The Loafer
08-20-2008, 08:03 PM
Notice! This batch file is now discontinued.
The new HyperSpin 0.8.0 has changes in the default NeoGeo theme that makes my batch file obsolet and non-functional. Although I was able to copy over a few files from the old torrent on top of the new HS release, to fix this would require including a large number of files with my little program, and would more than likely require several manual modifications on your part.
However, fear not, the original point of this batch file was to add themes to the Mame wheel, since it was a bit sparse, which is obviously not an issue anymore. Now, there are so many great themes, with more coming every day and hopefully soon, there will be individual themes created for all NeoGeo games. As well, HS now has the abilty of wheel text and also is able to display games from your mame.xml, therefore this little app is imho no longer required.
Thanks to all who commented on the original release, your help and comments were appreciated.
Rob
-------------------------
Yes? Well order now!
:)
Howdy everyone,
- Have you looked at your Mame’s system theme and wished there were more than the 65+?
- Have you checked out the NeoGeo theme and hoped that since they are arcade games, they would also be included in the Mame section?
- How would you like to add to the Mame game themes from the 65+ to over 200 total, using (with just a couple of exceptions) the files that were released as part of the torrent, making it unnecessary to re-download a bunch of themes?
Assuming you’re saying “yes” to all the above, join the club, so did I !!! I’m not terribly knowledgeable at all in creating themes but I figured it shouldn’t be too difficult to somehow use the existing NeoGeo entries, maybe make a few changes to cover more of the screen and add them to the Mame section. Well, it wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped, but I did learn and I’ve nearly completed the task and if you’re interested, I’d like to share this with you so you too can increase your current Mame wheel population an extra 200%.
Alright, enough of the salesman BS :D
This isn’t really that difficult, it is quite easy but it IS tedious to do because of some files that need to be created (such as the xml’s, some PNG’s, etc) but IMHO 100% worth doing for the extra themes. Before going into any details, I’d like to thank the HyperSpin theme for coming out with such a brilliant front end and for supporting this modification using existing files, with an additional special merit to amchine for graciously letting me use his great Neo Geo cab pic from the NeoGeo system theme. Thanks to anyone else I may have forgotten.
Some info:
- All the themes share a similar look, but they do go beyond the typical generic look due to a proper title, an addition of the NeoGeo logo with a little special effect.
- The basic procedure will consist of copying certain files from one directory to another, the creation of XML’s, the editing of the mame.xml and a few other items.
- Note that I have not added any snaps to the themes, thus they MUST have the FLV’s in place in the proper directory or else they’ll be missing the videos and just won’t be worth looking at. On that note: 3 cheers for Circo and emumovies!!! :).
- Also worth mentioning, the way HyperSpin manages the different themes means you will have to have duplicate FLV’s on your PC if your intention is to keep the NeoGeo system theme. With hard drive prices being cheap nowadays, I personally don’t see this as an issue and am keeping both myself, it’s very nice to be able to just see the NeoGeo games on their own wheel.
- Although it seems to work 100% here, I want to check all themes first, as I changed a few things last night and I may have broken something (and I have to propagate the changes to the rest of the themes). I will also test this on an unmodified torrent download (aside from the couple of changes needed that were missing from the torrent)
- I’m working on automating some of the process via a batch file. Note that my batch file creating skills date back to 1994, so although it should work, it will be ugly.
- I can’t stress enough there probably will still be some tedious work, but I’ll do the best I can to try and automate this. Once released, if you can think of a better way to do this, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
- If some new NeoGeo themes are released, you’ll have to make sure you don’t overwrite the new theme (for example, the KOF themes BBB is working on). If ever you do overwrite them, no problem, just reinstall them.
- Finally, I’ve got baseball tomorrow night, a bbq Friday and a baseball tournament and party Saturday so there is the possibility this won’t be ready until Sunday. My apologies, but please let me know if you’re interested, it might motivate me to work until 3:00am on it eheh. Seriously, I will try and complete this ASAP, thanks for your patience.
Again, I can’t stress this isn’t very special, but it does work and IMHO the Mame theme is better for it, at least until dedicated themes come out for all NeoGeo games.
