Created a new Frontend: MameChose

[tcolar]

Hello there, just wanted to report I wrote a new Mame frontend called MameChose:
https://bitbucket.org/tcolar/mamechose/

It's open source and written i the Fantom language, which runs atop java, so it can run on any platform (I use Linux Debian on a mac mini).

It's not focused on high candy but rather on efficient use in a cabinet.

It scales to any resolution and makes it easy to filter roms by categories and custom lists.

I will add more features soon such as a "virtual keyboard" to be able to search games by name and things like that.

I'm open to suggestions and bug fixes.

Have a nice day !

[codefenix]

Nice job writing a frontend.  I have to be honest, though.  Judging by the screenshots, it looks a bit scattered and complicated.  I like the drill-down menu selection design approach, but I'm not sure you necessarily have to display each selection level in a separate list box.  Maybe just one that dynamically changes based on the level you're selecting.

Also, while cross-platform compatibility is nice, Java is a huge dependency.  I'd have to imagine most emulators will suffer in performance with that JVM running in the background.

[tcolar]

As far as Java, I agree with the downside on making it more difficult/heavy to install, on the other hand,  performance of the JVM is not an issue whatsoever, it was in 2003, nowadays the JVM is VERY fast, pretty close to native code actually and many times faster than any interpreted language.

The UI is not complicated at all, it's layed out so you use the joystick left/right to switch box and up/down to select items. I don't think you could make much more simpler/efficient than that for a joystick driven interface.

Basically the "left" box are filters which you would often set once and leave alone most times, center is "contextual" (lists) and the right is your filtered game list (filtered according to the left/center boxes selection). So often you will just stay in the game list mostly.   Also it remembers "state" so if you leave/come back it remembers where you where at so you don't have to go change all that each time.

Well anyway, that's my take on it   I don't think it's cute but it helps me find and select games more quickly than most other frontends ... so if i want to find say all the 2 simultaneous player platform shooter games and/or filter out all the "casino" games it makes that super easy.