Author Topic: Saw a great frontend ... (Read 4720 times)

PedroSilva · « **on:** April 16, 2004, 02:43:03 pm »

... similer to all the others, but with two features I did really like:

- instead of having a snapshoot of the game (when listing games) has the game running ...

(only playable after selection ... of course

)

- you can put coins (credits) on the frontend ... he "transmits" it to the games ...

How about adding this features guys ...

Just for the record ... saw it on an arcade shop nearby and it had 40 games, from what I remember ...

- 1942
- Air duel
- Bubbles
- Magic Boble III
-

GamingGreg · « **Reply #1 on:** April 16, 2004, 03:47:58 pm »

Are you sure this was a front end for MAME? Could it have been an Ultracade machine (see here) that you were looking at?

If it was a MAME front end, I'd like to know the name of it.

PedroSilva · « **Reply #2 on:** April 16, 2004, 04:03:05 pm »

Quote from: GamingGreg on April 16, 2004, 03:47:58 pm

Are you sure this was a front end for MAME? Could it have been an Ultracade machine (see here) that you were looking at?

If it was a MAME front end, I'd like to know the name of it.

No ... I'm sure it was not a Mame front end ... but it would be nice if it was, wouldn't it ?

PedroSilva · « **Reply #3 on:** April 16, 2004, 04:07:17 pm »

Quote from: GamingGreg on April 16, 2004, 03:47:58 pm

Are you sure this was a front end for MAME? Could it have been an Ultracade machine (see here) that you were looking at?

If it was a MAME front end, I'd like to know the name of it.

And it wasn't Ultracade for sure ... the fe is more like Mamewah, but with the features I mentioned ...

PedroSilva · « **Reply #4 on:** April 16, 2004, 04:08:38 pm »

By the way ... forgot to tell ... this is a commercial cabinet ...
Il try to pass again to see if there's a name on it ...

Popcorrin · « **Reply #5 on:** April 16, 2004, 04:24:33 pm »

Any chance it was the ArcadePC by Hanaho? I am not familiar what it uses for a frontend but it is a commercial multigame cabinet.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #6 on:** April 16, 2004, 05:19:11 pm »

You can do this in lazarus or dk. It's called attract mode videos.

You can probably do it in most other fes as well.

GamingGreg · « **Reply #7 on:** April 16, 2004, 05:20:17 pm »

Custom Arcades has a new front end described in this thread here. Could it be that? I believe this is a MAME front end however.

PedroSilva · « **Reply #8 on:** April 16, 2004, 06:44:47 pm »

Since I'm in Portugal ... I'd expect it to be made by an European company ... don't really believe this stuff to be imported from the states ... it would become extremly expensive ...

... unless a US company with some sort of partener around this parts ...

Custom arcades fe looks pretty good but not the one ...

I'll try to take a pic ... (if the owner doesn't mind)

Goz · « **Reply #9 on:** April 17, 2004, 06:56:28 am »

Ultramame also has this feature. (attract mode)

-Goz

Magnet_Eye · « **Reply #10 on:** April 17, 2004, 09:26:45 pm »

Sounds like an Ultracade..but the older version with a different look to the skin (no wheel) than that new one you see on their site...

the old one just had six marquees showing at once on the left. and the gameplay on the right i believe.

PedroSilva · « **Reply #11 on:** April 19, 2004, 07:33:55 am »

Ok ... found the machine:

the frontend:

http://www.covielsa.com/Manuales/manual-tec-XINFO.PDF

and the supplier:

http://www.covielsa.com/uk_TipoA.htm

now i'll try to get a copy of the fe ...

Lilwolf · « **Reply #12 on:** April 19, 2004, 08:36:21 am »

You can do it with JFront also..

I just haven't figured out any good ways of creating the video. I was considering adding support for swapping screenshots also. (so in a game you like, take more and more f12s and it will start rotating them).

But I have been WAY too busy recently... And the next version of the frontend is pretty close... all the parts... just not put back together nicely yet... All new / different. Lots of fun stuff.

Thenasty · « **Reply #13 on:** April 19, 2004, 04:03:47 pm »

Quote from: PedroSilva on April 16, 2004, 02:43:03 pm

- you can put coins (credits) on the frontend ... he "transmits" it to the games ...

I don't think there are any FE's out there that do this. Only in commercial products I believe.

Lilwolf · « **Reply #14 on:** April 19, 2004, 04:13:05 pm »

mame doesn't allow the coin issue...

