MaLa 2.0+ - New Feature ideas

[loadman]

As you will see in the other post, MaLa 2.0 Beta 1 is being tested by a small group for now.
This is mainly to improve stability, so there's a strong foundation to add new features.

As for potential new features, here are some ideas:

Already planned
These are happening regardless:

Coming in 2.0 Final

• The companion tools, rebuilt for 2.0 - GameList, Tree, Layout, AttractMode and PluginTester ship alongside MaLa.
• Launch buttons for those tools in the settings screens - right where you configure the matching feature, e.g. the Layout editor button next to the layout settings.
• Missing artwork and video report - MaLa checks your game list against the artwork your layout uses and writes the gaps to a file, ready for a bulk downloader such as ADB-Tools.
• Links to recommended companion tools - on malafe.net and inside MaLa, such as looking a game up on Arcade Database.

Potentially Coming in 2.1

• Second-screen marquee support - a dedicated LCD marquee panel above the main screen, showing artwork for the selected game.
• Multiple languages - MaLa's menus and settings in other languages, starting with German, French and Spanish, and open to community translations.

Some potential ideas that will keep me busy for a while - feedback welcome

These are features I'm considering. Nothing here is promised, and there's no set order yet.

If any of these would make a difference on your cabinet, or you think something is missing, reply and let me know.

Game lists and launching

• Run without MAME - use MaLa with only other emulators and/or the Jukebox, no MAME install needed.
• Portable game lists - lists keep working when a drive letter changes (USB drive, cloned build, moved install).
• Show the game name, ROM name, or both in the game list.
• Fall back to a clone when the parent ROM is missing (or vice versa), instead of failing to launch.
• Print or export the game list to text or CSV.
• Multiple emulators in one game list - e.g. MAME, Model 2 and Naomi games side by side.
• Multiple MAME versions side by side.
• Auto-quit idle games - return to MaLa after a game has been left idle for a set time. Would you want the game to quit, MaLa to quit, or both?
• Playlists.
• Play counts shared across layouts.

Layouts and display

• More game info in layouts - source file, driver status, ROM path and more, updating as you move through the list.
• History.dat display fixes.
• Hi-score display in layouts (HiToText).
• Animation in layouts, including animated starting screens.
• Transparency in layouts - layers over video, transparent game-list pictures.
• Background video in layouts.
• Auto-scaling layouts for different screen resolutions.
• Word wrap in layout text.
• Cocktail and rotation improvements.
• Windowed mode.
• Horizontal or sideways game lists.
• Music spectrum analyser - bars moving to the background music.

Controls and navigation

• Button combos and multiple keys per action, including a combo to quit.
• Wrap-around scrolling in the game list.
• Tree shortcuts - skip the game-list selection screen, hide the main emulator list.
• Small button conveniences - both Start buttons launch, a button to show flyers.

Starting a game

• Hide the "starting game" window.
• Show the game's snap or image in the starting window.

Hardware and configuration

• USB character LCD support (Matrix Orbital, Crystalfontz).
• Modern MAME config controls - video, filters, HLSL/BGFX.
• Support fot Strem Deck Control - Admin, coin adding etc

Thanks,

[Zebidee]

Game lists and launching

• Run without MAME - use MaLa with only other emulators and/or the Jukebox, no MAME install needed.

I vaguely remember trying out old Mala, many years ago. I liked it a lot, most people liked it. I want to give new Mala another go.

I might be mistaken about this, but: the reason I recall for not using old Mala was because the games lists forced the title text "GAMES LIST" to also appear. This annoyed me because I also wanted to have music playlists available from the menu, and to have "GAMES LIST" at the top of a list of music playlists would have looked dumb.

So my single, uncomplicated request of is: that the new Mala does not force you to have "Games List" appear above the games lists. Instead, it could be a text string variable instead, so I could replace it with something like "Music" or "Albums", or just something else instead. Even just to have the option of the "GAMES LIST" text *not* appearing would be better than nothing.

Again, I could be completely mistaken about this, apologies if that is the case.

EDIT: I thought about volunteering as a beta tester, but honestly I don't have the time so I didn't want to waste yours. But really looking forward to the new Mala   

[arquillos]

As you will see in the other post, MaLa 2.0 Beta 1 is being tested by a small group for now.
This is mainly to improve stability, so there's a strong foundation to add new features.

As for potential new features, here are some ideas:

Impressive!