Best Front-End

[Visitor Q]

Someone needs to start a poll, with ALL the front ends possible, and have the damn thing stickied so everyone can find the thing instead of having the same question pop up on a monthly basis.   

Just saying....

Well if that was the case you could not even count HyperSpin, it’s that new and gaining a lot of buzz... I mean the poll result tell you that already.

[Dazz]

Can hyperspin take a generic game list (i.e. MAME, NES) and walk through the rom list, displaying a marquee, screenshot, and/or video for each game without a specific theme?

It couldn't when I tested it.  If it can now, then I'd agree it's probably up to part with some of the others.  If not, then there's some ways to go still. 

Actually, this has been in since the very beginning...  Simply make sure that your images/videos are the same name as the rom.  You can then define defaults for the artwork and video in the settings of that emulator.

[thefreakhouse]

I just placed my vote for HyperSpin. Of all the FE's I have tried I have yet to use one that seems so well suited for cab builders as HS. The GUI is the most arcade-esque I have seen yet without looking like the standard scroll lists or something better suited for an HTPC. The downside is it's early development stage it's in. Hopefully the community will continue to get behind it so that it's functional enough to replace the GameEx on my cab build.

[bigdog1977]

Someone needs to start a poll, with ALL the front ends possible, and have the damn thing stickied so everyone can find the thing instead of having the same question pop up on a monthly basis.   

Just saying....

Well that would be nice and all, but with all the new patches and changes that come out for the FE's  I dont see that working very well.  I just posted this to see what you all use and recommend at this time.  Ive been adding the FE's I didnt know about to the poll as you tell me about them. Thanks again for your guys input. 

[loadman]

Someone needs to start a poll, with ALL the front ends possible, and have the damn thing stickied so everyone can find the thing instead of having the same question pop up on a monthly basis.   

Just saying....

Well that would be nice and all, but with all the new patches and changes that come out for the FE's  I dont see that working very well.  I just posted this to see what you all use and recommend at this time.  Ive been adding the FE's I didnt know about to the poll as you tell me about them. Thanks again for your guys input. 

I think he means this type of poll pops up in the 'software' section of this forum a lot.

Not so much in here 

OK Hungry now, MMM I need a Pie!    ...  (Yes this statement has nothing to do with this thread)

[billpa]

Can hyperspin take a generic game list (i.e. MAME, NES) and walk through the rom list, displaying a marquee, screenshot, and/or video for each game without a specific theme?

Yes it can and some people have done that for placeholders until a theme is created.

[Havok]

Someone needs to start a poll, with ALL the front ends possible, and have the damn thing stickied so everyone can find the thing instead of having the same question pop up on a monthly basis.   

Just saying....

Well if that was the case you could not even count HyperSpin, it’s that new and gaining a lot of buzz... I mean the poll result tell you that already.

But - you would need to be able to change your vote since new more applicable front ends are added. (Other for example, should not be an option)

[Hoopz]

Well if that was the case you could not even count HyperSpin, it’s that new and gaining a lot of buzz... I mean the poll result tell you that already.

New options can be added to a poll.  This one started with just two options.

Well that would be nice and all, but with all the new patches and changes that come out for the FE's  I dont see that working very well.  I just posted this to see what you all use and recommend at this time.  Ive been adding the FE's I didnt know about to the poll as you tell me about them. Thanks again for your guys input. 

Polls can also be setup so each person that votes can change their vote "X" number of times.  That would allow someone who is using one FE to change their vote to another when a new FE becomes available. 

The Wiki is a good source for a listing of all FEs that should be included also. 

Don't get me wrong, there is definitely a place here for this question.  But you need to understand that it comes up all the time and it's frustrating that the search feature isn't utilized more. 

Such as how to pronounce game names.   

[Visitor Q]

Well if that was the case you could not even count HyperSpin, it’s that new and gaining a lot of buzz... I mean the poll result tell you that already.

New options can be added to a poll.  This one started with just two options.

