How is a front-end done?

[Jeehemdee]

I would like to understand the principle of the creation of a front-end.
Technically speaking :

i) How does one browse the list of Mame games?
ii) How does one put in relation a game and its screenshot?

Is the information taken from the MAME .dat file?

Would you please give me some basic theory/example (or even more complex stuff ;-)

Thanks very much!

[Minwah]

http://www.mameworld.net/easyemu/mamew32setup.htm

Take a look at the *** Frontend Related *** switches available, these are the most important thing for a FE.  Pay particular attention to -listinfo (or now -listxml), as you can get all the information about all games you want from that.

i) Use a simple (or not-so simple) database type system, where each bit of info you want available is a different field.  Selecting game no. x simply reads record no. x.

ii) Displaying a screenshot is easy, just search the image/artwork path for a file named the same as the currently selected rom (bar extension).  eg if PuckMan (puckman) is selected, look for puckman.png.  (Probably) the only tricky thing about this, is displaying PNG's (they require decoding).

DAT files are a good thing to use, as they can be obtained/produced for all emulators, so it can give you something consistent as a basis for list generation etc.

I could go on all day as your question was pretty open ended, but I have an appointment with beer  

[Jeehemdee]

Thanks very much for taking time to reply ;-)

If by chance you have more to tell/learn to me...don't hesitate ;-)

[Lilwolf]

1) Writing a frontend will take WAY more time then building a cabinet.  Only do it for the love... Spend time seeing if others do what you want....  Chances are, they will.

2) Getting the mame info is by capturing the -listxml output from mame... Sending it into a xml parser, and grabbing the info and using it as needed.

3) If you are questing the images, you probably aren't going to want to write a frontend.  That really is the easy stuff.  But same name as the rom in the snapshot director (marquees in its directory, cabinets..ect)

You will find a bunch of other problems along the way also.   These will be different depending on what language your planning on using.

But really... Look at the skinners for some of the bigger ones out there and see what you want in a frontend and see if they are worth months of programming.

[Howard_Casto]

Agreed, there is no pont in re-inventing the wheel, unless you are going to make a better wheel.  At this point, with so many fancy fes out there you would have to be a very talented programmer or someone with some extremely creative ideas to do better.  If this isn't you then don't bother.  As lilwolf said, if your reasoning is "i need this, this and this feature"  then chances are you can already find them in another fe at this point.  Between myself, )p( and the others, we have pretty much thought of everything.  

I mean if you are really determined then go for it, but keep in mind that unless you want to make a fe that completely sucks, it's not a quick weekend project.  It's more like a quick several months possibly leading into several years type of project.  

We are sick, sick people, who need professional help.  Get out while you can!

[Minwah]

I mean if you are really determined then go for it, but keep in mind that unless you want to make a fe that completely sucks, it's not a quick weekend project.  It's more like a quick several months possibly leading into several years type of project.  

We are sick, sick people, who need professional help.  Get out while you can!

Exactly  

Notice my odd numbering system (my first release was 0.8, and now it is 0.97)?  Well I thought my first release was 'almost finished'    Nearly 3 years later I still can't sleep at night!

[Howard_Casto]

I hear ya... i'm about to release .9999 or something to that degree.  

*sigh* someday I will have a life again.  

[)p(]

I guess we fe devs are cursed and should all retreat into "The Dungeon of the Damned" :

(6mb wmv9)

 


To anybody that wants to make one...go for it!...always room for some new blood and new ideas...and then at some time us current fedevs wont have to leave our dungeon anymore to bring new versions of our fe's to the outside world

peter

[PacManFan]

I'd like to chime in here and say that coding an FE can be a very rewarding experience, especially when you see your work on someone else's cabinet.
Depending on the features that you want your front end to have, it may take from weeks to years of development.
And a front end is never really "done". If it's popular, people will be chiming in all the time asking you to add new features, functionality, and asking about the easiest way to configure it.

-PacManFan
www.pacmanfan.com Home of Kymaera.