WIN98, TV @ 640X480, which FE to use?

[chris]

my mame cab (http://members.cox.net/nebrunner) is running win98 on a 27inch tv at 640X480 using the svideo in.  Right now I am using MAME32 as the program and frontend.  It works great but the screen is a bit cluttered at this low of a resolution.  

Is there an obviously superior FE that I should be using in my situation or should I be happy with what I have?

[)p(]

my mame cab (http://members.cox.net/nebrunner) is running win98 on a 27inch tv at 640X480 using the svideo in.  Right now I am using MAME32 as the program and frontend.  It works great but the screen is a bit cluttered at this low of a resolution.  

Is there an obviously superior FE that I should be using in my situation or should I be happy with what I have?

I would suggest Advance Menu it can do any res...also I believe game launcher, raging dragon and jfront can do it...and mine Emulaxian can do it also...

Peter

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah any of those mentioned will work.  Mame32 is a hideous front-end (even though technically it's merely a windows app with the generic windows gui.)  and isn't designed for mamecabs.  Mame32 is designed for the "desktop arcade" people not true mame cabers.  

[chris]

I tried gamelauncher last night, it looks neat but it hasn't been updated in quite a while and is not ready for the latest version of MAME.

I also took a look at Advance Mame, it says that it is a DOS program, I am running win98 and have no interest of booting to DOS or running anything in DOS.

It looks like what I need probably doesn't exist yet, but hopefully soon with more and more people switching to windows MAME, an emulator that supports the latest version and looks good in 640X480 will come out.


Thanks for the help though guys.

[)p(]

I also took a look at Advance Mame, it says that it is a DOS program, I am running win98 and have no interest of booting to DOS or running anything in DOS.

Thanks for the help though guys.

Advance menu is a dos program but it will run perfectly ok under win98...

[Bill_S]

I recently set up my cabinet and had the very same issue.  I am running Win98, TV @ 640x480, s-video, etc. too.
I ended up going with MameWah.  It's simple to set-up and does not look windowsy.

[chris]

I am trying MAMEWah out tonight, it looks promising so far but I think what is going to kill it is that my nice trackball is disabled inside it.  It's great that it works with the joys as that works for 90% of MAME cabs but for us 10% or so with nice trackballs installed it hurts to lose support.  If MAMEWah had a scroll bar and included mouse (trackball) support, I think it would be the perfect solution.

[Bill_S]

I do have a trackball installed actually.
I like navigating the list with the joystick. right/left moves a page at a time & up/down moves a game at a time.  It works pretty well for me.

[JLR2000]

I would recommend Emuloader.  It is faily simple, has a familiar MAME32 look to it, but you can go to a "full screen" mode where only the game names/game snaps show.  Very configurable, so it's nice b/c you can customize it as much as you want or just use it as is.  I use it on my cab, I'm using Win98  with S-Vid TV as well.  Good Luck.

JLR2000

[Howard_Casto]

I would recommend Emuloader.  It is faily simple, has a familiar MAME32 look to it, but you can go to a "full screen" mode where only the game names/game snaps show.  Very configurable, so it's nice b/c you can customize it as much as you want or just use it as is.  I use it on my cab, I'm using Win98  with S-Vid TV as well.  Good Luck.

JLR2000

Warning! Emuloader is very windowsy.  

[)p(]

Warning! Emuloader is very windowsy.  

Some folks don't care Howard...they actually like the windows feel....maybe we should make a windows like skin for our frontends to please them  

[chris]

I would be so happy with MAMEWah if I could just get my trackball to work with games like it does with MAME32.

[Howard_Casto]

I would be so happy with MAMEWah if I could just get my trackball to work with games like it does with MAME32.

Ok I've let it go long enough.   Mamewah is a front-end, it has absolutely nothing to do with getting your trackball to work in mame.  If you can't figure out how to setup mame properly then perhaps you need to look over the mame documentation as it's VERY easy to fix.  

[Dave Dribin]

I tried gamelauncher last night, it looks neat but it hasn't been updated in quite a while and is not ready for the latest version of MAME.

Game Launcher does not need to be updated for every version of MAME.  It should work with any current and future version of MAME (unless they really change things).

-Dave

[Howard_Casto]

Warning! Emuloader is very windowsy.  

Some folks don't care Howard...they actually like the windows feel....maybe we should make a windows like skin for our frontends to please them  

ewwwwwe  Some people like really fat, ugly chicks but that doesn't mean I'll make a fat, ugly chick skin.

[Jakobud]

Game Launcher!  Get it.  It also has Trackball/mouse support for scrolling through the list.  Best FE hands down (in my humble opinion)

jakobud

[Minwah]

I seem to have missed this topic for a while

Thanks Howard, games can still be used with trackball under MAMEWah, as with any other FE.

Chris: If it's trackball support for actually SELECTING games you want then it's not possible in MAMEWah yet.  I HAVE added this support in my latest WIP, but it is still preliminary.  I have found it to work great with my spinner, but not so well with trackball  I may or may not leave it in, depending how it turns out

[chris]

It's working just fine Minwah, I have been using it all week and I have no problems.  Initially I was used to the windowsy way of making things work that MAME32 has, simply right clicking, going to advanced properties, etc.  But once you explained that I just needed to make the same changes in .ini files to make MAMEWah work, then I had no more problems.

Yes I was talking about trackball support in the FE itself, my trackball works fine in the games.  I am getting used to the navigation using the joysticks now though.

I know this isn't your thread to take requests and suggestions but let me throw one in.  It would be nice to be able to replace the black background and green text with different colors, or possible have 3 or 4 different built in choices.

[Minwah]

I have now added customisable colors and fonts in my WIP version.  I do have a slight problem with the background color, but I hope to sort that out.

Although still not as customisable as some of the other FE's around, at least it should give you the chance to personalise a little