Which frontend with Mame32?

[crapjoint]

Ok, I've decided to order an Arcadevga for my jamma cabinet.  I'm going to run Mame32 on Windows XP.  What is the easiest way to set things up for others to use?  Like if my wife or someone who doesn't know anything about computers wants to use it, how do I set it up to make it really easy for them?

[fredster]

I put the mame32 in a startup group on Win98SE and that was it.

You can put it in the statup group on XP too, but you can't have any other users described on the system.

[Howard_Casto]

mame32 has a built in front end, you should never use it with an external front end.

[AlexC]

It will work with Mamewah as well. Haven't played with it much though.

[Howard_Casto]

Not if you want it to help generate data for you.  Like I said  DO NOT use mame32 with a fe!!  Use regular old command line mame, not dos mame, not mame32.  It's the same taste but less filling.  

[crapjoint]

She gets a little confused with Mame32 though, is there a better version of mame that is more simple?

[NoOne=NBA=]

Once it is set up, MAMEWAH is about as simple as it gets, I think.
When it's launched, you get a scrolling gamelist, and hit 1-P Start when you find a game you like.

It takes a little work to get it set up the way you want it, but it is very configurable.
Using the layout editor, you can display just about any information you want about the games, and can change the pictures to show what you want them to.

Once you get it the way you want it, it's pretty much dummy-proof.

[Pete Harcoff]

I'd stick with the Mame32 fe.  It's pretty customizable and easy enough to remove all the extra stuff.

My recommendations to make the interface nice 'n simple:

Go under the "customize fields" and remove all the extra columns besides the game name.

Under "view", uncheck Toolbar, Status Bar, Folder List, and Screenshot Tab.

Tweak font and background to your liking.

Hit F11 for fullscreen.

The end result is a list of games on the left, screenshots on the right, and nothing else cluttering the display.

[Minwah]

I'd stick with the Mame32 fe.  It's pretty customizable and easy enough to remove all the extra stuff.

True but it will look bad on an arcade screen...it is meant for a relatively high resolution.  You could run it at 640x480 but it will be interlaced and thus flickery

[Jakobud]

Make sure that he is referring to the actual "Mame32" and not confusing that with "Mame for Windows"... 2 different breeds.