If there is a chance to do a front-end, I will be there all over it...hard
. As I mentioned above, I have an application in production (called 'Tiles') that I intend to extend to include ROM organisation and launching at some point if I can. It has fullscreen media center capabilities as well. The app needs to be released of course (late Autumn I hope) and maybe same time next year I can see about extending it to games.
There are in my opinion two things holding back some quality emulator frontends. On all platforms not just Mac OSX...
Firstly, the availability of good quality metadata (game info). The better the API and quality of data (e.g. clean hi res artwork) the better. You make the content and the API solid and at a good quality, it almost encourages developers to utilise it in the 'right way' and do exciting things with it.
Secondly, I feel the reason better emulation frontend or interfaces are not being produced is because it is about hardcore geeky developers aiming their projects at computer literate gamer geeks. In my experience in software design, be it OpenSource or at a commercial level, one thing has struck true...most developers hate UI design.
[1] In the emulation world, as the 'end users' are geeks themselves they almost don't know any better or are knowledgable enough to accept that level of presentation and UI use.
[2] That cycle needs to be broken.
I feel a simple to use platform needs to be setup and should treat these emulator project(s) as a plugin or part of a larger application and not seperate geeky entities that are awkward to get into and use. It would change a lot of things and setup an iTunes like environment rather than lots of different apps for lots of different ROMs with lots of different settings and lots of different folders and OCD levels...one app to rule them all in a simple way.
[3]
1. I did take part in an opensource frontend called MAME Library. (see video and more by clicking here) and it was nice, but when the developer of MAME OSX was asked if he would like it to be the front-end of his application. He more or less said he had no interest in having to worry about UI work as well as the emulator core. We still built the front end and it can launch any game in MAME OSX or SDL MAME but it is annoying having to juggle between two different app setups and is far from consumer friendly (You can download MAME Library here)
2. Richard Bannister did something smart though. It looks like he created a fairly usable UI template for his emulators. Something easy he could reuse so he could concentrate on emulating the hardware and not UI design. Still, each emulator is a seperate app and requires a lot of 'app hopping' when enjoying an afternoon with your game collection on various systems.
3. I know projects like MESS and OpenEmu exist, and I encourage them, but they still seem to be designed and built by geeky developers for geeky end users. I am advocating for an iTunes organisational approach...as close to zero setup as possible so you can concentrate on building your game collection, organising it in one interface and playing them. With a nice looking engaging interface.