Can a current FE do this?

[SirPoonga]

Does a current FE do this?  I thought I'd ask as it seems people lately have been saying "FE have that feature" as asnwers to other people ideas.

Ok, here's what I want (what my old flash FE that I made did, for the most part).

See attached pic.

First, you have to be able to completely navigate through the FE using a 1 player jamma setup, IE a joystick, 3 players buttons, and a start button. And the possiblitiy of navigating via trackball, more on this later.

If you look at the pic  the left 1/3rd of the screen is a list of, well, lists.  Either categories or custom lists.  The custom lists have to be able to be generated from within the FE, I know how I'd want to be able to do this.  More on this later.

To navigate by joystick on that screen up and down ont he joystick scroll through whatever llist/menu list you are on.  IE if you are currently highlighted in the menu and puch up and down it will highlight other menu opions.  Then you push right to get the game list.  up and down then scroll though that.  button 1 (for example) would be considered a select button which will select the current highlighted object.  If in the menu side it will refresh the gamelist with the current category or custom list.  If in the gamelist side it will start the game.  The other two buttons froma  JAMMA setup, button 2 and button3, could be used as page up and page down, I'd think.

now, for tball navigation i know most FE could do this.  the ball would move the windows cursor around, everything on screen would detect if it was clicked on.  So you click on a menu option (category or custom list) the game list will be refreshed with that option.  If you click on a game it starts the game.  Now, scrolling would sort of be an issue then, you'd think.  Well, you see the bar at the top and bottom of the menu, those should have an up and down arrow on them.  You'd be able to click on those to page up/page down.  I forgot to put the game list arrows in.  Of course in joystick navigation those would just be graphical indicators that there is more list in a certain direction.  If you move the highlight witht he joystick to the bottom visable game, then move down it would scroll the list to the next game.

If you look at YapFE
http://free.hostdepartment.com/S/SirPoonga/yapfe.html
You can see this is how YapFE worked in the PICS.  You will see the indicator arrows that indicated if more games were up or down ont he list.  Those arrows were clickable with the mouse.  Of course, YapFE was in Flash and my friend put alot of little animation in.  That is not needed  It was just cool.
if oyu look at the pic of the new YapFE (which was never completely made) you see on the right side are buttons for different options.  With YapFE we kept custom lists (favorites) seperate form categories.  What you'd have to do is use hte joystick, if int he game list, move left onto the buttons, highlight the button you ant and press select.  Say you highlight the categories button.  Then a list of categories would show up in the list.  You select a category then the list will show games in that category.  That was a pretty nifty navigation system.

Ok, how would you edit the custom lists int he FE.  Again, using the new YapFE pic as an example, when you goto the edit mode button what would happen is the screen would shift to the left, moving the menu buttons and list to the right (the snap and marquee off screen then).  Then a mirror image menu butotn set and list would show up.  The left side would be the favorite list you wanted to edit, the right side would stay the same for navigating through all the games using the category system.  So, to add a game to a favorite list you'd highlight it in the right game list and select it.  To take it off you'd highlight it in the left gamelist and select it.  There would be an indicator on the right list if the game was already in the favorite list.  That was easier to implement than filtering the game out of the right list in Flash.
Oh yeah, the left side menu options were Favorites (to select which favorite list to work on)/Add/Delete/Change Name.  Meaning you can have more than one custom list.

[JoeB]

I don't see why you can't fool most FE to give you this feature.  This is what I've done with MAMEWAH.

Here's how I have it set:

emulator 0 = MAME Arcade games
emulator 1 = MAME Racing games
emulator 2 = MAME Fighting games
emulator 3 = MAME Sports games
emulator 4 = MAME Classic games
emulator 5 = MAME Puzzle games
emulator 6 = MAME Shooting games
emulator 7 = DAPHNE

I use button 3 to switch between emulators.

Now, all that's left to do is to create the backgrounds.  Use the same idea as it's been done for years on the internet. The bar is actually in the background picture, with the current emulator highlighted!  All that's left to do is to associate the correct background with the correct emulator.

Hope this helps.

[Minwah]

I don't see why you can't fool most FE to give you this feature.  This is what I've done with MAMEWAH.

Here's how I have it set:

emulator 0 = MAME Arcade games
emulator 1 = MAME Racing games
emulator 2 = MAME Fighting games
emulator 3 = MAME Sports games
emulator 4 = MAME Classic games
emulator 5 = MAME Puzzle games
emulator 6 = MAME Shooting games
emulator 7 = DAPHNE

I use button 3 to switch between emulators.