I’ve included a few pics for your perusal.
Loaf
The new HyperSpin 0.8.0 has changes in the default NeoGeo theme that makes my batch file obsolet and non-functional. Although I was able to copy over a few files from the old torrent on top of the new HS release, to fix this would require including a large number of files with my little program, and would more than likely require several manual modifications on your part.
However, fear not, the original point of this batch file was to add themes to the Mame wheel, since it was a bit sparse, which is obviously not an issue anymore. Now, there are so many great themes, with more coming every day and hopefully soon, there will be individual themes created for all NeoGeo games. As well, HS now has the abilty of wheel text and also is able to display games from your mame.xml, therefore this little app is imho no longer required.
Thanks to all who commented on the original release, your help and comments were appreciated.
Rob
-------------------------
Yes? Well order now!
:)
Howdy everyone,
- Have you looked at your Mame’s system theme and wished there were more than the 65+?
- Have you checked out the NeoGeo theme and hoped that since they are arcade games, they would also be included in the Mame section?
- How would you like to add to the Mame game themes from the 65+ to over 200 total, using (with just a couple of exceptions) the files that were released as part of the torrent, making it unnecessary to re-download a bunch of themes?
Assuming you’re saying “yes” to all the above, join the club, so did I !!! I’m not terribly knowledgeable at all in creating themes but I figured it shouldn’t be too difficult to somehow use the existing NeoGeo entries, maybe make a few changes to cover more of the screen and add them to the Mame section. Well, it wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped, but I did learn and I’ve nearly completed the task and if you’re interested, I’d like to share this with you so you too can increase your current Mame wheel population an extra 200%.
Alright, enough of the salesman BS :D
This isn’t really that difficult, it is quite easy but it IS tedious to do because of some files that need to be created (such as the xml’s, some PNG’s, etc) but IMHO 100% worth doing for the extra themes. Before going into any details, I’d like to thank the HyperSpin theme for coming out with such a brilliant front end and for supporting this modification using existing files, with an additional special merit to amchine for graciously letting me use his great Neo Geo cab pic from the NeoGeo system theme. Thanks to anyone else I may have forgotten.
Some info:
- All the themes share a similar look, but they do go beyond the typical generic look due to a proper title, an addition of the NeoGeo logo with a little special effect.
- The basic procedure will consist of copying certain files from one directory to another, the creation of XML’s, the editing of the mame.xml and a few other items.
- Note that I have not added any snaps to the themes, thus they MUST have the FLV’s in place in the proper directory or else they’ll be missing the videos and just won’t be worth looking at. On that note: 3 cheers for Circo and emumovies!!! :).
- Also worth mentioning, the way HyperSpin manages the different themes means you will have to have duplicate FLV’s on your PC if your intention is to keep the NeoGeo system theme. With hard drive prices being cheap nowadays, I personally don’t see this as an issue and am keeping both myself, it’s very nice to be able to just see the NeoGeo games on their own wheel.
- Although it seems to work 100% here, I want to check all themes first, as I changed a few things last night and I may have broken something (and I have to propagate the changes to the rest of the themes). I will also test this on an unmodified torrent download (aside from the couple of changes needed that were missing from the torrent)
- I’m working on automating some of the process via a batch file. Note that my batch file creating skills date back to 1994, so although it should work, it will be ugly.
- I can’t stress enough there probably will still be some tedious work, but I’ll do the best I can to try and automate this. Once released, if you can think of a better way to do this, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
- If some new NeoGeo themes are released, you’ll have to make sure you don’t overwrite the new theme (for example, the KOF themes BBB is working on). If ever you do overwrite them, no problem, just reinstall them.
- Finally, I’ve got baseball tomorrow night, a bbq Friday and a baseball tournament and party Saturday so there is the possibility this won’t be ready until Sunday. My apologies, but please let me know if you’re interested, it might motivate me to work until 3:00am on it eheh. Seriously, I will try and complete this ASAP, thanks for your patience.
Again, I can’t stress this isn’t very special, but it does work and IMHO the Mame theme is better for it, at least until dedicated themes come out for all NeoGeo games.
I’ve included a few pics for your perusal.
Loaf