Hi, I am a new user and I really need some help...

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

Hi, I have recently bought a working MAME cabinet and its really good however I want to do quite a bit of modifying to it, though I completely inexperienced!

I wanting to switch to the HyperSpin Frontend but I do not know which version of MAME to use. I am going to just pick the newest release (unless i find out some of my favourite games have lost compatibility due to the updating process, which would mean I would find the latest one which did not have this problem), what do you think of this? Also, I'm not sure which type of version to use and researching my query did not help. Please can I have some help?

I have also been reading about cabMAME and it seems to be s a good thing to have, do you agree? Please explain how I would use this as well, I read http://community.arcadeinfo.de/showthread.php?t=9555 and tried some things with the files though I really didn't have a clue what to do.

I have read about the "hi-score diff" feature furthermore, and I want to know if the games without the hi score feature had this feature in the arcades, originally.  Also, what "nagscreens" does it remove, are these the screens which say the game is not 100% and the game is loading? Plus, I 'm sorry but i do not know if you can use http://www.headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mame&page=mc64 with any other versions of MAME apart from the "UI" one, can you and how would you change the instructions so they work for the different version?

Thanks for any help!  I have tried to figure things out myself, though hours and hours of searching has not caused me to achieve this   

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

Actually, I forgot to add this really important question.

Currently my cab is booting stright to mamewah but when I

[Donkbaca]

and when you what??? the suspense is killing me!!! Are you okay?

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

^ oops, I accidentally pressed enter on my keyboard!

Actually, I forgot to add this really important question.  I was ready for bed when I posted my lat message, so I wasn't thinking properly!

Currently my cab is using mamewah and it boots straight to it, however when I configure it to use HyperSpin, I'm going to need to change it so it boots to that instead. I read the wiki about this but I could not work out how to do this instead of changing the boot up programme from windows. Please can I get some help for this also. I know I am asking for a lot but I am completely lost.

[Donkbaca]

its simple, you just change your startup folder and have it boot to hyperspin instead of mamewah

[WhereEaglesDare]

Hi, I have recently bought a working MAME cabinet and its really good however I want to do quite a bit of modifying to it, though I completely inexperienced!

I wanting to switch to the HyperSpin Frontend but I do not know which version of MAME to use. I am going to just pick the newest release (unless i find out some of my favourite games have lost compatibility due to the updating process, which would mean I would find the latest one which did not have this problem), what do you think of this? Also, I'm not sure which type of version to use and researching my query did not help. Please can I have some help?

I have also been reading about cabMAME and it seems to be s a good thing to have, do you agree? Please explain how I would use this as well, I read http://community.arcadeinfo.de/showthread.php?t=9555 and tried some things with the files though I really didn't have a clue what to do.

I have read about the "hi-score diff" feature furthermore, and I want to know if the games without the hi score feature had this feature in the arcades, originally.  Also, what "nagscreens" does it remove, are these the screens which say the game is not 100% and the game is loading? Plus, I 'm sorry but i do not know if you can use http://www.headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mame&page=mc64 with any other versions of MAME apart from the "UI" one, can you and how would you change the instructions so they work for the different version?

Thanks for any help!  I have tried to figure things out myself, though hours and hours of searching has not caused me to achieve this   

You can use any version of MAME with most front ends, as they all work on command lines.  About hi scores, the MAME Devs are trying to emulate machines exactly so if a machine had hiscore in the arcade it will in MAME (in most cases), however some older games, like Donkey Kong, do not have that feature so MKChamp's HiScore fix addes it for a lot of games (not all games).  
The nag screens are the warnings that pop up when you load MAME.  Some FEs bypass these screen automatically, but MAME alone will have them without the fix.

I use HeadKaze's compiler on regular MAME and it's easy as ABC.  I dont use MAMEUI so I can't speak to that but regular old MAME works fine with it.  Just keep in mind you may have to try it a few times.

About CabMAME, in my limited experience with it, I can't get it to work as advertised with newer version of MAME, I havn't tried it in a while, but I don't see any need for ME to use it.  I hear it fixes several games, but I have never been in a position where I thought it would help.

About HyperSpin, HS is very intensive, what kind of PC is in the cab?  You may not be able to use HS to it's full ability if at all.  If you find yourself in that position I highly recommend GamEx.

[Donkbaca]

I use MameUI and compiled with headkaze's program.  You may have to do it once or twice to get the hang of it, but its pretty easy.

