Best mame front end ?

[DcMaN]

Im looking for a good mame front end, i would prefer one with a really clean user interface, and easy to use since i have a full romset its some where in the 6500 game range. So if you guys have any suggestions on what you use i would appreciate it, also post the homepages of the front end thanks!

[BobA]

Read the wiki software section on front ends.  All links are there.

[btp2k2]

Personally I like the Maximus Arcade front end.

It's easy to configure and supports a ton of other emulators, including batch files so you can launch PC games from the front end too

[severdhed]

i personally vote for MALA

[Sir Auros]

I'm running GameEX right now. Really polished interface, and it does pretty much everything I would like a frontend to do. Using the attract mode from the games on your favorites list as a screensaver is freaking brilliant.

My two complaints are that I couldn't figure out how to remap the L button so it wouldn't bring up that stupid control diagram, the wait at the nag screen doesn't seem consistent, and for some reason TMNT: Turtles in Time isn't showing up, even though I KNOW I have it in my romset.

[destructor]

I tried all frontends for MAME, and best is EmuLoader.

[Apollo]

I tried all frontends for MAME, and best is EmuLoader.

I've only tried one frontend ever and Mamewah is the best!

[FrizzleFried]

I've used Mamewah, Mala, GameEX, MAME32 and AtomicFE.

I break it down like this:

If you are using a PC monitor GameEX or MAME32 work great at high-res.

If you are using a standard res monitor, Mamewah, Mala and Atomic FE look great!

If you are looking for simplicity,  Mala is your answer.

If you are looking for animation and a "coolness" factor,  AtomicFE is a good choice.

I use Mamewah on 2 cabinets and Mala on one.  I love Mamewah but it is an acquired taste as has a steep learning curve to get it going...

I like Mala ALMOST as much...and it IS much easier to set up.

[SodaPopinksi]

I've used Mamewah, Mala and AtomicFE and agree with FrizzleFried about them.

Mamewah- Somewhat difficult to set up but you can find out a whole lot about it searching these forums for specifics and its wiki.

Mala - Easier to set up, has a nice UI with a lot of features and really nice plugins if you're using a ledwiz especially.

AtomicFE- Also easier to set up and nice animation possibilities for the themes.

I will use one of the three depending on my particular needs, for the bartop I'm working on I'll use Mala especially for the nice ledwiz plugins, the next one I'll be using Atomic FE for the animations, and if I didn't need either I would probably use Mamewah. One feature I personally like in Mala and AtomicFE also is the ability to boot to a specific game since I'm building some cabs with art dedicated to certain games. I think you can do it in Mamewah but its much easier to do in the others.

[telengard]

Hehe, a lot of different responses.  I still use AdvanceMenu in my cab.  It has a lot of nice features.  Not flashy, but very functional.  I attempted to update to Mala but there is one feature it doesn't have that kept me from switching.  It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

~telengard

[DcMaN]

recently i've been using gameex, it seems to be the easiest to navigate through. However it doesnt want to list all my games, it only shows 3,200 games, where i have about 6,500 roms for mame any one have any ideas why it does that ?

[BobA]

Have you got it set not to show clones?   There are many duplicates that are eliminated if clones are not shown.

[fjl]

I decided to go with Mala mainly because of the LED Wiz support. I tried GameEx but recall that you have to purchase it to unlock certain options. Plus I didn't like how many options you have straight off the bat. Seemed it could do way more than start mame games like do stuff with windows. While I assume this can perhaps be turned off, it was mainly that I had to pay to do certain things on it. That and I hated that it had a Windows like theme. I'm sure that was also customizable but I really wanted something that looked more arcade like. Seems pretty powerfull for a frontend though. If you need that kind of thing.

I also tried Mamewah. I liked it in that it had a more arcadey like feel. I tried learning some stuff on it but it really does seem to have a high learning curve. I was going to go with MameWAH since it usually is the most picked frontend. Or so it seems. But since I got the LEDWiz thing, I went with MaLa.

MaLa also has a learning curve but for the most part its the easiest from all the ones I've tried. I'm having some trouble with the LEDWiz thing though. Guess I should try it again.

[buks]

efjayel,

Theres two plugins for the ledwiz on Mala. I went with the Ledwiz plugion by loadman and edge (or is it edge and loadman ?). Setup was pretty easy and the functionality is excellent.

I was with MAMEwah for about 3 years but recently switched to Mala for the ledwiz support.

Good luck !

Buks

PS loadman and edge do offer excellent support on these forums if you get stuck -  as do plenty of other mala users so start another thread if you still have problems.

[SGT]

Mala also has a plugin to send maps automatically to U360s.

It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

Telengard:
Mala scrolls with a held down key for me.  I'm using the latest beta.

[FrizzleFried]

Mala also has a plugin to send maps automatically to U360s.

It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

Telengard:
Mala scrolls with a held down key for me.  I'm using the latest beta.

