Frontend advice

[snatex]

I am putting together a Mame cabinet for my family.  I am trying to figure out which frontend to use.  I want something that is easy to use hard to screw up.  I'd also like to be able to view all the Mame artwork available like the control panel, marquee, flyer, cabinet, etc.  I don't mind paying for a good program.  Any suggestions? 

[92greenyj]

I was going to use Mala originally for my project, but after playing with it for a little while I decided it wasn't what I wanted. So i grabbed and tried Atomic FE. After just a little time playing with it I am hooked. I will be using Atomic for my project. Its a really slick front end with tons of options

[abispac]

best so far for me its hyperspin, its free but if you donate you can get acces to alot of custom artwoek wich makes hyperspin looks better, not that crappy imitation atomic fe.......my personal opinion.

[92greenyj]

the issue i ran into when i tried hyperspin is the fact that it runs like crap on my PC. its an older one and hyperspin just ran too slow on it.

[shateredsoul]

the issue i ran into when i tried hyperspin is the fact that it runs like crap on my PC. its an older one and hyperspin just ran too slow on it.

Yeah.. hyperspin seems to be better for higher end pcs.  Although the argument they use is, well you spent $$$$ on your cab, why spend $ on your pc? So hyperspin is for a $$$$$$ cab 

Gameex seems to be getting really good reviews from people, but you do have to pay to get full access to all the options. I'm using Maximus Arcade....$20 bucks,  and although other Frontends may work better, and I've had to hack it up to get other systems in there.. I refuse to setup everything all over again with a new Front end. 

IMO the best free ones would be MALA and Hyperspin (if your pc can run it)

[orchidius]

I won't argue about the speed issues Hyperspin has (due to lots of beautiful artwork/video's and such, you might run into some troubles there), but the main reason YOU probrably don't want to use Hyperspin is the set up. You said you wanted something that is easy to use and hard to screw up, well, then HS is NOT what you are looking for.

Setting up HS is something that takes a ton of time (assuming you're going for multiple emulators), involves a LOT of swearing, and has a "you're-gonna-screw-up-at-least-a-couple-times"-guarantee. That's the price you pay for a otherwise perfect FE. It looks awesome, is easy to control once set up, is fully customizable, is compatible with EVERYTHING,...

Even though that might sound bad at first, I don't look at it as a purely bad property. By being obliged to take your time to look into the inner workings of the FE, you learn a lot. After a while you'll know exactly where to find everything, how everything works and where to find everything. This makes things easier when setting up additional emulators, making changes, installing updates, troubleshooting,...  The HS team also provides you with a TON of "how-to" guides and tutorials to help you with the complicated setup, all accompanied by tons of screenshots, links and even video's.

If you're really looking for something easy to set up, hard to screw up and easy to use, I would recommend Maximus Arcade. That FE, on the other hand, leaves little space for customization and tweaking. You simply can't have both...

Another general word of advice: look around! There's a whole bunch of FE's out there, all different and made with other priorities in mind, so look around. I'm sure you can quickly make a list of FE's by just scrolling through the forum here and the wiki. Go to the sites of those FE's, look at screenshots, check youtube video's,... Just look at them and see which one you like best. The setting up part might be a pain, but know that you'll get through that and that there's plenty help out here. Going the easy way and having to look at that dull and ugly FE just because you were too lazy to look into "harder" ones on the other hand, we can't help you with.

Hope the above is of any help,

Good luck!

[abispac]

setting up hyperspin its not that hard once you have all your files ready, mame,roms,themes,videos, and about the specs, i only use p4 computers with a 64 mb minimun video card, p4 in this days are not that xpensive, i get those all the time with video card for no more than 50 bucks, so i dont think you have to spend too much on a computer system to run hyperspin, and to configure, you can use hq wich makes that so easy, but if you want to set up more then 1 emu, then you might be looking at spending more time, but for single mame emu and all files ready, no problem at all, you say you dont mind paying , then donate to HS site to get ftp acces and get all the files in one day.... good luck

[Dazz]

FYI - We have some unannounced surprises coming for HyperSpin in the future.

[shateredsoul]

FYI - We have some unannounced surprises coming for HyperSpin in the future.

ohh nice.. any idea when these surprises will be announced Dazz?

[AcademyDL]

IM in the same situation. Looking for something easy to use. Sorta a starter Front end.
Hyperspin looks great but I dont have enough time to work through it and no one knowledgeable in my area.
I appreciate the help. I'll try Maximus Arcade. Thanks orchidius

[Dazz]

FYI - We have some unannounced surprises coming for HyperSpin in the future.

ohh nice.. any idea when these surprises will be announced Dazz?

Nothing at this time as I'm still working on it and learning the programming for it.  Heck, I haven't even really talked to BBB seriously about it yet...

