What would be the best front end for newbies?

[snailmailhater]

Hi.  I was just curious as to what would be the best frontend for newbies.  I have alot of friends and they have alot of friends that have no idea how to work the mame machine when they come over to my place.  I was just curious what would be the easiest frontend to navigate through in windows.  

[AlanS17]

Easiest to set up or easiest to use?

[Tiger-Heli]

Hi.  I was just curious as to what would be the best frontend for newbies.  I have alot of friends and they have alot of friends that have no idea how to work the mame machine when they come over to my place.  I was just curious what would be the easiest frontend to navigate through in windows.  

Tough question.  I use Emuloader ( http://www.mameworld.net/emuloader/ ), but then I don't have a cabinet.  Just a desktop PC that I play MAME on.  EL can be tough to set-up initially, but here is what I like about it:

Very easy to make changes to individual settings for configuring different games.
Can be used in a Party Mode (see tips/tricks) which helps keep guests from messing up your PC.
Displays lots of images per game (I show Title Screen, Screen Shot, Cabinet, Marquee, Control Panel, Flyer/Instruction Card, and Hints).  Useful for finding out what a game does if you don't recognize it from the title.
Can display FAQ/text files for each game for strategy/tips.

See this page for tips on showing what key to press per game http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/controls/controls.html  (should work with any frontend).

If you want something less Windowish, I have heard good things about Mamewah, the 3-D arcade, and whatever the latest Raging Dragon/Lazarus version is called now.  Mainly here, I would just look for something simple to select games that also will tell you what buttons do what.
For a regular cab, you might want something less windowish.  I would just try

[traknfieldSUPAstar]

I use mame32 cuz i don't have a cab/dedicated mame computer yet so i have to run everything off my everyday PC

[locash]

Try Mamewah.  The UI looks like it belongs on an arcade machine, it is simple to set up, easy to navigate, and it supports multiple emulators.

mamewah.mameworld.net

[meta87]

I'll second that, Mamewah was for me the easiest to setup, worked right from the start.

Looks good aswell.

[IG-88]

I'll second that, Mamewah was for me the easiest to setup, worked right from the start.

Looks good aswell.

As long as you're not running MAME32.    Game Launcher seems to me to have been the 'peoples choice' over the past few months, with the searching I have done. Although I've heard it's buggy. Haven't had the time to try it myself yet    
I see the letters D.O.S. and my hackles raise. My respects to you old timers, but it's a windows world now, for better or worse.

[anthony691]

MAMEWAH!

[OSCAR]

Hi.  I was just curious as to what would be the best frontend for newbies.  I have alot of friends and they have alot of friends that have no idea how to work the mame machine when they come over to my place.  I was just curious what would be the easiest frontend to navigate through in windows.  

For a non-windowsy FE for a cabinet, this is what I would say based on ease of setup:

Newbies/Intermediate:  MAMEWAH, GameLauncher
Intermediate/Expert:  DragonKing, 3Darcade

That's not to say that MAME "experts" don't like MAMEWAH, nor that newbies won't be happy with DragonKing, but based on posts & comments from users this is how I would classify them.  I currently use both MAMEWAH & DragonKing and I like them equally for different reasons.  

[Odonadon]

Hi.  I was just curious as to what would be the best frontend for newbies.  I have alot of friends and they have alot of friends that have no idea how to work the mame machine when they come over to my place.  I was just curious what would be the easiest frontend to navigate through in windows.  

For a non-windowsy FE for a cabinet, this is what I would say based on ease of setup:

Newbies/Intermediate:  MAMEWAH, GameLauncher
Intermediate/Expert:  DragonKing, 3Darcade

That's not to say that MAME "experts" don't like MAMEWAH, nor that newbies won't be happy with DragonKing, but based on posts & comments from users this is how I would classify them.  I currently use both MAMEWAH & DragonKing and I like them equally for different reasons.  

I think you're right with the Mamewah comment.  It's EXTREMELY easy to setup, yet nice and customizable for us more advanced people.  It's definetely the easiest to setup that I've used.  Of course, maybe my woes with GL have taught me what to look for and pay mind to when setting the dang thing up

Odonadon

[paigeoliver]

I found advancemenu to be very easy to set up, plus it worked the first time.