Favorite front end?

[krion]

What does everyone use?  A lot of people been telling me that mamewah is best.  Just curious as to other peoples personal prefrence and why

Krion

[Onji]

Mamewah all the way

[pointdablame]

There are several thread about this exact thing in the Software forum.  Give those a look.

[Howard_Casto]

There isn't a "best."  I take offense to that term because it implies that the others aren't as good.  As I've said a million times it's apples and oranges people most of these fe's have vastly different looks, features and niches.

Mamewah is the most popular.  Take that however you like.  
Some people like pop music I've heard too.  Again, take that as you like.  

That's not meant as a rag on mamewah, just another way to look at things.  

[Tilzs]

Advance Menu - Linux and don't need to run X

[maraxle]

AdvanceMenu for DOS

[Lilwolf]

I LOVE POP MUSIC

I also liked that pop music song

"talk about... pop music.... talk about... pop music..."

And they all have their points.

Remember... almost every frontend that people talk about here (designed for arcade cabinets) have skinners associated with them.  They all can (with a little work) look exactly like the others..

So then its a question of features, easy of use, bugs, How often they are updated, ect.   <added the how often to show the problems with...well... my once a year updated version of jfront

[)p(]

Remember... almost every frontend that people talk about here (designed for arcade cabinets) have skinners associated with them.  They all can (with a little work) look exactly like the others..

Thats only true up to a certain point...for example dk and kymeara use dx which let them do layering and transparency effects that are just not possible with the gdi. I know there arent many skins that take advantage of this...but the potential to make something different and easthetically pleasing is certainly there and I am sure we will see to put to great use in the future. (Ok I am biased as a nut for easthetics   )

peter

[Howard_Casto]

Agreed, just because 90% of the users on this board have no artistic talent and create skins that like like 4 pieces of artwork slapped over a screengrab of the arcade 84 video doesn't mean that all fe's out there are only capable of showing that type of low-quality skin.  

I abandoned the gdi almost 2 years ago because of the severe limitations of the gdi and other libraries.  To say that kymera or dk could look like mamewah, arcadeos or most other fes would be accurate.  To say that mamewah  or the lot are capable of looking like kymera or dk is an outright falsehood.  

It's almost as silly as saying arcadeos could be skinned to resemble 3d arcade and magically obtain 3d functionality.  



And for that matter, kymera and dk can't even look the same.  

Kymera supports two types of lists at the same time, dk does not.  Dk alpha blends and true-type formats all text, while kymera cannot.  

And remember, looks should be the most important part of a fe.  THE MOST IMPORTANT PART.  If they weren't then we'd all use mame32.

[PacManFan]

Hey HC, Not to interrupt your point too much here, but I've got a correction,

Kymera supports two types of lists at the same time, dk does not.  Dk alpha blends and true-type formats all text, while kymera cannot.  

First, It's "Kymaera", I realize it's easy to mis-spell. Second, Kymaera uses True-Type fonts, and It can alpha-blend and video overlay just fine. I know that you're not trying to intentionally mis-lead anyone, I just want to make sure that you get your facts straight.

To add to your point here, Most Fe's are not created equal. Sure, most of them have equivalent functionality, such as the ability to view a list of games and the associated screenshots, however, that's where the simularity ends for most.


As far as the 'best" front-end, I'd say that's highly subjective to your needs. I think a comparison chart as suggested last week might be handy to help inform people as to what features are out there in the popular front ends.

-PMF