Which FE do you think is the most "user friendly?"

[Magnet_Eye]

Trying to decide which FE I should use. I want the drunk people that come to my house on weekends to dump all their quarters into my machine, so I need to make it as simple to use as possible. I have tried several emu's, but wondering what everyone's take on it is.

Post your choice and why!

Thanks!  

-M

[SirPoonga]

Mine!!! Too bad you can't use it right now:)  

That is one thing I noticed about many FEs today, there are no visual queues on what to do.  Like if lazarus, unless you label a button page down/page up or next list/previous list you really don't have a clue that those functions exist.

I noticed this with my FE, I saw the visual queues and I told my friend he is doing a  great job with the looks.  But he's a graphic design major, those little details come naturally to him.

[Minwah]

I DID have these queues when I started writing my FE.  But then when I opted for (ATM) 640x480 res, I soon ran out of space  

Maybe I should try and add it back one day  

[Lilwolf]

For installation... mame32

After you have it setup.  Almost all the new "nextgen" frontends are all very easy to use... move a joystick and press a button.

[kgriffin]

I went through 4 or 5 frontends before settling on advancemenu. It was the easiest for my 4 year old son to use. (He may be a little smarter than a bunch of drunk people though!

[Howard_Casto]

Mine!!! Too bad you can't use it right now:)  

That is one thing I noticed about many FEs today, there are no visual queues on what to do.  Like if lazarus, unless you label a button page down/page up or next list/previous list you really don't have a clue that those functions exist.

I noticed this with my FE, I saw the visual queues and I told my friend he is doing a  great job with the looks.  But he's a graphic design major, those little details come naturally to him.

Actually that's purposeful.  Although it's far from it.... lazarus is themed around the "select your character" screens of arcade games.  I want to get away from visual ques as you call them, since they remind me of an os (like windows) and that is definately not the feel I want for my cab.  With that being said... a good fe shouldn't need visual ques.  I have a bunch of extra options in terms of buttons to press, but if you change the default keys to switch pagedown/up with next/previous list then you can control it with simply a joystick and a start button.  The advanced features are nice but not necessary.  

Anyway... there is only one user friendly fe that could be used by drunken rednecks.... gamelauncher.  Up...Down...Start.... that's it... nothing else to worry about.  

[Magnet_Eye]

I think visual ques are a great idea. Basically, I want anyone to be able to walk up to the machine and have some type of instructions on what to do. How to navigate, what to press to start, etc. Like UltraCade. Their FE is awesome. Any person off the street can easily jump into a game.

MAME32 won't work, too many things going on, PLUS I don't want people to be in the windoze environment. I want them stuck in the FE. Only I should know how to get back into Windoze. Perhaps a hidden button on the back or top of the machine, or even inside reachable through the coin box?

Also, it would be cool if i could say choose only 25 (or other #) games to be available at a time. Maybe an on screen admin area where I can choose which games are available. Then one could change this whenever they want. I think having like one thousand games to choose from is too much.

I want it to be as if it were for public use. But really it's just for my friends. I don't want to have to babysit and teach people how to launch a game everytime.


-M

[SirPoonga]

a good fe shouldn't need visual ques.

I disagree.  A good FE shouldn't need a manual or someone else to explain how to do it.  So far, there really isn;t a FE that does that.

I don't want an arguement, but with what you just said, then this would look like an OS?(copy and paste the link, don't click it)
http://free.hostdepartment.com/SirPoonga/images/yapfe8.jpg

YapFe is only slighlty differnt than the above pic right now.  There are semi-transparent arrow around the avatar indication that when you push up on the avatar you goto options and that when you push left on the avatar you goto search.  The up and down arrows, and rom count in list on that green bar show where in the list you are (like if you are at the beginning, middle, or end.
Right now you press select on the avatar to switch the categories listed in the category bar.  That isn't intuitive.  We are thinking we might put something after the 4th category button to show that there are more categories and you can get to them.

YapFE's goal is to be powerful, intuitive, yet only use the joystick, a select button, and a page up and down button.
Also, since my friend is controlling the flash aspect, he wanted mouse support.  Which I actually like, especially with a trackball.

Actually, since it is flash, it is more webpage than OS.

