I'm no dummy.

Lazarus is cake compared with what you do.  It's very intuitive and straight forward to setup, once you understand the concept of how lazarus is using the data.  Probably the reason your having such a hard time is because of your profession.  (Especially the m$ certification.)  

Unlike engineering projects, lazarus's configurations are logical, use common-sense syntax, and are actually recognizable without special translation programs.  Seriously though, it's not how smart you are, it's how your brain works.  Send me an email with error messages and your configuration files.  

Also shame on you for still using 98, your microsoft certified, you know it's a pos.  Windows 98 is probably half of your problem.  

[Dink]

Sorry, I'll try not to thread hijack and go off topic so, this will be my last post on this one... (flw)...

I'm MS certified because I get paid more for it.  But, I did just order my XP Pro on the MS VAR program for $39.99. w00t

Ok, ok, I'll reinstall Lazarus.

[Howard_Casto]

Actually I was just messin with ya.  I go for my m$ certification soon.