FE reccomendations with Multi Emus and Johnny5/CPviewer

[Czapala]

Greetings all,

     I tried to search for this but didn't find exactly what I was looking for.  Of course I may just have insanely bad search skills 

I am starting my first Cabinet.  I bought the monitor and some MDF to start.  But I was thinking of the computer and going ahead and building that since the woodshop I am using is on someone else's time table.

My plans were to run MameWah as the frontend.  Although AtomicFE looks cool.  The starting emu's are going to be Mame(32?), Daphne, and snes9x(?).  I also wanted to utilize  Johnny5 or CPviewer.  I have only run Mame32 so far on my home/office machines.  I read that using Mame(instead of Mame32)  was better for Johnny5 because of the way MameWah gets info (or something like that).  I will be using Win XP sp2.

finally a question ...

1) Considering the above info which would be the better FE? I am looking for ease of operation but stability is more important.

2) Since I am definitely going to be using a FE,  should I use Mame instead of Mame32?

3) Which is easier and more reliable, Johnny5 or CPviewer? and can either be integrated into the FE?(as in not having to push a button so that it shows the controls when you pick the game)

Thank you for any info you can give me and I apologize if I have repeated something that was already covered.

[unclet]

1) MALA - http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/.  It is extremely easy to set up.  I switched to it from MameWah since I got tired of manipulating INI files manually.   Also it has many more features which I required.   I have not tried AtomicFE.

2) use command line MAME (not Mame32) ... Mame32 is simply command line Mame with a built in GUI I believe.  Since you are going to use a frontend for the GUI part, no need to use Mame32.    also, I think you are right .... Johnny5 might require command line Mame anyway .... wait for Howard to verify this (or perhaps this is in his FAQ at his site)

3) I believe Johnny5 is the only control panel viewer which will display key mappings for Mame correctly when you remap the keys (ie: do not use the Mame default key mappings).  I would think Johnny5 is the most advanced control panel viewer so far.

[Czapala]

Are there Links to Johnny5?  I did a google search and got some crazy stuff.  I will try again in this forum.

Also If I get everything setup without my control panel built, is it easy to configure it once the CP is finished?

I will be using IPac4 and a Spinner/trackball/+3 buttons on a seperate USB port.

I was avoiding building the CP till the end to make sure I finish the cab and not just play games the whole time.

[unclet]

Howard's homepage (includes Johnny5 link):
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus/

Johnny5 forum (under FE/viewer section):
http://fe.donkeyfly.com/forum/index.php


Johnny5 review:
http://www.mameworld.net/tigerheli/johnny/


I would simply get everything configured on the PC first how you like it, then simply wire up your buttons and configure the IPAC correctly.   This way you already know the games\emulators work fine before wiring occurs

[Czapala]

Great !!

Thank you!

I will start reading.

[unclet]

Have fun!

[Buddabing]

With all due respect to unclet, he is almost completely wrong.

Please check the wiki for more information on front end applications.

[unclet]

Which part was I wrong about?

[Havok]

The wiki is a good start. I would suggest loading them all up on a test build and mess with them. I am an AtomicFE user, and I tried them all - I preferred it the most. You will find that all of the front ends don't quite have everything you are looking for. It will depend on balancing what you want, and what you can do without.

The three most popular front ends seem to be AtomicFE, Mamewah and Mala - they are fully supported, both here and at other forums, and most of all, are free. They all have great features, and each has their own strengths and weaknesses.

As far as ease of use and setup, I think Atomic has the edge: there are plug and play modules that make setting up the FE very quickly, and with no prior knowledge of how they work. However, I am not sure how Johnny5 and cpviewer will work with them - never played with them yet. One of these days I'll have to try them out.

Oh, and I only agree with what unclet said that is right!

 

Good luck!

[unclet]

ok ... I laughed a bit at that .... thanks

[loadman]

Oh, and I only agree with what unclet said that is right!

Poor UNCLET 

I understand and agree that we should be point 'fe newbies' to the  wiki initially.

Butt...

I too am curious as to what was completely wrong. It's gonna bug me all day now. Bugger 

[Buddabing]

I'm sorry, I was just angry. UncleT was only wrong on 2/3 parts, that's not "almost completely" wrong.

Please accept my apology.

[Howard_Casto]

Which 2?  J5 does require mame (to work well) and is the most advanced out there and as far as I know the other viewers don't read cfg/ctrlr/ini files to get the mame key mappings.  So those two are correct and the mala stuff is subjective so it couldn't be considered wrong either. 

[unclet]

I would assume he thinks I implied MALA has more features than MameWah or AtomicFE perhaps ..... however, I did state that MALA "has many more features which I required", which is absolutely true ......

Also, if you go into the Wiki (which I like) and enter the Glossary .... you will notice that the definition of "Mame32" is a "Windows version of MAME with built in GUI" which is what I was implying .....

oh well, everyone is allowed to have a bad day ......  I did laugh though .... I swear

[Buddabing]

UncleT's answers to questions 1 and 3 were clearly wrong, and his answer to question 2 was half-wrong.

1) The OP asked which would be better to use, Mamewah or Atomic? The answer given was "MaLa". Wrong. Uncle T isn't even qualified to answer that because he hasn't even used Atomic! The correct answer is "Consult the wiki and make your own decision".

2) MAME or MAME32? The correct answer is that it doesn't matter, but given a choice, command line MAME is better, so half-wrong.

3) CPViewer is more stable and easier to use than J5. J5 has more features, but the OP didn't ask about that.

[loadman]

I don't want to play anymore...   

[unclet]

Ouch .... you are rather picky.

