Posted by Prophet of Retrogames on 9, 2000 at 12:59 PM:
In Reply to: ArcadeOS vs. Arcade@Home vs. ? posted by dcpmark on 7, 2000 at 3:54 AM:
I have an ArcadePC, and regularly use both frontends you mention. Take a good look at the latest MAME betas - you can VERY easily setup your own ESC sequence. For example on my setup I press button 7 (either p1 or p2) and both start buttons. Works great! MAME's control options have become very, very powerful with the last few betas. Arcade panel users will be in heaven. And you MUST try setting up Q*Bert for real diagonal controls (just map the u/d/l/r to the relative diagonals)- it works beautifully, proving again that software really is more powerful than hardware. ;-)
Also, ArcadeOS should simply come back when quitting a game. No kb input should ever be needed.
As for any opinions on the 2 frontends - you'll find ArcadeOS easier to operate with the HotRod. A@H's menu scrolling kinda sucks because you have to click one game at a time by moving the joystick. Also, take a good long look at the ArcadeOS config options - there's a lot of cool customizing that can be done. I can totally operate every aspect of MAME and ArcadeOS with only the HotRod panel with my configuration. The only time I ever need to touch the keyboard is when I'm done playing. :) But A@H still has it's advantages, including all the handy management functions etc., so I keep both on my PC.
-Prophet-
www.retrogames.com
: Okay, experts.....can I get your opinion on the best frontend for my cabinet? Some things to consider in the voting: can you configure the frontend to run MAME using just a non-configurable HotRod SE control panel? For example, A@H has an option to use [LCTRL] to select a game, but no way to [ESC] out of a game back to the frontend. I think ArcadeOS has an [ESC], but I have to hit [ALT F4] to get rid of a DOS screen to get back to that frontend......
: My upright cabinet has a 450 PIII with 64megs running Win98, if that helps anyone .....thanks in advance!