Best App for this

[Hawk Daddy]

Ok obviously I need MAME, but I would like a GUI that shows the games in like a 3 x 3 section so say 9 games total.  And have it boot straight to that program.   What would be the best route to take for this?  I know in MAME32 it shows like all of the games that can run under mame, and I hate that cause I don't have alot of them, and I wish that I could change that, but I don't know how.  I plan on making a simple cabinet with a slower PC to run the classics, pacman, galaga, dig dug, ms pacman, joust, and the donkey kongs.

Hawk

[BobA]

In mame32 you can add all your favourite games to the file favourite.ini in the folders directory and then only the games you want will show up.

[NickG]

many MAME frontends can be tweaked up for large game images in a 3x3 grid.
You could probably just build your own desktop shortcuts, instead of using a frontend for just nine games.  the added benefit to the latter is that you can point to almost any application,game, or emulator w/rom with desktop shortcuts.  Anyways, here is a start with MAME32:
-set desktop resolution to 800x600
-set desktop icon size to 72x72
-in the folder list; select "Available" or add your games to "Favorites" as previously mentioned
(right click each game, select  "add to custom filter", then select Favorites)
-toggle MAME32 folder view to off
set rom list font to around 15 DPI (depending on preference and length of title)
set rom list view to "large icons"

That should yield something like this:

[youki]

AtomicFE can do that perfectly.  Just have to create your own layout.

If you are interrested in it .  i can do a layout "template" for you if you don't fill confortable with my layout editor.  Then you will have just to enhance the graphics.

[tikbalang]

i recommend advanceMENU and dos. it takes a while to configure, but works nicely. try advanceCD first before you commit your pc to a mamecab. use TAB key to change rom previews. snapshots not included.

http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/

tip: you need to have at least one working parent rom in the rom folder.