Author Topic: Replacing my mame cab - need advice (Read 3761 times)

mabu · « **on:** December 31, 2008, 07:45:22 pm »

My old NeoGeo=>Mame cabinet has been sitting my place for a long time with no mods. I ran into weird problems with games crashing and various front ends not working properly so I've got a new computer to replace in the unit. It's been several years since I've updated the cabinet so I'd like some advice on what front end(s) to run.

I'm mainly running arcade games but I'd love to also add other emulators. I've got a jamma setup with a neogeo monitor and video card that links to the monitor. The problem is that I need to run 800x600, or more likely 640x480 resolution in the front end to make it work right.. what do you all recommend?

I posted this same query about a year ago but never really picked back up on the project:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=73025.msg753884#msg753884

cmoses · « **Reply #1 on:** January 01, 2009, 12:26:32 pm »

I think MALA FE is the easiest to configure and setup. There is a very good walk through in the MALA section on setting it up. It seems to be able to handle all of the emulators out there. Can be configured for different resolutions.

CathalDublin · « **Reply #2 on:** January 01, 2009, 01:34:43 pm »

I'd personally go for Hyperspin if you have an anyway decent PC
If not mala is quite good but not quite as aesthetically pleasing as hyperspin

mala demo
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHY3g--FhI[/youtube]

hyperspin demo

leapinlew · « **Reply #3 on:** January 01, 2009, 01:42:45 pm »

They got the name of hyperspin right. It just about gives me a seizure.

mabu · « **Reply #4 on:** January 01, 2009, 03:33:14 pm »

HA ha - thanks for the good advice and comments.

I am working on setting things up. I have played with Mala and it seems pretty interesting but I will definitely check out the other recommendations.

I am running an AMD Athlon with MSI K8N Neo 2 motherboard (which I've grown to hate but it's what I'm stuck with) - I think I've got about 1G of RAM and am using Win XP Pro. I've compiled one of the later versions of Mame, and it runs many of the games pretty slow.. I don't understand.. I used to run an early version .8 something and it rocked. But these later versions seem really bogged down, or is it something with my computer or settings? All the street fighter games are almost in slow motion - I'm not a big fan of them but I figured a newer/faster machine would make them almost operable but I'm not seeing that. Any advice?

Games001 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 01, 2009, 04:57:11 pm »

My $0.02 is going with GameEx. I have installed in on a few machine and they run easily, smoothly and with minimal install issues. Setup I actually found to be more 'user friendly' than other FEs and it's programmed very much like any other basic windows program. You won't need a monster to run it smoothly and it's easy on the eyes with dozens, if not a hundred odd layouts.

CathalDublin · « **Reply #6 on:** January 01, 2009, 07:29:41 pm »

Hyperpin is a simple setup, especially if you are only using mame

ivwshane · « **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2009, 08:01:29 pm »

Quote from: cynos on January 01, 2009, 07:29:41 pm

Hyperpin is a simple setup, especially if you are only using mame

Does each game need to be "programed", meaning you would have to create an intro and the animation yourself?

CathalDublin · « **Reply #8 on:** January 01, 2009, 08:29:47 pm »

Each theme needs to be downloaded or made yourself, there is currently hundreds for download on their homepage.
If a game hasnt a theme it just uses a default theme and shows the video from your vids folder
www.hyperspin-fe.com

Dazz · « **Reply #9 on:** January 02, 2009, 12:56:13 pm »

HyperSpin has come a LONG way since the first release that the above video is of. Games do not necessarily have to have their own theme, it just looks nicer with a custom theme for the game. If a game doesn't have a theme created a generic default theme that looks like any other front end is displayed.

GameEx and Maximus Arcade would be two more excellent front ends as well that are definitely worth taking a look at.

mabu · « **Reply #10 on:** January 02, 2009, 03:48:51 pm »

Well.. I've discovered visual pinball and future pinball so I am loving those... I assume the best FE to integrate them would be MaLa? I wonder if I could even run futurepinball in 800x600 on the ArcadeVGA? Anyone know?

