Write up - (How I'm) Using Mamewah as a winamp frontend.
I havn't tested this on any other systems or configurations.

Usage:
Songs are selected with the joystick the same way they are with any other list, 1 player start starts a song or queues it up. Pause button pauses/unpauses if hit while viewing the list, escape button stops playback/clears the song queue while viewing that list. CD Covers, if available, show up as you scroll through the list.

Advantages,
for me, over a seperate dedicated app: can queue up songs from mamewah, allowing for consistantly interface (both visually and functionally) from list to list (see pic, jukebox is lower left), ability to have songs running in the background while playing games, switching lists and emulators etc. (didn't think this was important at first, but it definately makes it feel more like a real arcade when playing), and the price (free).

Disadvantages:
There's no list showing which songs are coming up, nor any box saying what the currently playing song is. Required setting mamewah's (uh... start modifier keys... what do you call those?) to pause and escape, but as I don't use them otherwise, this wasn't important to me. There's no skip to next song function, (but you could sacrifice either the pause or the stop/clear button for that), no repeating, no random, no coin op etc. i.e. nothing that a dedicated music player has.

Required:

• Clever.exe [Extra command line options for winamp] http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=58602
  
• gen_play_remover.dll [Does a couple of important things: Removes songs from the playlist as they finish, and exits winamp when the playlist finishes.] Note, I'm using version 1.21, havn't tried new version in this link: http://www.nunzioweb.com/daz/files/gen_play_remove_v1_4.zip (Many thanks to DrO for this one!)
  
• Winamp - I used v. 2.91 lite, but 5 may work also.
  
• Shortcut to winamp (don't remember why but it was necessary at the time for some reason)

Batch file, adjust paths as necessary

@echo off
IF NOT EXIST "C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.m3u" GOTO :1
del "C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.m3u"
:1
if not "%2" == "quit" goto :2
TASKKILL /F /IM winamp.exe /T
goto :end
:2
if not "%2" == "playpause" goto :3
start /min C:/CLEveR.exe playpause
goto :end
:3
start /min C:/winamp.exe.lnk /add %1
:end


Winamp settings:

• "Show winamp in" should be set to 'none' (as opposed to In Taskbar or In System Tray). Don't recall where this is exactly in the winamp prefs, but shouldn't be too hard to find.
  
• Any other plugins you see fit. A lot of people have the scroll lock, numlock caps lock leds set up via ipacs. There's a plugin that flashes your LEDS to the music without interfering with actual keystates: http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=108744

Playlist file remover winamp plugin settings:
Check:

• "Enable played file removal from the playlist"
  
• "Remove files from playlist when pressing 'next' if winamp is playing a file" (not important unless you opt for a skip button over a pause button).
  
• "Close Winamp when the last file is removed"

MP3 stuff May not be necessary.
Without some sort of filelist, mamewah's going to rely on filenames for MP3 titles, and cover art has to be named identically to the mp3s.
I used a few apps to take care of this.

• MusicMatch jukebox for tagging and embedding cover art.
  
• Tag&Rename: Changed all mp3s to - .mp3. Auto-magic tagging of files requires license or something, free to use to rename/move file based on mp3 tag though.: http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm
  
• MP3 Image Tag Extractor: Extracts and resizes cover art images from mp3s. http://mp3imagetagextr.sourceforge.net/

End result: All files and cover art in one folder in the following format:
{artist} - {song}.mp3
{artist} - {song}.jpg

Mamewah Emulator Settings:

• List Generation Settings
  
  • Rom path C:/mymp3s or whatever
    
  • Extension will be MP3
    
  • Method: Rom Folder Only
  
  
• Executable settings
  
  • Executable: C:/yourbatchfile.bat
    
  • Send Rom Path: Yes
    
  • Send Rom Extension: Yes
    
  • Use Long Filenames: No
    
  • Show DOS Box: No
    
  • Extra Options #1: playpause
    
  • Extra Options #2: quit
  
  
• Misc Settings
  
  • Set artwork path to your cover art folder

I've bailed on Digital Jukebox, and Virtual Music Jukebox in favor of using Mamewah as a jukebox frontend (using winamp). The advantage, aside from the price (free), is that songs can be selected and cycled through exactly the same way as the emulator games. Additionally, songs will continue playing while mame or another emulator runs. I've got pause and stop working too, but that's it :)
I'd post pics, but my desktop PC's video card died, so I played one last round of robotron, and stole its video card until I can get mine replaced (not looking good so far).
Project now on hold indefinately. :'(

Received my "Fading Eyes" circuit from Cowlacious Products today. Looks really nice behind the coin reject buttons.


Movie ~0.73mb Avi, divx codec.

:)

Got a quote from Real Color (a local print shop that came highly recommended) for my marquee and control panel underlay. Prices for both were steep (~$30 and $70, respectively). I intend to have the marquee printed there (it'll be printed on backlit material, and from what I saw, they do very good work), but I'll be taking the underlay to Kinkos for a savings of about 50%. Got a new Robotron highscore too :)

Installed the 2 coindoor locks today, but the third lock for the front panel itself was the wrong length for the mdf. Got some nice blurry pictures of the hinges for the front panel and the control panel, also.




Yes, both the messy wiring and the crummy black-acrylic-paint-covered-cardboard-bezel are temporary.