Based on the poster's reply (ie: "Great!") ...... I would assume he understood and appreciated my answers.   Every question someone asks is not as black and white as you are implying.   Providing little bits of information which people did not explicitly ask for is sometimes helpful.   Gets a person to think about different possibilities and could actually lead them down a new path to discover new things and make better decisions.

1) I know you love the Wiki, but instead of looking at the Wiki and just finding out what frontend supports what features, I think the person who started this thread was asking people (who actually used the frontend software) how they worked.   As far as I know (I could be wrong....) the Wiki does not include a frontend ranking system, so getting opinions as to which frontend someone thinks is better can not be found there.  Installing MameWah to just try it out could be a real pain and waste of time if there might be a better alternative out there.   Not to say MameWah is a bad application ... because it is not, I just found that Mala has more features which I required and in my opinion (and many others in this forum) it is easier to set up due to the nice GUI it offers.   I was kind of just pointing out that MALA existed, which they might not have even heard about yet, sinc they were looking for ease of use .... and so many people on this forum complain about how hard it is getting MameWah going from scratch.   Also, I did mention that I never tried AtomicFE.

2) He clearly wanted a choice to be made .... not get an "either" response.   Most people here use command line Mame for frontends, so that is what I recommended.  No need to use Mame32 if you never plan on using the GUI part.

3) Based on readings (I believe from Howard's J5 forum), I believe it was stated that Johnny5 works better with command line Mame rather than Mame32.   I believe the question which was asked was to decide which version of Mame (command line or Mame32) to use.   Since J5 indicated it is easier (and better) to go with command line Mame, this is how I answered.    I would not appreciate an answer of "either" when the creator of J5 indicated command line Mame would be better.   

I would not consider CPViewer to be more stable than J5 or easier to use.  I like the CPViewer software, but both CPViewer and J5 took me about 5 minutes to set up and configure.  Also, I believe the poster was indicating he did not want to have to push a button while in Mame to see the controls which are mapped to a specific game, so I believe J5 would be the only solution to not having to do that.  I believe J5 maps all mame key inputs correctly (even if you remap them for specific games only) so there is no need to check each individual game to see the mappings.

[Czapala]

In unclet's defense, I "did" know what he was saying and appreciated the info he gave.

It was a question of opinion from people who use the different FE's.  Since the wiki only really gives features. As this is my first time doing something like this, to the un-initiated, they seem to have a lot in common.  But it was a source of good info.

BuddaBing: Although it wasn't until your 3rd post that I got your opinion  , I appreciate the info none the less.

I will endeavor to be more specific next time ( although I will not guarantee success! )

[Howard_Casto]

Actually the mame32 vs mame choice.. it isn't much of a choice you should only use mame. 

Here's the thing...some of the simplier fe's only call the -listxml flag from mame to get data or don't call mame at all.  For those fe's you can use mame32.  If the fe,app,ect uses ANY of mame's other list outputs or queries then you have to use regular mame.  Now let it be known that some versions of mame32 support all the flags and some dont.  Since you never know from version to version if they are all included, it's better to just avoid the whole mess. Why the mame32 guys sometimes don't support extra flags is beyond me, but regardless you should never, ever reccomend mame32 as it might cause unforseen issues later down the road. 

j5 can work with mame32, if you manually send the driver and clone data, but it's much easier to use mame.  Dk can use mame32 but some of the driver status info returned is crippled.  Similar things happen with 3darcade and other fes that allow filtering.  Mame32 is an option but it is usually easier to use mame so you can never say someone is wrong by reccomending mame over mame32 unless they ask something like "I want to play mame games but I don't want to deal with a fe." 


And I want it to be known that I have nothing against cpviewer, it just doesn't do as much as j5.  J5 is rock-solid stable, so I'm not sure what you mean by that.  We run into bugs occasionally, but it usualy involves the user having a corrupted cfg file somewhere or them using an odd-ball "transition" build of mame (in the early .100's, when the list output flags were being changed). 

Easier is subjective, personally I think it's easier to setup an app once, for one game and then have it automaticcally configure all other games, even if the mappings differ than to setup another app for each control change, even if the inital setup is quicker.  But that is just me, others will disagree and I have no problem with that.   I think based on what the poster asked he wanted j5 rather than cpviewer in terms of how he wanted to use it.  Your opinion might differ, but I wouldn't call reccomending j5 wrong or even "half wrong" by any means. 


I didn't come to argue, so I'll quit now, I just hate to see someone being picked apart for giving realitively good advice. 

later

I wasn't going to argue the points that were opinions, I just don't understand why you jumped on poor unclet when, save the mala advice everything was pretty much spot on. 

[Czapala]

Thanx Howard,
   I have parts coming in and should be building my machine next week.  I hope you don't mind me pestering you   

From what has been said so far I am leaning toward MameWah, mame, and johnny5.

BTW what FE do you use Howard_Casto?

[Buddabing]

BTW what FE do you use Howard_Casto?

Howard, I think I need to update your wiki entry, or, better yet, you can do it yourself, if you ever get your login problems fixed.

Czap, Howard is the author of one of the front ends that you and unclet are neglecting. Dragon King has just as much functionality than MaLa, MAMEWah, Atomic, and the rest, plus he is working on a brand new release.

[Czapala]

Hmm I actually took a look at Dragon King (website) while looking for Johnny5 ... Is he author of Johnny5 too?

Anyhow I will go back to that website and read some more and then come back with some more inane newb questions 

[youki]

I come late in the debate.

But i won't enter in it , i want  just say that AtomicFE can work with Johnny5 . Some of my users use it.