Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
#115524 07/19/19 11:43 PM
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
B
Bletch Offline OP
Senior Member
OP Offline
Senior Member
B
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
I've been working on a new front end for MAME, called BletchMAME. Unlike existing front ends, which are more "launchers" than "front ends", BletchMAME replaces the MAME internal UI.

For more info, read here:
http://bletchmame.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/


Bletch #115527 07/20/19 10:01 PM
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 1,180
Likes: 2
J
Very Senior Member
Offline
Very Senior Member
J
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 1,180
Likes: 2
Love the concept, the internal UI always seemed a lot clunkier to use to me than MESSUI. Initial impressions:

  • Options->Images seems unintuitive as the place where you have to go to actually load a disk/cartridge/etc. Maybe something like File->Load Software
  • Image slot names are not very user-friendly, e.g. nes_slot, sl6:diskiing:0:525. There are descriptive names for these devices if you grep the source for DEFINE_DEVICE_TYPE so it's a matter of plumbing that out I guess.
  • I wasn't able to boot a disk on apple2e, it starts up without a disk by default, then I select a disk and do a hard reset and it seems frozen
  • It wasn't obvious to me that File->Stop is how you get back to the driver picker, maybe something like File->Change Systems or File->Return to System List
  • Will definitely need more video settings to be a viable competitor to standalone emulators - e.g. full screen, fit to desktop, 1x/2x/3x size (I realize this is hard to do with layouts and correct aspect ratio). Resizing the window to any size is OK but it should at least lock the window aspect ratio to match what is actually being displayed inside, otherwise it's cumbersome to size it exactly right without having any black border.


Bletch #115528 07/20/19 10:37 PM
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
B
Bletch Offline OP
Senior Member
OP Offline
Senior Member
B
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
Yes I agree. My focus has been on "the basics" - getting something like this working at all, before (for example) feeding human readable names from the core.

I'm also in the process of reimplementing some of the hooks into MAME as a LUA plug in, so any functionality exposed via LUA could be accessed by my front end.

Bletch #115529 07/20/19 10:52 PM
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 23
Z
Member
Offline
Member
Z
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 23
This is very nice. Great!

But why Wxwidgets and not Qt?
It's not that I am a fan of Qt but as it is already used for debugger...Will MAME depend on both?

Bletch #115531 07/20/19 11:23 PM
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
B
Bletch Offline OP
Senior Member
OP Offline
Senior Member
B
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
You're not the first person to ask that question.

I suppose that I just tried wxWidgets, liked it, and didn't spend a great deal of time weighing the decision. There is a possibility that had I evaluated both thoroughly, I may have made a different decision. All that said, the BletchMAME is a distinct application under <9k lines of code. If I wanted to switch to Qt, it wouldn't be difficult.

Bletch #115532 07/20/19 11:39 PM
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,215
Likes: 234
R
Very Senior Member
Offline
Very Senior Member
R
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,215
Likes: 234
From where I'm sitting, once everything's merged into mainline in a satisfactory way, let a thousand frontends bloom.

Bletch #115533 07/20/19 11:40 PM
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 23
Z
Member
Offline
Member
Z
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 23
So, if I understand correctly, BletchMAME does not replaces the MAME internal UI.
I mean that it will not be merged into MAME but it always will be a distinct application. Is not?

Bletch #115534 07/20/19 11:41 PM
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,215
Likes: 234
R
Very Senior Member
Offline
Very Senior Member
R
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,215
Likes: 234
The idea is that it adds hooks which allow external frontends to interact with MAME's internals live, and therefore replace MAME's internal UI (but we'll still have that UI as an option because it does have its fans). BletchMAME itself shows one way those frontends can go, in a VICE-like direction.

Last edited by R. Belmont; 07/21/19 12:00 AM.
Bletch #115535 07/21/19 12:04 AM
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 23
Z
Member
Offline
Member
Z
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 23
Ah, that is even better!
Thanks for replies.

Bletch #115536 07/21/19 12:18 AM
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
B
Bletch Offline OP
Senior Member
OP Offline
Senior Member
B
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 706
Likes: 8
What RB said - I'm personally eager for having a VICE-like experience, but the real value comes from the next thousand front ends :-)

Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

Link Copied to Clipboard
Who's Online Now
2 members (Waremonger, Heihachi_73), 230 guests, and 1 robot.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
ShoutChat
Comment Guidelines: Do post respectful and insightful comments. Don't flame, hate, spam.
Forum Statistics
Forums9
Topics9,320
Posts121,929
Members5,074
Most Online1,283
Dec 21st, 2022
Our Sponsor
These forums are sponsored by Superior Solitaire, an ad-free card game collection for macOS and iOS. Download it today!

Superior Solitaire
Forum hosted by www.retrogamesformac.com