UNIVERSAL FRONTEND

[dkssprs]

Hi all.

The only frontend i have tried is MAXIMUS ARCADE. Its nice and easy to configure.

The bad thing with MA is that i cant find a way to have all my games (from different emulators/consoles) at the same list.

I am trying to have a universal list with all the games even if they are from different systems.

I hope you got the point.

Do you have in mind a Frontend that can do that?

ps. Sorry for my english.

[BadMouth]

This has been on my front-end wishlist forever, but as far as I know has not materialized on any customizable front end. 

There are workarounds to do that with Mala and Hyperspin.
See the "multiple emus in one list" sticky in the Mala subforum.

If you're looking for "nice and easy to configure", turn back now.

It's not easy to wrap your head around to begin with, but once you have a complete understanding of how everything in Mala works it becomes easy to add more games.
Basically you point Mala toward a batch file instead of mame.exe and the batch file runs the appropriate emulator based on what sub-folder the rom was found in.
Mala pulls all the info from mame.xml, so you need to add the games to that.

mame.xml has changed recently and Mala is no longer being developed and hasn't been updated to work with the changes, so that adds yet another wrinkle.

[baritonomarchetto]

FEEL can handle a single list with games from various emus (*Top Games* list) natively, no workarounds needed.

[Slippyblade]

I don't see any reason Attract-Mode can't do that either.  Might require manually setting up the ROMlist file, but should be easy enough.

[haynor666]

FEEL can handle a single list with games from various emus (*Top Games* list) natively, no workarounds needed.

Actually it can be also done by defining exceptions in directory cfg inside each emulator. That way I have almost 2000 games from mame and about 30 from daphne, model2 and Taito Type X/X2 games.

MAMEWAH works the same way but just like Mala does not support mame >161.

[BadMouth]

I bailed on the FEEL thread after all the .NET arguing. 
Good to know someone making a front end gets the idea that all arcade games belong in one list regardless of emulator.

Honestly it will probably be years before I bother changing the setup in my cab though.
No point in changing stuff that already works the way I want.

[stigzler]

Feel's written in .net!? Yer kiddin?
:p

[phulshof]

Don's working on including this feature in the next RetroFE release as well. I personally intend to use it to support all the different media on all the MSX systems in one list.

[keilmillerjr]

This has been on my front-end wishlist forever, but as far as I know has not materialized on any customizable front end. 

There are workarounds to do that with Mala and Hyperspin.
See the "multiple emus in one list" sticky in the Mala subforum.

If you're looking for "nice and easy to configure", turn back now.

It's not easy to wrap your head around to begin with, but once you have a complete understanding of how everything in Mala works it becomes easy to add more games.
Basically you point Mala toward a batch file instead of mame.exe and the batch file runs the appropriate emulator based on what sub-folder the rom was found in.
Mala pulls all the info from mame.xml, so you need to add the games to that.

mame.xml has changed recently and Mala is no longer being developed and hasn't been updated to work with the changes, so that adds yet another wrinkle.

Attractmode can do it.

[dkssprs]

Thank you all for your usefull replies.

Yesterday i have tested FEEL. I managed to configure it in short time. Yes it has a TOP games list. But i think its something like beta. I had crashes when i tried to configure the buttons.

I will test today i hope the Attractmode.

[dkssprs]

This has been on my front-end wishlist forever, but as far as I know has not materialized on any customizable front end. 

There are workarounds to do that with Mala and Hyperspin.
See the "multiple emus in one list" sticky in the Mala subforum.

If you're looking for "nice and easy to configure", turn back now.

It's not easy to wrap your head around to begin with, but once you have a complete understanding of how everything in Mala works it becomes easy to add more games.
Basically you point Mala toward a batch file instead of mame.exe and the batch file runs the appropriate emulator based on what sub-folder the rom was found in.
Mala pulls all the info from mame.xml, so you need to add the games to that.

mame.xml has changed recently and Mala is no longer being developed and hasn't been updated to work with the changes, so that adds yet another wrinkle.