Also, if I wanted to run Visual Pinball and use a separate display for the LED display.. what are my options? Are there any very similar-looking little displays that I can purchase that would mount on the top of my game? Do you add a second video card for that?

retrometro · « **Reply #11 on:** January 03, 2009, 04:55:57 pm »

Quote from: cynos on January 01, 2009, 08:29:47 pm

Each theme needs to be downloaded or made yourself, there is currently hundreds for download on their homepage.
If a game hasnt a theme it just uses a default theme and shows the video from your vids folder
www.hyperspin-fe.com

Is there an updated theme pack that has a ton of themes from the HS team and user community?

CathalDublin · « **Reply #12 on:** January 04, 2009, 11:05:31 am »

Quote from: mabu on January 02, 2009, 03:48:51 pm

futurepinball in 800x600 on the ArcadeVGA? Anyone know?

Run the same setup myself and it works fine
see hyperspin futurepinball demo
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3AcpMRkUG4[/youtube]

RayB · « **Reply #13 on:** January 04, 2009, 12:52:00 pm »

Hyperspin looks great, but the animations take too long. It should be quick, like 1 second and everything's in place...

CathalDublin · « **Reply #14 on:** January 04, 2009, 03:46:43 pm »

The versions in the above videos are old, the new build is alot smoother/faster and i'm also not sure the spec on the machine being used in the video above, I might put a video on youtube of the latest version later if I get time

Dazz · « **Reply #15 on:** January 04, 2009, 04:38:38 pm »

Quote from: RayB on January 04, 2009, 12:52:00 pm

Hyperspin looks great, but the animations take too long. It should be quick, like 1 second and everything's in place...

If that is what you want to do then you can edit the theme files and change the animation times if you want. Personally I don't like the full screen videos on the Pinball themes and I have changed my default to something more standard.

But running in a decent system setup HyperSpin is just as fast (even with animations) as other front ends.

mabu · « **Reply #16 on:** January 05, 2009, 08:24:09 pm »

Quote from: cynos on January 04, 2009, 03:46:43 pm

The versions in the above videos are old, the new build is alot smoother/faster and i'm also not sure the spec on the machine being used in the video above, I might put a video on youtube of the latest version later if I get time

That's very impressive.

What resolution are you running at on the ArcadeVGA?

I had MaLa running on my old setup, but every other game selection would cause my monitor to start losing horizontal sync - it drove me crazy - I couldn't figure out what the problem was.

I'm not sure however, if I have enough cpu power to run such fancy animations and stuff.

daywane · « **Reply #17 on:** January 05, 2009, 09:35:24 pm »

you might find this helpfull.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=84933.0
I vote for Atomic FE

CathalDublin · « **Reply #18 on:** January 06, 2009, 04:34:45 pm »

Quote from: mabu on January 05, 2009, 08:24:09 pm

Quote from: cynos on January 04, 2009, 03:46:43 pm
The versions in the above videos are old, the new build is alot smoother/faster and i'm also not sure the spec on the machine being used in the video above, I might put a video on youtube of the latest version later if I get time

That's very impressive.

What resolution are you running at on the ArcadeVGA?

I had MaLa running on my old setup, but every other game selection would cause my monitor to start losing horizontal sync - it drove me crazy - I couldn't figure out what the problem was.

I'm not sure however, if I have enough cpu power to run such fancy animations and stuff.

I'm running 800x600 and I've setup the following emulators without any problems
Nestopia NES
Nebula Sega model2
Mame .128

mabu · « **Reply #19 on:** January 08, 2009, 02:40:33 pm »

Did you use the res tool to go in and switch the res for all .ini files to 800x600? I seem to remember that working for me in my first version cabinet, but I have everything torn apart so I can't check. I'm waiting for some more hardware to come in to add some buttons for the pinball apps.

Anyone running VisualPinball on an ArcadeVGA? What's your recommended command line/switches?

CathalDublin · « **Reply #20 on:** January 08, 2009, 05:56:40 pm »

yes used the avres tool
had to manually edit the vertical ini's and turn on hardware stretch though
I've also made a few changed to my mame.ini file and every game runs pretty sweet.
there were a few ini's i'd to edit like the mortal kombat games/nba jam

I saved the settings I used when creating the ini's and I can send you my mame.ini too if ya have any trouble

Turnarcades · « **Reply #21 on:** January 08, 2009, 09:38:12 pm »

The selection of FE's is pretty much as it always was, but if you fancy something clean and low-demand then go for Mamewah - we wouldn't use anything else!


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