Multiple Emulator Launcher

[majax79]

Hello,

I'm looking for a multiple emulator launcher with a nice GUI. Options to launch NES and SNES emulator a must.

Any advice?

[FatTrucker]

Free: Mamewah, Mala

Shareware: GameEx, Maximus

All great, all work with any emulator. Mamewah is the hardest to set up and Maximus is probably the easiest.

Try them out then make your choice.

Pics are of Mamewah on my PC setup for Snes (with zsnes) and NES (with Nestopia).

[majax79]

Cool, thanks for the information. I'll give em a try.

One quick question. Do you know of any program or software that can download and associate box art/instruction manuals with .nes roms? Basically, what UberNES does but without the emulator.

I personally use FCEUX. I never liked Nestopia.

[FatTrucker]

Not download and associate automatically no. You can get all the consoles screenshot and boxart packs from www.localarcade.com/screenshotarchive, then use a Front-End like the one's listed above to stick it all together.

The packs at screenshot archive are all in goodtools format [romname](!)(U) etc, like most game roms. So long as the romname and associated artwork name is the same the front-ends will display the correct pics with the correct games once you tell the front-end which folders to look in for the artwork.

Others like Gamebase, and OfflineList have downloadable packs from the main Front-End sites tailored specifically to work with that front-end.

Hope that helps.

FCEUX will work just as well with any FE. Any emulator that supports launching from the commandline (just about all of them) will be fine to launch with a front-end like the ones above.

[majax79]

Thanks for all the information. It'll take me a day or so to figure it all out I'm sure.

I've been working on a list of all Licensed NES games released in the US. I've come up with 677. I'm sticking with that number, lol.

It would be cool to be able to individually set a ico file with each NES file in Windows XP but that seems pretty impossible. I'm going to google and pray that I can find a tutorial for Mamewah.

I've heard of MAME many years ago but never really knew what it was about.

[FatTrucker]

No worries. Mamewah is .ini driven (the others are all set up with windows style menus) if you get stuck, feel free to give me a shout.

[majax79]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with a windows styled one. Which one do you think has the most modern GUI?

[FatTrucker]

GameEx is more modern and media player-esque. Maximus looks and feels more like a slick, commercial product. Other than the fact Maximus is shareware (you have to pay for the full featured version) its probably all round the best FE about at the moment.

I prefer to use Mamewah because of its back end configurability.

[majax79]

Thank you for the advice. I'll post when I get a chance to check them out.

[majax79]

Well, I think I'm back at square one.

I guess I was looking more for a emulator manager. However, I think it would be quicker if I just left FCEUX, Snes9x, and zdoom on their own.

I'm a minimalist anyways. I used that bold_fortune slimming down Windows XP just to make sure I only have files I absolutely need.

Thanks for all the advice though. Hopefully in the future there will be simpler programs with cleaner interfaces. I don't want an arcade emulator though.

Take care.