Looking for someone who's at the forefront of the MAME scene and who can help set up the Ultra MAME.

Here's the situation. A year and a half ago I bought the MAME cab Ian (Sparky) created for Marty (Spacecadet). I was undergoing basement renos and I needed someone to babysit the cab until it was ready for its new home. Jon (Jonny_eh) was nice enough to do that and after a few months I took it back to my garage where it's been lying dormant since then.

So why has this beauty remained unused all this time? Well, it turns out it's a bit bigger than I thought and the basement would be crowded if it was down there. Also, having a wife who doesn't approve of boy toys that big doesn't help either! Anyway, I'm thinking of re-animating it and making my garage a makeshift Man Den so I can enjoy this work of art.

Here's what I'm looking for. I'd like to pimp this machine out with software that will elevate the 'wow' factor. I don't keep track of all the newest technology but I'm sure one of you does. I'd love to treat whoever can help me to t-bone steaks and beer if you would be willing to spend an afternoon at my place to help me with this. I'll watch and learn as things progress. I can send the CPU specs beforehand to see if anything needs upgrading. I may not be very savvy when it comes to MAME cabs but I'm pretty good at handling the 'Q and keeping the cold ones comin'!

If this is something you feel like doing please let me know and we'll set something up.

Thanks in advance

Alex

PS: for those who want a bit of history on this machine, you'll find it here http://archive.maaca.org/s107351202.onlinehome.us/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1223598182/

I plan on building a new MAME this summer with "hyperspin" front end. If I get around to it, I am sure I can help you while it is still fresh in my head.

Be advised....this is NOT on the front burner on my project list as I already have a working Mini MAME.


good read here...

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=55

I've only played with Hyperspin a little at Adam's place, but it's definitely flashier than the mamewah front end I have on my cab.  It does sound like it's a bit of a resource hog though, so that's something to keep in mind if you have a lower end machine in there.  

Personally, I'm still happy with Mamewah, mostly because I can get to what I'm looking for much faster than with hyperspin, but I'd write most of that off to experience and tweaking the configuration.

I might try hyperspin, just to see what it's like, but I'm content with the mame32 interface myself.  If I do I can just clone the setup for you.  No promises, there's playoff hockey on and then the weather is getting better.

Making the interface appealing as Chris pointed out is more effort in setting up the configuration than the UI itself.  Taking the time to clean up the database is the hard work.  Who really needs 13 versions of QBert?

Cleaning up the dupes is the easy part, I think Hyperlist just lets you select the ones you want and kapow, the others are gone.

I got rid of 99% of the dupes by just creating a filtered list that removed anything that was tagged as a clone.  The only issue here is that the rom you want might not necessarily be the one that's flagged as the original in mame, so you might have to tweak the list.  for example, the original Karate Champ rom is the 1p version, but there's a clone that is the US version with head to head.  Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo is also listed as a Super Street Fighter 2 clone.  

The parent rom for Pacman is "puckman", so that's a biggy.  

So I installed Hyperspin last night, and was initially impressed with the layout.  I like the way that they designed it as a configurable component, meaning that you can alter the layout quite easily if you have the time/effort.  The text and images are loaded at runtime, so all you have to do is modify the images to customize it, again, if you have the time.

The downside, and didn't have time to follow up on, was the game animations.  When you select Mame, or any other emulator, it goes into that specific sub menu where you can select favs, genre, etc, but the previews of the games are not part of the base download.  You have to get them somewhere else, which I'm guessing is a paid service.  I'm sure there are free ways to get them, but they sound a bit more tedious.  Don't get me wrong, I get it, making those vids would be a tedious PITA that it's worth throwing a few bucks at them for, but just be aware that the full coolness factor won't come without it.

You are guessing wrong.  Though there are advantages to contributing $$$ to the team, you can get everything you need via torrents.  In saying that, you can also just use screenshots for the videos and you can use just the default theme for every game if you want.  It all depends on the level of pizzazz you're looking for.

Loafer, true, (mostly) everything can be found as a torrent, movies are great because everyone wants them, these however have to be a very limited audience, so waiting to download a gig from a dude's basement in Istanbul may be worth the couple of bucks.  The Caps pitiful performance last night kept me from checking.  Only SJ/Det at 9pm tonight so I'll have some time to look into it before then.

I did see that there was the option for screenshots, but if you're going to add HS as your frontend you might as well go all out.  

I know that QN, but that's not a limitation of the front end, it's a limitation derived from the choice the user makes on the configuration of HS, correct?  I don't see this as a limitation of the front end, which is what I was taking from your previous post.  Don't get me wrong, from a technical point of view, HS has limitations, especially concerning PC specs, so users should be aware and try it before download x gigs of data.

Agreed.  I didn't mean to imply that the frontend itself was limited, just that the standard download/install is limited to a subset of what I think most people would want.  As Cheg pointed out, it's for the wow factor, and in that case, you'd want the preview vids as well.

I'll probably get them, I've got time/bandwidth to spare.  Not to mention my $3 control panel needs all the wow factor it can get.