Home Page Forums Archives MacMAME Need some basic MAME guidance

I got hooked into MAME-type stuff recently with snes9x and I'd like to build a full cabinet in the future. I've been doing some research and discovered that there are frontends available that support multiple emulated consoles. Can someone give me a rundown on what's hot, what's good, what's regularly updated, and so on? I'm using snes9x right now and I can't really see it being easily controlled by a joystick setup in a cabinet since you have to manipulate windowed items in OS X. If there is anything that supports multiple consoles and has a nice frontend, please clue me in

I'm also wondering what kind of machine you need to run this stuff. I'd like to run Atari, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and so on - not really any of the new stuff; just the classics. Can I pick up a cheap 1.25ghz Mac Mini with a 32mb 9200 and run all of the consoles/games well?

I've also been googling for cabinet information. Here is a laundry list of items I'm looking at for my own system:

-19" or 20" CRT television
-Mac Mini, keyboard, mouse, video adapter
-X-Arcade 2-player USB arcade joystick
-Logitech z-2300 stereo speakers with subwoofer
-Wood and other materials for the cabinet
-Two stools for the cabinet
-UPS (battery-backup) & surge protector

As far as the cabinet design goes, I'm not really into the whole retro-design thing with the coin slots and whatnot; I just want a nice, functional cabinet. I was thinking of placing the Logitech speakers at the top, angled down, then the screen and control pad with a slide-out keyboard tray underneath, then the subwoofer inside the cabinet at the bottom with a speaker-cloth cover to hide it, and a kick-stand in front of that to prop your feet up on. I also want to put in cupholders so you can put your soda down when you're playing.

I do graphics stuff at work so I could play around with designs for the cabinet art and maybe get some posters printed at Walmart or wherever, then cut them down to size, glue them on the sides and front, and cover them in some cheap, clear plexi from Home Depot.

In review:
1. What's a good all-in-one emulator/frontend, or else what's a good system to get setup with for a cabinet?
2. Is a 1.25ghz PPC Mini good enough to run Atari/NES/SNES/Sega games smoothly?
3. Any tips for designing/building a cabinet?

As far as frontends go there isn't much choice on the Mac. That said, check out EMUlaunch, just google it for the address. It will act as a frontend for many emus and is designed for TV use so you might find it ideal for your cab.

I don't know about a mini but I run a Powerbook G4 867mhz and it runs the aforementioned systems just fine.

I haven't got round to building a cabinet myself yet but hope to at some stage. There is a cabinet webring out there so plenty of ideas. There is a lovely modern cab in a slight retro style which was yellow and used a mac set up. I don't have his address but it is in a blog so have a search and you will find it out there.