Is there a good emulator / front end for Mac os x?

[krutknut]

I just placed a mac in the living room, and I'd of course like to play arcade games on it.
Is it possible? Is there any good frontend / emulator for mac os x? Which one do you like?

[krutknut]

Nobody has any idea? 

[protokatie]

When it comes to MAME, the last Mac version I heard of was for powermacs. If you have an x86 mac, you may be out of luck. Just install XP on your mac and run the stuff we do. I mean, really, if you are going to pay 3 times per stat on a mac machine, why make it run 25 year old arcade/console games? Just get a mini atx based PC or something... Meh...

[Blanka]

Front End:
Emulaunch
www.emulaunch.com
It's so easy, it makes me sick of Windows FE's and crying that the guy stopped the project 
Shame he did not receive enough donations to consider the project worthy to debug and add U360 support and stuff like that.

For Mame,
Mame OSX is a Intel/PPC modern Mame implemention. They only skip many versions, so 0.124 is the most recent.
SDL Mess is very good up to date and includes the latest MAME developments.
http://mameosx.sourceforge.net/
http://www.macmess.org/

All console emu's:
They are sometimes a little behind compared to compatibility and speed of PC version, but Mr Banister (the guy who ported more emulators to mac than anyone else) is king of GUI for emulators:
http://www.bannister.org/software/index.htm
Compared to PC emulators, the mac counterparts are heaven in usability terms. Every emulator has both decent gamepad AND keyboard (read iPac) support (Most PC emu's have crappy Keyboard settings), perfect scaling/overlay/syncing options for video (all banister apps share the same settings/options for this).

Conclusion: the Mac experience is not very up to date (playstation 2/wii emulating anyone?), but it is best in ease of use on any platform.

[krutknut]

Thank's! I'll try those emulators / front ends. That the GUIs are nice sounds promising.

Why don't I put a PC in the living room.... well, I don't need more junk in the living room. (And I have an old PC upstairs, still.)

[loadman]

Personally, I would not consider making a cab with a mac.

There is not the range of tools, options and support that come close to P.C.

I am a mac lover. Using a mac right now and when doing mala code (mala is a windows fe)   I often do it on he mac using a virtual windows session (under parallels)

[krutknut]

I see, no I don't have a cab. I just made a control panel.

[Blanka]

There is not the range of tools, options and support that come close to P.C.

Only option really missing on the mac is U360 support. And a FE with multimedia integration is still far away. All other stuff is well done, and most of the time easier then on a PC. PC software builders really have the User Interface switch in their brains in the wrong position. Hopefully they start coding for the iPhone goldrush, and learn from that.

[krutknut]

Are you saying that the U360 doesn't work on a mac? That would ruin it for me.
(or is it just the ultramap software? That I can use on the pc or through wmvare fusion.)

[Blanka]

The U360 works, but you can't have Mame map the U360 for each game you boot. So no On-the-fly switching of 2-way/4-way/8-way/q-bert-way 

[krutknut]

 
I wonder if Ultimarc would want to make their software for mac as well?

[loadman]

mmmm I love my iPhone.  My wife gets jealous

[krutknut]

How do you connect an arcade controller to the iphone?
(Is there even an arcade emulator for it?)

[u_rebelscum]

SDLmame runs fine on modern macs.  (Blanka hinted at it with SDLmess comment.)  The SDLmame home page linked has links to MacOS FEs (some run on both linux and mac).

Also, the u360 works in MacOS. 
The UltraMap software that doesn't work.  However, SDLmame has -joystick_map (like normal mame), which does 90% of what ultramap can do (translate analog joystick data to 8/4/2-way with 9x9 maps).  If you have two u360s, you'll have to reasign one to joy2 with ultramap; just use a win PC and the u360 will remember.  (Leave in analog mode).  Mame & SDLmame already automatically remap for 8-way & 4-way games: you'll just have to do qbert (rotated 4-way) and tron (small diagonals) with one line game specific ini files with joystick_map option.  (add others as you wish.)  (You don't even have to set up an extra app this way, unlike with ultramap.)

[krutknut]

I mailed Andy, and he will consider something like a map switcher (rather than the full ultra map) for OS X. If he can find a mac developer.
 

[Blanka]

Mail him that he should team up with Richard Banister.
Banister both makes the Emulation Enhancer, a plugin that allows Keys/Joysticks etc to be mapped for every emulator, and sets scaling, overlays, resolution, stretching and vertical sync for all emulators, and he does some stuff for Mame OSX too, including the M1 audio jukebox for arcade tunes. If Richard would incorporate a map switcher in to MameOSX and Emulation Enhancer, U360 support would kick beyonds Windows's ass.