Attractmode can do it.

I have downloaded Attract mode and i am very satisfied with it. Easy to configure , stable and nice layouts.

Allthough i didnt find the way i can create a TOP GAME LIST from all the emulators/systems.

Does anyone have a link of a guide or can anyone explain the way to create the list?

Thanks in advance.

[keilmillerjr]

This has been on my front-end wishlist forever, but as far as I know has not materialized on any customizable front end. 

There are workarounds to do that with Mala and Hyperspin.
See the "multiple emus in one list" sticky in the Mala subforum.

If you're looking for "nice and easy to configure", turn back now.

It's not easy to wrap your head around to begin with, but once you have a complete understanding of how everything in Mala works it becomes easy to add more games.
Basically you point Mala toward a batch file instead of mame.exe and the batch file runs the appropriate emulator based on what sub-folder the rom was found in.
Mala pulls all the info from mame.xml, so you need to add the games to that.

mame.xml has changed recently and Mala is no longer being developed and hasn't been updated to work with the changes, so that adds yet another wrinkle.

Attractmode can do it.

I have downloaded Attract mode and i am very satisfied with it. Easy to configure , stable and nice layouts.

Allthough i didnt find the way i can create a TOP GAME LIST from all the emulators/systems.

Does anyone have a link of a guide or can anyone explain the way to create the list?

Thanks in advance.

Well, you can merge lists from multiple lists. However, I think the feature you are looking for is the built in favorites feature.

[raygun]

I have downloaded Attract mode and i am very satisfied with it. Easy to configure , stable and nice layouts.

Allthough i didnt find the way i can create a TOP GAME LIST from all the emulators/systems.

Does anyone have a link of a guide or can anyone explain the way to create the list?

Thanks in advance.

Hey there, the easiest way to create a multi-emulator list is with the attractmode command-line options.  If you have configured a "mame" and a "nestopia" and a "steam" emulator for example, running the following from the command line will generate a combined romlist for all these emulators:

Code: [Select]

attract --build-romlist mame nestopia steam
You can then select the generated combo list from the config menu.

As for the top picks, you could mark your favourite games and then add a filter to show just favourites, or you could set up a filter to sort the list by total time played...

cheers

[dkssprs]

Thanks for the reply and also i apologise for the silly question but.....

Where is the command line? Could anuone please mention the path.

I am starting to like the Attract very very much!!!!

[Fursphere]

You can do it with HyperSpin, but it isn't easy.

You have to add <EXE> tags to the XML database to tell the wheel which emulator to call.  RocketLaunch can pick up the slack after that.  I think.  ??  (I'll have to think about this a little more) Nevermind.  EXE tags skip RocketLaunch / HyperLaunch.

HyperSearch is a nice piece of middleware that searches all your XML databases (systems) at the same time for games and compiles a complete system-agnostic list on the fly. 

[keilmillerjr]

HyperSearch is a nice piece of middleware that searches all your XML databases (systems) at the same time for games and compiles a complete system-agnostic list on the fly.

Huh? Leave it to the hyper crew to overly complicate and bloat things.

[dkssprs]

Can anyone explain , where is the command line in the Attract mode. How can i insert the command mentioned before, to create the universal list?

Thanks in advance!

[haynor666]

attract --build-romlist <emulator names...>

for example:
attract --build-romlist mame model2 daphne

You have to this from dos window.


Or you can do this manually by simply copy/paste text from one list to another. Example:

005;005;mame;;1981;Sega;;2;270;joystick (4-way);imperfect;1;raster;;;
gtmr;1000 Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally (94/07/18);mame;;1994;Kaneko;;2;0;joystick (8-way),paddle,dial;good;1;raster;;;
win_raiden3;000 Raiden III;taito_type_x;;2000;;joystick (8-way);good;raster;;;

As you can see the third fields tells attractmode which configuration should be used to run game: mame, model2, daphne, taito_type_x.

[dkssprs]

Thank you Haynor for your advice. I managed to create the universal list!!!!