Which is the best front-end in your opinion????

[jhsmith321]

Hello! I would like to know the opinions of the BYOAC

[Minwah]

Try them all out and make a choice

[Jakobud]

Some of the most used ones for Arcade cabinets (ie. not Windozy looking) among BYOAC is Mamewah, Game Launcher, Dragon King and maybe a few people are still using ArcadeOS.

[Howard_Casto]

I move that this thread be deleted on the grounds that it's an extremely dumb quesiton.  

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Does me knowing your favorite flavor help me decided which flavor is best?  Is there a best flavor?  If your fav differs from mine then are one of us wrong?  Which one?  Why?

Maybe now you see how futile asking this question is.  There are a dozen possible answers and none of them is any more vaild than the last.... now a poll might be more useful, but asking the question is dumb.  

[Rocky]

I move that this thread be deleted on the grounds that it's an extremely dumb quesiton.  

LOL!

Seriously though, jhsmith321, you need to do a little looking around and trying things yourself.
-  The FE web sites list a lot of the features for each FE.
-  People here have discussed pros and cons of them all
-  The final proof is in the setup and use (a personal preference)

Good luck,

Rocky

[Jakobud]

I move that this thread be deleted on the grounds that it's an extremely dumb quesiton.  

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Does me knowing your favorite flavor help me decided which flavor is best?  Is there a best flavor?  If your fav differs from mine then are one of us wrong?  Which one?  Why?

Maybe now you see how futile asking this question is.  There are a dozen possible answers and none of them is any more vaild than the last.... now a poll might be more useful, but asking the question is dumb.  

Stated in true, blunt, to-the-point, no-nonsense, HC style

[BigBri]

mamewah because it's easy to use and it's skinnable.  has great features.  now was that hard people?

[Zinfari]

Actually I think it's a decent question, but you needed to supply more information.  I would hazard a guess that once you stated your preferred OS (some of the front ends are for window, others for dos) or anything in particular you wanted to achieve with the front end the list would be fairly short.... and then you could try those out.

There are a ton of them out there and folks here have spent a great deal of time playing around with them (and in some cases developing them).  Thus putting the question to this group is very valid..... who else would you ask?

While I agree that it's ultimately a matter of opinion, I'm fairly certain that more people like chocolate than butter pecan ice cream....
-Zinf

[jhsmith321]

Howard, Rocky?? Maybe I stated the question in the wrong way, I was not asking for a magic recipe for the perfect emulator, I wanted to hear from others what they found  to be the a great front-end and what features made it great. I personally think that asking the opinion from other people experiences, it is in fact, a smart way to learn faster from others. Some people in this forum, have far more experience and knowledge in the emulator scene some of us. People in this forum, have used tons of different software, and most of us can name some really great utilities, because we have spent time searching for them, or because we heard from it from a questions like this,

Howard, I know that you have posted many useful comments on this forum, I thank you for that, that kind of contributions makes this forum great. If you think of a question as being a dumb one, you don?t have to answer it at all. It would be far more constructive for all the other members if you could just name a few of your favorite program, as I am assuming that you would name what you believe to be some of the ?best apps? out there, and then let the person try them from himself, saving him a lot of guessing and searching for the programs. It is your decision if you would like to contribute or not, it is that simple. This is what a forum is about, to help each other, not to criticize each one of us.

[Magnet_Eye]

Maybe now you see how futile asking this question is.  There are a dozen possible answers and none of them is any more vaild than the last.... now a poll might be more useful, but asking the question is dumb.  

This is not a dumb question, especially since he asked for OPINIONS. He wants to hear our opinions to help lead him to some desicion or possibly to narrow down his search. He didn't ask what the best front end is, he asked in your opinion which is the best.

Howard has once again snapped for no valid reason. Why even post HC? Just let the guy ask his question and let those that want to answer do so. GEEZ!  

[Alcohol]

I would and do use mamewah in my cab.. its simple yet it does the job perfectly, it runs all the emulators i need and once up and running hides windows nicely and if you do get stuck minwah seems to be more than happy to help in these forums, a friendly author is a great help when you need advice...

and personally i dont think this question was a stupid one...

[mushmouth]

I have a somewhat unique situation with my cab project, unique in that I haven't seen a lot of people doing exactly what I'm doing. I didn't get to try many of the available front ends because by nature of listing my needs, OS, PC hardware, etc, my choices were narrowed down to like TWO. I went with Emulaxian, which I am re-skinning (almost done) to match the cab theme. This is the only front end I can speak to.

