Mamewah is a windows based Front End that is specifically designed for Arcade Cabinets (ie. no mouse required).  It supports the launching of multiple emulators and can be customised to look however you like by using custom layouts and skins.

Mamewah Demonstration Videos

Please note that version 0.963 of Mamewah was used in the following videos.  Configuration files and menu items may be slightly different compared to the latest version of Mamewah.

Video	Description	FileSize	Length	Download
Mamewah Demo	Roberta the Robot shows viewers how Mamewah runs and what it can look like with custom skins combined with the Screenshots, Boxart and Cartridge Scans from this website.  The video is designed to give new users a look at what Mamewah does.  This video shows version 0.963 of Mamewah running.  Thanks to CAVE and TimO for the Mamewah skins seen in this video. Note:  Video has some glitches due to the recording process:  The mouse cursor is present in certain places in the videos, but is normally hidden in Mamewah.  Also When the game Frogger loads, you can still see Mamewah in the background, this is a glitch in the recording due to resolutions being changed.	10 MB	2:30
Creating Custom Lists	Demonstration of how you can use the Catver.ini file to generate custom lists within Mamewah based on game categories. e.g. shooting games, trackball, spinner etc..	5 MB	1:20
Changing Layouts	This video is a simple example of how you can change Mamewah to use a custom layout.  It shows Mamewah switching between 2 different layouts by manually editing the Mamewah.cfg file.  There is no audio commentary with this video.	8.6 MB	1:30

NOTE:  This Tutorial is somewhat outdated.  It was written for Mamewah version 0.97 or earlier.  If you are using the latest version of Mamewah please go to the Mamewah message board or see JCrouses homepage for helpful ini files.

Mamewah Tutorial

Step by Step instructions for Installing and Configuring Mamewah:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

• Installation
• Setting up Emulators using the config files
• Changing Layouts / Resolutions

Installation:

Download the latest version of Mamewah here - http://mamewah.mameworld.net/downloads.html

Once downloaded, Run the .exe file to extract to a temporary folder
eg. c:\mwinstaller\

This folder should now contain the Setup program for Mamewah, ie. Mamewah.cab, setup.exe and SETUP.LST

Run Setup.exe and install to whatever folder you want - default is c:\program files\Mamewah\ , some people prefer just c:\mamewah\ to keep things simplified.

This folder (I will assume c:\Mamewah\ from now on) should now contain the "Mamewah.exe", "Mamewah Layout Designer.exe", "LAYOUTS.zip" and some text files.

**Update: Layouts.zip is now a separate download!!  Therefore to get the default Layouts in Mamewah you'll need to download "Layouts.zip" from the Mamewah Website.

Use Winzip/Winrar to extract the "LAYOUTS.zip" file in the c:\Mamewah directory - Ensure if using winzip to enable use folder names. * Explanation: The zip file layouts.zip contains folders inside it which need to be used when extracting in order for the files to remain in the correct folders. *

Your Mamewah folder should now contain a folder within it called LAYOUTS. Inside this folder should be 4 more folders: Classic 640x288, Classic 640x480, Classic 800x600 and Classic 1024x768. Also a Layouts.txt file and some graphics files will be in this folder.

Your folder should now resemble the picture below:

If you get this far, Mamewah should atleast run!
Before you run Mamewah for the first time, you should be aware of the basic default keys:
"2" - will bring up the menu
"1" - execute an option in the menu (imagine this to be the Enter key if it helps!!)

*Note: By default Mamewah will run in 640x480 Resolution. See the section on Layouts to change this.

So now run Mamewah.exe and you should get a black screen with a mamewah logo at the top and right.

Problems??

If you can't see any graphics when Mamewah loads for the first time, it could be that the "Paintx.dll" file which should have installed with the setup program did not install correctly.  Do a search for paintx.dll and make sure it exists in your windows\system32 folder (for WinXP).  If not then you will need to stand up, spin around three times and then pray to the Arcade Gods ;P .  Then go back to step one and read carefully this time!

Press 2 and the Mamewah menu should appear with the following options:
 

Use the arrow keys to move up and down the menu and press "1" to enter the selected menu option.

For now, just select the "Exit Mamewah" option and then the "Exit to Windows" option in the next menu to exit Mamewah.

You should now be back in Windows. Your Mamewah directory will also have a new folder created in it now called "FILES" - due to you running Mamewah for the first time. In this directory are all the config files Mamewah uses when it runs. The "Mamewah.cfg" file is the main configuration file for the program and the "emu1.cfg", "emu2.cfg" etc... are the configuration files for each emulator you specify.

You now have 2 options for configuring your emulators:
1. Running Mamewah and using the onscreen menu, or
2. Manually editing the "emu1.cfg", "emu2.cfg" etc... files.

The following section explains how to setup emulators manually using the config files.
 

Setting up Emulators and ROMS Manually using the config files:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Before you begin editing the config files in the Mamewah\FILES\ directory you need to ensure you know the paths of your emulator executables, roms and screenshots.

