Game Controls Splash Screens

[enderwiggen22]

Hey. I've been thinking:

When hyperspin launches an emulator, after you selected a game, it would be awesome to have an option for some kind of splash screen before the emulator starts.

What I'm thinking, is that an image, of say a nintendo controller, pops up and it shows what the equivalent buttons are on your control panel. Basically, for each emulator you use, you will need to add one line of code (say in the settings.ini file) that hyperspin to each respective image file.

Like this:
Gameboy Advanced: C:\Hyperspin\Controls\GBA_Controls.bmp
Nintendo Entertainment System: C:\Hyperspin\Controls\NES_Controls.jpg
Sega Genesis: C:\Hyperspin ...... You get the idea.....

I'm not requesting that you make the images themselves, just make it possible for others to insert their own (because everyone's control panel layout and keystoke settings are different....)

This way, unfamiliar users can see which button is the "L" button just before Supenintendo's SFII launches.

Please let me know what you think of this idea, or if there is already a way to incorporate this concept. Thanks.

- Ender

BTW: Hyperspin is the sh*t!!!

[BadBoyBill]

Ya Im working on doing somethign about this but rather than jpgs would be animated.

[Visitor Q]

As this is a good idea on newer PC, you do not even see a load screen. What emaultor are you refering to that takes time to load?

[enderwiggen22]

As this is a good idea on newer PC, you do not even see a load screen. What emaultor are you refering to that takes time to load?

No no, I'm not worried about load time (but that is quite nice now that you mention it).

I was actually attempting to make the interface more user friendly, so that anyone could approach the machine, select a game from any of the non-mame gamelists, and just as the game loads a jpg is placed on the screen (of controls). The next keystroke should make it dissappear, and then the appropriate emulator is there w/ the game running.

[enderwiggen22]

Ya Im working on doing somethign about this but rather than jpgs would be animated.

Is it worth the trouble? What if you made it look like your exit splash screen (the image pops up but the background gets hazy). I guess you could make the buttons pulse or something, but wouldn't this cause lag for game launch? Whatever the solution, I'm sure you know best.

I look forward to this feature as well as the inability for the user to exit hyperspin w/ esc. Thanks

[sp33dy]

I've been thinking about this myself, due to the monster layout I've got with cab. I.E. I've got four joysticks and 8 buttons to left/right of each controller (see post in Off Topic Discussion). Basically my layout allows for any number of left and right handed players.

Therefore, as well as a splash screen, I need the players to click left/right on joystick to state which buttons they are going to use and then the display/tool/splash app will reconfigure buttons. I think this splash page app could also do the reconfiguring anyway! It'd be useful to anyone.

So.. I figure that HyperLaunch is the answer here. IT will launch an app in between the HS and the emu. HOwever, I'm no where near the stage of actually looking at writing an app myself (which I figured I'd have to). Maybe BBB could come up with something simple?

Regards

Sp33dy

[EVEGames]

Ya Im working on doing somethign about this but rather than jpgs would be animated.

BBB, that sounds nice! And would go along well with the HyperTheme look and feel.
Have you considered adding support for CPViewer or CPWizard in the interim?
http://cpviewer.emuchrist.org/index.html - CPViewer
http://members.iinet.net.au/~freeaxs/cpwizard/ - CPWizard

I use CPViewer with 3DArcade. As you scroll through the game list, you hit a certain button (that you choose in the front-end) and a screen pops up with a picture of your control panel, with the buttons and joysticks labeled for that particular game.

I believe CPWizard is currently being much more actively developed than CPViewer.

Of course, for those with lighted control panels, you now have LedBlinky support in Hyperspin (http://www.arcadezentrum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=64977), which has the ability to individually light and even speak the controls for each game, upon launch.