I will have to say, all of my friends that have tried my cabient with lazarus running asked how to use it.  My roommate is constantly asking how to use it.  I know you know how, because you made it.  I know how because I understand how you made it.  But to someone who has never seen it before it isn't obvious.

Actually, HC, if oyu want to make it more like character selecting in fighters, you need a little box for each rom (like the avatar for each character) and then maybe a random box that randomly picks a game.  by the way, I think the game shouldn't just start, I think it should randomly select a game and take you to it.    That way you get a chance to see a screenshot before it starts.


Edit:  I forgot to add, it is easy to put visual ques in lazarus, make your own skin:)

[Magnet_Eye]

Yes, poonga. I thought of that afterwards. If I can get Lazarus working, I plan on making a skin which will have the basic instructions on the background image.

As for the FE's, i agree that there isn't one that is really obvious. I think it should just be navigate through titles with joystick, then hit a button (FIRE?) to launch it. when the person's game ends, then what? the game just stays loaded? I wonder if we can have an FE that if no one plays that title again in say 5 minutes, the FE closes it automatically and returns to the menu. ? ? ?

I think there are several issues that can be dealt with to make the experience a lot simpler. Maybe we should throw out ideas and try to make it happen.

[kgriffin]

To be honest. I liked all of the front ends I have tried. I really enjoyed ArcadeFX. I thought it looked great.

My biggest problem is not the front end per say. I have over 3000 games in my ROM list. I am not sure how you would create an interface to make searching through thousands of ROMS with arcade controls easy. That is the million dollar answer to the million dollar question.

AdvanceMenu gives me a list and a screenshot (as a lot of them do). But, without reading any instructions, I figured out how to navigate in a couple of seconds just by moving the joystick. That is why I stuck with it, instead of ArcadeFX.

[SirPoonga]

I hear HC is thinking of something.  I have a search in my FE, bu again it isn't going to be for public, if it is let out to public, it is use at your own risk, as it is designed for my cabinet.

Anyway.  Here's how I do search, enter in three letters like highscores.
http://free.hostdepartment.com/SirPoonga/images/yapfe4.jpg
(copy and paste the link, then you will see it)

[)p(]

My biggest problem is not the front end per say. I have over 3000 games in my ROM list. I am not sure how you would create an interface to make searching through thousands of ROMS with arcade controls easy. That is the million dollar answer to the million dollar question.

In most cases I only play games from my favlists but I do also regularly browse all games to find something new...I use twoo strategies:
-I let the fe select a set of random games so I have a more manageable random set...
-I use the filters to select a more manegeable set...applying one filter after another
I also reguraly use Sirp's idea (thans again ;-) ) to search for games with the hiscore like search option in my fe.

As for not showing visual cues I am with Howard on that one..when I add it it will only be optional because I won't use it...

Peter

[SirPoonga]

As for the FE's, i agree that there isn't one that is really obvious. I think it should just be navigate through titles with joystick, then hit a button (FIRE?) to launch it. when the person's game ends, then what? the game just stays loaded? I wonder if we can have an FE that if no one plays that title again in say 5 minutes, the FE closes it automatically and returns to the menu. ? ? ?

That's actually alot harder than it sounds.  Well, maybe not.  it'd be like a screensaver.  But it would be annoying I think.

[)p(]

As for the FE's, i agree that there isn't one that is really obvious. I think it should just be navigate through titles with joystick, then hit a button (FIRE?) to launch it. when the person's game ends, then what? the game just stays loaded? I wonder if we can have an FE that if no one plays that title again in say 5 minutes, the FE closes it automatically and returns to the menu. ? ? ?

That's actually alot harder than it sounds.  Well, maybe not.  it'd be like a screensaver.  But it would be annoying I think.

Advance mame has a nice feature that makes this very useful. Exit when idle after x amount...so the fe can randomly launch a game when it is idle after x time...advance mame kicks in and after x time it goes back to the fe... the cool thing is you can keep your cab running and when you see a cooll game in the corner of your eye (I have my cab next to my work desk ;-) ) you can just start playing it :-)
(Currently disabled in the public version of my fe though...)

Peter

[1UP]

Advance mame has a nice feature that makes this very useful. Exit when idle after x amount...so the fe can randomly launch a game when it is idle after x time...advance mame kicks in and after x time it goes back to the fe... the cool thing is you can keep your cab running and when you see a cooll game in the corner of your eye (I have my cab next to my work desk ;-) ) you can just start playing it :-)
(Currently disabled in the public version of my fe though...)

