dsheinem's "MAME Cabinet in a Month(ish)" project - DONE!?

[fedexin]

I don't like Hyperspin

There's tons of FE's out there, what DO you like? =)

[AppleQueso]

I'm mainly only saying it to mess with you. You're just so enthusiastic about promoting Hyperspin that it's bordering on spam.

I really don't care for it much though. It's nice looking, but it's far too much work to get it to really shine, plus it's murder if you're using an older PC for your cab. Unless things have changed recently...

Lately I've used one called Cabrio. Cabrio's not too fancy, looks kinda hyperspin-esque (thanks to the whole 'wheel' thing mainly), but it's easy to get looking pretty decent, runs well on the PC I'm using, and most importantly for me lets me combine games running on different emulators into the same list. I use a combination of like two different versions of MAME and Final Burn Alpha so yeah. I dunno if I'd actually recommend it to Dsheinem though. It just suits my needs pretty well. (well that and it hasn't been updated in like two years or something and is a tad buggy).

[fedexin]

:lol:

I'm mainly only saying it to mess with you. You're just so enthusiastic about promoting Hyperspin that it's bordering on spam.

I really don't care for it much though. It's nice looking, but it's far too much work to get it to really shine, plus it's murder if you're using an older PC for your cab. Unless things have changed recently...

Lately I've used one called Cabrio. Cabrio's not too fancy, looks kinda hyperspin-esque (thanks to the whole 'wheel' thing mainly), but it's easy to get looking pretty decent, runs well on the PC I'm using, and most importantly for me lets me combine games running on different emulators into the same list. I use a combination of like two different versions of MAME and Final Burn Alpha so yeah. I dunno if I'd actually recommend it to Dsheinem though. It just suits my needs pretty well. (well that and it hasn't been updated in like two years or something and is a tad buggy).

Ha! Yea, I'm a bit of a fanboy for hyper, mainly because of your point; it took some time to get it working well and I'm proud! =) But like most FE's, the work is waiting for you, but feels good when you get it humming on your system. I actually compiled my own version of MAME to work with it. A bit fiddly, but rewarding in the end. You can pair down the fancy features/animations to make it run better. MaLa is a good simple frontend too http://malafe.net/

[dsheinem]

I would suggest something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Lake-Converter-co ... 796&sr=1-3

I have a silver one, and used it to play emulators off my netbook onto my 27" CRT tv, worked wonders. I can make a video if you wanna see how it performs.

I just spent some time reading reviews - they weren't too favorable. Many of the reviews suggested that the image quality was quite poor, which isn't something I'd want to risk in the cabinet. The image on the 21" CRT monitor is crisp...I don't know that I'd want to risk losing that to grab the extra 6".

I may just buy it, try it, and then return it if need be. Has anyone else tried one of these or similar devices?

[CRTGAMER]

I don't get why a different front end is needed other then the cleaner flashy look. Especially the ones that are running in the background after a Rom is loaded taking away resources. Always been happy with the built in front end with Mame with all the various game list options in the left box. Easy to select a game with a controller emulating the Keyboard or using a Trakball as a Mouse. Its not flashy but with the various screen shots and history file up front, more then enough. I like searching by year or genre and being able to jump right to say Gyruss by simply typing "GY".

The right hand box can also include screenshots of the Cabinet, Title Screen Snapshot, Marquee, Controller Panel and a History Text reading from the History.dat file. Strange the newer builds of Mame does not display both the Screenshot and History Text at the same time. Luckily the older Mame32.exe build can be in the same directory as the newest Mame, either can be run for different rom sets.

[dsheinem]

I don't get why a different front end is needed other then the cleaner flashy look. Especially the ones that are running in the background after a Rom is loaded taking away resources. Always been happy with the built in front end with Mame with all the various game list options in the left box. Easy to select a game with a controller emulating the Keyboard or using a Trakball as a Mouse. Its not flashy but with the various screen shots and history file up front, more then enough. I like searching by year or genre and being able to jump right to say Gyruss by simply typing "GY".

The right hand box can also include screenshots of the Cabinet, Marquee, Controller Panel and a text History file with History.dat

I don't want it to look like a PC is running, and this looks that way to me. I don't want to have to type at all (with a joystick button or otherwise). I agree that it works well and runs on low resources, but I am pretty sure that the PC can handle a more graphically impressive frontend without much strain.

[CRTGAMER]

I don't want it to look like a PC is running, and this looks that way to me. I don't want to have to type at all (with a joystick button or otherwise). I agree that it works well and runs on low resources, but I am pretty sure that the PC can handle a more graphically impressive frontend without much strain.

Oh okay, I see where you want to get away from an "Explorer" PC style listing. But In case you didn't know, the joystick can be used to select a game. Cursor down with the stick then press the button that emulates the Return key, no typing needed. With a few thousand Roms, the keyboard press S for example to instantly jump down the list is handy. A key option is something to look at for whatever Front End you decide on, use if you want or arrow down with the stick. As in Mame, I think most Front Ends can set up with your favorites column to avoid having to scroll down the entire rom directory.

You could hook up a mini USB keyboard and mouse that can be hidden underneath as a inconspicuous enclosed slide out drawer. The keyboard and mouse is also handy in case you decide to run other emulators as well. This also saves fishing inside the cab for the keyboard whenever you might have to do some tweaking to the PC itself.

[dsheinem]

You could hook up a mini USB keyboard and mouse that can be hidden underneath as a inconspicuous enclosed slide out drawer. The keyboard and mouse is also handy in case you decide to run other emulators as well. This also saves fishing inside the cab for the keyboard whenever you might have to do some tweaking to the PC itself.

Yup, that's part of the plan

[indecks]

Not sure if it was mentioned already, but Maximus Arcade is a decent Front End and it isn't all bloated like Hyperspin is.

[dsheinem]

Not sure if it was mentioned already, but Maximus Arcade is a decent Front End and it isn't all bloated like Hyperspin is.

What do you mean by "bloated"?

In what ways is it better?