From the start, I had massive problems with my PC, all due to a bad OS install. Through all of that, Peter (god tell me I got his name right) who created Emulaxian, bent over backwards to help me work through a problem that didn't even end up being related to his front end. Then, when I began the skinning process, he was equally and enthusiastically helpful.

As someone in this thread already said regarding MameWah, it really REALLY helps to have a cool developer who hangs around and is willing to help. Automatic bonus cool points. Keep that in mind, read the threads, and do your homework on not just the front end, but the creator as well. That's the advice I'd give...

Hey Howard, "I move that this thread be deleted on the grounds that it's an extremely dumb quesiton." is EASILY the BYOAC quote of the year. Congrats.

[originalself]

I would recomend mamewah as it is what i use in my cab. I use it because the skins are very easy to make, The interface is intuative with an arcade control panel and it does not need any utility buttons(which i have none). It simply does not get any easier than that in the arcade front end world. Theirs my $0.02  

[hulkster]

well i think its a fair question, just about as fair as any other question.  he wants to know what everybody likes, not just what everybody uses.  well anyway the award for best frontend goes to Mamewah for me.  with the others, it seems you have to be johnny-nerds-a-lot and know code and craziness like that, but with mamewah, it just takes some tweaking.  

oh and once again, in case you wanted to know who gets the "bastard of the year award" it goes to HC.  but dont ask that question, cuz he might want to get that deleted too...even though its fair.

[mushmouth]

For the record, I actually feel like Howard makes this place a little more interesting. Say what you want about him. I don't always agree with his approach (though I'm ALWAYS entertained), but the bottom line is that his advice is usually solid and he is often right.

I said "Howard... DUDE... A spoonful of sugar, you know???"

and Howard said "Bite me."

And that's just the way it is.

People make the world go round.

[slycrel]

  I would have to say mamewah.  I have yet to find a front end that is exactly what I'd like, but unless I write my own then I probably won't.  Oh, and I think it's windows only, if that matters to you.

  Hey, slightly off topic...  anyone know of a decent program to edit MAME .ini settings?  Other than notepad?  

  A few of Mamewah's good points, off the top of my head:

  - Music in the background of your lists, screensaver, etc.
  - Custom lists are relatively easy to do, and there can be a large number of them available to you if you need them.
  - screen saver options are nice, especially the random game one.  =)
  - Custom layouts are easy to do.
  - Many resolutions supported.
  - Accessable with only a control panel (under ideal circumstances =) )

  complaints (as much for minwah's benefit too, so a bit more descriptive):

  - Occasionally mamewah will lose it's focus and I have to pull out the mouse to click in it.  This seems to happen when mame quits because of a problem with a rom or a non-working rom that I try to play.
  - My biggest gripe is setup.  There are too many things that could be streamlined with a separate setup app.  There is mamewah setup that was created by someone else, but it seems to be a bit buggy here and there.  Also the options menu (in my opinion) could be set up a lot more intuitively.  For example, some game list options are under the emulator category rather than the game list options.
  - I wish the random game option was more accessable.

  Hope that helps.

[eightbit]

I use Mamewah and like it. I've tried many others and they either looked like Windows (mame32) or simply didn't work (dragon king). The only thing lacking in mamewah for me is joystick support for my one cab that is a gamepad hack.

Mamewah is easy to set up. Has good skinning and can run most emulators or other programs. Definately doesn't look like windows and Minwah is incredibly helpfull if you have questions.

Howard is self described as being to lazy to answer a question properly so I don't know why he bothers to post. I move we vote Howard off the island for being rude.

[)p(]

Howard is self described as being to lazy to answer a question properly so I don't know why he bothers to post. I move we vote Howard off the island for being rude.

You'r kidden right? Howard has spend lots and lots of his time helping people out in this community.

Peter

[Minwah]

  I would have to say mamewah.  I have yet to find a front end that is exactly what I'd like, but unless I write my own then I probably won't.  Oh, and I think it's windows only, if that matters to you.

  Hey, slightly off topic...  anyone know of a decent program to edit MAME .ini settings?  Other than notepad?  

