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Junix
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Reged: 02/22/08
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Create a linux front end to mame
#143516 - 02/22/08 07:00 PM


Hello people,

I'd like to write a new mame UI to run in Linux.

I've already written in python (trac.linuxinabox.no-ip.org), but I need to run the xmame inside the program and this spend much time.

I'd like to know if there is something like a mame api to bind in my program, and not be necessary to call a external mame to collect games lists and run games.

Thank you for your attention.



R. Belmont
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: Junix]
#143542 - 02/23/08 01:43 AM


XMAME is more than 2 years out of date now - you should target SDLMAME now for MAME on Linux. That said, there is no API - you must run MAME and have it generate e.g. the XML game list for you.



Junix
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Reged: 02/22/08
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: R. Belmont]
#143960 - 02/25/08 10:26 PM


OK Thank you!

> XMAME is more than 2 years out of date now - you should target SDLMAME now for MAME
> on Linux. That said, there is no API - you must run MAME and have it generate e.g.
> the XML game list for you.



Heihachi_73
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Reged: 10/29/03
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: Junix]
#150539 - 04/29/08 09:27 PM


> I'd like to write a new mame UI to run in Linux.

The two words together - MAME and UI... I wouldn't know if this is possible or not, but could the Windows based MAMEUI (formerly MAME32) source be modified to run under X without many problems?

Unfortunately, the source code is a Windows SFX 7-zip file (EXE); if you can't extract it from a 7z program, you should be able to run it through Wine (or boot into Windows as a last resort).



twistyAdministrator
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: Heihachi_73]
#150546 - 04/29/08 11:35 PM


> > I'd like to write a new mame UI to run in Linux.
>
> The two words together - MAME and UI... I wouldn't know if this is possible or not,
> but could the Windows based MAMEUI (formerly MAME32) source be modified to run under
> X without many problems?

A MAMEUI clone for Linux (built with the SDLMAME source) would be wildly popular. I'm amazed that it hasn't been done yet.






R. Belmont
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: twisty]
#150555 - 04/30/08 01:18 AM


> > > I'd like to write a new mame UI to run in Linux.
> >
> > The two words together - MAME and UI... I wouldn't know if this is possible or not,
> > but could the Windows based MAMEUI (formerly MAME32) source be modified to run
> under
> > X without many problems?

MameUI is written in 100% raw on-the-metal Win32 and isn't even remotely portable.

> A MAMEUI clone for Linux (built with the SDLMAME source) would be wildly popular. I'm
> amazed that it hasn't been done yet.

The existing Linux frontends really aren't bad, but I agree that a MameUI lookalike would be popular. As long as it was a separate frontend I wouldn't cause any trouble :-)

Edited by R. Belmont (04/30/08 03:01 AM)



BarnacleEd
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Reged: 09/21/03
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: R. Belmont]
#160782 - 08/14/08 05:15 PM


The only thing I ever really used the UI for personally was to set the options I wanted to run MAME with.... I just use a shell script for that now, and if I don't know what I want to play I just use the built-in UI. That's just me though, and it certainly is a good idea nonetheless.



Catgirl loving MAME Tester using the latest version of SDLMAME on a GNU/Linux host.



Heihachi_73
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: R. Belmont]
#162301 - 08/27/08 07:46 AM


> MameUI is written in 100% raw on-the-metal Win32 and isn't even remotely portable.
>
> The existing Linux frontends really aren't bad, but I agree that a MameUI lookalike
> would be popular. As long as it was a separate frontend I wouldn't cause any trouble
> :-)

I always think where there's a will, there's a way. If you can't make a direct port, do what just about every game programmer has done since the Atari 2600 days; do a remake of it to look and play somewhat identical (although the former was out of the question on the Atari!). I'm sure each window and dialog can be made practically identical with a bit of work. If I had Linux and knew anything about programming (e.g. not simple hacks which change hex bytes into different hex bytes), and of course permission from the MAMEUI team, I'd probably make it myself. If you had the source code nearby and take a screenshot of each and every item in MAMEUI under Windows, it couldn't be that hard to make something up. Take Winamp 2 and XMMS for instance; same style UI, different internals. I even converted the default XMMS skin to use on Winamp as it actually looked half decent compared to Winamp 2's 8-bit one.

On the subject of MAMEUI, has anyone tried it run under Wine?



R. Belmont
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Re: Create a linux front end to mame new [Re: R. Belmont]
#169778 - 10/30/08 12:24 AM


Just to bring this to a close in case someone does a search and hits it: Emuman's MAMEPGUI basically *is* MAMEUI as a separate frontend, and there is a Linux version that works quite well.


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