Portable Front End

[_Iz-]

Anyone know of a frontend that will run on a base WinXP install without the need to install anything? I'd like to put a copy of mame on my usb key to carry around with me but don't want to have to install .net or update system files on any computer I plug into for a quick game of gyruss...  I'm not that fond of the mameui look, trying to find something more like mamewah, a nice fullscreen frontend...

[Cakemeister]

This information is not in the wiki.

Most of them need to install DLLs, .NET, or both.

I think Atomic should work. Khameleon will definitely work, but it is still beta. Mamewah will not, and Ultrastyle will not. Haven't tried any others.

EDIT: Mala should work, too. I was looking at the installation .7z file and there was a .dll in it, so I ass|u|med that it would not.

[youki]

Yes, Atomic should work , i have designed it for that.

i made some CD for friends where Atomic is installed and can run directly.

the only constraint is to keep all folder Relative to Atomic.

the best thing being to install all under the Atomic folder (including emulators and roms)

Then in Atomic when you reference a folder you give his relative path not the full path.

Then your entire Atomic Folder will be transportable where you want and will run.

Atomic has been designed to work with the need of adding or installing something else on Windows XP . It uses only standard component.

Note that if you use "attract video" instead of snap... you could need to have to  install the video codec.

Same thing for the intro video. For a real portable settings, i suggest you disable it.  (even if the codec is provided with Atomic, you have to install it).

If you need help feel free to ask on my forums.

http://spaceinvaders.7.forumer.com/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=faafa86d7843e54a9d3af30c3f70137b

[loadman]

Mala will not,

I think you will find in will.   

I have run off cd too (which happens to be my backup). It's handy to test something knowing you can't break anything as it's burnt on cd.

MaLa uses one dll for the Jukebox, no .net and makes no registry entries unless you want mala to start on boot but there are other ways to achieve this and not applicable in this case anyway

[youki]

Did you try your Mala Cd , on a CD Drive that would not have the same letter assigned than yours?

[loadman]

Did you try your Mala Cd , on a CD Drive that would not have the same letter assigned than yours?

No, It is set for D at present.     so yeah some limitations.

[SGT]

Mala works for me as long as you use notepad to edit mala.ini file and replace all "C:\" with "\".   Sorry Youki.

[loadman]

Mala works for me as long as you use notepad to edit mala.ini file and replace all "C:\" with "\". 

Good Thinking James Bond 

[youki]

Sorry Youki.

You don't have to be sorry. I was just asking because it is a commun mistake. 

[loadman]

Sorry Youki.

You don't have to be sorry. I was just asking because it is a commun mistake. 

Fair enough 

[Games001]

I have a question about FE and MAMEUI 124.

If I were to place all my rom sets, emulators, FE (I normally use GameEX) and other required files on a USB External HD, would it be possible to take the single player CP (with the HD and other items installed within the CP itself) to another computer at a friends or associates location?

I have no idea how to do so without doing the same steps with a laptop and portable CP to run an OS.

(something like this below, but with the PC being any PC, anywhere.)

[Ummon]

Of course. It's three-quarters arcade-in-a-box.

[joebells]

I have a question about FE and MAMEUI 124.

If I were to place all my rom sets, emulators, FE (I normally use GameEX) and other required files on a USB External HD, would it be possible to take the single player CP (with the HD and other items installed within the CP itself) to another computer at a friends or associates location?

I have no idea how to do so without doing the same steps with a laptop and portable CP to run an OS.

(something like this below, but with the PC being any PC, anywhere.)

yeah that should be possible. Thats actually a very cool idea. You would have to worry about getting power to the hard drive, either get a lower power drive that can run off usb power, or put the power brick inside of it and just have an extra cord coming out.

You could also set all the drive paths to something like q that most people don't use and then when you connect it to a different computer just map it as q quick. Could probably even write a little batch file to do it.

[Games001]

That's just about what I was thinking... it should not be hard to build a 'Arcade-in-a-Box' setup.

Power to the HDD should be easy enough with the modern USB external drives.

I just wonder how to to program the initial setup so when you plug in the USB cable to the new PC in order to power the HDD, power up the 'Box' and fire up the arcade devices.  That's where my little bit of knowledge goes out the window.  Without an OS in the Box HDD, the drive is basically a secondary slave drive, and will not operate as an OS or DOS unit would.

[joebells]

it wouldn't need an os. It uses the computer it connects to's OS. As long as its a frontend that doesn't have to install anything, like the ones mentioned in this thread it would be fine. Either use relative paths for the locations of your roms and such. Or set them all up for use on something like the q drive. Then you can write a batch file that will create a mapping to your drive as the q drive on whatever computer you connect to, if you can't use relative paths. Then you would just have to double click the frontend exe file located on your hard drive. You could even create a batch file to create a shortcut on the desktop of the computer you are connecting it to that points to the frontend exe file.

If you wanted to get fancy you could even write an autoplay file that would do it all automatically when you plug in the disk

[Space Fractal]

dll's is NOT need to been installed. it mostly these any Visual Basic component files, which sometimes need to been installed.

I do known Mamewah can been a problem, since it require a few bits of runtime files.

I think a little startup frontend would been nice, so missing compones (also codecs too) can been installted in the easist possible way. It these frontends you see in many PC games, where you can either install or start the game if installed. Same can go here.

[Games001]

Hmmm, maybe we can do something with:

MAMEUI 124
Atomic FE (any advice you have Youki is apprecaited here, especially how you made up these CDs you made note of before)
Daphne Loader
ROM Sets on HDD

Having not worked with Atomic much yet, the need for a Joy-2-Key might be an issue.  I have had to use it a few times to get the Daphne program to work in other FEs.

Then just mount the HDD, loaded with all the running programs shown above, under the CP top, mount up all the gear needed to make it a running CP alla USB/power from outside source (for the HDD) and it should work.