[krutknut]

Well, I don't know Richard :-(

I just stumbled on Mame Library, doing the iPhoto to Mame osx.
http://www.randomsequence.com/software/mame-library/


I haven't tried it out yet, but it looks real good.

[krutknut]

I just tried it and it's beautiful! 
(it front-ends mame os x)

[Blanka]

Did you try Emulaunch too?

[JoeStrout]

The warning says I should consider starting a new topic, but hey, it's the exact same topic... just two years later.

So... it's now 2012.  What's the best MAME implementation and/or front-end for Mac OS X today?

I'm particularly interested in using the Ultimarc Ultrastik360, and having it configured properly for each game.  Is this something that modern MAMEs can do themselves?  Or do I need to build the "ultrastikcmd" utility (which isn't exactly trivial) and call that on the command line?

Honestly, I'd rather just let MAME do it if possible... but I'm new to any serious MAME usage, and don't even have a clear idea of what my options are there, let alone which implementation is likely to work best.  Any recommendations from other Mac users?

[JoeStrout]

Sorry to follow up my own post... but I've been using Mac MAME, and apparently... it's dead, Jim.

It looks like SDLMAME is the most up-to-date MAME for Macs, and it looks pretty nifty... it's a command-line app, which suits me just fine, since then I can either pick one of several front-ends (personal recommendations welcome) or write my own.

And it does support mapping analog sticks to 2-way, 4-way, 4-way rotated, and 8-way sticks.  (See this thread for more about configuring for Q*Bert.)  Hooray!

[alfonzotan]

I've had an OS X (Hackintosh) cab up and running for the better part of a year now, and used a Mac Mini at my TV for MAME-ing for over a year before that.  My findings:

MacMAME is indeed dead, which is a shame, as it had the most Mac-like and intuitive front end.  Still usable, but it has quirks, and it's obviously long out of date in terms of MAME versions, so a lot of MAME features aren't available (i.e., overlays and backgrounds, many video controls, etc.).  The OS9 version is still a great emulator for classic games, particularly vector games.  Since MacMAME predates Intel code, it won't work at all under Lion, unfortunately.

MAMEOSX is also dead, and also has quirks, mostly related to recognizing multiple USB controllers (I still can't get it to recognize the spinner on my CP, for instance).  But it was a very nice project while still around.  I'm told it doesn't play well with Lion, but then again, Lion sucks.

SDLMAME works great (assuming you settle on a front end), is up to date, and has a ton of nice features.  Not exactly "unpack the installer and drop in your Applications folder" as far as setting it up, but you don't need a degree in computer science, either.

http://sdlmame.parodius.com/

Front ends for SDLMAME:

EmuLaunch is the simplest and most usable in a cab environment, since it's explicitly joystick-selection-friendly.  Takes a little tweaking to set up (make sure you select SDLMAME as your emulation engine), but worth the effort, even though it's technically a dead app.

MAMETunes is a neat frontend, simulates the iTunes interface.  Not my favorite for various reasons, but I can see why people like it.

MAME+GUI (aka M+GUI) is probably the most versatile Mac front end, and the one I use when I want to dig deep into the recesses of MAME (I have a much more limited ROM set for EmuLaunch, only a couple hundred games).  It also plays very nicely with SDLMAME.  Not particularly cab-friendly, though.

I tried MAME Library a while back and liked it, but it didn't play well with SDLMAME.  Don't think it's been updated since, when I emailed the dev last year he said (nicely) that he didn't have time to debug the SDLMAME section.  Hopefully he'll pick it up again one of these years.

There are a few others, and you should experiment around to find the ones you like.

Regarding iPhones and iPads, you have to jailbreak to get true MAME going on them (unless you lucked out in the iMAME sweepstakes recently).  MAME4All is the app if you do want to jailbreak.  I hear it runs great with iCades.