[nitz]

I want something that is easy to use hard to screw up.

Personally, I love Mala for this reason. It's really easy, everthing is laid out in menus for you, no ini files to configure or anything like that, and you can download lots of nice themes for it if you don't feel like making your own.

I'd also like to be able to view all the Mame artwork available like the control panel, marquee, flyer, cabinet, etc.

Mala will display any artwork you want.

[garwil]

Dazz, that's the second post I've seen from you where you're hinting at new features, any chance of giving us a little clue? 

@snatex:

HS is easy to set up provided you have your non-MAME ROMs named according to the no-intro standard. There are loads of really good tutorials on the site and for the most part it's just a case of downloading artwork and putting it in the right folder. If you want to get into unofficially supported systems it's a bit more work but most of the classics are there from the off. The community is great and generally very helpful if you have any problems. Also, there's no way to mess anything up from within the FE itself as all the settings/gamelists are stored in external files and you  use external apps to modify them. If you're not using a particularly recent PC you may have to turn down some of the bells and whistles but it runs fine on my 4 year old Mac Mini Core Duo 1.83 with 1gb of RAM.

[snatex]

I really like the look of Hyperspin.  I would really like to be able to access the historical art and info though.  Things like pictures of the cabinet, control panel, marquee, flyers, history, etc.  Below are two videos of other frontends accessing these features.  Can Hyperspin do it also?  

[Space Fractal]

My own MultiFE frontend (not so much used here) have included a slideshow type gallery for mame.

Actuelly most used in this froum can been found in this thread and look on the result:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=84933.0

You should test any frontend that need your mind and then use it, paid or not.

PS. Emuvideos is also nice to been use which show very much of the game and supported in most frontends today.

[WhereEaglesDare]

GameEx GameEx GameEx GameEx GameEx GameEx

[Dazz]

....

wow... that isn't annoying at all.

[WhereEaglesDare]

....

wow... that isn't annoying at all.

HA!

Hyperspin is great too, if you have a higher end computer that you wish to dedicate to play games that are 30-20 year old.

Why not make a HS Lite that is preconfigured to play on older hardware?

[headkaze]

Dazz finds the mention of any FE besides HS annoying  

[shateredsoul]

Dazz finds the mention of any FE besides HS annoying  

Funny thing is that once I was looking for an answers for a Maximus Arcade question, I could swear I found a post where Dazz was helping Delusional work something out in Maximus Arcade (because Dazz used to use another FE before! *gasp*)

[headkaze]

Funny thing is that once I was looking for an answers for a Maximus Arcade question, I could swear I found a post where Dazz was helping Delusional work something out in Maximus Arcade (because Dazz used to use another FE before! *gasp*)

Shock horror! 

[Dazz]

Dazz finds the mention of any FE besides HS annoying  

Actually, no I do not... I've always had high respect for any FE and their developers. Some FE's do some things better than others and they all achieve what they are set out to do.  The more the more options that the users have to choose from.  There has been many times where I have suggested other FE's over HyperSpin.  

What was annoying about that post was the scrolling icons/text.

Funny thing is that once I was looking for an answers for a Maximus Arcade question, I could swear I found a post where Dazz was helping Delusional work something out in Maximus Arcade (because Dazz used to use another FE before! *gasp*)

I'm actually quite well versed in many of the available Front Ends.  I was one of the first people to ever register Maximus Arcade and I know how it works quite well and keep up with it's development even today.  I'm also quite familiar with MALA and some knowledge of GameEx and it's workings. 

Yea, so what I'm on the HyperSpin team, but if someone needs help in selecting an FE and state what their intentions are I am able to make a suggestion based on what they need/want.  Just today I received a PM with FE questions from a new user, in the end I actually suggested Maximus based on what they were looking for.

When it comes to HyperSpin; I will defend it.  I will suggest it.  I will help support it.  I have never knocked any FE... that is until something is being ripped off from one to be used on another (IE ripping images specifically created by the HS team).  Regarding my comments towards Spacegoogie's "HyperSpin" Maximus Arcade theme was that he was asking for donations to use his theme; yet some of the images were ripped from HS.  That's been worked out and Spacegoogie and I are on good terms with each other.

[headkaze]

What was annoying about that post was the scrolling icons/text.

Sorry Dazz I couldn't help myself! 

[Cakemeister]

Is it too late for a wiki-bomb?

To the OP: Please try them all and make your own informed decision. Also,


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[shateredsoul]

Well in that case, do you know any way of editing the game select shortcut list (when choosing emulators) in Maximus? I want to rename a few.

but as far as the ripping off of the images (and I think I know what you are referring to), that was done by a member who designed a skin and not a developer of a frontend right?