Would not make sense as you can only vote once and not change your vote over time.  If the choices are all not there to start with, the poll makes no sense.

Think about it...

[leapinlew]

Hyperspin work in a vertical setup yet?

[Dazz]

Hyperspin work in a vertical setup yet?

Nope, it is under discussion right now though.

[destructor]

Where is EmuLoader on list?

[thatitalian]

I got to admit, I really liked Mala and MA, but more recently I have been impressed a lot with Hyperspin.

Sure there is work to be done on it but it really has the potential to be the best or at least top 3 FE's ever!

[FrizzleFried]

I got to admit, I really liked Mala and MA, but more recently I have been impressed a lot with Hyperspin.

Sure there is work to be done on it but it really has the potential to be the best or at least top 3 FE's ever!

I agree...but only when there are enough themes to cover the vast majority of the games out there...and it has to be easier to get going....a 1 download covers it all scenario.

[Dazz]

I agree...but only when there are enough themes to cover the vast majority of the games out there...and it has to be easier to get going....a 1 download covers it all scenario.

BBB was just in our chat room talking about some stuff that he has been working on that will help automate some of this including a theme auditor.

[bent98]

I have both Mala and Hyperspin installed on my cab and I have tried just about every FE out there. I will admit I use Mala more right now just because of a few supported features that HS doesn’t have yet. LEDblinky, u360 support, and D-tools pre and post commands just to name a few will be coming very soon and every day more artwork and wheel art is available. Billy has done a fantastic job and he completely dedicated to the success and evolution of this FE. Within next few weeks all the features in need will be added to this FE and Hyperspin will be the main FE on my cabinet. It's really is an amazing accomplishment to come so far in such a short period of time and I love the fact you can jump into HS chat and speak to the programmer directly. The interested and continued new people that would like to join the efforts in this endeavor as growing every day. I look forward to what the future hold for HS and my prediction is if we took this survey in 6 months there is no doubt HS would be #1. (That of course is just my humble opinion and takes nothing away all the other great FE's that are available to our community.)

  Thanks BBB

[thatitalian]

I got to admit, I really liked Mala and MA, but more recently I have been impressed a lot with Hyperspin.

Sure there is work to be done on it but it really has the potential to be the best or at least top 3 FE's ever!

I agree...but only when there are enough themes to cover the vast majority of the games out there...and it has to be easier to get going....a 1 download covers it all scenario.

Yeah, I know that it is quite difficult to get into i.e. the whole setup and installation of themes, etc, but this is being worked on. Once this is up and running it should be even more appealing, and once the themes have been fully developed and other options developed (i.e. the use with LED blinky or similar) then this will kick ***!

Hopefully this will give some motivation to BBB and the rest of the lads as the response for this FE is amazing considering it isn't finished yet!

[Hoopz]

Well if that was the case you could not even count HyperSpin, it’s that new and gaining a lot of buzz... I mean the poll result tell you that already.

New options can be added to a poll.  This one started with just two options.

Would not make sense as you can only vote once and not change your vote over time.  If the choices are all not there to start with, the poll makes no sense.

Think about it...

Read all of what I wrote then you think about it.  This poll started with two (2) choices.  The OP changed it once people added their thoughts.  Adding a choice to a poll isn't difficult. 

The other comment that I made that you either failed to read or didn't understand is that the OP can setup a poll so that someone can change their vote.  If I voted for one FE, then want to change my vote to another FE, I can.  That would allow for new FEs that catch people's attention to be added throughout time. 

[Visitor Q]

Well if that was the case you could not even count HyperSpin, it’s that new and gaining a lot of buzz... I mean the poll result tell you that already.

New options can be added to a poll.  This one started with just two options.

Would not make sense as you can only vote once and not change your vote over time.  If the choices are all not there to start with, the poll makes no sense.

Think about it...

Read all of what I wrote then you think about it.  This poll started with two (2) choices.  The OP changed it once people added their thoughts.  Adding a choice to a poll isn't difficult. 