Scrolls for me too....albeit slowly.

[Havok]

AtomicFE = maximum bling!

 

And, it scrolls normally or fast with a held down key, or can jump to the next letter in the alphabet, or even do a search of all your games to find the one you are looking for.

However, just as many other people have said - check them all out. You can load them all up without screwing up any other. Ultimately, it's up to your personal preference...

[mameupdate]

I use Gameex, It has been great for my Cab,

saint's note - no ROM burning sites please.

[swindus]

Mala also has a plugin to send maps automatically to U360s.

It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

Telengard:
Mala scrolls with a held down key for me.  I'm using the latest beta.

Depends on the used IPAC. There are versions without key repeat.

[loadman]

Mala also has a plugin to send maps automatically to U360s.

It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

Telengard:
Mala scrolls with a held down key for me.  I'm using the latest beta.

Scrolls for me too....albeit slowly.

have a look here:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/MaLa_FAQ#List_scroll_too_slow

[jfh2112]

recently i've been using gameex, it seems to be the easiest to navigate through. However it doesnt want to list all my games, it only shows 3,200 games, where i have about 6,500 roms for mame any one have any ideas why it does that ?

Open the GameEx Advanced Configuration and look under Advanced MAME Settings. Change the Use Game Filter setting to No. Save, quit, start GameEx, and update your list.

I settled on GameEx, and ended up registering it. I think it's awesome. 

[paigeoliver]

So, I haven't browsed frontends in a while, but do ANY of them just know the freaking game information rather than trying to get it from the ever-changing constantly breaking information that mame can output?

[Green Giant]

So, I haven't browsed frontends in a while, but do ANY of them just know the freaking game information rather than trying to get it from the ever-changing constantly breaking information that mame can output?

What are you talking about?  The mameinfo.dat file?  Mala can easily display the info on whatever game you want with the key you assign it, probably the others too.

[paigeoliver]

I was actually talking about the ability to generate the gamelist. That is the single feature I have made more trouble with, with more different front-ends than you can shake a stick at. Granted I haven't tried any new frontends in a few years, but in the past all of them that got the information from Mame seemed to be very dependent on mame version and other things.

[Green Giant]

I used romlister, an outside program that can create lists formatted for Mala and AtomicFE.  It works great.  Can sort games very quickly by category, number of players, controls, clones, playable, # buttons, cocktail, vertical, and more.  I think I have like 35 or 40 game lists for tons of categories.  Makes finding types of games great since there are like 5000 games.

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

I use mala and romlister works great.  Should be able to make all those game lists for AtomicFE too.

About the mame dependency thing, that will always be there.  Mainly because romlister can narrow out games that aren't yet playable.  It takes the catver.ini file, controls.xml, and mame.xml file and merges them into one big one for searching, but after you have the big .xml file made, you won't need to access mame again.  Made most of those lists at work.

[fjl]

efjayel,

Theres two plugins for the ledwiz on Mala. I went with the Ledwiz plugion by loadman and edge (or is it edge and loadman ?). Setup was pretty easy and the functionality is excellent.

I was with MAMEwah for about 3 years but recently switched to Mala for the ledwiz support.

Good luck !

Buks

PS loadman and edge do offer excellent support on these forums if you get stuck -  as do plenty of other mala users so start another thread if you still have problems.

Been a while since i tried but I recall that the problem was that I couldn't get the single game led configuration to work. Meaning that when you scroll throught the game list its supposed to light up only the buttons meant for that game. Supposedly you can configure it so it will light up something I define. I can't get it to do that.

Also, something I would like to see support for is while playing a game, holding or pressing a button causes that button to change color or flash into different colors then go back to its original color when released. I think that'd be really be cool. Perhaps I should go visit the mala forums and ask about this there. 

[FrizzleFried]

Mala also has a plugin to send maps automatically to U360s.

It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

Telengard:
Mala scrolls with a held down key for me.  I'm using the latest beta.

Scrolls for me too....albeit slowly.

have a look here:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/MaLa_FAQ#List_scroll_too_slow

Loadman:  Already tried.  I know WHY my list scrolls slow...but there is no work around....there is a thread about this issues from a few months back.   I use SNAPS instantly then after a couple second a video preview appears OVER the snap.  I would need functionality programmed in MALA to allow for MULTIPLE delays...not just one...so I could delay the snaps my a second (to allow for scrolling) and then a 2nd delay set to 3 seconds to allow the animation to play 2 seconds after the snap appears (as an example).

[(+_+)]

Mala also has a plugin to send maps automatically to U360s.

It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

Telengard:
Mala scrolls with a held down key for me.  I'm using the latest beta.

