More NEWBIE Questions - Be Gentle

[GGKoul]

Hi All;

I understand these questions may have been answered 100's of times before.  But I hope you can bare with me and answer some of my basic NEWBIE questions.  As I just want to make sure I have a firm understanding of MAME:

1:  Configuring my panel: Most users use a 6 button configuration (3 up and down).  
--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--,  B5 , B6
B1 , B2 , B3

But how does on set-up a seven button NEOGEO configuration?   I mean, get the normal B1 to shift to the lower B1?
B5, B6, B7
B1, B2, B3, --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--

Because I would like to be able to use the 6 (3 up and down) button configuration for the normal games... but for Neogeo games that require 4 lower buttons... how would you configure the system to reconfigure the 6 button to 7 buttons?  Therefore B1, B2, B3 would shift to B1, B2, B3, --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- on one row.

Note:  I'm going to be using an IPAC

2: Setting up a 4 way panel:  
I plan on creating a for way panel. So you would recommend this type of configuration?
P3                 P1                    P2                   P4
8 way           8 way               8 way             8 way
4 Buttons     7 buttons         7 buttons        4 buttons

3:  I plan on running multipule emulators:  (Atari, Sega, NES, MAME)  Is there a "easy" way to play these?  As I presently have the various emulators shortcutted on my desk top and I just select the one I wish to use.

4:  Frontends:  
Presently I'm using Windows XP verison of MAME32.  And I'm not really having any issues.... But I have read alot on numerous sites that people use a 3rd party product to run there roms (Arcade OS).  Just wondering what is the plus and minus of running a front end other then Mames?

5:  Is there a min system requirements to play the all the games?  I understand a AMD Duron 850 with at least 256 of ram will do... but is that too much or too little?  And what is more importmant when running a ROM.  Horsepower or RAM?

Thank you for you assistance!!
-Gus

[SirPoonga]

1) try
--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- B5 B6
B1 B2 B3 --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--
?

2)I like that setup, unless there or >3 player games that are split screen, I see no probs with that.

3) Frontend

4)pros and cons
Pros
ease of use (hopefully)
was ment for commandline version of mame
some can run other emulator

cons
stuck with their idea of a good design.  that;s why there are alot of them out there (and why I'm making my own)

5)I runa  PIII 500 with 256 megs fo ram.  I usually only play games that are under 5megs.
you may be different.  My cab will have a 1Ghz though so if a friend wants to play a more intensive game he can.

[bowmand1]

I TOTALLY agree with SirPoonga about the button layout.  With NeoGeo, you don't need the upper row of buttons, and with any thing else, you don't need that 4th button in the lower row, so it just makes sense to share the connection for --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- with both buttons.  Good thinking!

However...  I don't think I'm gonna "bare" with you.  I'll save that for mah woman...  lol  just kidding.  Keep posting!  

[aramis]

1.
Either physically connect two buttons to be --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- (a press of either one will be seen as the input), or configure all your favorite neo-geo games to use C and J (P1 B7 and P2 B7) as the --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- (using the tab menu after booting the game). That's the only options I can think of right now.

4. Frontends
Look at frontends such as EmuWizard or Raging Dragon. There are others, I know, but these are the ones I've settled on for my cabinet.

Both of these use a full-screen (windows is hidden) interface, have support for multiple emulators, etc.

ArcadeOS is intended for DOS-based systems only, AFAIK.

If you wanted to, you could still actually have these frontends call mame32.exe (the game starts from the frontend w/o ever seeing the mame32 GUI). But, the better way would be to go get the normal win32 version of mame (mame.exe) instead. Remember there are 3 versions of mame (dmame.exe, mame.exe, and mame32.exe).

5. To play all games at full speed, I believe the required processor is 1.2-1.4GHz. Also, for some new pysiko games (and maybe some neo-geo games?) 256MB ram will be pushing it too...It all depends on which games you want to play the most, and how much you want to spend.

[mm_can]

Forgive me for being a newbie myselft but your 6 button layout seems upside down.

I thought the layout is like this:
B1, B2, B3
--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--, B5, B6

Such as in the hotrod etc.

Mike


>1:  Configuring my panel: Most users use a 6 button >configuration (3 up and down).  
>--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--,  B5 , B6  
>B1 , B2 , B3  

[Lilwolf]

Hi All;

1:

[Gus]

Thats the configuration I was talking about
-- B5, B6, B7
-- B2, B3, --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--
B1

As I would like to be able to use the lower B1 for the neogeo games and then use B2 to become B1, and so on for the other games.

I think from reading the various replys, I'm going to go with:

--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- B5 B6
B1 B2 B3 --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--

- Double --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- base on the type of game being played or have a switch to toggle between the two --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--'s  

Sound good?  Is this vaiable?

BTW: I have just order the new 56 input IPAC from Andy.  So I'll recieve it when he finishes testing the item.


--- Lilwolf ---

Where would one get JFront?  And can you do this with it?  Using either button configuration:
- Set the games that use the lower B1 and the other lower row buttons?
- Set the games that use this type of configurations:
B3 --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--
B1 B2
If there is any? As I assume most games would use B1 & B2 configurations.

- What is your FE called? And where does one get it?

Thanks ALL for you assistance!!!
-GGKoul

[Lilwolf]

JFront hasn't been released in 6 months.  I have all the features (but one that I broke a few days ago) working and trying to get it so you can configure it easier.  I'm hoping to get it so that I can send it with no config files at all and when you run it the first time it will config everything for you (well.. with your input).

Time is getting really hard... especially with zinc out and everything working for me (so now it's just making it work for others).

I've been saying hopefully in a few weeks for a few months

[GGKoul]

Lilwolf, thanks for your input... and I'm interested in this "JFront" that you created.  

As I've read some of your other posts on other topics... And it appears that it will solve alot of issues some people are having.

So please advise me when it comes out.

Thanks
-GGKoul