I use gameex, love it (though I can't get the darned theme editor to work)

If you want to just change the way your menus and stuff are, you could always get a new mamewah theme or try MALA, gameex, atomic fe.  There are tons of options.  Hyperspin is really only recommended for high end rigs.

[WhereEaglesDare]

I use gameex, love it (though I can't get the darned theme editor to work)

The Theme Editor is my favorite part of GameEx.

Here is my Back to the Future Theme!

[Donkbaca]

I'm going to have to get with you Where Eagles.  I am trying to do a USC Trojans theme, (I'm an alum and the cabinet is all Trjan themed)  But I can't seem to get the editor to work.  I keep getting errors.  If you have any sort of guide or anything (or if you like making them so much you could make me one  ) I would be much appreciated!

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

Okay, I think I'm going to use MameUI. Can you do things in normal mame that you can't in this version though and it's not slower or anything is it?

And I know your machine has to be a good'en to use HyperSpin to its fullest potential, and sadly mine is pretty basic, not completely rubbish, but it ain't top end. However, If I have to, I will disable the movies and I 'm hoping that would be fine. I want to use it for two reasons you see, one being its aesthetic qualities, an other is due to the informative guide on the website for it and lastly because it is meant to be pretty easy to set up. However, if anybody has any suggestions that meet these pieces of criteria, please do tell me.

WhereEaglesDare - Thanks for responding though I am not completely sure if I understand what you meant about the hi scores, are you saying the games it adds the feature to did not have this feature originally. If this is the case then I think I will leave it and keep it authentic.

Has anybody else got anything they want to add about cabMAME??

[Donkbaca]

Regular Mame is command line driven.  Mameui is just a gui interface that is it.  There is no difference to how it runs, or the resources it takes up, its just a different means of how it allows you to interact with the info.

Hyperspin is actually one of the more difficult front ends to set up.  Gameex has a wizard that you just click through.  Its about as easy as you can get.  I am not sure if you will be able to enjoy all the aesthetic bells and whistles if you disable most of the features and have a front end that runs slow.

Just for reference, I have a p4 3.0ghz running 1.5 gigs of ram, and have an ati 9800 graphics card.  In gameex, I can run all the video snaps and all of that stuff.  Plus I like how gameex has built in LED editors, and integrates with CP wizard and the controls.dat info pretty seamlessly.  PLus it gets updates all the time.  I am not saying its the BEST, but I think you should look at all the FE options to see what gives you the most bang for your buck.  It would suck to spend a bunch of time setting up hyperspin when you could spend a fraction of that time on another FE and have it look the way you want and have a bunch of cool features.  But hey, that's like telling someone what color car to buy.  To each his own, as I say, just take the time to look at the features of the different FE's at their websites.

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

Okay, I really need help. I can't set my XP OP so it boots straight to my FE, no matter what I do, it boots to the FE that came with the cab.

I have tried instantsheller

I have tried the "Replacing Explorer With Your FE In XP" part of the Wiki

And I am not sure what "Startup folder" is mentioned in the "Alternate Method Without Messing With The Registry" part of the Wiki so I couldn't try it, but I searched Startup in window's search programme and I looked for the old FE in every folder that came up, but I couldn't find it. This gave me the impression that it wouldn't of replaced my FE with the old FE, I know next to nothing about this sort of thing however.

Also, I found no signs of the old FE being set up to boot in place of explorer.exe in the other previously mentioned methods.

Help me please, I hate be stuck in this position - not being able to advance and finish my cab.

I chose GameEx by the way and I think I will love it IF I get it sorted, which I nearly had done! Thanks for the recommendations.

[Dan_Dan_91_07]

Well I have half fixed my problem. I had an idea for stopping the old FE from loading, this was simply changing it's location, however I feared in doing this I would mess my system up, but I bit the bullet, did it, and my cab booted to explorer instead!  

BUT, I tried the second method listed above and it didn't make my FE boot up. Also, I tried instantsheller but it didn't appear to do anything; the cab loaded up the same as before I used it.

Like I previously mentioned, I am not sure what to do for the last method listed.

Please can i get some help.

I have sorted it out, as it turns out, when I used the second method it never changed the explorer.exe file, even though I modified it. You see when I went to try it again, explorer.exe was still there. So I tried it again and this time it worked!