[THEME] >>> GameroomEX v2 Discontinued!!! <<<

[Krakerman]

Racquetball done but not the pak!

[starbuck]

Here is the new Atari 2600 Placeholder files A thru G. Can only do a piece at a time as GameEx will not allow me to upload bigger files Will delete this in about a week and upload the next batch. Or download Tempest's excellent program and use my 2 files in the above post and make your own. Felix has made placewholder files for the Atari 5220 and the Atari 7800. I will use Tempest's program to generate placeholders for those sets next.

Coming Soon A Thru G.zip

[RIP-Felix]

Man, this project is flying along. Thank you tempest for you contribution! No one deserves more credit than Krackerman, though, for his diligence to this project; for over a year now. It's truly kicking serious theme ass ATM.

[starbuck]

+1 for Krakerman.

[RIP-Felix]

Got 2600 and 7800 to copy with tempests script, but the 5200 dat wont do anything but create an empty folder. Starbuck, could you upload a new 5200 dat dump? Maybe verify it works first. This is so much easier, Thanks tempest!

[starbuck]

Atari 7800 Placeholders complete. Enjoy

[RIP-Felix]

I have to say It looks nice having a placeholder for ecah game that does not have a title theme yet, even if it is generic.

[starbuck]

@ Felix Use this xml file to make your Atari 5200 Placeholders I made mine using this. But I'm limited to what I can upload right now thru GameEx, so you will have to make your own. We need placeholders now for a few of Krakerman's other system themes he has made. My wants are Colecovision, Sega Master system and Sega Genesis. I'm working on files for them now.

Atari 5200.xml

[RIP-Felix]

I have an idea to sidestep this process a little. Since my a52 and a78 coming soon placeholders don't have cartridges, I was wondering what is the need for these in the same way as the 2600? The answer is basically the name above the video, overlays and boxart fitted to the spot for it. That seems like a lot of work for little return. So, instead I'm playing with the idea of changing the Background image in the theme editor, and resizing image 2 to fit the boxart window. then you change the title directory in gameex to boxart instead. So now the video will play in a window called something generic (like preview) and the boxart, if any will show in the space for it.

It looks a little less professional but it does look better.

[Krakerman]

I am now over 100 individual 2600 game themes that I've created!!

[Krakerman]

Looks like you guys are ready to move on to other systems already. I'm only about 1/5th of the way thru all these 2600 titles .... So so many games and systems to do still.

[RIP-Felix]

I may have a solution to this problem!

This utilizes the background and foreground pngs for each emulator. Basically you position the image 2 to fill the boxart window and have the border/rivets in the forground to display over the boxart (to round the corners and etc). Then if there is no boxart then the background will show through where you have a generic pic showing. Attached is the 5200 concept perfected! Looks a lot more professional and utilizes emumovies boxart, most of which all seem to be the same about the same size. I did notice 3 or so in my collection that used cartridge art instead of boaxart and don't display correctly. That is easily corrected by locating the offending art work and making the boxart yourself! Just be sure it's the same dimensions as the other emumovies boxart or it wont display correctly either.

If you want to try this, here is a tutorial:

1. Download a52_a78_Bak_For and unzip (Attached below). Place into your edited GameroomEX 2.0 (1920x1080) folder where the rest of the PNG's are (Media I think).
2. Open the editor and navigat in the "Templates" window to the Atari 5200 layout and click on it.
3. Click on image 2 and in the "Properties" window put exactly the following: X=27, Y=349, W=481, H=563
4. Click on the background and then in the "Properties" section click "open". Navigate to and select the "a52 Background.png" file you copied into your edited GameroomEX 2.0 (1920x1080) folder.
5. Now in the "Object Browser" navigate down to "Emu Forground" --> "Atari 5200
6. Click on the forground to select it and in the "Properties" section click on "Open".Navigate to and select the "a52 Forground.png" file you copied into your edited GameroomEX 2.0 (1920x1080) folder.
7. Save and exit.
8. Open the GameEX setup wizard and in your Atari 5200 emulator setup change the "Titles" directory to you emumovies "Box" folder. Exit and start GameEX to see what I'm talking about.
9. Repeat steps above for 7800 too.

