I was on the avsforums and a gentleman was showing off his new setup. 50" 3D Plasma from Samsung, with 3D glasses, control panel with numerous programmable LED's, and a 6 Terabyte HTPC. Most importantly he showed off a front-end that was remarkable and I thought I'd point you guys to it. I believe you have to register to download it (haven't tried yet).
It's called Hyperspin-fe and it seems to be the real deal...
http://hyperspin-fe.com/
And for the gentleman's MAME setup...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1063742