Now, all that's left to do is to create the backgrounds.  Use the same idea as it's been done for years on the internet. The bar is actually in the background picture, with the current emulator highlighted!  All that's left to do is to associate the correct background with the correct emulator.

Hope this helps.

Not sure but I think what SirP would miss from using MW is the navigational side.  He seems pretty precise on how the control method should be, and using MW and 'fake' buttons it wouldn't be possible.  Also possibly a downer is that SirP wants to make lists on the fly...which again would be difficult with a static background image.

Some navigation stuff I am changing might make it a bit nearer, but it will never be exact.  I'm not sure that any FE can do this exactly atm tho??

[SirPoonga]

Hehe, yeah, I am a little exact in what I want for navigation, huh

I'm just throwing this out there to see if it is possible to do in any FE.  Otherwise I will have to work on making my own again sometime.

being able to make custom lists while in the FE is important to me.

[Minwah]

being able to make custom lists while in the FE is important to me.

Well that part MW can do easily, just the presentation of it would probably be an issue as you wouldn't be able to just 'add' a list to the background image on the fly.  If you always use the same lists (just need to generate them for new MAME's, or add/take games occasionally) then it would work...

[SirPoonga]

My next question will be how close can I get to what I want to do?

[Minwah]

My next question will be how close can I get to what I want to do?

I suspect you may get closer with Kymaera / DK, but you'll have to wait for PMF / HC...

[Howard_Casto]

Different categories yes.... buttons, no.  Buttons have no place on a fe imho.  They remind a person of windows.  Real arcade games didn't have buttons and thus I don't support them.  You can use the button background trick like joe suggested. But I really don't see the point if the buttons aren't working.  Also in dk each list can have a totally different skin, so it's quite obvious which list you've selected if you make skins for each one.  

Dk supports a single custom list. It does this because of the first point you brought up, being able to navigate via a simple jamma setup.  Making several custom lists on the fly without a keyboard would prove difficult.  Right now you can browse through all of the regular lists and add/delete it from the favorites by pressing the favorite key over the game.  

The only other way I see it done would be through several menus, that let you narrow down your filter choices (again, too windows-like) or a onscreen keyboard (slower than dirt).  

I think what you are wanting is more of a point and click interface, which is the exact opposite of what all the fes around here are.  

[SirPoonga]

Well, button is the best word for it.  Ultrastyle you navigate "buttons".  Just some graphic around the text of the category names

Anyway, I suppose it would be point and click when using a tball, but not when using a joystick.  I will end up using the joystick more than the tball, that's why I said that part was optional.

Does that screenshot markup look like windows to you?

the main features I am looking for is simple navigation via a 1 player JAMMA setup. A way of displaying what category/list you are in along with all the other lists available.  Most FEs these days you can navigate form list to list, BUT you don't know how many lists there are or what they are even named ahead of time.  then ther is, of course, the custom lists which I don't think any FE does the way I want.

You see what these characteristics are, they are a party FE.  Something that is simple, all the information is there so my friends don't have to ask, and everyone can make their own list of favorite games

[Howard_Casto]

Does that screenshot markup look like windows to you?

Windows specifically no, but some sort of pc operating system, yes.  I mean no offense but when you put buttons on any app it screams "there is a pc in here"  mostly because only computers use mice.  

Due to  countless requests, however, the next version of Dk will support "short cut" lists.  Basically you put a special tag in the search string, not unlike favorites and you add  the list numbers in the order you'd like them displayed.  However, it's not particularly hierarchial, as all of the lists, even the favorites, are on the "top" level.  

Your goals in what you want are widely different than what we want.  I suggest you give your fe you were working on another try and perhaps start over from scratch if your partner backed out on you.  

[ultrastyle]

Well, button is the best word for it.  Ultrastyle you navigate "buttons".  

I think you are talking about marquees.. and it looks like your lists are derivatives of the catlist or genver. So, yea I guess ultrastyle could do that. I hope to be releasing a new version this weekend that will allow you to run your own .exe's outside of mame. i.e. daphne, house of the dead 1 & 2, virtua cop/squad, etc. Adding unemulated arcade to PC ports as well as daphne games. I decided to go this route instead of console support because you don't play console games on a cab, and my fe is geared toward cab use. The trackball/spinner only navigates the wheel, not the categories. I have done my best to give total control to player 1. It's hard to add features when you have limited input controls. I don't really think I "crammed" too much in there, 7 buttons and 4 joystick axis. Buttons include player 1 and 2 start and coin 1. There are only 2 custom lists outside of categories though, favorites and non-mame.