with all the new FE development going on i thought it might be of some use to hear some opinions from someone not so deeply rooted in the community about the best aspects off the FE's Ive tried over the course of a first time build.
please bear in mind these are just my opinions and observations, i don't mean it as a best FE or to step on any ones toes.
Just in my line of work Ive come to appreciate opinions from people not so emotionally attached, or with vested interest in projects helps keep things in perspective and give new insights .. And I'm only going to comment on the FE's ,Jukes Ive tried. If its of use it be cool for others to share their experiences to ..
FE"S
Mala :
while lacking in the "bling" department its hands down the easiest to get up and running in no time flat . i love the tracking of how many times a game is played and having a top 20 list :> as well as user fav lists. all the plugin support .. just wish it was a bit more accessible to develop for (least for me I'm in IT and hobby/sideline in raytraceing (the math part not the ART part :> not really well versed in C or Delphi but i use auto-hotkey scripting allot). All the support for emu based pre/post command cues they are intuitive and very easy to work with .. my only fault here is their emu based and not rom based (tall order i know but that would be perfection for non Mame setups)
AtomicFE :
while it has a rather steep learning curve if you want to use your own layouts /setups there is a virtual army of presupplied configs/layouts waiting to be tweaked at your disposal. not to mention after playing with the layout editor you can pull off some really impressive effects with minimal performance hits if you think it threw and take your time.. and now a feature Ive only seen in Atomic that i wish every FE type app had :
for every rom/emu/what haveyou you can define a txt file %ROM%+var.txt and tie it to a window this window can display that text in static , scroll, loop ,wrap to window, Fonts, hand done bitmap fonts its so damn easy and useful to work with for non Mame setups were you want to show game info history control high scores, smacktalk what have you its down right sinful :>
Not to mention i think Youki is probably the most enthusiastic FE developer Ive seen on the boards (even if he catches flack for it sometimes ).
Khameleon:
Ive only played with the public beta some, so i don't have a wealth of exp with this one .. But
i can really appreciate what hes trying to do here .. in the hobby as a whole when i first started looking at front ends i was torn by well this one can do this, but that one has purdy pics , oh the bling on that one but it doesn't run this or do that .. come on admit it it be damn cool to have a FE that could load any layout from any FE as long as the backend is somewhat robust .. (with compatibility issues ide guess some functionality is going to need to be abstracted but THATS MY GUESS NOT A FACT or anything )
Mamewah:
While the layouts are simplistic and its not very idiot friendly after working with its insides if you want to spend time with all the cfg's ini's and misc files (bat, etc) you can pretty much pull of anything from simple to complex :>
Jukes :
I'm going to clarify this a bit I'm still working on getting a juke setup i like in my cab Ive played with 3 so far and waiting on 1 to get outa beta /feature lock before i invest in it. and I'm rather limited in scope since the juke needs to support both custom skin and hopefully credits (using modded coin mechs to accept anythin as a keypress )
Freebox :
OK pure config heaven and a DB powerhouse' not to mention its the most orientated to full re skins moving buttons etc etc. but alas i was having serious focus issues with it (mind you NOT THEIR fault ) i was using it in a way that isn't officially supported, and getting the credit feature is a tad pricey for a non professional use setup.
pcjuke touchtrax:
OK I'm still waiting on this and hopeing like all hell it will support minimising by key, and full app transparency when its done. but pc juke was really easy to set up, but it was a pain to try n use any form of custom graphic.
Virtuosa:
OK i relented here and actually bought this one .. I'm going to say this up front if you were going to use this in a dedicated touchscreen juke its beautiful but in a multi config enviorment i had serious issues with this one crashing or just not doing what i needed out of it. (also gives you an idea what I'm trying to do with my juke set up )
last but not least :
MultiFE:
i have NOT used it in its new rebirth but i did try it as a juke its clean simple and easy to use .. but isn't for my set up (no complete reskin its a theme based cab/media center) as a FE i really can see this one becoming the defacto standard for those folks using a multi monitor touch screen setup if its handled right (FE on the smaller touchscreen all playing and juke on the main screen)
once again these are just my opinions and experiences since embarking on my first build but figured it my be at least informative on what features a first time builder found most useful /wanted and where i had to make hard decisions about things ... I Truly admire and appreciate everyones hard work and helpfulness in this community/hobby and am very glad a decided to take the plunge over the last year to build my ultimate toy :> (no worries you ll see pics when its complete. but back when i started i didn't know all the woodworking aspect was a "must photo " element lol so ill be chastised for that :<
Mmal
