This part was the easy part of it really. I already ordered various parts for the actual arcade machine, but once my new computer parts arrived I was ready to work on the PC side of things.
The first thing was to clean install Windows. I could have used Linux and such, but I'm more used with Windows. The main problem is Windows likes to slow itself down with various crap, using up ressources. Alot of those, I wanted to turn off since I'm not even putting that machine on the net. Well not now anyway, I might consider it later for Kaillera use. Not that I play much online anyway, and I can always use other machines for that.
So for the purpose, I used NLite. It's basically a self-created installer that you can setup as you want to. For it you need your WinXP install disc, that's what the program starts it, and then strips the parts off that you don't want.
The wizard runs you through all parts that windows would normally ask later (like the CD-Key), so it becomes an automated process rather than asked along the way. Once done, you burn the result to a CD, and there you go, stripped-down WinXP. You can even give it drivers to be installed automatically (say, audio drivers, USB hub and what not). Plus you can add to the CD image before burning other stuff like NVdia drivers (that didn't want to auto-install like the audio drivers for some reason) or other programs.
Through the process, they put in red stuff you shouldn't take off (unless you know you don't need it), the rest you can pretty much check off. When I first booted, it was barely using 90mb of memory resources, that's not bad at all. Plus the CD itself was around 400 mb, pretty light. Otherwise, the process to install is exactly like WinXP.
Once installed, I changed the "Windows is currently loading" screen to a new one using Bootskin_Free. You can make your own and load it through that program (import your picture into it, then select it), or you can pic one made on this website. It seems safe to use, I didn't have torubles with it either way.
The next part was choosing the front end for MAME. It had to be flexible so I could load all of my emulators through it using the joysticks, and that I could skin to personalize the looks. The first one I tried was MameWah. It allowed all of that, but I found it hard a bit to understand with the config files, yet it was pretty nice to skin.
The one I stopped my choice on was MaLa (MAme LAuncher). It's a nifty front end that does everything MameWah does, and then some. It was easier to configure thanks to windows dialogs with alot of tabs to go through to set everything up. It might be a little confusing at first, but it's alot more intuitive than MameWah's config files.
Then I added to it a screensaver that is very nifty. The TB Screensaver actually picks random MAME games from your list (that you can configure), and runs them as a demo. You can pick if you want the volume or not (if it bothers you), and how long it stays on every game. And you can even have it start the game it's on by adding coins if you feel like it. Personally I just want it to stop whenever I press a button, so that works fine.
Sadly I only have like 6 working games right now, so it kinda gets old when you've done the entire list in about 20 minutes. Plus it doesn't play console emus, but that's not too much of a problem at least. There should be enough arcade to go around.
The last part left will be to replace the shell booting by Mala on startup. There's a way to make it skip loading explorer completely, so it looks like the OS is Mala once done booting. But it loads pretty fast right now, so it doesn't bother me. I still need to access explorer right now to set things up. Also Mala can be configured to quit Windows on exit, that's something I'll use later once I'm done setting up everything.
More tomorrow~ Tomorrow I'll tackle the actual games and all the stuff that goes with them. Alot of work there!
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