Thoughts on Front-End Apps like LaunchBox?

[vladaymir]

Hello everyone,

I was looking for an app that could organize and launch my VP/FP pinball tables and I am starting to use
LaunchBox. Do you guys use similar apps to do this? I also feel like maybe it's more of a hassle than it's worth
because I could launch the file faster than having to load LaunchBox. I tried GameEX but it seemed more complicated.

 

[AnonTet]

The biggest problem with frontends if you ask me is that. They need a lot of of work and only a real option (for me) if I owned a dedicated emulation rig.

And you better have a safe backup to those configuration files

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I tried a couple MAME frontend a few years back and they were a complete hassle. Bloated, too full of bells and whistles, and not very intuitive to use. After a little more effort, I figured out how to do what I wanted to do in vanilla MAME, which was to build custom game lists. It's slightly technical, but not difficult.

By the same token, if I was going to mess with a frontend for pin-sim stuff, I think it would only be worth it if the frontend could pull data from the global table spreadsheets. That would be something unique and valuable that would otherwise be a chore for me to deal with ordinarily. Just scrolling through those suckers is like paddling through molasses.