Peter

Peter, you need to enable this in public!    I've been wanting exactly this feature.  I'd love to have it so after a game is idle in attract mode for 10 minutes or so, it switches to another random game, etc.  Then with your FE, you could even have it go back to the 3D arcade between games, have the camera start wandering thru the arcade so you can see what's there, and randomly stop at a game and play it!    Hey, if I made a couple animated characters, could they wander around playing games in the BG too?  

[)p(]

Advance mame has a nice feature that makes this very useful. Exit when idle after x amount...so the fe can randomly launch a game when it is idle after x time...advance mame kicks in and after x time it goes back to the fe... the cool thing is you can keep your cab running and when you see a cooll game in the corner of your eye (I have my cab next to my work desk ;-) ) you can just start playing it :-)
(Currently disabled in the public version of my fe though...)

Peter

Peter, you need to enable this in public!    I've been wanting exactly this feature.  I'd love to have it so after a game is idle in attract mode for 10 minutes or so, it switches to another random game, etc.  Then with your FE, you could even have it go back to the 3D arcade between games, have the camera start wandering thru the arcade so you can see what's there, and randomly stop at a game and play it!    Hey, if I made a couple animated characters, could they wander around playing games in the BG too?  

yeah it got disabled while adding the fps arcade stuff and when I switched to windows mame from advance mame... But I will be in there again...look at fe.cfg the option is still in there ;-)

Yeah..did you see the animated character demo video in a thread below... that is a  max biped character...you will have to setup the animation in max, as part of the environment or as a seperate model like the cabs,jukebox etc.

[1UP]

Hmmm...  I wonder how you would set that up, with a walking motion and then a stopping and playing motion.  Does the FE have any control over that stuff?  Or does it just loop the animation as a whole?  Would it be able to make the character locate itself in front of a machine?  I've played with Char Studio, but never tried to export it to anything...

[)p(]

Hmmm...  I wonder how you would set that up, with a walking motion and then a stopping and playing motion.  Does the FE have any control over that stuff?  Or does it just loop the animation as a whole?  Would it be able to make the character locate itself in front of a machine?  I've played with Char Studio, but never tried to export it to anything...

At the moment it will loop the animation...
You can export any bones animation and maybe also keyframe based animation but i have not tried that yet...it is a bit tricky because of how the w3d exporter in max collapses hierarchy's....(Actually the exporter that comes with dicreets new plasma and can be used in max does a much better job exprting bones anmation to w3d)

peter

[1UP]

I guess I'll just have to play around this weekend after I FINALLY put the finishing touches on my cab!!!

[Davestar]

I would think Party On would be the drinking crowds preference.  It looks simple as can be and can be had at
http://www.andrewburt.com/partyon/ .
---------------
Dave

[SirPoonga]

PartyOn is simple to use, not simple to setup.

[)p(]

Hmmm...  I wonder how you would set that up, with a walking motion and then a stopping and playing motion.  Does the FE have any control over that stuff?  Or does it just loop the animation as a whole?  Would it be able to make the character locate itself in front of a machine?  I've played with Char Studio, but never tried to export it to anything...

At the moment it will loop the animation...
You can export any bones animation and maybe also keyframe based animation but i have not tried that yet...it is a bit tricky because of how the w3d exporter in max collapses hierarchy's....(Actually the exporter that comes with dicreets new plasma and can be used in max does a much better job exprting bones anmation to w3d)

peter

Keyframe animation will also work. Group all static parts together. Group the parts together that will be animated as a whole...link this group to the static group. Adjust the pivot points. Then animate the animated group. etc....
But use bones for figures and nondeformable bones for complex animations...like a crane model etc.

Peter

[1UP]

Keyframe animation will also work. Group all static parts together. Group the parts together that will be animated as a whole...link this group to the static group. Adjust the pivot points. Then animate the animated group. etc....
But use bones for figures and nondeformable bones for complex animations...like a crane model etc.

Peter

Cool!  Can''t wait to finish my cab so I can play with the interface!  The single best thing about Emulaxian is that it's like a game itself, whether you're blasting Galaxians or navigating the FPS arcade!  Lovin it!