1. How to setup Mame
2. How to setup other consoles (e.g. NES, SNES, Gameboy etc...)

1. Setting up Mame:

Note: Mamewah will work with Mame32, but it is NOT recommended as Mame32 has its own GUI and is a modified version of mame. You should use the Windows command line version of Mame instead!!

Open up the "emu1.cfg" file using notepad. The first few lines should be as follows
 

Now next to Emulator Title (located under the ;MISC SETTINGS section) put "MAME"
e.g. Emulator Title = MAME

next to Executable (located under the EXECUTION settings) put the path to your mame.exe file
e.g. Emulator Executable = C:\Emulation\MAME\MAME.exe

Change the Show DOS Box = 0 to 2
ie. Show DOS Box = 2

Change the following lines to be as follows:
Send ROM Path = True
Use Long Filenames = False
Send ROM Extension = False

Put the path to your rom files next to ROM Path = (located under ;LIST GENERATION SETTINGS)
e.g. ROM Path = C:\EMULATION\MAME\ROMS

Put the path to your screenshots next to Artwork #1 Image Path (located under ;MISC SETTINGS)
e.g. Artwork #1 Image Path = C:\Emulation\screenshots\mame

Your "emu1.cfg" file should now look like this:

Ok, This should now be enough to at least run MAME from mamewah and have screenshots displayed for each game.
So now load up Mamewah.exe. don't worry if you don't see any roms or anything, cos we havn't created our list yet!!
Press 2 to get the Mamewah Menu up.
Select the "Game List Options" menu (by pressing the 1 key)
Select the "Refresh Game List" option.
Assuming you entered your ROM path correctly, you should now have a list of games displayed in the list!

Now try selecting a game and press 1 to run it. The game should now launch!!!  Congratulate yourself, you now have a basic config of Mamewah running your arcade games!

Note:  There are a ton of extra features in Mamewah that allow you to customize your mame lists using ini files etc.  As this is just a newbie guide, I will not be covering these here.
 

2. Setting up Console Games - Example using Gameboy with VisualBoy Advance:

Open up the "emu2.cfg" file using notepad.
Change the Emulator Title = to Gameboy
e.g. Emulator Title = Gameboy

put the path to your executable in the Emulator Executable line:
e.g.Emulator Executable = C:\Emulation\Gameboy\VisualBoyAdvance\VisualBoyAdvance.exe

Change the following lines as follows:
Show DOS Box = 1
Send ROM Path = True
Use Long Filenames = False
Send ROM Extension = True

put your ROM path in the "ROM path =" line
e.g. ROM Path = C:\Emulation\Gameboy\Roms\GBMono\USA

Change the List Generation Method to = 0
ie. List Generation Method = 0

Put the path to your Gameboy Screenshots in the Artwork#1 line
e.g. Artwork #1 Image Path = C:\Emulation\screenshots\gameboymono\screens

Your file should now look as like this
 

Now save the file and run Mamewah.exe
Press 2 to bring up the menu
Select the "Emulator Settings", then the "Select Emulator" Option
From the list of emulators select "Gameboy"
Go back in to the menu and select "Game List Options"
Then select "Refresh Games List"
Your Gameboy Games should now display in the list
Select a game and press 1 to run it.

ChangingLayouts / Resolutions:

Mamewah has changed the way it handles layouts from version 0.953 and above.  From version 0.953 you now have the ability to have different Backgrounds and layouts specified for each Emulator.  Layouts now also have to be in a specific format with the correct filenames for them to work.  The following steps are a guide to this new Layout format.

Mamewah uses two main things for a Layout, the .lay (e.g. Layout.lay)  file and the background image file (e.g. Layout-main.jpg).  The .lay file is simply a file that specifies where and how text and graphics will be displayed on the page when Mamewah runs and the background image is, well you guessed it, the background image displayed on the page.  To run, Mamewah must at least have a "layout.lay" file in the specific layout directory that you want to use.  By default, this is the "Classic 640x480" Layout folder.  This folder is pointed to in the "Mamewah.cfg" file in the "Files" directory.

Changing a layout (Example using the Nintendo set Layout):

Extract the zip file to the Layouts directory.  This should create a directory in the Layouts directory called "Nintendoset 1024x768".  Within this directory will be a bunch of .lay files and images.  The emu1.lay, emu2.lay etc.. refer to layouts for different emulators.  Downloaded layouts that people have made will usually have a text file which explains what emulator each one references, e.g. emu1 = Gameboy, emu2 = gameboy colour.  So you must change the numbers to coincide with the way you have your emulators set up in Mamewah.  eg. if you have gameboy emulator as emulator 5, you'll have to change the emu1.lay and emu1-main.jpg to emu5.lay and emu5-main.jpg and so on for all your other emulators.

Now change the "Mamewah.cfg" file so that the Layout Name under Misc Options uses the name of the directory in which the layout you want to use is from. 

e.g. for the "nintendoset 1024x768" layout, change the "Layout Name =" option to "nintendoset 1024x768".

That's it!  Now run Mamewah and you should have your new layouts show up!

For other useful settings and tips on Mamewah, visit the Mamewah Help page.