This is the "Dynamic" front end page

After having invested a lot of time building the first iteration of the Flash MAME Front End, I discovered myself adding games every once in a while and regretting that there wasn't a faster/better way to add new screen shots and games, without editing the Flash file directly. To this end, I decided to do some research. The result is the "Dynamic" version of the front end.

This version uses an XML file to dynamically load screen shots, game names, and bat file names. This means that adding a new game has become a matter of editing the "configuration" file to add the game to the list, and then moving the screen shot and batch file into the correct directory. For more information on how exactly it works, see the details page.

Upside

The main upside is that it is easy to add or remove a file. Just edit the XML file and the front end changes to match. This means anyone can use it, without the need to own a copy of Flash to edit the file itself.

Downside

The main disadvantage to this is that I can't have the same level of customization for other parts of the UI. In the "original" version, each control panel is unique. For instance, the Pacman control panel label for the joystick says "Pacman direction" which seems cooler than just "direction" or "control".

This is the thing that prevents me from using the front end on my own cabinet. If I want to, I can have animated control panels, customized control panels, etc.

The full set of dynamic flash files is here. This is a 3.5 MB zip file containing :

• Flash source (ffe.fla)
• Flash file (ffe.swf)
• Projector file (ffe.exe)
• XML configuration file (ffe.xml)
• Screenshots:
  • Photo1.jpg
  • Photo2.jpg
  • Photo3.jpg
  • Photo4.jpg
  • Photo5.jpg
  • Photo6.jpg
  • Photo7.jpg
• Batch files
  • centipede.bat
  • digdug.bat
  • defender.bat
  • qbert.bat
  • pacman.bat
  • tempest.bat
  • 1943.bat
• readme.txt—instructions on how to "install" and use the front end