mame,mame,mame....

[blue]

With all these different version of mame floating around which is the best one?

Right now i'm using Mame32 v81 (i think)....

[Lilwolf]

depends on what you do..

mame32 sucks in an arcade cabinet.

I would say the best overall solution is this

good frontend (many good ones)
NoNameMame
all other emulators.

[blue]

So NoNameMame is you answer... I was going to take a look at NoName, but i can't seem to find the link for it here...

My mame system isn't in a cab, just connected to my T.V. So i'm looking for something with a good simple GUI so my friends can use it without bugging me...

[bigmoe]

No Name MAME

It's developer, theGatesofBill, is active on this board, and there are a couple different active threads on it right now.

I personally think an FE like MAMEWah will take a little more time to set up than MAME32 (like, 15-20 minutes for a basic usable setup, as I recall), but I think is easier to use in the end.

b

[Minwah]

No Name MAME
I personally think an FE like MAMEWah will take a little more time to set up than MAME32 (like, 15-20 minutes for a basic usable setup, as I recall), but I think is easier to use in the end.

I am biased of course but I think this is a popular misconception.  *Anyone* can setup MAMEWAH (for basic MAME use) in literaly less than 3 minutes (including installation), and not even using Stuzzas tips or David Butler's MAMEWAH Setup:

All of the settings in MAMEWAH are preset for MAME, all you need do is enter the Emulator Executable (eg c:\mame\mame.exe) and assuming you use standard roms & snap folders (99% of users seem to) everything else will be ready to go.  Of course if you want to make a layout, setup screensavers, play mp3's etc. then time adds up.....

[Smack]

I'm not too familiar with all of the different ports of MAME out there as I roll my own from analogmame's source, but I have a cab with a 27 inch TV in it and I looked at a few frontends... MAME32 ports are terrible for other people to just walk up and play.

The one I like on a TV is Gamelauncher. I personally found it mega easy to set up too, and easy to configure and read on a TV. You can choose how you want the names of the games to show on screen. You know how some games have 10 different versions? You can pick the best ones, delete the names of the ones you don't want to show out of a list that gamelauncher creates, then choose the displayed name of the one you keep.

I like the centered text, audio loop in the background, trackball support, etc. I also like the game names superimposed over the screen shots.

I haven't looked at Mamewah in a while to see what new features it has.  

I like Advancemenu too, I have on my cocktail and my other upright - highly customizable, but tricky and timeconsuming to get "just right".

My 2 cents.
Smack

[hulkster]

depends on what you do..

mame32 sucks in an arcade cabinet.

I would say the best overall solution is this

good frontend (many good ones)
NoNameMame
all other emulators.

um, why does mame32 suck in an arcade cabinet?  i use it and have never had problems.  plus when i want to edit something or look at sound issues or controls and sample rates, its in an interface.....ive never had problems with it so why does it suck?  i mean, does it really hender performance and is it more difficult to use?  because if not, seems to me saying mame32 sucks is like saying windows sucks and you should use unix or linux (but those are harder to set up...you need to be a little more tech savy to set them up).  

edit: im using mame32 WITH mamewah....maybe thats what you were referring to...just using mame32 and thats it, without mamewah or other FE.

[blue]

Right now I'm using Mame32 as is (I think) downloaded it from the mame32 site and installed.
What I would really like to do is setup a folder with the game iconsi want and have the game run in mame simply by double clicking on the icon. What would be the best Mame version for this?
And isn't there a command in XP you can use for icons to open a specific program and them run the file that