Where do you guys get those Really cool looking GUI's for MAME and other Emulato

[Gavica]

I have seen some shots of your Cabs and video in youtube and alot of people have some really cooling GUI's that display pictures of the arcade, consoles etc,

I use MameUI32, which does everything that is needed, but doesn't look as cool as your GUI's you guys use.

And are they hard to set up?

[CheffoJeffo]

Somewhere to start ...

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Front-Ends

[pinballwizard79]

Hyperspin is like the power glove.

Lucas: I love the Power Glove. It's so bad.

Seriously I want to set that up on my rig.

[Gavica]

I was tinkering with hyperspin and looks kinda like what I was looking for.

one thing though, for example for the MAME, it lists ALL the games, is there a way to just list my favorite games? I only want to have like 100 or 200 of my favorite games show up , not the entire MAME list.
Is there a way to do this easily? or I have to manually erease each game on the database file, which looks like it could take hours.

[DaveMMR]

I was tinkering with hyperspin and looks kinda like what I was looking for.

one thing though, for example for the MAME, it lists ALL the games, is there a way to just list my favorite games? I only want to have like 100 or 200 of my favorite games show up , not the entire MAME list.
Is there a way to do this easily? or I have to manually erease each game on the database file, which looks like it could take hours.

With Hyperspin, what I do is check off "THEMES ONLY" in the options (forgot exactly where it's located, but dig and you'll find it).   Then I only keep themes for games I want.   

Of course, this doesn't work if you don't mind having "theme missing" games listed.

Other than that, check out the HYPERSPIN forums.  There are programs that makes list creation a breeze.  (I think it builds its list from the custom MAME.XML in the HS folders.   But I'm not 100% on that.)

[DrumAnBass]

For some fancy visuals check out 3DArcade: http://3darcade.mameworld.info/

[cmoses]

I was tinkering with hyperspin and looks kinda like what I was looking for.

one thing though, for example for the MAME, it lists ALL the games, is there a way to just list my favorite games? I only want to have like 100 or 200 of my favorite games show up , not the entire MAME list.
Is there a way to do this easily? or I have to manually erease each game on the database file, which looks like it could take hours.

I have recently been tinkering with HyperSpin as well.  I really like it and will be switching over to it pretty soon I think.  The easiest way I found to edit the list of games was to download HyperList.

http://hyperion.xeraweb.com/modules/...nload.php?id=4

It is a very easy program, you tell it what directory your ROMS are in and then tell it where to write the xml file - this is the Mame folder under HypserSpin\Databases.  I made a copy of the original MAME.XML just to have.  Then rename your newly created file to mame.xml.  Once you run HyperSpin again this should only show the games you have ROMS for. 

This is the forum page about HyperList.  Let me know if you have any questions.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3058

[billpa]

Yea... that is the easiest way. Use HyperList to generate an xml based on your available ROMS. I think there are around 700 MAME themes created so I bet most of your favorite games will already have a theme.  If there are any missing, just make a request for it or get your hands dirty and make one yourself

[Turnarcades]

Hyperspin does look nice I agree, but the list creation methods are not as simple as other front-ends. The main programlikes you to use goodsets and stuff where as other front-ends generate lists based on rom folders which is much simpler. Plus, I believe a front-end should be fairly lightweight compared to the actual emulators and games, not as space and resource dependant as Hyper Spin.

Your tried and trusted friends are Mala, Mamewah and at most, Maximus.

[severdhed]

MALA is a great front end for beginners. It is pretty easy to get set up and there are alot of premade layouts to get you started, and is pretty flexible when it comes to making your own layouts.

http://malafe.net/

i have tried quite a few different front ends, and MALA is by far my favorite

[Section_25]

I like GameEx 

http://www.gameex.net/

[drventure]

I played with 3darcade (a lot!). It's freakin cool, but hard as hell to get used to navigating around in. And setting things up? Yikes.

I ended up with Mala because it's so much easier. Hyperspin made me feel like I just did several hits of speed or something. "Hyper" it most definitely is. Not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal.

[councilface]

THERE IS ONLY ONE!

Hyperspin is dead easy to set up and not really resource hungry in this day and age....

