Posted by NThero on 31, 2001 at 3:11 PM:
In Reply to: An Ideal frontend for MAME posted by Chris on 31, 2001 at 12:19 PM:
I would like to see the following features:
-screenshot support
-marquee image support
-bevel image support
-maybe cabinet image, and sideart, and control panel image support
(all these images should be on the screen together, with the screenshot, marquee, and bevel images laid over the cabinet image or a generic/blank cabinet image) People could use pics of their own control panels, if they have multiple/swapple panel to show which one to use with that game. The screen show should all this stuff for a game as the cursor/mouse lands on it.
-multiple control devices; joystick and buttons, mouse/trackball/spinner, keyboard... the main function (most often used ones) should be VERY easy and quick to access/navigate--include some way to scroll faster than normal through the list. perhaps a double tap to start the fast scroll. The "admin" features should be hidden from normal view. Just have a small button on screen somewhere to bring up the admin stuff.
-maybe another button on screen that brings up game info (dev, year, game strategy/tips, etc.)
-multiple lists. a game should be allowed to be listed in more than one list. and some "type" lists, also (vetical games, trackball, spinner, joy, etc.) also game genres.
-multiple "modes". 1) lists games with images, 2) shows marquees only--stacked vertical for a wheel-like scrolling feel, 3) screenshots only -fullscreen in this case
-how about slide-show/multiple image support for each game? That way, it would/could look almost like the game is in attract mode from the within the front-end. And if it could play sounds (samples, wav's, etc) for each game, it would be even closer. Heck.. If you're ambitious, you could write in an avi driver/player so that you could record movies of the attract mode in mame32 and use it in the front-end.
-it should be highly customizable. the positions and sizes of the images, and gamelist, should be customizable. And so should the general color scheme, and the button faces, start-up sounds, start-up/splash screen, background graphics and sound/music (if there's no game sounds/music)...
also, the controls should be customizable. and include the use of "shift buttons".
I think a good control scheme for scrolling through the list of games would be as follows:
down/up - scroll one game at a time
right/left - fast scroll
double tap down/up - "page up/down" (one screen full of game titles, not a number of titles)
double tap left/up - super fast/faster scroll
That's what I'd like, but maybe others would like something different; that's why the controls should be customizable.
-sound/volume control. I hope to have a knob on my cabinet (when I finally build it) but until then, software controls will have to do. I know mame has one but...
I've been wanting to make my own front-end (that's why I've given it a lot of thought) but don't know how to program.
Good luck and thanks.