Win98 Front Ends and MAME's - Getting them to work.

[audiomidiman]

Ok, I loaded up a clean copy of windows 98 on my PII box and get mame069b_i686 working good via the DOS prompt within windows. So, now I want to experiment w/ Front-ends.

I tried Mala V 1 w/ mame069b_i686 but just about the time I think I have it configured right and hit ok it terminates. I tried it w/ mame32-061 and a newer version but it did the same thing.

So, I moved to MAMEWAH and configured it w/ Mame32-061 and mame069b_i686 and all I get is NO GAMES AVAILABLE and when I go to "Select Platform" I get 4 choices. However 3 are blank and one says M.A.M.E. Either way, there is no games available so nothing seems to work. Possibly I have it configured wrong but I did edit the INI file to point to where it needs to point.

Atomic FE works w/ mame32-061 (older version I had) but not the newest version of mame32. However, I can't seem to get my games to pull up in the newest version so possibly I need to recompile the ROMS. It works ok, but I was hoping to use mame069b_686 to get rid of the overhead of Mame32 seeing I want to use a front end.

I finally tried Maximus Arcade and configured it to mame069b-686 and everything seems to work. However, it's obviously only a 30 day demo. It says "Limited Windows 98 Support". Is there a way to get it to boot into the Front End when the computer first starts up? How about shutting down? Also, even though I believe I will be getting a Neo Geo cabient w/ a 25" monitor I might still end up doing one set of controls w/ a 19" verticle monitor. Is there a setting to rotate 90 degrees within Maximus Arcade?

Ideally I was hoping to have a front end w/ photos of each game that is on the machine and you select the image/photo and hit a button to start. I'm hoping one of these have a skin to accomplish this.

Are there any front ends I am missing (Free or Inexpensive) that work w/ windows 98 and command prompt MAME?

Thanks!
Bill

Ao,

[youki]

Atomic FE works w/ mame32-061 (older version I had) but not the newest version of mame32. However, I can't seem to get my games to pull up in the newest version so possibly I need to recompile the ROMS. It works ok, but I was hoping to use mame069b_686 to get rid of the overhead of Mame32 seeing I want to use a front end.

AtomicFE can works with all version of mame. Including the very older one.  What you mean by "I can't seem to get my games to pull up in the newest version" ? (sorry English is not my native language)

You mean the games doesn't run? 

I can work with you to make it run with the mame you want.

[Minwah]

So, I moved to MAMEWAH and configured it w/ Mame32-061 and mame069b_i686 and all I get is NO GAMES AVAILABLE and when I go to "Select Platform" I get 4 choices. However 3 are blank and one says M.A.M.E. Either way, there is no games available so nothing seems to work. Possibly I have it configured wrong but I did edit the INI file to point to where it needs to point.

With Mamewah v1.61, it should work pretty much straight away...just might need to edit the paths etc. in the supplied 'mame.ini' file.  Perhaps start again, it seems like you have 4 emulators setup for some reason.

Mame32 can cause problems (with various FE's) so I suggest you stick to the commandline version.

[loadman]

I tried Mala V 1 w/ mame069b_i686 but just about the time I think I have it configured right and hit ok it terminates. I tried it w/ mame32-061 and a newer version but it did the same thing.

As the MaLa website says it is made for mame versions >84 as that is when the mame xml files where introduced that mala uses to build game lists. 

Having said that...

I use Mame 79 with mala and it works just fine.   
I just got a xml file from a later version of mame (89)

Let me know if you want to use mala and I will help

Mame32 can cause problems (with various FE's) so I suggest you stick to the commandline version.

Amen 

[audiomidiman]

Atomic FE works w/ mame32-061 (older version I had) but not the newest version of mame32. However, I can't seem to get my games to pull up in the newest version so possibly I need to recompile the ROMS. It works ok, but I was hoping to use mame069b_686 to get rid of the overhead of Mame32 seeing I want to use a front end.

AtomicFE can works with all version of mame. Including the very older one.  What you mean by "I can't seem to get my games to pull up in the newest version" ? (sorry English is not my native language)

You mean the games doesn't run? 

I can work with you to make it run with the mame you want.

Sorry about my English last night. I typed that WAY TO LATE to think straight. Not that I'm that great of an English Major.

Ok, so now to my question. Yes, I loaded WAY TOO MANY VERSION OF MAME. YIKES. Mainly because I couldn't get them too work. Tonight I'll uninstall or delete all of them except mame069b_i686 to clean the system up. Then I'll move forward on getting a front end to work.

Ideally I would like to get MaLa to work w/ mame069b but like loadman said, and I didn't realize that, I really need the xml file from mame 84 or greater.

As the MaLa website says it is made for mame versions >84 as that is when the mame xml files where introduced that mala uses to build game lists. 

Having said that...

I use Mame 79 with mala and it works just fine.   
I just got a xml file from a later version of mame (89)

Let me know if you want to use mala and I will help

Mame32 can cause problems (with various FE's) so I suggest you stick to the commandline version.

Amen 

Free is always good but I don't mind making a donation or paying a small amount of $$$$$ on a front end that works good. So if someone can work w/ me to get a good command line version of mame working on my 450 MHz PII w/ Windows 98 SE. Is mame069b_i686 good enough or should I move to a later version even if it isn't compiled to take advantage of a PII? Then if someone can work w/ me to get MaLa to work w/ the command line version of MAME that is optimized for my system that would be great.

If I can't get MaLa working I would be happy to use MameWah or buy Atomic FE or Maximus Arcade assuming I can get them to work.

Thanks for any help.

Bill

[youki]

buy Atomic FE

?....   Where did you see you can buy Atomic?  It is completly free.

When you will have choose your mame version and be sure that your ROMS match with the mame version.  (to check taht use tools like ClrMame or RomCenter) .

I can guide you step by step to make run Atomic on your PII 450Mhz.

[loadman]

Is mame069b_i686 good enough or should I move to a later version even if it isn't compiled to take advantage of a PII?

Hey.. Try that and if I is too slow/fast  move back/forward a few versions
Just one setting to change in MaLa (assuming you keep your roms and XML files in the same place)

You do know you can download older versions above 69 right? Read the text at the mame website at the top of the 'older mame versions' website

as Youki said:

When you will have choose your mame version and be sure that your ROMS match with the mame version.  (to check taht use tools like ClrMame or RomCenter) .

I agree

Then if someone can work w/ me to get MaLa to work w/ the command line version of MAME that is optimized for my system that would be great.

If you PM me a E-mail address I will send you a XML file  if you want?

See attached pic for set-up..
Notes:
1) Try to run a game via the command line/promt before launching from any FE. That way the mame dos error window will stay up if you have rom problems with your version of mame (the rom-sets need to match as youki said) Sometimes if you have a romset close to the version you have most games will work anyway

2) Let mala create a mame.ini if you don't already have one
3) don't create another mame.xml via mala as it won't work 
4) Do refresh game list afterwards...it takes a min if you have many roms

Either way you should try other FE's too if you have time...