Scrolls for me too....albeit slowly.

have a look here:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/MaLa_FAQ#List_scroll_too_slow

Loadman:  Already tried.  I know WHY my list scrolls slow...but there is no work around....there is a thread about this issues from a few months back.   I use SNAPS instantly then after a couple second a video preview appears OVER the snap.  I would need functionality programmed in MALA to allow for MULTIPLE delays...not just one...so I could delay the snaps my a second (to allow for scrolling) and then a 2nd delay set to 3 seconds to allow the animation to play 2 seconds after the snap appears (as an example).

Could it be because you are loading each picture on every list change when the arrow is held?. If so, what I did, was load the picture only on the mouse up event. I also had to do something similar because of the sounds I play on a label change.

[Green Giant]

Been a while since i tried but I recall that the problem was that I couldn't get the single game led configuration to work. Meaning that when you scroll throught the game list its supposed to light up only the buttons meant for that game. Supposedly you can configure it so it will light up something I define. I can't get it to do that.

Also, something I would like to see support for is while playing a game, holding or pressing a button causes that button to change color or flash into different colors then go back to its original color when released. I think that'd be really be cool. Perhaps I should go visit the mala forums and ask about this there. 

What you are describing is the ledblinky plugin.  It reads your specific configs for whatever game you are playing, and lights up the buttons based on that.  I believe the other led plugin just lights up based on your mame inputs.  For specific setups like neogeo style, you would need to make a neogeo config in the plugin.  The ledblinky does this on the fly.  It will also light up the correct color from the original game.  For example, when I played mortal kombat the first time, the buttons were all messed up.  I redid the inputs using tab, and I exited the game.  When it went back to mala, the new inputs were lit up correctly.

As for your second idea, sound like it would be cool.  The plugins are under constant development, so if you can get the coders to read this, they might do it.

[FrizzleFried]

Mala also has a plugin to send maps automatically to U360s.

It didn't have build in support for scrolling on a held down key.  If that gets implemented I'll switch over, it's nice.

Telengard:
Mala scrolls with a held down key for me.  I'm using the latest beta.

Scrolls for me too....albeit slowly.

have a look here:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/MaLa_FAQ#List_scroll_too_slow

Loadman:  Already tried.  I know WHY my list scrolls slow...but there is no work around....there is a thread about this issues from a few months back.   I use SNAPS instantly then after a couple second a video preview appears OVER the snap.  I would need functionality programmed in MALA to allow for MULTIPLE delays...not just one...so I could delay the snaps my a second (to allow for scrolling) and then a 2nd delay set to 3 seconds to allow the animation to play 2 seconds after the snap appears (as an example).

Could it be because you are loading each picture on every list change when the arrow is held?. If so, what I did, was load the picture only on the mouse up event. I also had to do something similar because of the sounds I play on a label change.

Yes,  each picture is loading,  but I can't put a delay in there as I already have a delay for the ANIMATION portion and there is no way to program TWO different delay times.

[(+_+)]

Not sure if I'm understanding this correctly. Why would you be concerned about putting in a delay there? Don't you want less delay? Eliminating the call to load each picture every time the list moves, when the up or down key is being held, would speed up the slow scrolling list wouldn't it? You shouldn't even be accessing the screenshot file when the key is held down since it doesn't make sense. The user does not have time to see the screenshot properly anyways when they are flying by.

[Green Giant]

The delay lets you scroll through the list without loading a screenshot.  Then if the delay were .5 seconds, when you pause on a game it would show the screenshot after half a second. 

Same theory about the video snaps.  If mala tried to start every video immediately as you were scrolling down, it would take forever.

The delay isn't how long the picture is shown for, it is how long to wait till showing the image.

[langdoguk]

If its just for Mame Mgalaxy is pretty cool and very easy to use 

[loadman]

Yes,  each picture is loading,  but I can't put a delay in there as I already have a delay for the ANIMATION portion and there is no way to program TWO different delay times.

Ahh you never know what features are planned 

[rlehm]

The only thing Maximus Arcade needs to improve it Dreamcast support. It uses Chankast, common.... NullDC is the way. If he would switch that, I'd give my vote to Maximus, but because it doesn't I'm still looking...

[fjl]

How about trying to implement some of my suggestions? 

Also, how can I get my U360 to scroll through the game list? Currently I can only use the mouse/trackball.

[loadman]

How about trying to implement some of my suggestions? 

Also, how can I get my U360 to scroll through the game list? Currently I can only use the mouse/trackball.

you would have to ask fatfingers about that 

[Green Giant]

Doesn't the U360 just get recognized as a joystick?

I use 49ways, but the same theory should apply.  Just go in there and set the joystick controls for mala.  Set up to joystick up and down to joystick down. 

[swindus]

Doesn't the U360 just get recognized as a joystick?

I use 49ways, but the same theory should apply.  Just go in there and set the joystick controls for mala.  Set up to joystick up and down to joystick down. 

Right. Using two U360 sticks with MaLa as well.

[swindus]

The delay isn't how long the picture is shown for, it is how long to wait till showing the image.

Thats it.