The other comment that I made that you either failed to read or didn't understand is that the OP can setup a poll so that someone can change their vote.  If I voted for one FE, then want to change my vote to another FE, I can.  That would allow for new FEs that catch people's attention to be added throughout time. 

Yeah well when all that happens, you let us know.

[bigdog1977]

Don't get me wrong, there is definitely a place here for this question.  But you need to understand that it comes up all the time and it's frustrating that the search feature isn't utilized more. 

Such as how to pronounce game names.   

Yeah well is this post hurting your harddrive space??? No!! Did you have to answer?? NO!!! This is a forum to ask questions! I agree always with searching the forums first and I DID! I also found a bunch of outdated info, thus the reason I posted! Next time Ill make the topic Im a noob with questions please be non helpfull and flame my post! LOL

Serious, what are you here for hoopz?? To just read the wiki and search forums everyday and give negative feed back??  or to help out people that have the same hobby as you?? Thank you too everyone else that helped us out! =)

[swaffar]

Maximus is going in my all-in-one-cab-in-a-control-panel...  hyperspin is just too flashy, too busy, and too much.  it dazzles on first sight, but for everyday use, it's just plain unnecessary.  even if they had themes for every game for every system i still wouldn't want to use it.

perhaps if i were putting my system on public display and trying to sell it, i'd use HSpin

[thatitalian]

Maximus is going in my all-in-one-cab-in-a-control-panel...  hyperspin is just too flashy, too busy, and too much.  it dazzles on first sight, but for everyday use, it's just plain unnecessary.  even if they had themes for every game for every system i still wouldn't want to use it.

perhaps if i were putting my system on public display and trying to sell it, i'd use HSpin

Isn't that half the fun? You want someone to go on it and say "Holy S**t!" and I think HS does that.

Don't get me wrong MA is very very good, is very user friendly and is very customisable. It becomes difficult to pick as if more themes were developed for MA then it would really rock!

However, I am still overly impressed with the feel and fun of HS

[headkaze]

Maximo G+...

Full 3D walk-through arcade support, scrolling menu, movie support, Direct 3D acceleration of all 3DFX games, cheats menu, automated ROM revision forward and back to any version of MAME, LED support, hiscore.dat support in ALL versions of MAME with an automatic screenshot of high scores that can be shown as a screensaver if the user wishes. Best of all, it has built in XBOX 360 emulation, though its very slow at the moment. Games are *just* playable on a quad-core rig.

Is this a joke? XBox 360 emulation is obviously made up. But why is there a FE noone has heard of before in the list and why can't anyone provide a link to it? It's not in the wiki I can't find it on Google 

[somunny]

Serious, what are you here for hoopz?? To just read the wiki and search forums everyday and give negative feed back??  or to help out people that have the same hobby as you?? Thank you too everyone else that helped us out! =)

10 days and you're already calling people out.  Good luck. 

This is a topic that comes up all the time.  Much like "which joystick is the best?", there are so many variables that go into the decision that you'll never boil it down to a definitive answer.

That said, I use Mamewah.

[bigdog1977]

Serious, what are you here for hoopz?? To just read the wiki and search forums everyday and give negative feed back??  or to help out people that have the same hobby as you?? Thank you too everyone else that helped us out! =)

10 days and you're already calling people out.  Good luck. 

This is a topic that comes up all the time.  Much like "which joystick is the best?", there are so many variables that go into the decision that you'll never boil it down to a definitive answer.

That said, I use Mamewah.

Im not calling anyone out there Indiana Jones!  , Just trying to get an idea of what you guys are using at this time, with out all the BS. Thanks for the feedback.

[torcer]

Mala....but this thread made me check out Hyperspin, and I must say that it's an impresive project; if they keep making "themes," this HS will end up on my cabs in about a year. 

[headkaze]

Im not calling anyone out there Indiana Jones!  , Just trying to get an idea of what you guys are using at this time, with out all the BS. Thanks for the feedback.

