MAMEWorld Forums - MAMEUI & IV/Play - Re: Best Front End to use with MAMEUI64?

Its a ugly world out there, let me tell you. The last time I was involved with mame was 2003, the same year I sold my Hanaho cabinet and my son was born. A few weeks ago I was at a friends house who was having a garage sale and there she was, my old Hanaho cabinet, complete with the PC (pentium4 processor, 512k ram) and running MAMEUI .135 (2009).
I tried to stay away, I really did, but when he said FREE, I didn't hesitate, I loaded it up and drove home. Ive been looking for a new front end ever since. After researching whats new in the world of mame I came away with a idea of what I wanted.

There were certain requirements that I wanted met:
1) A user interface simple enough my 11 and 8 year olds could operate.
2) No Keyboard access whatsoever. Locked away in the cabinet and out of sight.
3) Able to support 3rd party joysticks, eg. Ultimarc's Ultrastik or ServoStik.
4) Able to support 3rd party hardware like Ultimarc's Pac-Drive so I could have the buttons light up for each individual game so the player knows what buttons are used in that game.
5) Able to support multiple emulators. I have 3, MAMEUI64, DAPHNE, and VISUAL PINBALL.

In my opinion those aren't unreasonable requirements but they must be because Ive spent a week trying different ones that would meet my needs. I've tried Mala, Maximum Arcade, GameEX, HyperSpin, and a few others I cant remember. In the end, Maximus wasn't bad, but its a dead project. GameEX does everything you want in a MEDIA CENTER, but its not a true cabinet front end, and I think its a bit intrusive (always trying to get you to download ad links, puts itself in registry, adds to you favorites, etc.. But it really is the everything you ever could ask for.

My final decision was between Mala and Hyperspin. Mala seems half dead as well but it does everything I want, including hardware support. The downside is the GUI sucks IMO. Hyperspin is currently my choice at the moment but im still in the process of configuring it (along with HyperLaunch and HyperPin. Its a huge pain in the ass, but I *think* it will do everything I want.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Edited by what2be (06/15/14 11:20 PM)