  A few of Mamewah's good points, off the top of my head:

  - Music in the background of your lists, screensaver, etc.
  - Custom lists are relatively easy to do, and there can be a large number of them available to you if you need them.
  - screen saver options are nice, especially the random game one.  =)
  - Custom layouts are easy to do.
  - Many resolutions supported.
  - Accessable with only a control panel (under ideal circumstances =) )

  complaints (as much for minwah's benefit too, so a bit more descriptive):

  - Occasionally mamewah will lose it's focus and I have to pull out the mouse to click in it.  This seems to happen when mame quits because of a problem with a rom or a non-working rom that I try to play.
  - My biggest gripe is setup.  There are too many things that could be streamlined with a separate setup app.  There is mamewah setup that was created by someone else, but it seems to be a bit buggy here and there.  Also the options menu (in my opinion) could be set up a lot more intuitively.  For example, some game list options are under the emulator category rather than the game list options.
  - I wish the random game option was more accessable.

  Hope that helps.

Do you have this focus problem with v0.963?  Turn Show DOS Box to 'Auto' too - this should eliminate what appears to be a 'hang' with games with bad roms.

The reason some 'games list' settings are within 'Emulator Settings' is if they are global to that emulator.  'Games List Options' generally contains the current games lists specific options.  To me it is very well laid out - but then it would be    In all honesty I find it a piece of cake to setup MAME within seconds (I have to re-set up for new version too ya know!)  I don't edit the CFG files, just use the menu.  I accept that setup may be a pain if you use a lot of emulators tho...

And press Shift to get a random game

I don't think there is an INI editor.  I plan to make one eventually for the CTRLR INI files, but that could be a long way off

[shmokes]

I move that this thread be deleted on the grounds that it's an extremely dumb quesiton.  

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Does me knowing your favorite flavor help me decided which flavor is best?  Is there a best flavor?  If your fav differs from mine then are one of us wrong?  Which one?  Why?

Maybe now you see how futile asking this question is.  There are a dozen possible answers and none of them is any more vaild than the last.... now a poll might be more useful, but asking the question is dumb.  

This is retarded.  You make me laugh, Howard.  You should teach a philosophy class.  That's deep stuff.  It's like saying that it is invalid to do a comparison review of WordPerfect vs. MS Word, or Money vs. Quicken.  FE's aren't all of equal quality, with just a few minor differences in style, as your ignorant icecream analogy implies.  Some are just far and away better than others.  A significant purpose of a message board is so people can come and make use of research that other members of the board have already done so that person doesn't have to reinvent the wheel by, say, trying every last FE out before making a decision.

By the way, my cab should be finished in time for my Superbowl party.  Can someone tell me which FE is the best?  I secretly think it infuriates Howard to see so many people using Mamewah instead of the King.  

There's a chinese restaurant in my town (Cedar City, UT) named Dragon King.  You should sue them.

[PacManFan]

I secretly think it infuriates Howard to see so many people using Mamewah instead of the King.  

There's a chinese restaurant in my town (Cedar City, UT) named Dragon King.  You should sue them.

I didn't think that was a secret, I thought it was fairly apparant. I told HC to name it "Burger King" instead, it might be more popular that way.

-PMF

[slycrel]

Do you have this focus problem with v0.963?  Turn Show DOS Box to 'Auto' too - this should eliminate what appears to be a 'hang' with games with bad roms.

The reason some 'games list' settings are within 'Emulator Settings' is if they are global to that emulator.  'Games List Options' generally contains the current games lists specific options.  To me it is very well laid out - but then it would be    In all honesty I find it a piece of cake to setup MAME within seconds (I have to re-set up for new version too ya know!)  I don't edit the CFG files, just use the menu.  I accept that setup may be a pain if you use a lot of emulators tho...

And press Shift to get a random game

I don't think there is an INI editor.  I plan to make one eventually for the CTRLR INI files, but that could be a long way off

  Yes, I have this problem with the latest version.  I think it's only happened once so far in the new version, but I've been more careful about the games I play too.  I'll see if I can track it down well enough to reproduce it.

  As far as the setup...  once I know where the option I need is, I can usually remember it and it's not a huge deal.  But the problems come in when I don't know how or if the setting is there in the first place, I usually have to look around a bit more than I'd think.  I suppose my gripe is the learning curve, and I haven't found much in the way of n00b friendly documentation.  For example, I can't seem to get the full rom names into my lists currently, even after setting up the catver.ini file and changing a slew of other settings.  I did this by accident last time and I'm unsure of what I did to get this to happen.  Any suggestions?