[taylormadelv]

Funny thing. I just finished up my "vectormame" cabinet. It's a dedicated Star Trek cabinet I completely rebuilt, bondo'd and painted. I completely rebuilt the control panel so that the spinner is in the middle and added two buttons on the left side so that Tempest and Major Havoc can be played. This all runs on macmame 0.56 on native os 9.2 on a G4 450 with some old graphics card I can't recall. The monitor is a Gateway VX910, the brightest I have ever used and is a perfect fit in old vector cabinets.  I use an OLD ipac that works with old macs and the apache controls push pull spinner. The apache is the best spinner I have ever used, period. The old ipac is critical, since I can program micros with the apple + w command to close games and can program whatever shift keys I need to be enter, tab, `, left and right keys. It can all be done on an old mac without ever touching a keyboard but only because I can program the ipac.
I have run every kind of vector "mame" configuration available, I even own a ZVG card, I've tried PC's, mac ox, AAE, everything. The oldest versions of macmame draw vectors so pretty, it just the interface is all clunky. I made the decision that the way the games played was more important than how I launched them. I also get the all levels hacks to work in Tempest, the Return to Vaxx hack for Major Havoc and Major Havoc plays perfectly smooooth and looks the best possible short of an ampliphone vector monitor, even better than a WG6100 IMO in this particular setup.
macmame is dead in terms of any future development but old versions are great for particular applications, kinda like playing an old Jimmy Hendricks album, yeah he's very dead but he's still the greatest to listen to now. One must just do lots of work arounds to get macmame to do what you want.

[alfonzotan]

Funny thing. I just finished up my "vectormame" cabinet. It's a dedicated Star Trek cabinet I completely rebuilt, bondo'd and painted. I completely rebuilt the control panel so that the spinner is in the middle and added two buttons on the left side so that Tempest and Major Havoc can be played. This all runs on macmame 0.56 on native os 9.2 on a G4 450 with some old graphics card I can't recall. The monitor is a Gateway VX910, the brightest I have ever used and is a perfect fit in old vector cabinets.  I use an OLD ipac that works with old macs and the apache controls push pull spinner. The apache is the best spinner I have ever used, period. The old ipac is critical, since I can program micros with the apple + w command to close games and can program whatever shift keys I need to be enter, tab, `, left and right keys. It can all be done on an old mac without ever touching a keyboard but only because I can program the ipac.
I have run every kind of vector "mame" configuration available, I even own a ZVG card, I've tried PC's, mac ox, AAE, everything. The oldest versions of macmame draw vectors so pretty, it just the interface is all clunky. I made the decision that the way the games played was more important than how I launched them. I also get the all levels hacks to work in Tempest, the Return to Vaxx hack for Major Havoc and Major Havoc plays perfectly smooooth and looks the best possible short of an ampliphone vector monitor, even better than a WG6100 IMO in this particular setup.
macmame is dead in terms of any future development but old versions are great for particular applications, kinda like playing an old Jimmy Hendricks album, yeah he's very dead but he's still the greatest to listen to now. One must just do lots of work arounds to get macmame to do what you want.

That cab sounds great, does it have a Project Announcements thread?  If not, please start one with some pics.

Have you ever tried Vectorama?  Old Mac-only engine for vector emulation, popped up circa 1997 or so.  No interface to speak of (If I remember correctly, it basically generates stand-alone apps for each ROM set--don't quote me on that, it's been a while), but very well done.

[taylormadelv]

I just got a digital camera working and the cabinet is not 100% finished but I would be willing to post pics of this this soon. I tried vectorama a while ago but it drew the vectors kinda crappy and it was kinda clunky to work with.
Macmame 0.56 allows the vectors to be drawn at a variable size and brightness. There is a translucency to some of the vectors drawn that looks so pretty, especially in Major Havoc. PC mame, even AAE cannot touch the quality of the vectors drawn in this ancient version of macmame. Remember that this ancient version of macmame is borderline useless for any other "real" mame gaming. I have all the vector games that I personally want running on this particular setup, not ALL vectors. I own a real Gravitar and a real Asteroids Deluxe. These two games cannot be emulated properly, no matter what you do, they will never feel or look right IMO.
I have MH, MH Return to Vaxx, Tempest all levels hack, Tempest Tubes, Tac Scan, Omega Race, Space Fury, Space Duel, Eliminator, Zektor and Star Trek all running perfectly with no frame skip whatsoever. The spinner works perfectly smoooooooth on all games! Star Trek is a BLAST! I have never been able to get these results with a PC, no matter what I have tried over years of work. It's almost as bad or maybe worse than trying to run archaic DOS just to attempt to get a ZVG "vector mame" to work. This is native OS 9 here, on an old boat anchor G4. This is for these particular vector games only. I run other games on other cabinets.
The Gateway VX910 is also key here, this is a really bright CRT!