And wont..

so its out of frontend control.

Why? because there isn't a legal reason for it... Its just useful for people who are trying to make money on a cab.

Same with the auto - state save... and auto - state load. (because then if you have 5 credits in game A, then goto game B and they realize that they lost their quarter... they can go back to A and have their coins.

SirPeale · « **Reply #15 on:** April 19, 2004, 05:34:33 pm »

Older versions of MAME would allow you to record the game to an .avi file, IIRC. Wouldn't help on the newest stuff, but for the classics...

PedroSilva · « **Reply #16 on:** April 19, 2004, 06:50:37 pm »

Actually ... the coin issue is not really a needed feature ... on the other end ... the game running view ... I really like it ...

On page 8 of the manual you can see it's looks ... it's all in english, so I believe it's not original made in Spain ... by the way ... if anyone of you guys developing fes is curios ... on the supplier's site there's a free update download of the mentioned fe ... but it apears to be the complete version.

Magnet_Eye · « **Reply #17 on:** April 19, 2004, 08:00:19 pm »

Well, the screen shot of the front end in action looks pretty simple to me.. something you could easily skin for use in MAMEwah or other FE.

Only thing you won;t get is actual gameplay instead of the still image. I was wondering though, if it would be possible to make animated GIF's to use instead of using avi files.

JoyMonkey · « **Reply #18 on:** April 19, 2004, 09:12:36 pm »

Quote from: Magnet_Eye on April 19, 2004, 08:00:19 pm

Only thing you won;t get is actual gameplay instead of the still image. I was wondering though, if it would be possible to make animated GIF's to use instead of using avi files.

Hmmm... if you could constantly take screen-snaps of games running in Mame (say about 15 snaps per second) you could compile them into an animated gif pretty easily. Maybe a genius around here knows how to trick Mame into thinking someone is pressing F12 fifteen times a second.

There's a load of AVI files of attract-mode and in-game videos for quite a few games already. The guys at 3D Arcade have been hard at work capturing games, I've found 302 avi files that cover most of the more popular games. They can be hard to track down though, I left bit-torrent running 24 hours to get the innitial collection of 200 or so (and of course I left it running a futher day or so to share the wealth). They show up on alt.binaries.emulators.mame now and then.
I've tried capturing videos myself, but I have yet to perfect the procedure.

Rod1968 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 19, 2004, 09:41:09 pm »

I downloaded the update version of this frontend
to see if it would work just for kicks and I got a bunch of read access errors.
But whats more interesting is there is a file included
with thie distribution called mg.exe? hmmm?
bet you can't guess what it is.
or maybe you can
Thats right its MAME 0.54
MAME 0.54 to be exact
UPDATE after running the included batch file
it create a file called mg on my c: drive I deleted the file and created a folder named mg and reran the the .bat file and now the front end works I just have to figure it out now

Thenasty · « **Reply #20 on:** April 19, 2004, 11:52:40 pm »

I tried this also and seems lke none of the KEYS from the Keyboard work when I run it thru the command line
ex:
mg pacman

It has this "PLEASE WAIT" in th emiddle of the screen and I can't get out/exit the game. In the FE, the only keys I stunble on working is the 1 and 2 (this cause the system to re-boot).

I wonder if this company had a permision from the MAME Dev's ?

Rod1968 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 20, 2004, 12:18:13 am »

Quote from: Thenasty on April 19, 2004, 11:52:40 pm

I tried this also and seems lke none of the KEYS from the Keyboard work when I run it thru the command line
ex:
mg pacman

It has this "PLEASE WAIT" in th emiddle of the screen and I can't get out/exit the game. In the FE, the only keys I stunble on working is the 1 and 2 (this cause the system to re-boot).

I wonder if this company had a permision from the MAME Dev's ?

I have the same problem would be nice to get it working it would make my cabinet that much more proffesional looking but probably better off since someone would most likely use it for unjust profit.
I am also wondering if they have permision to use it
I doubt it though

PedroSilva · « **Reply #22 on:** April 20, 2004, 01:16:18 pm »

Quote from: PedroSilva on April 16, 2004, 02:43:03 pm

... similer to all the others, but with two features I did really like:

- instead of having a snapshoot of the game (when listing games) has the game running ... (only playable after selection ... of course )

- you can put coins (credits) on the frontend ... he "transmits" it to the games ...

How about adding this features guys ...