  I also trashed my old installation and started over due to some error 70/75's.  I've changed something to cause that to stop happening, and I suspect it was the verify options.  I've not been able to get these errors consistantly either, but I'll let you know more when I know more about the problem.  =)  I do know that when they happen the verify file seems to still be open and unaccessable until I reboot.  Anyhow.  

  One suggestion on the numeric values...  it would be nice to be able to press up/down on the joystick to increase or decrease the values rather than having to pull out my keyboard for it.  Although thinking about it, I would suspect that this isn't a trivial thing (and it's minor), so I'll deal with it.  =)

  All in all it looks like you've done a very good job for Mamewah.  A very impressive piece of work.  Thanks!

edit:  I am also using noname mame if that matters...  And I have the auto-show dos box on as well.

[Minwah]

 Yes, I have this problem with the latest version.  I think it's only happened once so far in the new version, but I've been more careful about the games I play too.  I'll see if I can track it down well enough to reproduce it.

  As far as the setup...  once I know where the option I need is, I can usually remember it and it's not a huge deal.  But the problems come in when I don't know how or if the setting is there in the first place, I usually have to look around a bit more than I'd think.  I suppose my gripe is the learning curve, and I haven't found much in the way of n00b friendly documentation.  For example, I can't seem to get the full rom names into my lists currently, even after setting up the catver.ini file and changing a slew of other settings.  I did this by accident last time and I'm unsure of what I did to get this to happen.  Any suggestions?

  I also trashed my old installation and started over due to some error 70/75's.  I've changed something to cause that to stop happening, and I suspect it was the verify options.  I've not been able to get these errors consistantly either, but I'll let you know more when I know more about the problem.  =)  I do know that when they happen the verify file seems to still be open and unaccessable until I reboot.  Anyhow.  

  One suggestion on the numeric values...  it would be nice to be able to press up/down on the joystick to increase or decrease the values rather than having to pull out my keyboard for it.  Although thinking about it, I would suspect that this isn't a trivial thing (and it's minor), so I'll deal with it.  =)

  All in all it looks like you've done a very good job for Mamewah.  A very impressive piece of work.  Thanks!

edit:  I am also using noname mame if that matters...  And I have the auto-show dos box on as well.

OK - drop me an email when/if you next have problems and I'll try and figure it out.  I think I may have a workaround for the 'verify file' problem, should that pop up again.

I guess my docs are not world-beating, and however I design the menu someone wouldn't be happy, so it's just something you'll have to live with I'm afraid...although all of the default settings are for MAME - you should just have to enter one or two things (paths/filenames).  As for the full game names, make sure you have the List Generation Method set to 'ROM Folder vs Listinfo (M.A.M.E.)' (in Emulator Settings > List Generation Settings).

I hear you about using the sticks for altering values - that would be good, it's already on my todo list...

Just a thought - do you use ClrMAME / RomCentre checked sets?  The 'Auto-Show' DOS box thing is only clever enough to show the box if the game has bad dumps, not if your romset is bad (CRC doesn't check out)...something to check at least if it happens again.

[Pipercub]

Arcade OS has been bulletproof for me over several years and MAME upgrades.

[hulkster]

I secretly think it infuriates Howard to see so many people using Mamewah instead of the King.  

There's a chinese restaurant in my town (Cedar City, UT) named Dragon King.  You should sue them.

I didn't think that was a secret, I thought it was fairly apparant. I told HC to name it "Burger King" instead, it might be more popular that way.

-PMF

HA!  good stuff.  props to ya.  nah, howard doesnt need to voted off the island or kicked out or whatever, he just gives people like me a reason to call somebody an ass bag.  thanks howard!  

[SirPoonga]

I move that this thread be deleted on the grounds that it's an extremely dumb quesiton.  

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Does me knowing your favorite flavor help me decided which flavor is best?  Is there a best flavor?  If your fav differs from mine then are one of us wrong?  Which one?  Why?

Maybe now you see how futile asking this question is.  There are a dozen possible answers and none of them is any more vaild than the last.... now a poll might be more useful, but asking the question is dumb.  

This is retarded.  You make me laugh, Howard.  You should teach a philosophy class.  That's deep stuff.  It's like saying that it is invalid to do a comparison review of WordPerfect vs. MS Word, or Money vs. Quicken.  FE's aren't all of equal quality, with just a few minor differences in style, as your ignorant icecream analogy implies.  Some are just far and away better than others.  A significant purpose of a message board is so people can come and make use of research that other members of the board have already done so that person doesn't have to reinvent the wheel by, say, trying every last FE out before making a decision.

