i don't know. i dont have that rom and i dont use frontends. I basically just use the old mame version for the old roms and the new version for the new roms.
i can clearify ur ini confusion and offer another guess tho..
the 'mame.ini' in mame's home path, not the \INI path, affects all games
the popeye.ini in the \INI path will only affect that game.
im not familiar with most front ends so i dont know if what Im going to say applies, but u may want to check and make sure its own settings don't override mame's ini settings, or use the -noreadconfig option bellow.. u can do that by making an obvious change in 'popeye.ini' such as forcing Fullscreen mode or not [window 1] or[window 0]. then launch popeye from the frontend and see if it applies both times u change the setting.
the bellow is directly from the config readme in mame's docs folder. it shows the exacution hierarchy for any ini u can optionally use to override the default without modifying the original.
Code:
-[no]readconfig / -[no]rc
Enables or disables the reading of the config files. When enabled
(which is the default), MAME reads the following config files in order:
- mame.ini
- <mymame>.ini (i.e. if MAME was renamed mame060.exe, MAME
parses mame060.ini here)
- debug.ini (if the debugger is enabled)
- <parent>.ini (for clones only, may be called recursively)
- <gamename>.ini
- vertical.ini (for games with vertical monitor orientation)
- horizont.ini (for games with horizontal monitor orientation)
- vector.ini (for vector games only)
- <driver>.ini (based on the source filename of the driver)
The settings in the later ini's override those in the earlier ini's.
I don't know what ur interface is like, but incase u don't already know, if u just want a single click launch option for that particualr game from desktop just one way to do it for example, that will allow u to use a different mame version...
is open notepad and type the following and save as mame.bat ,name is just for example
Code:
@echo OFF
cd /D "C:\path\to\mame"
mame.exe %1
replace path with the proper path of course.
and if u do, make sure u use the 'cd' command and don't just write it like this "C:\path\mame.exe %1"... cause the prompt needs to be in mame's home path othwise it doesn't find mame.ini etc, and wouldn't use the desired settings.
then u can just create a shortcut to mame.bat and place the shortcut on ur desktop, rightclick the shortcut goto properties and in the 'Target' field just add the name of the rom, example [Target=C:\path\to\mame.bat "popeye"]
and perhaps take a snapshot of the game from mame [F12], crop the image to the proper windows thumbnail size(i dont know the size) right click the shortcut again and change the icon to the BMP thumbnail of the game.
EDIT: incase u do try that to a diff mame ver, incase u forget the rompath needs to be defined in the mame.ini beforehand, otherwise u would also need to use the -rompath command