MAME Wheel set

[Zero_Hour]

Given the huge number of available games in MAME, I was wondering if it might be valuable to create a set of MAME Wheel images, so that even without a huge set of themes, There would be at least a minimal graphical element for it. Obviously, as more themes get created, this might be considered less important.

The marquee images set for MAME is pretty robust, and are at a default size that would lend them to this task well (as far as cutting out and cleaning up the title graphics).

I'm not sure if this has been discussed previously, if so sorry for the redundancy - just wanted to know if this is something that would be valued.

[brian_hoffman]

I know a couple users are throwing the marquee in the wheel folder. This is fine for your personal set.. Im not sure the need to host a marquee set here if is needed or the direction we want to go.


Happy Gaming

[Zero_Hour]

I know a couple users are throwing the marquee in the wheel folder. This is fine for your personal set.. Im not sure the need to host a marquee set here if is needed or the direction we want to go.


Happy Gaming

I was just using the marquee set as a "source" to actually create individual Wheel artwork from. (could easily use flyers or other sources too) Since the marquees (at least the set I have) are around 500px wide, using them as the basis for the suggested 400px width of the wheel art just seems to make sense to me. Using the original unaltered Marquees is a simple fix, but obviously won't look as good as transparent .PNG's

What I'm suggesting is a complete wheel set for MAME that individual themes would then supplant as they were created.

Hope that clarifies what I'm trying to say...

[billpa]

I have used the marquee pack as a temp wheel images before. I forget where you get them from but they are available for free somewhere....Im sure you already know where to get them. If not, let me know.

The marquees images are pretty good alternatives for missing wheel images. You could also create a default background artwork and add a video preview...that would be a decent design for a minimal amount of work.

There are talks that there may be an option for text on the wheel. Not sure if that is going to happen yet but that is another alternative if it's implemented....at least for the wheel images.

Of course, I want to make sure that we actually create a theme for every MAME game...at least the most popular ones. There is no substitute! :D

EDIT: Disregard anything that doesnt apply as I posted after your response

[RetroBorg]

What I'm suggesting is a complete wheel set for MAME that individual themes would then supplant as they were created.

That sounds better to me than the text alternative.

[Dazz]

I've populated my wheel with the marquee packs and I thought the washed out colors of most of the marquees look horrible on the wheel. I would rather take a nice uniform arcade looking text over marquee images anyday.

[JoyMonkey]

Having the marquess display is convenient and makes HyperSpin much more functional straight away, but again I can see that it might discourage people that might otherwise be creating themes for HyperSpin.

I'm having Photoshop resize all the large landscape marquees and saving them all as greyscale PNGs. This way the wheel will be usable, but games that have themes will really stand out. Also, a set of grayscale marquees will be small enough to share easily if anyone else would like to go this route (about 25mb for all 1400).

It might be helpful if HyperSpin could be set to use a secondary wheel folder, HyperSpin could pull an image from this folder if a matching image is not found in the default Wheel folder. That way, these 'unofficial' marquees would then be kept completely separate from the custom HyperSpin artwork and lessen any confusion.

[RetroBorg]

I've populated my wheel with the marquee packs and I thought the washed out colors of most of the marquees look horrible on the wheel. I would rather take a nice uniform arcade looking text over marquee images anyday.

Maybe I've misunderstood what Zero_Hour was saying, I thought he was suggesting cutting out the titles from marquee images to use as wheel images, not just using the marquee.

[RetroBorg]

It might be helpful if HyperSpin could be set to use a secondary wheel folder, HyperSpin could pull an image from this folder if a matching image is not found in the default Wheel folder. That way, these 'unofficial' marquees would then be kept completely separate from the custom HyperSpin artwork and lessen any confusion.

Options are always good, I don't think marquee images would look all that good though.

Having said that the Ultracade wheel looks alright, it looks like they are marquees with curved corner borders. Perhaps something like this could be a secondary option if a theme is unavailable.

http://www.zax.com.au/ultracade/new_interface_sm.jpg

[billpa]

The time it would take to just create wheel images would not be a quick feat. A lot of the marquee images are usable as they are but not when you are going to cut the logo out for the wheel image.

@Dazz
yea a lot of the marquees are washed out. JoyMonkey's idea is pretty cool. Themes would stand out better. Plus grayscale would be a lot smaller and you could do some auto levels to get them to pop more.

[BadBoyBill]

I like the greyscale idea to, at least until I do anything with the text idea. Maybe I'll write a script to make wheel images with photoshop instead also as just an idea. Also the ultracade style planks are being done right now for NES so you guys will get a chance to see what those are like to.

[Zero_Hour]

For the record - RetroBorg is correct as to what I am getting at.

I agree, the marquee images, unaltered, just don't look so nice, and that just cutting them out would be a bit cleaner, but still need to have the colors "corrected" - That is really what I was suggesting. Rereading my posts, mentioning the MAME marquee art specifically is probably what led to the lack of clarity on my part.

It's work intensive for sure, but if people think it's worthwhile, I'm game.
On the other hand, if people think that it might hinder theme creation, or just simply think it's not a good Idea, I'll just put on my thinking cap, fire up the wacom, and try and create some quality themes.

[amchine]

Cutting out images for the MAME set would be a very long process. The cylinder idea is working out really well for the NES, which are almost done. They look nice and clean. Here's a shot.

[AllisterFiend]

Cutting out images for the MAME set would be a very long process. The cylinder idea is working out really well for the NES, which are almost done. They look nice and clean. Here's a shot.



HOLY CRAP!!!!, THOSE LOOK GREAT, I can't wait to see those complete!!!! ;)


AllisterFiend

[BadBoyBill]

I thought you guys were teamed up on that project?

[AllisterFiend]

I thought you guys were teamed up on that project?

We are. I was trying to be funny (unfortunately, I'm not very good at being funny).


We are almost done...I think we have about 2 weeks left at our current rate of progress.


AllisterFiend

[JoyMonkey]

Those do look nice!

The grey MAME marquees still look kinda fugly, and they still only cover about 50% of the games on my list (not including clones, non-working, adult, quiz and table games). Maybe cropping them to a uniform height and masking the ends into cylinders would help. I'll see how that looks.

[deadsoulz]

For the record - RetroBorg is correct as to what I am getting at.

I agree, the marquee images, unaltered, just don't look so nice, and that just cutting them out would be a bit cleaner, but still need to have the colors "corrected" - That is really what I was suggesting. Rereading my posts, mentioning the MAME marquee art specifically is probably what led to the lack of clarity on my part.

It's work intensive for sure, but if people think it's worthwhile, I'm game.
On the other hand, if people think that it might hinder theme creation, or just simply think it's not a good Idea, I'll just put on my thinking cap, fire up the wacom, and try and create some quality themes.

Its definitely worthwhile! If anyone needs online storage space for a project like this. I have lots of free space on my hosting account.

[BadBoyBill]

Thanks for the offer, if we find ourselves in the situation where we need to do that then I know who to turn to.

[brian_hoffman]

That nes set looks great.. And I love the backround.