NOTE:

for some reason when you change the forground pic it saves the new one over the old one regarless it the two are named differently. If you decide later to go back to the way it was before delet the forground png's and copy the ones from the original GameRoomEx 2.0 folder over.

Krackerman, this would be a broad sweeping way to create a lot of professional looking system specific general game themes. However it requires the user to utilize artwork that's in the same dimension as emumovies boxart. There's the tradeoff, flexable artwork options or professionalism through very specific settings. I say give the user a tutorial and leave the theme the way it is (for general flexibility). You could package together a "super user" version that has a tutorial on how to setup things in GameEX and what art work to use and where. This would still be less work than making a theme for every rom, for every system, etc.

a52_a78_Bak_For.zip

[RIP-Felix]

I am now over 100 individual 2600 game themes that I've created!!

Mile stone! You've hit the century mark. Way to go man . Keep up the good...no...Great work!

[Krakerman]

Once EVO is released this will be fixed using the new engine.

[starbuck]

@Felix If you don't make changes to the theme and only use the games file or map file then image 2 will start with the box if available. If not it rotates other images. I use emumovies and it does a great job of downloading the boxes. I like your idea with when you change the theme, of displaying the boxart. Indivdual themes really do make the theme pop. It's just going to take a while to get them done. But thats the fun of it and thats what makes this theme and Gameex great. It may still be awhle before EVo comes out, so the more we have done the better it will look when we convert to EVO.

[starbuck]

@Krakeman, way to go on the themes, keep up the good work

[ClassicGMR]

@Krakerman - I know this is pretty far into the future considering you've got 80% to go (damn fine work by the way!) but will you be releasing a consolidated pack with ALL the files? I feel like I missed something somewhere and it's hard to find them all in the thread. You're coming out with them so fast I miss pages of this thread some days!

[RIP-Felix]

@Krakerman - I know this is pretty far into the future considering you've got 80% to go (damn fine work by the way!) but will you be releasing a consolidated pack with ALL the files? I feel like I missed something somewhere and it's hard to find them all in the thread. You're coming out with them so fast I miss pages of this thread some days!

Agreed, it might be a good time to update Post #1 with links to the atari Game Packs.

[RIP-Felix]

@Felix If you don't make changes to the theme and only use the games file or map file then image 2 will start with the box if available. If not it rotates other images. I use emumovies and it does a great job of downloading the boxes. I like your idea with when you change the theme, of displaying the boxart.

Mine displays the title screen first by default, if available. I wonder if there's a setting somewhere in GameEX?

Indivdual themes really do make the theme pop. It's just going to take a while to get them done. But thats the fun of it and thats what makes this theme and Gameex great. It may still be awhle before EVo comes out, so the more we have done the better it will look when we convert to EVO.

I agree, but for the sake of sanity, there are 10's of thousands of games. In all reality, the idea of ever getting to all of them is futile, especially with around the corner. Then I imagine HS themes could be imported. Unless this is a long term project with many team member committed to the project, I don't see a title being created for every rom.. Don't get me wrong, I like doing some of these (the one I want in my system) in my free time, but that's quickly disappearing with fall term approaching. Then it's back into the trenches for me.

The background/forground idea gets rid of the extra space next to the boxart, displays a generic No Boxart image if there is none available, and gives the video preview a generic label. Game specific titles, in addition to this, have custom overlays and a specific label above the video preview. Essentially, my idea lessens the visual difference between those systems with a game specific title and those without.

The Atari set is within reach, perhaps a few others. I'd like to see NES, SNES, PS1, N64, and Genesis personally. My idea is a generic alternative for the systems and games that don't have a hope of ever getting done. Obviously it would need to be tweaked for each system, but it's a relatively painless process. If nothing else it is an interesting idea for theme building.

[starbuck]

I have a thought I know suprise, surprise, surprise. Lets see if krakerman would alter his theme to show all the game themes like he does for the Atari 2600. But he needs to set his theme up for all current systems in his theme with this method. He and Felix could made up the default theme for these systems. I could make the map file for all the existing systems. I could also using Tempest's program (Once I have the default themes) make the placeholder themes for all these systems. Then as Krakerman, Felix or anyone else that wants to can continue to make indivdual game themes for any of the systems. Yes there are thousands to be made but with default placeholders in place who cares how long it takes. Another thought I had was why make up indivdual game themes. Has anyone try to make up a fore ground png for a game theme that would be on top of any default system theme. Then every game would use the default system screen and have special foreground grafphics for each indivual game.