[alfonzotan]

I just got a digital camera working and the cabinet is not 100% finished but I would be willing to post pics of this this soon. I tried vectorama a while ago but it drew the vectors kinda crappy and it was kinda clunky to work with.
Macmame 0.56 allows the vectors to be drawn at a variable size and brightness. There is a translucency to some of the vectors drawn that looks so pretty, especially in Major Havoc. PC mame, even AAE cannot touch the quality of the vectors drawn in this ancient version of macmame. Remember that this ancient version of macmame is borderline useless for any other "real" mame gaming. I have all the vector games that I personally want running on this particular setup, not ALL vectors. I own a real Gravitar and a real Asteroids Deluxe. These two games cannot be emulated properly, no matter what you do, they will never feel or look right IMO.

I have an Asteroids Deluxe myself, and I agree. 

[taylormadelv]

AAE got the closest to the "bullet glow", macmame can't touch this. The bullet glow is a very special effect of an actual vector monitor. Gravitar and AD have this effect and it's important to the game. Space Duel, Space Fury and Tempest do not share these issues. AAE  made the bullet glow and the explosions in Asteroids and AD kinda exaggerated but still extremely bright, much brighter than macmame. AAE has other serious issues though, like the inability the add/subtract games from the list, the anemic spinner controls, the lack of joystick input and the fact that Tim wouldn't share the code for several years until it was basically a dead project. AAE was an awesome concept and I still support it but just like macmame, I do not consider any future development a reality.

[JZSlenker]

alfonzotan do you know if there is a way to change the "enter" key on Emulaunch to something other than the space bar or the actual enter key?  I'd really like to change it to the "1" key so it works like my other cab using an I-pac.

[Blanka]

No, there is no way to configure inputs in Emulaunch. But, the space is just button number 3 of player 1, so not a real big problem.
My biggest problem with OSX is that I need a way to disable the mouse in certain apps: read all the console emulators. Mouse button is killing those. Mame blocks mouse input, so that one has no problem.

[JZSlenker]

That's what I figured.  I just wanted the cabs to match.  Thanks for the reply.

[alfonzotan]

alfonzotan do you know if there is a way to change the "enter" key on Emulaunch to something other than the space bar or the actual enter key?  I'd really like to change it to the "1" key so it works like my other cab using an I-pac.

I'd like that myself... I haven't looked yet, but it might be worth trolling through the Emulaunch .xml files under ~/Library/Preferences to see if there are any settings there there for the front-end controls.  I regularly edit the EmuLaunch-mame.xml file to clean up the game list, put titles in alphabetical order and such.  Don't forget to make backups, though--any time you re-run the EmuLaunch setup, it'll overwrite all the Preferences files.

In my cab, the button linked to "space" also happens to be the one closest to the player-1 joystick, so I've been able to get away with being lazy in that regard.

[twh019]

SO...
 
for you mac guys, would you consider an early model mac mini g4 a good computer option for a bartop based cabinet to run games at the n64/sega saturn level of emulation and below?

With leopard OS, what would be the best mame emulator and front end?

[headkaze]

You could try the Mac version of GameEx

[Howard_Casto]

SO...
 
for you mac guys, would you consider an early model mac mini g4 a good computer option for a bartop based cabinet to run games at the n64/sega saturn level of emulation and below?

With leopard OS, what would be the best mame emulator and front end?

The n64 is much more powerful than the saturn, mame runs arcade games, not console games.  Some wires have definately gotten crossed here. 

Imho Macs are NEVER a good option for a mame/console rig.  You are limited to maybe 25% support, so when the next cool emulator/hardware do-dad/helper app/ect comes out there's a decent chance your rig won't support it.  So if you got it for free, yeah, go for it... otherwise get yourself a pc. 

[twh019]

Ahh, I gotya.

A buddy of mine had one he wasn't using, so I thought it would be a decent option.
I guess I sounded confusing in my post.
I always see awesome frontends like Maximus and HyperSpin on people's cabinets running consoles AND mame integrated within the frontend.  It seems like there isn't much out there for mac user's that is still supported.

I may have to look into gameex or just try to snag up a pc.

[Howard_Casto]

Gameex is probably your only option honestly, so you won't have much choice in the matter.  Luckily GameEx is pretty cool, so you should be satisfied with it. 

[mmxbass]

AVOID anything by Richard Bannister. Bannister is a bottom-feeder. He removes functionality from free software and then charges money to put it back in.

Get NekoLauncher Mednafen. It's an OSX multisystem emulator that is 100% free and infinitely superior to anything Bannister has scummed up.