Front end for mame

[D-ru15]

Hello all, 

I am almost finished my arcade cabinet I am installing the controllers, monitor, PC now.  I am using a 20" LCD monitor with an old PC I had laying around that has not been used in awhile.  I have a Xin Mo arcade to USB 2 player

PC details: (Not sure if it matters or not)
Windows XP
PentiumR 4CPU 2.8GHz
504mb of ram

Graphic Card
Intel R 64mb total memory

I am looking for a basic front end to use. (I do not know anything about front ends)  right now I am using the mame program only with the 2-3 games I have.    I heard that I need to get a front end and then I can hopefully download a torrent with a LOT more games on it and play that way.

Basically I need a front end program plus instructions on how to use it, since I have no idea about this part  lol  I hope this isn't against the rules but instructions and (link) if possible to download a torrent (I assume the front end will decide on what one I download) to uptain a lot of games at once

Thank you

[D-ru15]

I should mention I am looking at Atomic fe for my front end.

[Louis Tully]

.

[BorgDog]

I use Mala as listed by Mr. Tully.  It works pretty well on my low end setup.

[Fast351]

Ditto MaLa.  I have it in my upright MAME machine running on a 2008 PC and it works great and looks nice.  It's highly customizable, and doesn't look too "PC"y.  I've heard and seen great videos of Hyperspin but that thing is a hog, and if you're just looking to select games, you could do far worse than MaLa.

Check out this cool front end (which is what I am using a modified version of) that someone built on it:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=92067.0

[D-ru15]

I downloaded mala and tried it out. but I cant get it to work.

When I just open mame and select a games in my rom folder it works fine.  then when I open mala it wont open any of the games?

[Fast351]

There are a few things you need to set up to get it to work.  Off the top of my head, you need to point Mala at your mame exec, and the ROM path.  Then you need to "scan master game list" or something like that to populate your list. 

At that point it should work.  Use up/down to select game, press 1 to start (single player button)

What's it doing?

[D-ru15]

I did all that but I did not scan the list. 

I did tell it where the exe file and my rom folder is.  then when I open mala a massive list of games show up when I try and select any of them a pop up screen appears for 1 second and then back to the massive games select ??

[D-ru15]

Ok,  I got it to work.   All the games that are loaded on the version of mala that I downloaded do not work,  there is a massive list of games only the roms I have in my mame folder work.

Thanks so much

[thomas_surles]

Ok,  I got it to work.   All the games that are loaded on the version of mala that I downloaded do not work,  there is a massive list of games only the roms I have in my mame folder work.

Thanks so much

That's kinda how it works. You need all the Roms in your roms folder within the mame folder. If you'd don't have it working in mame first you won't have it working in the front end.

[BorgDog]

Ok,  I got it to work.   All the games that are loaded on the version of mala that I downloaded do not work,  there is a massive list of games only the roms I have in my mame folder work.

Thanks so much

There is a checkbox in there somewhere to only list games that have roms on the system... under Options, MAME config, Basics, click on Game Collection Options and hit the checkbox for Only games with rom found in rom folders.  Then it won't list all of them.

[DeLuSioNal29]

+1 on Mala.  Great for those specs.

Hyperspin is nice and flashy, but for your processor it may be overkill.  Also, Hyperspin does not work with Joysticks correctly in the menus unless you do a ton of workarounds.  Since you have a Xin Mo setup I'd avoid it.

D

[yotsuya]

You can do nice things with AtomicFE. It's my lower-end processor go-to FE.

[BadMouth]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,84933.0.html

People get a little crazy sticking up for their chosen front end.
Here is some Mala vs Hyperspin debate:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,120427.msg1277610.html#msg1277610

I use Mala, but it does have its weak points.
The biggest is that it is no longer being developed.
Recent changes in the newest versions of MAME have caused some issues to creep up.

[keilmillerjr]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,84933.0.html

People get a little crazy sticking up for their chosen front end.
Here is some Mala vs Hyperspin debate:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,120427.msg1277610.html#msg1277610

I use Mala, but it does have its weak points.
The biggest is that it is no longer being developed.
Recent changes in the newest versions of MAME have caused some issues to creep up.

I choose neither. Lots of good/better options out now. Big Blue Front End, RetroFE, AttractMode.

[nitrogen_widget]

Don't forget Advanced Menu.
That'll run on a Pentium 2, linux or windows & and on ARM.

I personally am of the belief that my front end shouldn't need more horsepower than the games i'm emulating.

[thomas_surles]

Maximus arcade is what I use. It can be flashy or simple and easy to setup. But if you are just using mame just use mala. Maximus to me is better with multiple emulators to choose from as I like the layout.

[bulbousbeard]

The command line for Retroarch should be something like:

retroarch.exe -L {path to core DLL file} {path to ROM/IMAGE}

Example:

D:\retroarch>retroarch.exe -L d:\retroarch\cores\bsnes_accuracy_libretro.dll "d:\roms\snes\wowsf2sucksonthesnes.zip"

[haynor666]

MAMEWAH should be perfect for low end system. Usually it eats on 16 Mb of memory (assuming your not using videos).

[D-ru15]

I have tried a few front ends now, I had had success with the ones I have tried except for Atomic FE.

I have my roms, (still in a ZIP file) in my rom folder in mame, they show up when I open Atomic but when I select the game(s) it says its loading waiting waiting waiting.... then it says "Loading delay expired , invalid rom (none)"

When I "check screen" this is what it tells me

S: Emulator found :C:\Users\Drew\Desktop\Arcade Games\MaMe\mame.exe
S: Roms Found in C:\Users\Drew\Desktop\Arcade Games\MaMe\roms
E: Directory for snaps does not exists :
E: Directory for snapvideo does not exists :


Can anyone PLEASE help?  what am I doing wrong

Thanks

[D-ru15]

I have tried a few front ends now, I had had success with the ones I have tried except for Atomic FE.

I have my roms, (still in a ZIP file) in my rom folder in mame, they show up when I open Atomic but when I select the game(s) it says its loading waiting waiting waiting.... then it says "Loading delay expired , invalid rom (none)"

When I "check screen" this is what it tells me

S: Emulator found :C:\Users\Drew\Desktop\Arcade Games\MaMe\mame.exe
S: Roms Found in C:\Users\Drew\Desktop\Arcade Games\MaMe\roms
E: Directory for snaps does not exists :
E: Directory for snapvideo does not exists :


Can anyone PLEASE help?  what am I doing wrong

Thanks

[yotsuya]

Can you right click on the selected screen in tree view and purge the list? That might help.

[D-ru15]

Just tried that... same error.

[Vigo]

Don't feel bad, atomicFE is a great frontend, but there is a learning curve. I used it a long time ago, and loved it after figuring it out, but then over time I forgot how to use it and stuck with mala for simplicity sake.

Is it by chance like mala where you have to set the directories separately in both the mame and atomicFE config?