Just for the record ... saw it on an arcade shop nearby and it had 40 games, from what I remember ...

- 1942
- Air duel
- Bubbles
- Magic Boble III
-

So ... it can be done with Mame after all ...

mr.Curmudgeon · « **Reply #23 on:** April 20, 2004, 02:36:07 pm »

I always thought it'd make more sense to see the game playing in the FE, rather than a static screenshot.

Come on you programming geniuses, backwards engineer this into your FE!!

This would be an awesome addition to Mamewah (hint, hint)

Plus, if they illegally used Mame, then there's no ethical problems. hehe

lokki · « **Reply #24 on:** April 20, 2004, 02:51:52 pm »

Well the thing is that the mame source code is available. So it is possible to modify the code to allow coins to be sent from the frontend. (additional command line parameter?) Or it could be as simple as waiting an few seconds and then putting the coins (keys in the keyboard buffer).

But this is against the spirit of MAME. They are making money out of the efforts of others.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #25 on:** April 20, 2004, 07:39:45 pm »

Quote from: Lilwolf on April 19, 2004, 04:13:05 pm

mame doesn't allow the coin issue...

And wont..

so its out of frontend control.

Why? because there isn't a legal reason for it... Its just useful for people who are trying to make money on a cab.

Same with the auto - state save... and auto - state load. (because then if you have 5 credits in game A, then goto game B and they realize that they lost their quarter... they can go back to A and have their coins.

Agreed.... it would actually be suprisingly easy to do this, just ain't gonna happen.

GamingGreg · « **Reply #26 on:** April 21, 2004, 12:50:49 am »

Hmmm,

Sounds like someone is illegally making a profit off of MAME to me. Also, I bet they modified the MAME source to allow for the coin credit tranfer thing, so that it would work with their front end.

PedroSilva · « **Reply #27 on:** April 21, 2004, 01:05:01 pm »

Shouldn't we tell to Nicola ?
I've notice that the Copyright message has not been removed.
Could it be possible that he gave his permission ?

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #28 on:** April 21, 2004, 02:10:02 pm »

Better safe than sorry.... go ahead and contact him, the worst that could happen is he says "yeah I know".

PedroSilva · « **Reply #29 on:** April 21, 2004, 05:14:07 pm »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on April 21, 2004, 02:10:02 pm

Better safe than sorry.... go ahead and contact him, the worst that could happen is he says "yeah I know".

I'm almost ashamed to ask ... but I really don't know ... can anybody tell his e-mail adress ?

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #30 on:** April 21, 2004, 06:52:03 pm »

Should be on mame.net.... you could also contact haze.

PedroSilva · « **Reply #31 on:** April 21, 2004, 07:38:22 pm »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on April 21, 2004, 06:52:03 pm

Should be on mame.net.... you could also contact haze.

I don't find any e-mail adresses, besides the one for the devellopment guys ... don't want to bother them with this issues ...

How about this haze guy you mentioned, do you have his e-mail adress ?

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #32 on:** April 22, 2004, 12:24:03 am »

hazemamewip@hotmail.com

PedroSilva · « **Reply #33 on:** April 25, 2004, 03:23:29 pm »

Ok... mail sent friday ... waiting for response ...

Gunstar Hero · « **Reply #34 on:** December 06, 2004, 01:20:13 am »

Wow.

Super Many Games.

Makes Ultracade seem imaginative and classy by comparison.

paigeoliver · « **Reply #35 on:** December 06, 2004, 01:29:05 am »

You guys act like you have never seen a hacked/pirate version of mame before. Sheesh, the JAMMA multi-williams boards are running mame, as are the 3 in 1, 4 in 1, 9 in 1, and 39 in 1 boards. The "Track pack" jamma board, and the 900 something in one board.

This stuff is all over. People don't HAVE to hack away on mame frontends to put mame out on location, not when you can buy a JAMMA board with arcadeos and the entire mame library on it. Those have been available for YEARS.

The horses got out of the barn years ago. Trying to secure the door now isn't going to help.

spystyle · « **Reply #36 on:** December 06, 2004, 10:21:23 am »

What is the address to download this frontend?

JoyMonkey · « **Reply #37 on:** December 06, 2004, 10:31:11 am »

The frontend isn't available for download 'complete'. As far as I can tell, the download they have is just an update for the X-Info computer that is used in the 'Super Many Games' cabinets.
http://www.covielsa.com/Descargas/Xinfo.zip


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