What do I need? (Mame? Frontend menu? other emulators?)

[HotDog-Cart]

Hey guys. That time comes again. I'm currently trying to get my parents to allow me to make an arcade machine and put it in my room.

So, heres the thing.

I know hardware wise, I need a Monitor, a PC/laptop, game controls. That stuff is easy for me to get. I already have it all. (Minus the controlls. But I may get one from a member here.)

Thank you spongebue for helping me with the set up of mame things. I know am running mame. Im happy. Oh man feels so good to play arcade.

Also, I need a frontend. I dont want to turn on this windows machine and have to go through the desktop and find and load each file when I wanna play it. I want to have to turn on the machine and then have windows bootup, start the frontloader and then just select from a list of games that I want to play. Is this possible using mame? Is it possible if I DONT use mame and I use other console emulators instead. (Or if I use mame and other console emulators?) Like is there a program that can provide me with a frontload GUI?

Help!

[jjhammerstein]

building an arcade machine and shoving it in my room with my parents.

If you take your parents out first, you'd have enough space in your room for TWO machines!

[HotDog-Cart]

Lol. I dont mean that. I mean, I'm asking my parents if I can put it in my room.

[jjhammerstein]

You better buy a Seimitsu LS-32 stick, it's the best stick money can buy.

[HotDog-Cart]

Well, I'm looking to a pre-constructed USB stick with buttons. So I'm probably going to buy kilgores USB X-Arcade dual player controlls for $100 canadian shipped. (Its like $200 canadian on their website. Note: $200 doesnt include shipping.)

[jjhammerstein]

I've heard less than great things about that.

[palmertech]

It is decent for what it is;Great, if fact. But not so much as a standalone unit in an arcade machine.

http://www.gameex.net/

Lots of win in that program.

[jjhammerstein]

It is decent for what it is;Great, if fact. But not so much as a standalone unit in an arcade machine.

http://www.gameex.net/

Lots of win in that program.

"Not so much great."
Worst figure of speech ever.


I think you'd be happier with controls you built yourself.
Customizable, and more fun in general. Probably cheaper too.

[Bibin]

Build your own, that way you don't need an excess of buttons for playing the fun mame games. I do hope you're building one with a vertical orientation! Also, USB will cause problems if you're running some lower-level frontends. Just let it autorun mame at startup; mame has a usable menu system built in now.

[jjhammerstein]

if I built a controller, it would only need 3 buttons. I don't play fighting games, just crazy Japanese Shooters.

[palmertech]

It is decent for what it is;Great, if fact. But not so much as a standalone unit in an arcade machine.

http://www.gameex.net/

Lots of win in that program.

"Not so much great."
Worst figure of speech ever.

How so? That is not what I said, either. I said it is great for what it is (a plug in controller), but not good as built in cabinet controls. Makes sense to me.

[jjhammerstein]

It is decent for what it is; great, in fact. But not so much as a stand-alone unit in an arcade machine.

http://www.gameex.net/

Lots of win in that program.

"Not so much great."
Worst figure of speech ever.

How so? That is not what I said, either. I said it is great for what it is (a plug in controller), but not good as built in cabinet controls. Makes sense to me.

for what it is=decent, great in fact
as standalone unit= not so much

It's not so much what? you might ask.

I conclude that you must mean that it's "Not so much decent, great in fact," since that's the only descriptor you used.

That figure of speech never makes sense.

[palmertech]

Ah, I see now.

I have been pwnd at my own game.

[jjhammerstein]

See what you can get going with that front end, I want to see how it works.

[arfink]

For a frontend you could use what I use- arcadeOS. It's a bit dated by now, but it has some very nice features that I liked then and still like now. Like remapping buttons so you can have "shift key" functionality. IE, hold down 1p and 2p start to exit, 1p start plus 1p button 1 to pause, etc. As for joysticks- you have probably heard my opinion by now. I like shooters and fighters and the xarcade doesn't cut it for me. Japanese parts for the win. Preferably Seimitsu, as I like the tight feel and open corners for shooters.