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Anyone running a frontend as your shell?
Dink:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on August 29, 2002, 01:46:42 pm ---
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. ;)
--- End quote ---
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.[/list]
[*]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.)[/list]
Howard_Casto:
--- Quote from: mhoward211 on August 29, 2002, 02:35:33 pm ---
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
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: Dink on August 29, 2002, 02:48:26 pm ---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. :)
--- End quote ---
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. :)