Looking for a Mame Frontend that is dead simple to add roms to

[Maladjusted]

I've been having a hard time finding a Mame front end that I can simply add games to the play list by dropping the roms in the folder.
I've tried em all and none want to work for me.
I'm sure I am doing something wrong, if theres a way to screw something up I will find it.
I remember a few years back I had this flash drive it had Mame and some kind of front end and any time I wanted to add a game I would just drop the roms in the folder and it would magically appear on the list ready to play.
This flash drive got stolen by my ex-girlfriend's brother, long story, but I just wish I had a flash drive exactly like that one, a standalone mame frontend that I could add games to.

[chopperthedog]

mala... 



good day.

[Maladjusted]

Are you saying that Mala will perform in the manner in which I have described, because in my personal experience, it hasn't been the case.

[bulbousbeard]

That's exactly how Big Blue's configuration utility works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXK5fJb2jvw#t=3m57s

https://sites.google.com/site/bigbluefrontend/

[Vigo]

Are you saying that Mala will perform in the manner in which I have described, because in my personal experience, it hasn't been the case.

It's mostly true, a couple things. You do need to set up the rom directory in both mala and mame. That is a big reason why a lot of people new to mala have a hard time getting it working. If you are using a new version of mame, you will need to set the rom directory by going into the mame.ini file after you set it up in mala. Let me know if you have questions on that.

2nd, you do need to right click and select "refresh game list" for the games to actually update. If you want that part to update without clicking on refresh, you will probably need to make a autohotkey script to do it.

If you can describe the frontend you used to use, no guarantees but we might be able to figure out the name of it.

[BadMouth]

Most newbs start out with some form of MAMEUI: http://www.mameui.info/
(actually most newbs use an old version from some rom downloading site)

From there, they progress to a front-end.  If others are too difficult to set up, they revert to Maximus Arcade.

You'll need to fully read and follow the instructions for any of these.
This isn't commercial software where you click setup, a game is installed, and a shortcut is placed on your desktop.

[Malenko]

Most newbs start out with some form of MAMEUI: http://www.mameui.info/
(actually most newbs use an old version from some rom downloading site)

From there, they progress to a front-end.  If others are too difficult to set up, they revert to Maximus Arcade.

You'll need to fully read and follow the instructions for any of these.
This isn't commercial software where you click setup, a game is installed, and a shortcut is placed on your desktop.

^This. I cut my teeth on mameui , its a great starting point.

[Louis Tully]

.

[Hoopz]

Are you using Mame32 with another FE or just Mame32? 

I'd bet good money that most people use command line with their FE of choice because it looks better than Mame32.  Or people will use command line with their FE instead of Mame32 with another FE to save resources on the PC.  Using Mame32, which is a FE by itself, with another FE is not efficient.

I've only ever used MAME32. 

Is there something better about using command-line with a front end? Honest question. I've never had any issue running Mala with it. Just Wondering.

[bulbousbeard]

I've only ever used MAME32. 

Is there something better about using command-line with a front end? Honest question. I've never had any issue running Mala with it. Just Wondering.

I think using a separate frontend is better because you're removing dependencies and are more easily able to use one interface to launch games from multiple emulators.

For example, if I want one frontend interface, but I want to play one game in Retroarch, another game in M2, and another game in AAE, I can do that with a frontend. With MAMEUI or MAME32, that interface is specific to that emulator.

The other nice thing about separating the frontend from your emulators is that you can upgrade emulators without worrying about your interface changing. Not that it actually happens, but if the MAME32 guys decided to completely change their interface to something you didn't like, and a new version of MAME emulated a game that you've been waiting to play, you'd have to accept their ---smurfy--- interface change to play the new game in MAME.


http://qmc2.arcadehits.net/wordpress/

[Louis Tully]

.

[Hoopz]

Really old version or is it now MameUI?

If you aren't having problems, I wouldn't change.  Some people who constantly update their roms to new versions could see a performance impact because their running a program within a program since both are FEs in their own right.

[Vigo]

I've done it, and noticed no problems. I use command line mame with Mala just in case there is a chance using mame32 takes more resources. I still keep a spare copy of Mame32 on my machines for troubleshooting.

[BadMouth]

I used to point Mala to MAMEPlus until I started having issues with games that weren't present in the official build.
Don't remember the specifics, but it was enough to make me move on. 
From a Mala standpoint, it made no difference.

For a beginner, it's easier to change settings through familiar things like drop down menus and tabs.
Now that I've messed with this stuff for a while, the ini file is so much simpler.