Feature request or new theme request?

[The Loafer]

... yeah, that's a confusing question, let me explain (and I hope this hasn't been brought up before, if so sorry 'bout that). Got a question/request on themes, not sure where this belongs. Is this a "theme request" or an HS app request?

Question:
Because of the large amounts of themes, I'm one who likes to see these organized in a logical and proper manner. For this to take place, I would see this type of layout.

Main menu
- Mame (only because it's THE emulator 99.9% of the people use)
- Arcade emulators
- Console emulators
- Computer emulators
- Misc (Pinball/PC gaming, etc)

Then under each of these...

Arcade emulators
- Mame (if that's where the user wants it instead of on the main menu)
- Zinc
- Daphne
- Model 2
- Naomi
- NeoGeo
- Etc

Console emulators
- Atari 2600
- Atari 5200
- Colecovision
- NES
- SNES
- Sega Master System
- Sega Genesis
- 3D0
- etc.

Computer emulators
- C64
- Apple II
- Amiga
- Atari ST
- Spectrum
- etc.

Anyway, you see where I'm going. Right now, my system wheel is really starting to be huge. It's not the end of the world (see Mame wheel!) so if this falls into an "app" request, this should go WAYYYY down the list in priority. But if it's a system request and can exist within the present HS framework, then the request would be for the following themes:

- Arcade theme
- Console theme
- Computer theme

So anyway, does anyone see any advantages with this?

[BadBoyBill]

Probably won't happen for these reasons:

You only want 5 main menu items, they would end up repeating to fill the wheel, which is why my core install comes with at least 20 systems.

Second it would be a ton of work due to the fact that I would have to rewrite alot of the way HS works because you basically want a 3rd wheel level, and we only have 2 levels of wheel. Im not sure how much work it would be, maybe alot, maybe not alot, but its not a system I think I am going to use personally ( even though it does organize things a little more).

[The Loafer]

Understood, what you say makes sense. Like I mentioned above, it's not the end of the world and we already go through the "lots to scoll through" with Mame.

Just before we close this off for good, does the following make sense as a possibility for the distant future? The idea would be use a system similar to a "genre" button, where from the main menu, you could filter out themes by selecting a sub list via one button, so the wheel which has 40 entries for all the different systems, gets cut down to one representing only those representing a pre-defined xml.

I'm not explaining this idea well at all, let me try again.

Right now, if you're in the Mame menu, you can press a key (the "G" key) to load a different mame.xml that could have just a specific list of games, such as favorites, shooter, etc. Could this system be used to load a different "main menu" list of themes? So I'm at the main menu, I press whatever key and get a requestor to select a different XML, which contains the list I want. So selecting a "computer.xml" would only pop up a computer list, selecting "consoles" would only pop upa console list, etc.

BBB, I don't want you to spend any time on this right now EVEN if this is possible, I'm just curious to know if this is feasible. There's a lot more stuff WAY more important right now.

Thanks,

Rob

[BadBoyBill]

Getting the main menu to use the genre system wouldnt be hard I dont think. I would just have to change a few things around. But the genre menu isnt perfected in its current state I dont think, I know I need more work on it to get it to the way I want.

[The Loafer]

Good to know its feasible, but like I said, if I was in your shoes, that would be "item #73" on list of things to do.

[Dazz]

Actually wouldn't system links be better? Not sure what to call it but allow multiple emulators to be on one wheel. For instance on your MAME/Arcade wheel you would simply add a line in the database XML <emu>Model 2</emu> under the specific game you want run. For instance:

<game name="topskatr">
<description>Top Skater (Export, Revision A)</description>
<manufacturer>Sega</manufacturer>
<year>1997</year>
<emu>Model 2</emu>

This would tell HS that you want this game to run under the settings you have set in your Model 2.ini when that specific game is launched. This is by far the best way that I think this could be done. Of course it would be up to the user to edit the database and input their specified emulator for that game.

[ACE]

Yes... My preference for main wheel emulators are:

Pinball
Arcade
Console
Hand-Held
Jukebox
Music Videos
Television

...with 80's tunes playing in background.

(under Television, i'd put video game related videos)