Next Generation Emulation banner

The Ideal Epsxe Frontend??

15899 Views 69 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Hard core Rikki
i've searched day and night for the ultimate espsxe frontend..
all i found were all small frontends.. tiny applications with little information and offered very little outside of epsxe's own gui...

so i wanted to see i anyone was interested in developing a proper fullscreen full fledged frontend for epsxe.. i've drawn a composite (in mspaint lol) that shows what i think a great ps1 frontend would look like..

Among its features:

- Full Screen GUI Support
- User Defined Cover Art For Each Game
- User Defined Screenshots for Each Game
- User Defined Description for each game (synopsis, genre, developer, year released, country of origin)
- Configure Location of ISO (e.g. c:\isos\ghost in the shell\gits.bin)
- Navigate GUI with gamepad (DirectInput Support) (perfect for users of PS1 control adapters)
- Launch epsxe with parimeters you set in the configuration menu
- Built In ISO ripper ala PSXeven (http://batard.psxfanatics.com/)
- User Definable Interface (like a wallpaper)

The inspiration?

I (and many others) have a very large collection of original (NOT bootleg games) a lot them are rare or imports.. Some i dont want to be handled too much, like lunar, arc the lad, vandal hearts, rhapsody.. etc for fear of them getting scratched.

It would be much more convenient to rip all your games to ISO and run them from your computer connected to the tv (tv out) and then using the PS1 control to navigate the interface.. Sure beats sitting down and clickin around and playing on a monitor! Play the games the way they were meant to be played...

good idea or no? anyone up to the task?

my personal amateur concept art below:

See less See more
61 - 70 of 70 Posts
favian said:
yeah i know about joy2key.. the problem with joy2key for me.. is its good for navigating an interface.. but once you get into the actual emulator you'll run into problems with the emulator's joystick settings conflicting with joy2key. i've never really had any real success with it :(
Remember how I said to make the analog click buttons which are typically button 11 and 12 . .profile switchers. That's to say you are using a playstation controller or one that actually has all 12 buttons. You could then have the default as your mouse navigation sorta thing then click the left analog button 11 or 12 to switch to a profile that doesn't use any of the other buttons typically used. Like I move analog stick for mouse and click with button 1 to mouse click . .starting up emulator . . then click button 11 which switches my analog sticks to no use int he program so the emulator's settings take over . .button 12 becomes escape .. so I play my game as normal .. then click button 12 to go back to the interface and click button 11 to use the pad as a mouse again. Works for me.

Only games I can think of off hand that used the analog stick buttons 11 and 12 were twisted metal 2 ( for turbo only if I recall and you didn't even have to use it on there) and I think . .not sure Apocalpyse. So there really shouldn't be any conflicts for most that I know of.
See less See more
there was an RC Chopper game that required both analog sticks as well
i think so. not sure :???:
Ok, its time for an update. Ive been hard at work coding (meaning half coding, half playing enemy territory :)) and ive run into a few barriers. I need someone who has expirence working with ISO files and someone who has expirence working with directInput. Right now, I can grab the information from a mySQL database with the gameID, (speaking of which, does anyone have access to host a database? its a simple table with 2 or 3 pictures per gameid i have and some text) and display the information in the labels. It still doesnt actually launch epsxe yet, because i need to get the ISO stuff done first.

Anyway, if you can help in some way, i would appreciate it. Just pm me on the forums, or drop by #ngemu at efnet to contact me.
Hmm... you've inspired me, all... I'll try to throw something together in the next few days and show you my ideas...

Joypad-wise, would an OCX be out of the question? (I'm in VB6.0 and not so great at DX programming...)

Edit: Removed, for sounding stupid and being half asleep :p

Edit 2: Actually, just remembered that with a little API, IIRC, VB can handle basic DInput compatible pad stuff...
Update: I'm working with Gameman733 on his front end and we have the joypad-controlled GUI sorted! The actual GUI is being worked on, but the joypad control code works (a bug or two to iron out but that's always the way lol).
Dead since ages, if I had to guess.

Nowadays, theres been plenty frontends available, though not specific to ePSXe. GameEX comes to mind as a near-complete medicenter-like experience (also joypad-controllable).
61 - 70 of 70 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top