Support for Game Manuals

[Veszerin]

I'm sorry if this has already been posted, I looked back several pages but didn't see it.

I thought it would be nice if there was support for including game manuals in the wheels. For example, I'd like to be able to be looking at a game in the current wheel I'm on, and be able to view the manual with a keypress, or something similar.


Keep up the excellent work. Will be donating soon as I get a regular income again.

[Dazz]

You can always create a theme that would have an artwork layer that would display that information. Of course that info would have to be in the form of a .png for it to display.

[shateredsoul]

what if a comic book reader were used? I know for a fact that comicrack can read pdfs, could that be integrated somehow to read manuals? Here's a vidoe of a user who integrated this program to read comics through hyperpsin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VYkeqsYP2M

[MooKitty]

I use Sumatra (http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html) to view my game manuals. It works pretty good, opening up quick, fullscreen, and where it left off at. It just set up as it's own wheel with the same settings you'd use as any pc program. Extension is .pdf and the books are the items on the wheel.

[Lashek]

what if a comic book reader were used? I know for a fact that comicrack can read pdfs, could that be integrated somehow to read manuals? Here's a vidoe of a user who integrated this program to read comics through hyperpsin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VYkeqsYP2M

That's Invincer's arcade :)

[jackhammersalm]

I think Invincer's got the right idea for displaying documents

[shateredsoul]

Does anyone know ho Invincer did his setup?

[Invincer]

That was on my old XP set up; the last few weeks been trying to re-set up things on the newer HyperSpin and going through the emulators having a heck of a time with resolution problems on many emulators on Win 7. Will pull the old comics set up out of my TrueImage backup and see about reinstalling the comics theme. Once I have it back up and functional will post here on the settings/AHK on how it runs. Whether for comics, manuals, magazines, etc it should work (especially well with 2 monitors).

If anyone is interested I could try packing the comic setup as a theme, last time I offered most people seemed disinterested though.

[Falcon Punch]

I can't speak for other people but personally, I would love a comic theme. I never thought of reading comics that way, I love it. Top notch!

[shateredsoul]

yeah I think it would be cool.

I also have a whole set of nintendo power magazines ready to go =)

[Invincer]

Haven't forgotten, just been too busy lately. Have it working, but lost a couple of files in the transition and trying to get it just like I had it before. The good news is the newer version of ComicRack works beautifully with HS. You no longer have to use multi-command macros to get to a folder combining HS & CR. Now I just save lets say all the Avengers comics as avengers.cbl filelist, all Amazing Spider-Man comics in a comicrack library as ASM.cbl, Supes comics as Superman.cbl, etc. cbl files are comic libraries in comicrack and when opened will open that library automatically in comic rack. So we treat the cbls as roms and walla.

Now in theory this could be perfect in using for manuals also. If PDFs will work in libraries like comic files do it will be perfect. Will test and post results this weekend if it works. In essence it would mean saving all 2600 manuals as 2600.cbl library in comicrack, all Genesis manuals as genesis.cbl; etc. Maybe in a manuals theme, each theme could be the main menu system theme as a sub-theme with some type of manuals overlay or artwork on it to designate it as the manuals for that system. Then click say SNES.cbl and the SNES comicrack library would open in comic rack dispaying the thumbnails of all the SNES manuals in that library. You would then select the one to read. I am anxius to try it with some PC gameguides in place of manuals.

Anyways, will share results and upload the steps for getting comicrack working in HS. Also will upload my comics setup in case some people are interested, but it is very very large because of the videos. Will put on megaupload or could upload to FTP if it isn't TOO big. Maybe someone could help reduce sizes of the videos and could be put on FTP.

Sorry for the jumbled English, it's very late and a couple of Darvocets have me a little looopy after working on the cab a bit. :)

[shateredsoul]

thanks for doing this! I'm looking forward to see how this develops. I've been wanting to add manuals and my nintendo power pdfs.

[Madnessguy10]

I think this manual idea is a great one! GameEx has it so why can't Hyperspin have it?

[loppydog]

I am also very interested in your setup, it looks very nice. I am looking forward to being able to download your setup. It looks like you must have spent alot of time on this and I am sure there are many people would enjoy it, including me. My second monitor is not touchscreen, so selecting comics would be more difficult, but I could probably just map something to some of my key to cycle through comics.

[Invincer]

Unfortunately, as a PDF viewer for manuals; I am not sure ComicRack will be the way to go. I tested it out by taking a few PC game guides in PDF format and putting them into some cbl libraries I had already created in ComicRack. They appeared fine in the image list of books, but when i clicked on it to view in ComicRack, it seemed to only let me move image by image on the viewer instead of page by page the way the comic cbr files let me on the comics. There may be some settings I can change to make it work, so I am not giving up on it, but also am looking around to see if there is anything else out there that may handle pdf test books and files more efficiently.

As to the ComicRack theme for the comics, I don't want to go into details on this thread since it is mainly for the manuals idea, but I have the comics theme all wrapped up in a rarred file. That's the good news, the bad news is I am no video editor and have used files that were quite big as videos on the themes, so the total package is almost half a gig in size. I don't think Bill will want theme files that size on the FTP. So instead I uploaded to megaupload. if someone would like to test it out first, then i will post the link, but I would like someone to test it before any number of people try it and then find out I possibly forgot something to make it work. Being I am not a theme maker, if anyone is a theme maker and would like to edit these to look better and/or shrink the video sizes to more manageable levels, I am all for it. Then maybe if it were smaller it would be better to just put on the FTP for members.

Anyone wanting to test and download the big file to try out (especially if you are a theme maker), please PM me. Keep in mind it is on MegaUpload and BIG. Only need one or two people though, then everyone else can hopefully wait till it is validated as working on a setup other than my own. Thanks...