Since your the one who added Maximo to the poll, and what looks like the only one to vote for it. You care to explain what it is? Seems a little strange you start up a poll about best FE's, and put it there, vote for it and noone has heard of it except for you.

[massive88]

Since your the one who added Maximo to the poll, and what looks like the only one to vote for it. You care to explain what it is? Seems a little strange you start up a poll about best FE's, and put it there, vote for it and noone has heard of it except for you.

I heard next version of Maximo has PS4 emulation in it!

[whynotpizza]

Maximus is going in my all-in-one-cab-in-a-control-panel...  hyperspin is just too flashy, too busy, and too much.  it dazzles on first sight, but for everyday use, it's just plain unnecessary.  even if they had themes for every game for every system i still wouldn't want to use it.

perhaps if i were putting my system on public display and trying to sell it, i'd use HSpin

My personal vote is MaLa. It strikes the right balance of pizazz,  configuration options, feature/functionality and overall performance.

I agree with swaffar, HyperSpin is just too flashy and over the top. In addition, HyperSpin is not as configuration-friendly as MaLa and some of the other top FE's out there.

For years I have stayed away from the FE's, and stuck with Mame32.

Don't let any of the FE's fool you into thinking they are EASY to setup. While this might be true for some folks, if you have any incling of creativity and attention to detail, you will sink a ton of time into getting an FE setup and configured for your situation.

With that said, having spend a ton of time with MaLa (and some other's out there), I am extremely pleased with the end result. 

The MaLa setup I have simply rocks, and has Mame and Visual Pinball all bundled together nicely in one cabinet. A lot of little gotchya's along the way (Mame, Visual Pinball, Mala, WinXP, Dual Monitors, etc) have inspired me to put together an extensive user manual which I hope to publish.

If you are considering using an FE to spice up the arcade experience, be prepared to spend some time. In the end, it would be worth it!

   David

[Visitor Q]

HyperSpin is flashy, even impressed my girlfriend and she knows or cares very little about this stuff. With that said, it’s a work in progress and has come very far already since launch. I still prefer Game Ex overall for its sheer function and features as there are many. Never used MA but it looks nice and have heard many good things about it ease of use to configure and use.

[Bender]

Hyper Spin too flashy, not finished
Maximus no U360 or LED blinky support

MaLa, ahhh, Just right

[Visitor Q]

Hyper Spin too flashy, not finished
Maximus no U360 or LED blinky support

MaLa, ahhh, Just right

Pretty sure Game Ex does it all too. 

[(+_+)]

Maximus is going in my all-in-one-cab-in-a-control-panel...  hyperspin is just too flashy, too busy, and too much.  it dazzles on first sight, but for everyday use, it's just plain unnecessary.  even if they had themes for every game for every system i still wouldn't want to use it.

perhaps if i were putting my system on public display and trying to sell it, i'd use HSpin

Isn't that half the fun? You want someone to go on it and say "Holy S**t!" and I think HS does that.

Don't get me wrong MA is very very good, is very user friendly and is very customisable. It becomes difficult to pick as if more themes were developed for MA then it would really rock!

However, I am still overly impressed with the feel and fun of HS

Obviously mine! I kidd, but only a little. 

I've been working on my new C#/WPF/SQL Server FE for a while a while now and the first thing that came to mind when I saw HS was Holy S**t! also. Very GUIcally impressive.

Some of you may be saying SQL Server  . The reasons are many fold.

1) Simplicity of all data access and manipulation. Believe me when I say, the amount of code is reduced drastically.
2) Everything is stored in one pot. Screenshots, game info, favorites, data, music tag info, lyrics and more.
3) SQL server compact edition will eventually (I hope) will be a part of the OS.
4) It's really fast bacause you can index whatever you want.
5) Easy to back it all up.
6) I got to play with the latest MS toys.
7) In terms of simplicity, it blows my old VB version out of the water (Except for the times when WPF gives me a hard time.

