Newbie question: How much time ...

[dkubarek]

Hi all,
I have a computer with windows XP and want to do the following: Install Mamewah, MAME, total sheller and a rom sorter. I also have ini files, but I know I'll need to edit them to fit my computer directory. (They are copied from another computer). I also want to configure 20 buttons and two joysticks. (X-Arcade stuff, and I'll mostly use their defaults.) And I want Mamewah to run on startup. I ask how long this takes because I plan to do all of this Christmas eve in the hopes of then taking a newly built arcade box to my nephews that night for Christmas. Is this a few hours of work or much more? I'm new to this, but I know a bit about computers. Still, not much. Am I in over my head or is this doable? Thanks

[TelcoLou]

Well of course the answer is "It depends" 

Have you installed MameWah before? If not, it might be tricky to set up (it was for me, and had to spend a couple of hours tweaking things)

I've never used instant sheller, and took the easy way out: I made a shortcut to Mamewah and placed it in the startup folder; windows boots and then launches mamewah .. but you can still see the taskbar for 1.5 seconds or so.

As for configuring the buttons, you can do that via MAME's global settings, and should only take a few minutes.

So it's do-able, in a few hours. Maybe 

[TOK]

If I was on a deadline like that, I'd use either MaLa (or AtomicFE), even if you decide to go back and do MAMEWah later for yourself. Its a great front end, but not as intuitive to set up since you're configuring text files. Its not hard, but confusing the first time. I had some issues with it not liking the way I had my directories setup, but then when I used a third party setup tool for it, everything worked fine. That kind of thing. 

The newer front ends are set up just like a regular Windows app with tabs and makes the process a bit simpler.

[dkubarek]

I gave Mala a once-over. Any downside to the program? I just know Mamewah is popular and very customizable. I have ini files, so it shouldn't be a real bear to set Mamewah up, but I'll emphasize "shouldn't." Thanks.