two button FE navigation possibilities...

[Flinkly]

i was inspired by mission control by pixelhugger and was wondering if it would be possible to create an fe for multiple emulators that only used two buttons to use?  i was thinking a start/select button and an exit/back button....i'll list more details after i get out of my final late tonight...but feel free to give opinions till then...and after.  also, if some developers could give their opinions and feasabilities, i'd be greatly appreciated.

[Minwah]

MAMEWAH can run with just 2 buttons...I'm sure Kymaera can too, and probably Dragon King...

[Flinkly]

ok, so i may be asking a stupid question since minwah was able to answer me so simply, but since my brain is occupied somewhere else, i'm still going to write my ideas down just so we've got things straight...

i'm thinking of a fe that has a primary screen that lists each emulator, then a screen for each emulator, and then the screen for the game that is running.

at the emulator choosing screen, i'd like the select button to choose the emulator and the back button to exit.

at the specific game choosing screen, i'd like the select button to select the game and the back button to go back to the choose emuilator screen.

at the running game screen, i'd like the back button to exit the game and return to the game choosing screen, and the select button to do nothing.

alternatively, i was thinking of having the select button pause the game when a game was running, then i could have all usefull controls at my fingertips with 2 admin buttons.

cept i'd have to label them:

start/select/pause

and

back/exit

so is this really within my grasp?  and if so, has anyone done it yet?  and if so, i'd love to hear about it.  thanks for the help guys, even though this might just be a stupid question.

[Minwah]

I'm sure it's possible (not with MAMEWAH), but I think your '2 button' idea is a wierd way of going about it.  I thought you meant 2 buttons total, but it seems you mean 2 extra admin buttons.  I don't see the point in having ANY extra buttons, when the regular 'play' buttons/sticks can be used - kindof detracts from the arcade authenticity IMO.

[ErikRuud]

I have Kymaera configured to use the Joysticks for navigating the lists, Starting a game is done by pressing either of the player start buttons.

What could be simpler?

[Flinkly]

i'd like to set something like this up for ease of understanding for the non arcade crowd.  i'd like to be able to turn it on and let people use it without having to explain it to anyone.  with this kind of two button input that i have in mind, i feel like it would be intuitive to use just like a console, most of which use the same sort of two button idea for their "admin" buttons.  does anyone feel the same way?  is there a way that i can do this with some frontend that i haven't thought of yet?  thinking along the lines of console games, does anyone understand what i'm trying to do?  anyways, thanks for the input so far guys.

[Flinkly]

thought i'd add a bit more for understanding (edit doesn't work on my school system for some reason).  i'd still love to have the administration buttons for configuring stuff, like deleting games off the list, or list generation, etc.  but i'd love to just have to buttons for navigation through the screens like i went through and explained in my second post.  just thoguht i'd like to add that i don't want to lose other admin buttons, just have two buttons for everyone to use to navigate the fron end.  anyways, thanks again for all your input and ideas guys.

[Howard_Casto]

For the record, all fe's need a minimum of 3 buttons (including mamewah)  One to select things, one to cancel things, and one(preferably two) to change lists.  While you can use one axis of the joystick to change lists, most fes use this to pageup/pagedown and it's really a pain to go through long lists one game at a time.  

[Popcorrin]

This is sort of along the same lines and I think it may have been discussed before but it would be nice if you could set up a button on your control panel for each emulator you have set up on your frontend and then when you push the corresponding button on your control panel it takes you directly to the selected emulator.  It would make a cab a little more user friendly.
It wouldn't really be feasible for the people with dozens of emulators but it would be nice for a cab with mame, pc games, and a jukebox.  This would only add 3 buttons to your control panel and you could have artwork showing what each one does.  

[Flinkly]

well popcorrin, that FE already exists.  if you go here and read about the FE that pixelhugger is using in his cab, he got the developer to make him a version where he can do just that.  go ahead and read all about the project, because it's gotta be the best arcade cabinet i've ever seen.

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=13118

[)p(]

For the record, all fe's need a minimum of 3 buttons (including mamewah)  One to select things, one to cancel things, and one(preferably two) to change lists.  While you can use one axis of the joystick to change lists, most fes use this to pageup/pagedown and it's really a pain to go through long lists one game at a time.  

It can be done if the menu has a cancel item...

For the next version of 3darcade i finally added a customisable menu popup that can replace some or all key functions...as the menu can have a cancel item...in principle that would mean you could use the fe with just 2 buttons. But thats not practicle imho...I added it because 3darcade has so many key functions they are hard to remember and selecting not much used functions form a menu makes using them easier.

peter

[Minwah]

For the record, all fe's need a minimum of 3 buttons (including mamewah)  One to select things, one to cancel things, and one(preferably two) to change lists.  

Nope, as far as MW is concerned - you can select games lists from the menu, so only select and cancel is required.

[Lilwolf]

The new version of JFront (when I stop adding stuff) will only need select and tab.  And you will be able to handle favorites, dynamic indexes, and changing themes.

But to get page up/down, alpha up/down you will need two more buttons for a shift or two.