Here is an idea how to use a lot of the upcoming pimame-menu already, even though it's not finished yet.
In case you, like me, just can't wait for the new graphical pimame menu :-)

(Please note, I really love the work that has been put into pimame,
and I'm very very much looking forward to the finished version of pimame-menu!)

Instead of waiting, I thought, why no make use of the things I already have,
and use the advmenu configurations that I have already prepared for my emulators so far.

So the idea is to not go from the pimame-menu icons to the respective pimame-menu rom selection scene, but instead call the advmenu with the appropriate advmenu configuration prepared for each emu.

Here's how I did it (there are of course other ways, maybe more elegant ones to do it, but this works for me)


1) install pimame-menu as described in the forum here:
http://pimame.org/forum/discussion/699/help-how-to-install-pimame-menu-beta

2) in mainscene.py replace the line that calls the romlist page with a command that directly calls the command specified in config.yaml

search for this -> if sprite.type == PMMenuItem.ROM_LIST:
comment out or delete -> #self.manager.go_to(RomListScene(sprite.get_rom_list()))
use this instead -> PMUtil.run_command_and_continue(sprite.command)

3) change the commands in config.yaml so that the advmenu is called, e.g. like the following example for the snes9x
(thanks to Mark Holgate for the second player :-)

- label: SNES
visible: Yes
icon_file: snes.jpg
full_path: yes
command: "advmenu -cfg advmenu-snes.rc"

It is (with this workaround) not reqired to specify the folder of the roms here.
You do that in the respective advmenu config - in the example above, that is in ~/.advance/advmenu-snes.rc

Some emulators require to be started from their home directory, like the N64 emulator mupen64plus.
You can easily change dir to there, and after quitting, back to the pimeme-menu folder by extending the command line.
E.g. for the Nintendo 64 emulator I use the following configuration:

- label: Nintendo 64
visible: Yes
icon_file: N64.jpg
full_path: yes
command: "cd /home/pi/emulators/mupen64plus-rpi/test;advmenu -cfg advmenu-mupen.rc;cd /home/pi/pimame/pimame-menu"

Here are some more examples from my configuration:

The next one is for a Videopac/Odyssey2 emu, which I found here:
http://emulvideopac.blogspot.co.at/2013/02/en-install-o2em-on-linux-and-recompile-it.html
This emulator also requires to change to the directory of the emulator.

- label: Videopac/Odyssey2
visible: Yes
icon_file: videopac.jpg
full_path: yes
command: "cd /home/pi/emulators/o2em;advmenu -cfg advmenu-o2em.rc;cd /home/pi/pimame/pimame-menu"

(
Sidenote: This emu must be run in X window. So if you want to run it from advmenu, configure the command-line
in advmenu like so:
emulator "o2em" generic "xinit" "/home/pi/emulators/o2em/o2em -romdir=/mnt/flashdrive/ROMs/Videopac/ %f"
)

I added this to switch to the desktop:

- label: Desktop
visible: Yes
icon_file: rpi-desktop.jpg
full_path: yes
command: startx

You might have other ideas, like calling xbmc, maybe calling some python programs etc.
Hope you like the idea :-)

And please note:
This is only a workaround until the final pimame-menu arrives! Pimame-menu will be way better, much easier to handle
and configure. One central place to configure emulator settings, etc.
But for the time being, why not give this a try...
Cheers