No, HC's analogy is right on.  Each FE is better at some things than others.  Some people will say Dragon King is the best, or mamewah is the best, or arcadeos is the best, or gamelauncher is the best.  Or even mame32 is the best.

It's a matter of your specific preferences and what you are looking for.  Just like what your favorite ice cream flavor is may not be the same favorite as someone else because they have different tastes.

You do have to try every FE (at least narrow it down by features) before you decide what you like.  There is no ultimate FE.

[shmokes]

Right, but that's why there would presumably be a whole thread of responses (preferably useful responses) talking about the virtues of various FE's.  The person asking the question could then form a reasonably accurate idea of which FE will *probably* be best for him based on all of the responses.  It's like looking through the user reviews for products on Amazon.com.  Some will be good reviews, some will be bad, but they can all be useful.  The "don't ask don't tell" taboo that has cropped up here regarding stating a preference for frontends is senseless.  It's a forum.  We discuss things...things like frontends and how well they work.   I understand that Howard put a lot of work into his stuff, but if he doesn't have thick enough skin to hear someone say that they like a competitor's product better he has no business putting something out where everybody can see it.

And I still think the ice cream thing is nonsense.  Sure, the frontends you mentioned are probably comparable, but many others don't hold a candle to the work of Minwah and Howard and a few others.  This is information that many people here have and refuse to give out because they think they are offending the frontend gods to talk about it.  It don't make no sense  

If I were to ask you which browser is best IE or Firebird would you refuse to give me a straight answer simply because IE is faster.  I suspect that you wouldn't get all uppety and tell me to go to hell.  You'd say something like, "Firebird is better in most ways, but it is a bit slower than IE and there are a few pages here and there that don't display properly."  There's just no logic to the thin ice everyone is walking on when it comes to discussing the FE's.

[SirPoonga]

And I still think the ice cream thing is nonsense.  Sure, the frontends you mentioned are probably comparable, but many others don't hold a candle to the work of Minwah and Howard and a few others.  This is information that many people here have and refuse to give out because they think they are offending the frontend gods to talk about it.  It don't make no sense  

See, that's your opinion mamewah and dragon king are top of the line FEs.  Sure, they have alot of features.  There's people that use GameLauncher because it has a specific purpose.  It's simple and can rotate.  If you only have a handful of roms or need rotation that is a great FE.  I will be using it on my cocktail cabinet.

I also like PartyOn, it was my first FE I ever used and I still like it.  Sure, you have to make your own lists, but it just looks like an 80s arcade FE.

Also some will say 3dfe is the best out there.

Don't ask don't tell taboo?  WTF are you talking about?  People make their preferences known alot.  It isn't as obvious now in part that DK and mamewah had a sticky support thread.  There aren't as many dedicated threads about issues.

You want to know my preference, an older version of lazarus that I have running.

[Minwah]

I keep casting an eye over this thread, just to see if the original poster, jhsmith321 has actually found anything useful so far...

I think the reason Howard gets annoyed by this is that this question (or very similar questions) are raised here VERY often.  To jhsmith321: I assume you wanted opinions so you could try the favorite choices yourself?  I think perhaps if you had stated a bit more detail as to what you require (namely OS, I realise you listed Windows FE's tho), then the question may have been slightly better received.  I suppose until there are decent reviews for all the FE's (SirP, are you still reviewing?), then this type of question will always be asked...

My opinions: My favorite Windows FE is pretty obvious    For an 'old' PC running DOS I would use ArcadeOS, but I would also give GameLauncher a shot (never tried that when I was looking thru DOS FE's, but used it + liked it on a cocktail at a show once).  I also liked AdvanceMenu, but had a few problems with it I couldn't solve.

[Howard_Casto]

I think my analogy speaks for itself.  His question is far far too vague, as minwah pointed out.  

If you had said "I'm running xp with a 700 mhz processor with 512 megs of ram and I want a front-end that's skinnable that'll support filters"  then we could give you answers.  Now, as open-ended as the question is most of the responses you'll get is "I use xxx fe because it's cool"


Whoever said there is no such thing as dumb questions never had a guy ask them the number for 911.  


***edit***

regarding what sirp said:  I tend to agree with him.  Believe it or not gamelauncher is still in my top 3 list simply becuase it does what it's supposed to do.  

