Trouble with vertical front-ends

[PeterWalgreens]

Hi! I'm new here.
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I'm planning on building a ms pac man/galaga style cocktail cab, but am having a lot of trouble putting together the mame files and frontend for it. I'm running windows XP.
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I've already tried Mala, and was quickly boggled down by the options and the program's demands that I was missing various files. I'm just looking for a simple vertical orintation front end that doesnt take too much work.

[loadman]

I've already tried Mala, and was quickly boggled down by the options and the program's demands that I was missing various files. I'm just looking for a simple vertical orintation front end that doesnt take too much work.

 
Hi I have a vertical cocktail and mala works great.

All you need is mame.exe and to roms to get it working, the rest is optional.

Please advise what you mean by

the program's demands that I was missing various files

Most find MaLa very easy.

But many other FE's can work vertically.

Take a look at the Wiki:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Front-Ends

[PeterWalgreens]

Ok, maybe I should walk you through the steps I took.
Downloaded mala and the mame exe file (mame0123s.exe), along with history and controls.
I put the mame executable in C;\mame, and executed it, putting a bunch o' folders and files in the C:\mame directory along with the .exe file.

I opened up the mala program, and it told me I was doing this for the first time, and then I typed in the name of the ''Arcade system'' (Apollo Arcade), and wrote where my mame executable was (C:\mame\mame0123.exe)

And had mala maek a Rom info file.
I downloaded galaga.zip (rom file) and put it in a new folder I created in C:\mame, called roms. I made that folder the Rom path for mala

I went to additional (in the mame Config in mala) and assigned the history.dat and controls.ini locations, and then pressed ok. I refreshed my game list. It told me I diddnt have any games, and asked me to refresh main game list. I said yes, and it took me to a nearly blank screen with a moon /space design with the words ''Apollo Arcade'' on top, and no games to choose from. I also cant leave the screen, when I press ESC, It says ''Quit?'', with no easy way of doing so.
Help!

(oh, and the missing files thing was my mistake. I forgot to link up the mame.exe)

[youki]

Have a look to AtomicFe too.

i can help you to make the configuration as you want.

[PeterWalgreens]

Have a look to AtomicFe too.

i can help you to make the configuration as you want.

Thank You! I downloaded AtomicFE, and am planing on trying it out.

[loadman]

OK .

For a start. Right Clicking on the screen will present you with a configuration option.  See Pic Attached

From there you can set and check your config.  In this case rom path (meme config) and exit key (Controller-keyboard) to assign what key you wish to confirm exit with after you hit escape

It sounds like you have not got the right rom and or the right mame set.

What you describe is the default layout, so everything sounds normal apart from the missing game. My best guess id the rom you picked is not right for the mamae version you downloaded. Mame and games roms have to match for 'any' FE. The best way to test that is to run a game from the command line (not through the FE). Ask if you don't know how to do that. This will show is the game will work with the version of mame you have. If it does then it will work in the fe.

Let me know if you get stuck.