This kind of follows Felix's idea but without changing anything in Krakerman's theme. Has Felex said the only difference in Atari 2600 are the coming soon, the boxart and a few graphics. If they were put on a foreground image they would cover the existing artwork etc. I currently working on map files for Colecovision,Dreamcast, SMS and Genesis.

[RIP-Felix]

Another thought I had was why make up indivdual game themes. Has anyone try to make up a fore ground png for a game theme that would be on top of any default system theme. Then every game would use the default system screen and have special foreground grafphics for each indivual game.

This kind of follows Felix's idea but without changing anything in Krakerman's theme.

It's not possible to make a foreground for every game, only each system. That's why it has to be generic. It is done by editing the theme.

Has Felex said the only difference in Atari 2600 are the coming soon, the boxart and a few graphics. If they were put on a foreground image they would cover the existing artwork etc.

I was referring to my idea for other systems, like I did with the 5200 and 7800. The 2600 has the cartridge at the top and we're going for authenticity of fonts, cartridge label design, and etc. The only way to do that is with the Title images we've been making. Since the a52 and a78 backgrounds don't have a cartridge slot I figured the extra work of making the title images would be of little gain given my Idea gets it close enough (but more generic) to the custom designing we've been doing with the 2600. It's a comprimise, that looks good now, and requires no waiting for the Title images to be made. Try editing your copy of GameRoomEX2.0 as I specified in my tutorial, you might find it to be acceptable. I mean besides the custom overlays and a title for the game above the video preview, what more does it need? Until evolution comes out our hands are tied. Either make a generic background/foreground that displays every game in a system, or hand make a custom title for every rom.

We could start a System based game top 100 list. We could start a thread asking people to list their favorite 10 games in that system (1 being most favored) and then make titles for those.

[Krakerman]

@ClassicGMR the title page has been updated with all the 2600 links containing the setup and theme paks.

[RIP-Felix]

Just out of curiosity Krack, are you planning to do every 2600 title? What'e the end game here, are you just biding your time until evolution comes out, or do you plan to keep going for as long as it takes? To the other system as well?

I mean, there's diligence. And then there's obsession. Lastly there's stark raving mad. I feel like your peaking somewhere between the first two, but I'm afraid you might go over the edge. Hopefully evolution gets here before it too late. Remember, we're here for you buddy. lol.

[Krakerman]

If it was up to starbuck then I would say ... yes!

If it were up to me then I would say ... hmmmm lemme think about this a minute

1.....2....3....

Well to be honest all kidding aside .... I am planning something big with EVO but right now I am just passing the time. I think once EVO is out everyone will be upgrading their systems and this current project for GameEx older engine will no longer be updated.

So the answer to your ? would be Yes and No!

Yes .... I plan on doing every 2600 title and then some for EVO.

No ..... I haven't gone mad (not just yet!) Give it a little more time.

So in the meantime you guys can reap the rewards of what I am releasing for the current GameEx engine until EVO's release and for those that are using my theme right now you might think about upgrading to EVO soon!

[starbuck]

I like to spend time on my game obsession. (Cheaper than alot of other obsessions) And it fun to play all the retro games of my past. Users have been making game themes for Hyperspin now for over 2 years and they are still making them. This is the first theme that I know of in GameEx where users are all working on the same theme. This spells out alot of how great GameEx and this theme is. When EVO comes out, we will be so far ahead of the curve with this theme that alot will be possible with it. Using the placeholders I have a theme for all of the games in my setup, so I can play every game in my map file. On a alot of my systems to conserve space in my master setup I only have either the no-Intro, Hyperspin or the top 10 or 20 favorites on the setup. On my external drives I have hundreds more games for each system that I rotate from time to time. One of my afvorite things I like about Hyperspin is to go into a system and see the new game themes that have been added. I now have this in Gameex thru Krakerman theme. (Can't think of the last time I played Hyperspin) If I wasn't workingon this I'd just be doing something else. Thanks Krakerman for the time you put into this and you're right if it was up to me, I one day would like a game theme for all the system. Isn't this why we do this. Otherwise there would be no need for web sites like emumovies.