Home Page Forums Archives MacMAME I have Parallels - what MAME front-end do I want?

Hi! It's been a while since I've stuck my nose into these boards. I miss all of ya!

I just picked up a shiny new MacBook Pro, along with Parallels and Vista. So, I figured I'd come here for recommendations, since only other Mac people know what kind of software a Mac person is looking for. What Windows MAME front-end do you recommend? And what other Windows emulators are the good ones, which ones do you recommend I use?

It seems like all the work these days is being done on the Windows versions of emulators, so it's time for me to switch.

what about looking for the mac versions of the same emulators? running natively they should be definitely faster (but I don't have parallel, so don't take it as an absolute truth)...

Yes, there's a speed hit for Parallels - Intel chips can't emulate themselves, and Parallels actually uses Wine's DirectX emulation for graphics and sound in games/emulators so things may not look/sound quite like they do on a real Windows machine or Boot Camp.

It's kinda funny - there's actually *more* interest in Mac ports of stuff since Intel (if less from Richard). pSX should be native on Mac (and Linux and Windows) at it's next release, for instance.

great news about pSX[1]

[1] waiting for zinc with console support or mess in a far future...

Time is the fire in which we burn
I'm delighted to hear about pSX though...

Welcome back, Brian

Did you try MAME OS X? I use Parallels, too, but I find it hard to justify using it for a Windows MAME front end.

Seriously, I even prefer using SDLMAME from the terminal than messing with MAME32 in a virtualization package.

Thank you for the tips.

So, what emulators do you prefer the best on Mac OS X Intel these days? My collection is ancient and I really ought to update it thoroughly, but I don't have time to play-test all the new ones!

MAME OS X already offers more features than MacMAME ever did, runs great on Intel (and still fine on PPC) all in a user-friendly package, although it is sometimes a few versions behind base-line.

To keep on the bleeding edge, RB updates SDLMAME usually within 24 hours of a new release and runs equally well. After starting SDLMAME from the command line (this could be done with a simple AppleScript wrapper), you can use the built-in front end of MAME for basic features.

PS: maybe time for an update to MacMAME OS X documentation?