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FE concept
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shorthair:
I've looked at all the fe's, as well as tried the majority of actively-supported ones, and I don't like any particular one enough that I'd use it. Many of them have features I like, but not all together. A lot of people don't like a 'windows' look, but here's the one thing that Mame32 has the others don't: a side list of folders, with drag and drop capability.

Here's my idea: have an icon or number pad analogue somewhere (perhaps defaulted in the upper left) as in the diagram below. Mame32 seems to have all it needs in the four items in the in its tool bar. Put those in four of the 'buttons'. The fifth one would be, either, an emu toggle, or a list would drop down from it (I'm thinking the latter might be more effective) as well as lists would drop down from the others. These would also be drag and drop, from game list to folder list on the left. And the buttons would be mappable for those without mice/trackballs.


An added feature would be for the display to be modular. Each section - game info, image box, list, function icon (possibly also customizable) could be moved around each other.

Supplemental to this would be the desire for CMD/EXE (the latter meaning that some fe's won't use only the exe from Mame32...Atomic will) as well as PC for supported emulators. And perhaps a simplicity in or negation of some features - such as working path, exe used, and only snaps being available.

Definitely, there would need to be a simplicity in the manager, which would indicate this is a medium level fe: more arcade-like than Mame32 (as well as multi-emu support), but not cluttered with the tons of extra features that some of the hard core folks are interested in.

Of course, I don't have the experience to generate this, but if this idea grabs anyone who does, please holler.


(Whoops, forgot the image.)
unclet:
In MALA I know you can create as many folders as you want (ie:  Driving, Shooting, Favorites, etc..) and then if you highlight a game title in MALA then right click on the mouse you can move the game into one of these different folders.   You can then of course decide which folder you want to dislpay as your "Game list" for the emulator you are using.

Pretty easy in my opinion.  It is funny, since I like Mame32 a while back but thought it was silly that it always dislpayed all the different categories in which you could drag-drop game titles into.   I am glad MALA hides this from the main screen, but allows it rather easily (right clicking the mouse) to populate them.
juggle50:
Just to jam on that idea.  I think it would be great to have the option to press an icon on the screen in a MALA style FE that swiches the display to a windows MAME32 style FE so you can have the best of both worlds.  In MAME32 I really like being able to switch things around in the "properties" tab without using an "ini" file as I do a lot of messing around on the fly.
unclet:
You never need to go into an INI file in MALA.   Right click on the mouse and select "Options" to bring up the options menu.   You can then set everything how you want it, similiar to setting stuff like Mame32 offers.

juggle50:
Huh,

I guess I've never played around with it that much.  Can MALA run MESS as a single emulator? (As opposed to having to set up each emulator seperately that MESS emulates?) Does that make sense?
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