[DaveMMR]

Hyperspin is dead easy to set up and not really resource hungry in this day and age....

A lot of builders are using older computers for a MAME machine especially when concentrating on the classics.  That's when HyperSpin may not be the best choice.

Hyperspin does look nice I agree, but the list creation methods are not as simple as other front-ends.

Agreed.  HS is a great front-end (and I'm currently using it, as a matter of fact) but that's one of its weaknesses.   Making custom gamelists in Mala was simple and painless.  It doesn't bother me much though because, as I said above, I only show games that have themes - and I only download themes for games I want to play.

If we're comparing front-ends, I don't think you can go wrong with HS, Mala, Mamewah or Maximus.  Each has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.  Examples: HS is the sexiest, but is deficient in a couple of key features like proper gamepad/joystick support (it supports the U360 but only to navigate - not button presses)*.  Mala is more intuitive but there's more legwork involved if you want something sleek looking (text lists are not exactly eye-catching).  And so forth. 

(*In all fairness, Hyperspin is relatively new to the scene and many concerns will be addressed I'm sure.  It's not a completely fair comparison for that reason, I know, but for the sake of making a personal front-end choice, it's necessary to bring these issues up.)

At the end of the day, I love the bling of Hyperspin and use it for that reason.  But I still love Mala too.   

[daywane]

 
AtomicFE works great for me.
but here is a good link for you to check out
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=84933.0

[GaryMcT]

I just wrote a little perl script to take mameui favorites and generate a database file for HyperSpin. I could clean it up and post it if there isn't sonething like that already.

[garnerb350]

There CAN be only ONE Highlander!!!!

When I first started building , I went with Maximus Arcade...it was very "professional" looking...BUT, I had problems with the program working with my control panel ( x-arcade Tankstick)...I was way behind, I was in a bind, and I was trying to make a deal...

I saw Hyperspin, and I was blown away...simple yet impressive with the graphics...I was scared at first about trying to tinker with it, but the guys at the forum are great...I dont want to go to another frontend...

[Dazz]

I just wrote a little perl script to take mameui favorites and generate a database file for HyperSpin. I could clean it up and post it if there isn't sonething like that already.

I'm sure there might be other people looking for such an app.  If you wouldn't mind sharing it with instructions on how to use it I'd be more than happy to host it on the HyperSpin site.

[GaryMcT]

I just wrote a little perl script to take mameui favorites and generate a database file for HyperSpin. I could clean it up and post it if there isn't sonething like that already.

I'm sure there might be other people looking for such an app.  If you wouldn't mind sharing it with instructions on how to use it I'd be more than happy to host it on the HyperSpin site.

Cool.  I'll tidy it up a bit and send it to you.  It depends on all the games that you want being in the default database file, ie. it only makes a subset of what is already there.

[Havok]

Another vote for AtomicFE - however do check out the Wiki...

[Ummon]

I just wrote a little perl script to take mameui favorites and generate a database file for HyperSpin. I could clean it up and post it if there isn't sonething like that already.

---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, now if there could be one of those for every major FE, and that updated at the push of a button (in a dialog box), let alone automatically.

[GaryMcT]

I just wrote a little perl script to take mameui favorites and generate a database file for HyperSpin. I could clean it up and post it if there isn't sonething like that already.

---Cleveland steamer---, now if there could be one of those for every major FE, and that updated at the push of a button (in a dialog box), let alone automatically.

I can try to do that for the ones that have human readable config files.  I'll try to wrap this one up first.  I could probably put a UI on it, but that'll be way more work than the hour I took to write it in the first place.   It can be a well-documented command-line utility at the very least.

[kenzo42]

Any way to make Hyperspin faster? It runs pretty slow on my rig.

[GaryMcT]

Any way to make Hyperspin faster? It runs pretty slow on my rig.

Performance in HyperSpin seems to be highly resolution dependent (at least on my anemic laptop graphics chip!)  What resolution are you running it at?  You could try lowering the resolution (if that's possible) to see if it's faster.

[DaveMMR]

Any way to make Hyperspin faster? It runs pretty slow on my rig.

Turn off the advanced animations in the options. Forgot the exact names of the options but their are two...