WPF kicks @SS!

I'll eventually post a video or something when the time is right. That time isn't now.

[cadmium]

Hyper Spin too flashy, not finished
Maximus no U360 or LED blinky support

MaLa, ahhh, Just right

To be fair, I have Maximus Arcade and 2 u360's which are handled just fine. MA can execute anything you want before during or after a game is launched, so that should work for LED Blinky too. Though I want to say that the developer is working on official LED blinky support for the next version.

[RetroBorg]

I voted for HyperSpin, I think 3D Arcade is right up there though, but unfortunately I'm not clever enough to get it to do what I want it to do, so before HyperSpin came along I used MameWah but had tried out all the others.

I really like HyperSpin and sadly find myself enjoying the frontend more than the games at the moment. Since it's been released I've been pretty much addicted to making themes and have chalked up 18 themes so far, not bad for someone who's never made a skin for any frontend before. For those with basic photoshop skills it's really easy to make a theme especially now that HyperTheme has been released.

I don't really understand why people say it's any harder to navigate a large list in HyperSpin, it seems to me just as easy to navigate as MameWah.

I think the only reasonable reason for not liking HyperSpin would be that it currently doesn't have as many options as some other frontends right now and it doesn't have 6000 plus themes yet but it's only early days and it already has 245 Mame themes and it would seem that BadBoyBill is working around the clock adding features.

No doubt in about 6 months time the poll should be: Before HyperSpin came along which frontend did you use? 









 

[FrizzleFried]

Maximo is the beez-kneez!  My understanding is that next version will come with Street Fighter IV built right in!

[Visitor Q]

LOL! 

[cadmium]

No doubt in about 6 months time the poll should be: Before HyperSpin came along which frontend did you use? 
 

If they can remove the seizure inducing quality of having dozens of brightly colored graphics screaming around my screen.

It's a little over the top is what I'm trying to say 

[Dazz]

No doubt in about 6 months time the poll should be: Before HyperSpin came along which frontend did you use? 
 

If they can remove the seizure inducing quality of having dozens of brightly colored graphics screaming around my screen.

It's a little over the top is what I'm trying to say 

I'm not really sure what you are trying to say...  HS allows 4 artworks + background.  There is a particle system in place, but very few themes currently use it and the ones that do don't have "dozens of brightly colored graphics screaming around".  Default themes are even less flashy with most containing a background, boxart image, and video.  Hell, if you don't want to have to deal with themes you can always just use the default themes without using a single game theme.  Using the default themes really brings it down on the "flashy" and brings it to the level that most front ends have.










Or are you talking about the wheel images?  Well if it is the wheel images you are worried about... guess what?  You can set and alpha blending to them and make them completely invisible except when you move the wheel or even different levels of faded where you can barely see the wheel image.  So, where are all of these "dozens of brightly colored graphics screaming around"? 

BBB has definitely listened to the community and has added many new features and continues to add new functionality.  As of a couple hours ago he started to focus on one of the communities major issues, ease of install and theme tracking/updating.  So these aspects will be getting much easier in the future as well...

I know that HS doesn't appeal to everyone, but those playing the "too flashy" card hasn't looked at it lately.  Please elaborate a little and I'm sure there is either a work around that you are not familiar with or something that might be relatively simple to incorporate. 

[bigdog1977]

Maximo G+...

Full 3D walk-through arcade support, scrolling menu, movie support, Direct 3D acceleration of all 3DFX games, cheats menu, automated ROM revision forward and back to any version of MAME, LED support, hiscore.dat support in ALL versions of MAME with an automatic screenshot of high scores that can be shown as a screensaver if the user wishes. Best of all, it has built in XBOX 360 emulation, though its very slow at the moment. Games are *just* playable on a quad-core rig.

hahah I have no idea what Maximo is! LOL ask TOK. I just put it on there cause he said it exsited! I didnt vote for it. He must have. Think I'll leave it there its kinda funny!