Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: kayliebug on December 12, 2005, 11:38:05 pm

Title: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: kayliebug on December 12, 2005, 11:38:05 pm
What is the best frontend for a 27" TV.
I like 3d arcade but it does not work that well.

I tried to download arcade FX but it is corrupted.
Does anyone have another link for it.

Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: walls83 on December 13, 2005, 09:28:50 am
I use Mamewah with a 640*480 res.   whatever frontend you use you must have it at 640*480 on a TV or the words will be pretty hard to read.
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: GGKoul on December 13, 2005, 09:35:11 am
I use MAME32.
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: emerica on December 13, 2005, 12:09:30 pm
I use gameex. Its also easy to setup..
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: versapak on December 13, 2005, 12:27:39 pm
MAME32 for a TV?

yuk


I personally use an Xbox for my cab, so I don't have much experience with PC front ends, but MAMEwah appears to be a nice fit for a TV.


Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: Necro on December 14, 2005, 12:19:17 am
I use Mamewah with a 640*480 res.   whatever frontend you use you must have it at 640*480 on a TV or the words will be pretty hard to read.


I use 800x600 and things work perfectly fine - you just need to tweak layouts and font sizes so things look correct.  I use MAMEwah at this resolution and some custom layouts I made up.

Given, the TV isn't actually DISPLAYING 800x600, but I'm just overshooting since I cant do the exact NTSC resolution with my TV-Out.

(Also, using S-video out can help tons for readability...I wouldnt have believed how much it improved my quality if I hadn't switched)
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: JustMichael on December 14, 2005, 04:56:12 am
I prefer a simple interface so I use EmuWizard.
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: daywane on December 14, 2005, 09:56:36 am
mame 32
atomic FE pro
working on mame wha ( never seem to get it right)  :-\
thats just me though every one else gets it going.  >:(
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: AtomSmasher on December 14, 2005, 11:00:18 am
I'm using Mamewah at 800x600
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: Sensei on December 15, 2005, 10:08:30 pm
I have used Mame32 in the past for my arcade which outputs to a 27" television.  I had to tweak the GUI a bit so that it was more readable.  I increased the fonts and make them bold.  This way it is just as easy to read than other front ends.

But after seeing some of the other frontends out there, you quickly realize that the Mame32 GUI detracts from making your arcade cab look like an arcacde cab.
It looks like a windows computer. (ok it is....but that doesn't mean you have to look like one).

MameWah and GameEx are the ones that I've tried that look the best.  Plus I love the feature of having movie previews of the games instead of just snaps. Also both of these frontends will allow you to run other emulators (mainly for me Daphne, Project64 and just PC Games).

While Mame32 is great and makes it so that you're ready to run in a few seconds, the other two frontends have a few drawbacks mainly due to ease of setup.

MameWah's main drawback is that it is a ---smurfette--- to setup for noobies.  There's lots of resources out there for help plus now there's MameWahConfig which is like a godsend for me.

GameEx while looking the sleekest does require some extra time setting it up (but its not that bad) and it takes a bit more resources while running than the other frontends (but I guess it takes more cycles to look that nice).

Well, I'm not sure if that helped you or not...

Just my $0.02 worth.

Good Luck
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: brophog on December 15, 2005, 10:17:27 pm
Quote
MameWah's main drawback is that it is a ---smurf--- to setup for noobies.

No it's not. It's only bad for those that refuse to do searches or read documentation.
Title: Re: Best Frontend for 27" TV
Post by: Dazz on December 15, 2005, 10:31:11 pm
I use a 27" flat screen television in my MAMEcab.  I've tested many many many front ends and finally decided on using MAMEWah.  At a 640x480 resolution it looks great and it's easy to navigate.  I had my cabinet at Quakecon 2005 and let 3000+ people play on it.  No issues at all using MAMEWah during that time.

The only thing with MAMEWah is the setup, but once you've taken the time to learn it then its really easy to work with.