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Most of this is true for both front end versions
The flash front end file itself:
The Flash file performs several important functions—
- It "traps" keyboard input, allowing the movie to be controlled
by key presses
- It changes the game being displayed based on arrow-key
input
(In MAME, the right joystick input is equivalent to the arrow keys)
- If the "select" button is pressed it:
- Determines what game is being shown
- Launches a .bat file based
on that information

The flash file that I use is a projector file; a compiled flash movie
that is a Windows executable file (.exe). Projector files:
- Can be configured
to be natively full screen
- Can be viewed without the need for a
browser
- Can be set to run at Windows startup
How the Dynamic Front End works
The dynamic version of the front end works similarly. However, there
is an extra step involved that allows the front end to call the XML
file to determine the name of the game, the name of the bat file, and
the contol panel image to show. The diagram below shows how this works

Other considerations:
The fscommand directory
For security reasons, Flash is designed to only launch programs that are
in a particular subdirectory (fscommand). This means that you must place
your MAME executable and the associated file structure (ROMS, etc.) into
the fscommand directory. So the directory structure would be:
mame_fe.exe
/fscommand
MAME32.exe
pacman.bat
centipede.bat
/ROMS
pacman
centiped
etc..
The batch (.bat) files
The .bat files are easy to make. Open notepad, type the appropriate commands,
and then save with a .bat extension. The text to launch MAME32 with the centiped
rom is below:
START Mame32.exe centiped
This
can be broken down as follows:
START—Tells
Windows to start (open) the file
Mame32.exe—Tells
Windows which file start (open)
centiped—This
is the "ROM switch" that tells MAME32.exe which
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News |
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Dynamic version available!
I've completed work on the first dynamic version of the front end. At this
point, it loads the game names, screen shot file names, and bat file names from
an external XML file
More >> |
Flash MAME FE is up
I've decided to post the full front end here. The file is ~2MB, so it may
take a while if you have a slow connection, but you can see the front end in
action
More >> |
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commentary |
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