Also I happen to think that my own front-end (Dragon King)  is a bad choice for many people.  It's meant for powerful pcs.... i reccomend mamewah most of the time.

ages ago peter and myself discussed what the people hadn't seen.  He decided to make the ultimate 3d front end and I decided to make the ultimate 2 1/2 d one.  The quest still continues, but the fact of the matter is neither of our fes, as good as they are, are a good choice for a p2 350mhz running windows 95.  

So that brings us back to the question.... we need more input.  

[mushmouth]

This is probably a good time for me to mention that I run 3dArcade on my P4 450MHZ with zero problems. Everyone, including peter told me it would probably choke on some of the more complex 3d environments. It hasn't. Yet anyway...

I also wanted to comment on the point made by someone about how this subject has been talked about many times before, etc. I can't tell you how frustrating it is when you first come in here and people say "search the forums, it's been talked about." Today, as an example, I searched the forums (advanced search, 365 day span, all forums) for "mounting pc monitor in cabinet" without the quotes. I wanted to look at what solutions people have come up with because I've seen many threads on the subject. The search netted ONE SINGLE result from a thread that wasn't even about that. So it's not really fair to come back at people with "do a search" because the search function here doesn't work well at all. Period.

Someone in the chat gave me this advice for google, however, which is excellent. Type "site:www.arcadecontrols.com keyword keyword keyword" etc, without the quotes... Worked like a charm...

[)p(]

This is probably a good time for me to mention that I run 3dArcade on my P4 450MHZ with zero problems. Everyone, including peter told me it would probably choke on some of the more complex 3d environments. It hasn't. Yet anyway...

You haven't run video's on the models i suppose ;-) Mpeg streams themselves need several mhz.

Actually I think any question can be asked. And it is allways fun reading peoples responses to this partical type of question.

Personally I find Emulaxian overkill for most cabs and the 3darcade in it more suited for the desktop. Or if your like me and just want to have something different...

My general recommendations are:

Dk: for if you run in windows with a pc with a decent 3d card, not anything fancy needed though. It's setup might be a little more complex then Mamewah but graphically it can look much better for exampler with the use of alpha transparencies and it has more options to jump through lists.

Mamewah: Would be my first try in windows on a lower spec pc. Using the gdi it is not as flashy as dk but it does its job well. Fully skinnable, relatively easy to setup, great support by minwah and an active user base it is a certainly a good alternative to DK.

Pacmanfan's upcoming fe: This looks very promising as it has a complete professional windows style gui. If it works well this might become the easiest to setup. And using the emutron core it will also be very powerful.

Gamelauncher: If you only need a list and don't care about skins etc. Don't look any further. Try this one first...it is so elegant...mjummie I still like it very much.

Peter

[shmokes]

This thread is starting, in my opinion, to look like it should.  Sir Poonga's and Howards latest responses are brimming with exactly the info sought.  His subject line was perfectly appropriate it was posted in the right forum.  If you're a jaded veteran you can easily look at the subject line and stay out of the thread and let other people answer the questions.

I don't think the poster expected a single definitive answer.  If it were that easy he wouldn't have had to ask.  He's looking for a discussion of FE's and it should be expected that the question will be revisited periodically because FEs are always changing.  The best right now might become obsolete tomorrow when someone releases some new revolutionary frontend.

Asking questions here is simply the most economical resource for information regarding which frontend one should use.  There's no place to read reviews or get a comparison chart of features.

I've got to commend Minwah.  While he seems to think this question has little merit, he's not a geek about it.

[PacManFan]

For DOS, I've used GL time and time again, it's a simple, easy to use FE, I've put it on 3 low-end DOS mame cabs already.

-PMF

[canardo]

from my point of view which is a cocktail machine running a 1.3gig athlon and 256 megs of ram on XP, I use gamelauncher mainly because it natively supports rotation for my vertically mounted monitor
(So am looking forward to pacmanFans new one)
agreed the lists would be nice but I have created some of my own that work well for me, also I find the multi emulator support brilliant with the use of Howards wrappers.

I have had a play with mameWah and DragonKing and think they both look great and can provide heaps more info for the user, however I tend to use mame32 to testplay the games on the desktop as scrolling with a wheel mouse and scroll bars is a hell of a lot faster imo and the cabinet gets used to play the ones I love and that simply dont work via a keyboard or a pad.

Just thought I would edit this to say

Thanks to everyone who has developed a front end and made it freely available(and provided support how many profit making companies even do this really nowdays guys) I would be very proud if when I have finished my degree I can also provide some useful tool to the community.