Frontend recommendation please?

[Sam66]

I need a front end for my cocktail cabinet.  I'm running XP and have two players on a vertical side and two players on a horizontal side.

So I need screen rotation and control selection based on game being horizontal or vertical.  I also need configurable controls for 4 player games.

I am also having trouble getting all games to display in full screen so anything that will help with this would be great.

Any suggestions / recommendations from those in the know ?

Thanks in advance.

[Smack]

I posted that link to Advance Menu on the other thread. If you want to see my configuration file, I can put up up later after I get back from work...

One useful thing that I did is recompile MAME with a short change (courtesy of Paul Priest) to add a horizontal.ini and vertical.ini file to allow you to do a global rotate instead of  creating an ini file for every game. Here's the source change:

to add horizontal or vertical ini files...

much props to Paul Priest

Add this to src/windows/config.c, just above the /* nice hack: load source_file.ini (omit if referenced later any) */ comment:

    /* if this is a vertical game, parse vertical.ini first */
    if (drivers[game_index]->flags & ORIENTATION_SWAP_XY) {
       if (parse_config ("vertical.ini", NULL))
          exit(1);
    } else {
       if (parse_config ("horizont.ini", NULL))
          exit(1);
    }


About the full screen issue. Which port of MAME are you using? Are you enabling the hardware stretch and direct draw option? How about the Resolution setting?
Word.

[Davestar]

I would recommend Arcadeos.  It has rotation, which is easily configurable from controls on the control panel, which would be probably what you want.
-----------------
Dave

[Smack]

ArcadeOS is a great frontend with the Dos port or Advance MAME.

I could never get it to work right with the Windows port.

But then again, I am an idiot.

Smack

[)p(]

if you want to try something different and are able to set it up you can als try my fe...it can be rotated on the fly...

for global rotation of mame games you just add two commandline options for mame to femamecloptions.cfg:
15|horizontal|-rol|
15|vertical|-rol|
or something like that...

peter

[Lilwolf]

BTW, my next frontend will handle that.  And I'm hoping to add the ability to specify if your playing vertical games or horizontal and have it rotate for you and start accepting input from the other controller (at the same time as change the game filter).  

But its far off... And I'm hoping to build a cocktail table (might even tear down my current cab for it) with a similar setup..  I'm think a 4 sided cabinet (because the glass I have would go well in that design).  

[SirPoonga]

I posted that link to Advance Menu on the other thread. If you want to see my configuration file, I can put up up later after I get back from work...

One useful thing that I did is recompile MAME with a short change (courtesy of Paul Priest) to add a horizontal.ini and vertical.ini file to allow you to do a global rotate instead of  creating an ini file for every game. Here's the source change:

to add horizontal or vertical ini files...

much props to Paul Priest

Add this to src/windows/config.c, just above the /* nice hack: load source_file.ini (omit if referenced later any) */ comment:

 

[)p(]

BTW, my next frontend will handle that.  And I'm hoping to add the ability to specify if your playing vertical games or horizontal and have it rotate for you and start accepting input from the other controller (at the same time as change the game filter).  

But its far off... And I'm hoping to build a cocktail table (might even tear down my current cab for it) with a similar setup..  I'm think a 4 sided cabinet (because the glass I have would go well in that design).  

yeah being completely, 3d rotation should be no problem at all in the new jfront...
and that random screensaver spinning thing will be even more fun vertically  

peter

[Sam66]

Thanks for the response guys : )  Looks like I'll have to try a few of your suggestions and see which one I prefer.

As for the full screen problem:  The hardware stretch is greyed out, I had a feeling that might be the problem.  I'm using SIS onboard graphics on a fairly recent board with the latest drivers.  I do have an agp card I can try but I'd rather not have to use it due to physical constraints of my cab design.  Direct draw is on.  

Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by 'which port' of mame?  I'm just using mame32 as far as I know.

I would be interested to see your config file if you can post it that would be great.

Thanks again,

Sam66

[Smack]

Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by 'which port' of mame?  I'm just using mame32 as far as I know.

I would be interested to see your config file if you can post it that would be great.

Thanks again,

Sam66

"Port" would be either mamew, analogmame, advancemame, etc. People add little things here and there that they find useful and share the binaries with others. IE the multiple mouse thing, video features, etc. Mame32 is the one the built in GUI. The other ports require you to tweak the ini file.

I'll get that config posted in a few days. My main computer is down as I'm redoing a room. I can't get at the config file til then.

Word.