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MAME, Front Ends and everything in between
#280472 - 03/25/12 10:36 PM
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So I am working on a MAME cabinet project, while I wait for the right funds to start wiring up the cabinet I am working on the software end of everything.
Right now I have a broken laptop laying around that I am using for the cabinet. It's a Dell Inspiron 6000.
Laptop Specs:
Windows 7 Starter Edition
Intel Pentium M @ 1.60
768 MB of Ram
I don't know the video card, but it's a Intel Mobile Chipset.
I don't plan on running anything hardcore, it'll be running mostly older games like Dig Dug and Burger time. I tested it with the latest version of MAME and the games run great.
So, right now I have two questions;
1. What MAME front end loader do you suggest? I tried Mala and it ran like shit, it was slow as hell. I am also looking for something that is overall pleasant looking graphically.
2. Can anyone direct me to a guide for having the laptop boot directly into MAME and the front end loader instead of going to windows first? Is there maybe just a utility I can get that does it for me?
As a final question, is there a way for MAME and the front end to just list the games like "Dig Dug" or "Burger Time" instead of showing it like "btime Burger Time (Data East set 1)"?
Thanks for any help or direction.
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Re: MAME, Front Ends and everything in between
[Re: Kuehnau]
#280484 - 03/26/12 01:54 AM
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I would just boot it into Windows and load MAMEUI. You can go to options/view/customize fields to remove the zip name. I don't know that there is any updated way to boot straight to a frontend like that where you don't see Windows' loading screens. There used to be for dosmame but it's dead. You could probably add a link to your startup folder and have it load it after it loads Windows.
LCD looks terrible with low rez games if that is what you are doing. If you have S-Video out on the laptop, run that into an old CRT tv in the cab. That will look much better.
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Re: MAME, Front Ends and everything in between
[Re: Smitdogg]
#280514 - 03/26/12 02:35 PM
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Thanks Smit,
Right now I am working on several options, the first was removing the windows loading screen with something else, which is easily done by downloading a utility.
I haven't done it yet, but I found a guide on how to mess with your Windows shell so you don't see Windows before your Front End has time to load up.
I don't know how you guys feel about advertising, but I actually tried using Maximus Arcade and it worked really well with very little effort. I actually bought it I was so impressed with it, seems like there is a lot of support for it in their community too.
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Re: MAME, Front Ends and everything in between
[Re: Kuehnau]
#280918 - 03/30/12 12:01 AM
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I have an Inspiron 6000 with a broken screen lying around but I have a couple of other laptops with Ati cards which are better if you want to run out to an RGB monitor and use the original resolutions (240p and such). As for S-Video vs LCD I think in many cases I would choose the LCD as the lesser of two evils. 640x480 or 800x600 flickering TV-out with perhaps overscan issues is a menace to my brain though compare the two if you can.
You can't really start Windows without starting Windows though yeah you can remove the boot logo. Linux is the way to go if you want a quicker boot straight to a frontend but setting that up can require some patience. It's really slick though once you have it setup. There are a variety of live cd's with Mame and other stuff on them pre configured for you such as GroovyArcade
http://arcade.groovy.org/
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