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Aabra
08-28-2008, 04:40 AM
I had an interesting experience downloading and installing all of the themes today. To help the mods out I thought I'd post all the problem themes.

The themes themselves aren't bad at all. They're actually pretty good and they all work, however there are 3 themes that need a little bit of renaming to get to work and others that have messed up directory structures which makes installing them a bit of a pain.

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polepos1 - This rom doesn't exist. It's called polepos. Renaming all the files fixes this but it's annoying for sure. (Pole Position)

wwfstaa - Same problem, the rom doesn't exist. It should be called wwfstar. (WWF Superstars)

mshu - Once again this rom doesn't exist. It should simply be msh. (Marvel Super Heroes)

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Another frustration I had while installing them was the lack of a standard directory structure. Some themes wanted you to extract them to the Hyperspin directory, others wanted you to extract them to the Hyperspin\Media directory, and still others to the Hyperspin\Media\Mame directory. None of these are really wrong... it was just mildly annoying that I had to keep changing the folder that I was extracting to instead of simply copy/pasting the location every time I extracted.

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The worst however were the ones with a directory structure that is simply wrong. These typically did things like have the artwork/background/wheel directories in the same directory as the theme directory instead of inside the images directory. This meant that instead of quickly extracting it I was forced to manually copy over every file to make sure it went to the correct directory.

The themes guilty of this:

mshu (Marvel Super Heroes) - Incorrectly named *and* a bad directory structure!

outrun (Outrun) - Decided to make its own directory named outrun, making installation a pain.

spf2t (Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo) - bad directory structure

zaxxon (Zaxxon) - Same problem as Outrun.

defender (Defender) - Same problem as Outrun and Zaxxon.

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Finally, the last problem I had during installation wasn't really a problem that anybody can be blamed for - maybe a quick note though on these games might help others out. (Maybe they already have them I just wasn't looking.) The following game themes want the Vertical Videos from emumovies, not the Horizontal versions. They look messed up if you give it the wrong version by accident. (like I did!)

zaxxon
sinistar
rocnrope
gorf
galaxian

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Anyways, there's the lists. Hopefully the mods can quickly modify the problem themes and put the fixed versions back up there. They are good themes, they just need a tiny bit of extra effort to install.

:burnout:

dja1ien
08-28-2008, 04:53 AM
The rom names are accurate for the specific set (clone) the theme is attempting to run; it sounds like you have only the parent sets (for instance, polepos1 is Pole Position "(set 1)", mshu is "Marvel Super Heroes (USA)")

The theme directory structure is an ongoing issue; it sounds like it will be rectified with the full release of HyperTheme which automates the build, packaging, and subsequent install of the themes.

For the videos issue, all I could suggest is hopping on the emumovies HiQ video torrent to get the correct aspect ratio vids :)

Aabra
08-28-2008, 05:02 AM
Well, I already got the new vids earlier and everything is installed and working now. However many users will probably have problems figuring it out. Of course anybody who is using the Hyperspin beta probably knows their way around a computer fairly well.... *shrugs*

Also, regarding the directory structure debate. It really shouldn't be one anymore based on the rules I read here:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5

Plus, I don't care what directory structure is better/worse - there's no way on earth the ones I listed here are correct - trust me. There are too many to list that used a different structure than the 'official' one - but they still extracted and worked fine so I didn't care too much.


Also - what's up with all the thumbs.db files?! Why are those in so many zip files? Are they even used?

Edit: I forgot to mention.... while those rom filenames may exist as clones or whatever.... don't you think it's a bit weird to use a clone? It's not like emumovies makes movies specifically for the clones or anything - There is no mshu.avi anywhere in that collection. Only msh.avi

The original authors can use whatever versions they wish but IMHO these should be renamed to the official rom version for the general public.

dja1ien
08-28-2008, 05:43 AM
I know, I've gone through the same thing with those themes for which the directory structure is super wacky.

I'm not sure what thumbs.db is all about; I figured it was some kind of graphic location db and made sure to retain mine and not overwrite, but it doesn't appear to cause any impact if it's overwritten by the (typically much smaller) dbs contained in some of the themes. Perhaps it's autogenerated on each run of HyperSpin anyway, so it's really no big deal?

The Loafer
08-28-2008, 06:53 AM
thumbs.db are hidden files that are created by Microsoft Windows which stores a cache for Windows Explorers thumbnail views. Just delete them.

dja1ien
08-28-2008, 07:23 AM
hence the name "thumbs" ...dur, I'm dumb :stupid:

Ego-X
08-28-2008, 10:18 AM
Dare I mention some of those themes are created by staff ;)

Going to lie low for a while now :D

Seriously though these guys are investing an insane amount of effort into this, to err is human.

Doesn't hurt to point out the errors though as this should lead to them been fixed.

BadBoyBill
08-28-2008, 11:36 AM
HyperTheme fixes almost all thes problems , to bad it wasnt out from the beginning, the only thing it doesnt fix is the rom name which the user has to ensure is right when they fill out the export form.