Do you need a frontend with MAME32

[kiddk1]

I plan on using mame32 for my cab and was wondering does it use a frontend?  thanks

[Brad]

Mame32 IS mame with and inbuilt frontend. It's also crap for running in a cab.

Brad

[loadman]

Mame 32 is cool for running from a pc. And it is easy to set up so it is great for beginers. It is not that great in a cab if you want to hide windows

You can get another Fe's to launch mame 32 (if you want) but the majority of users here would agree that it takes a few more resources and you would be better of with command line mame launched from a fe in a cab (especially if it is an old pc)

[kiddk1]

I am new to this and have never run mame from command line, is it complicated?  do I have to type in a command line each time I want to play a different game?

[deadkenndys1105]

I curently use mame32 on my cab and its fine because I mapped all of my controls so I can get around in windows with a joystick and my button. I donbt have any admin buttons tho so I cant get out of games without the keyboard.  My player1 start button is enter and player 1 button 2 is alt.  I just using this untill I get my frontend worked out.  Its take some getting use to but it works fine.

[kiddk1]

I am experimenting with some frontends now, mamewah is cool but if I accidently hit the start button on my keyboard the screen goes out and I have to reboot, this probably wont be an issue once my CP is in place,  I couldnt get atomicFE to work I dont know how to config it?

[divemaster127]

I run mame32 with gameex for the frontend & it works perfect

[rockmes]

l also run mame32 with mamewah and never had issues. l use mame32 , cos l noticed better picture quality and smoothness of the games like sfa3. Try it yourselves and see the difference .

[loadman]

I run mame32 with gameex for the frontend & it works perfect

No doubt you are not running it on an old PC

l use mame32 , cos l noticed better picture quality and smoothness of the games like sfa3. Try it yourselves and see the difference .

Mame 32 won't make any diffrence to graphics as its the same code with FE built in. You probably just didn't have all the settings the same in mame.ini.

I am new to this and have never run mame from command line, is it complicated?  do I have to type in a command line each time I want to play a different game?

No it is not hard.  A command line is (for eg   mame.exe invaders). This would launch invaders.  A FE sends the command line to mame for you. When you are ready there is plenty of docs out there on setting a FE up

[Havok]

I am experimenting with some frontends now, mamewah is cool but if I accidently hit the start button on my keyboard the screen goes out and I have to reboot, this probably wont be an issue once my CP is in place,  I couldnt get atomicFE to work I dont know how to config it?

Atomic is easy to configure. Just run AtomicManager.exe in the directory where you installed Atomic (most likely c:\AtomicFE_v015) and click on the Folders tab. Point everything in there to where your stuff is located and Save. Here are the main files:

- Atomic.exe: program that will launch AtomicFE once it

[kiddk1]

I run mame32 with gameex for the frontend & it works perfect

I installed game ex yesterday and part of my experimenting with FE's and It is stuck on the screen that asks for a donation, i configured it(told it where my mame dir and roms are)  I am running mame 097.

Havok, thanks for the advice, I got it working, I will look into docs as to changing layout.

[JonnyBoy]

The donation screen stays stagnant for about 3 to 4 minutes or so, make sure you are waiting long enough.

[kiddk1]

I gave it about 15min

[JonnyBoy]

Yeah, it probably froze, what specs are the PC you're running?

[Havok]

The donation screen stays stagnant for about 3 to 4 minutes or so, make sure you are waiting long enough.

Wow! 3 - 4 minutes? When I was testing FE's to decide which one I was going to run, that screen stayed up for about 5 seconds for me. I am running an AMD 3300+, but still that seems overly long for even a slow pc...

[JonnyBoy]

Well, I do all my testing on a PIII 733, which is probably responsible for that large duration of time. I plan on donating so I can rid of the damn screen for good, though. The program, in my opinion, is well worth the donation cost.

[kiddk1]

okay after a reboot gameEX is working and I think I like it the best b/c of all the options I have.  Atomic is cool but limited compared to gameEX.  I just need to read up on gameEX to figure out how to do my own layouts and change certain options, it did not come with a readme file.  Thanks for all the help

[youki]

Atomic is cool but limited compared to gameEX.

GameEX is more a Media center  , AtomicFE is a only a Front End.   If you compare FrontEnd feature i don't think Atomic is limited in comparaison of GameEX , i think it would be the opposite. In Term of Media Center , yes, it is clear GameEX is better.  The 2 products don't have the same approach. If you take time to study in depth Atomic you will see that the front end as not really limits..    Atomic is currently limited by his configurations tools that don't allow to exploit the all the power of the FE easily.  But it will change very soon...

[JonnyBoy]

I agree with Youki, AtomFE is a fine frontend. It does what's needed to run games. GameEx has all those little media features alongside the front end. They are two different animals.

[Minwah]

l also run mame32 with mamewah and never had issues. l use mame32 , cos l noticed better picture quality and smoothness of the games like sfa3. Try it yourselves and see the difference .

That's just a configuration issue...MAME32 is the same as MAME with a FE.  My guess is with MAME you just used the defaults...for example hardware stretching is switched on and triple buffering off by default...whereas the opposite are better for image quality.

[kiddk1]

in setting up the FE I notice there are snap paths, flyer, marquee, title... paths.  what exactly are these they were not mentioned in the docs I read  or at least I didnt see them?

[youki]

Snap  are snapshot  , the snap path point to a folder that contains screen capture of games. 

Title are snapshot too, but they are screen capture of the title of the game.

Marquee , Flyer  are picture too.

Some layout or skin in front end displays these information if you have it.   If you don't that should not be a problem, they won't be displayed that's all.

If you don't what are snap, marquee..etc... i suggest you make point all these folder to a same empty folder.

[kiddk1]

thank you.

[danny_galaga]

i use mame32 only on my cab too. if you use an ipac keyboard emulator or the like then yuo CAN exit from games without a keyboard, i also used a macro to shut it down. im very impressed with atomic and my next project will definitely use it. it would be on my cab now but it is about 2500km away 

[stephenp1983]

I was using only mame 32 on my main pc and it works fine.  I'm currently building my first mame cab, and after looking around I think I'm going to be using game ex as my front end.  To me it just seems so smooth and has alot of nice features I can use.

[kiddk1]

I run mame32 with gameex for the frontend & it works perfect

divemaster, I tried this but am finding that gameex locks up with mame32, it goes to the screen where you select the game and starts to launch the game then locks up.