Universal Console Dashboard Project

[nullPointer]

Back again to report on new and interesting projects going on in the world of emulation. Recently the inimitable Howard Casto started working on a project to bring dash board functionality to the world of emulators. While I don't believe this to be the first project of this sort it's certainly an interesting development, and Howard's work is typically of a very high quality.

Anyway, you know where on modern game consoles you can press a button on your controller and bring up a menu (aka a dashboard) that allows you to do various things including load and save states and exit the emulator? Yeah we'll I'm making one. There is a great need for this as many of the console emulators expect you to whip out a keyboard to do basic tasks like load a save state or even exit the emulator (often the exit key can't be remapped or binded to a joystick button).

Recently all of the popular console emulators got lua scripting support. That allows me to draw on-screen and make a menu, which helps tremendously.

Project Thread

So while it may be a slight reach to say that this dashboard is Universal, there certainly appears to be quite a number of emulators which support Lua scripting. Taken into account with other projects looking to "modernize" your emulation experience, these are exciting times to be an emulation hobbyist ... especially in the world of GameEx!!

[Adultery]

That's a great idea!

If I could map my Xbox controller to use the center button to access it i'd be set. :-)

[hansolo77]

DUH? That's what I've been waiting for!!! Cool stuff!

[Draco1962]

I definitely recommend registering or logging onto the site and providing Howard feedback and note your interest. I am sure it will mean a lot to him and encourage his continued work on what could be a great endeavor!

[DazzleHP]

This, and the possibilty of having achievements is just amazing! Now imagine in GameEx, hitting that middle button and pops a dashboard with a that save/load menu, GE friend list and your score/achievements for the game you're currently playing. That would be so epic that all the epic of the world would have be used up to describe it!

Don't beat me down i'm allowed to dream!

[Adultery]

I can't wait to see what the plugin system will be capable of... If I could add my own menus and pause menus, I will be in heaven! I'd love to make something that uses the achievements dll and a high score dll, maybe even a GameEx chat app...

C'mon Evo! Hurry up and come already!

[nullPointer]

Here's a video of the Universal Console Dashboard in action (running on Gens). I really love how it takes a screenshot of your save state, and subsequently displays them as you browse the load states. Super Cool!

[Adultery]

That's already been a standard for a long time on the Wii emulators for snes, nes, and gba. :-)

You can also browse games by boxart. :-)

[hansolo77]

That video looks pretty sweet.

[DazzleHP]

Here's a video of the Universal Console Dashboard in action (running on Gens). I really love how it takes a screenshot of your save state, and subsequently displays them as you browse the load states. Super Cool!

That is pretty slick and much more than i was expecting! I will have these versions as my default for sure!

[stigzler]

This is great news for cabs! Be fantastic if could add customisable functikns linked to hotkeys

[DazzleHP]

I like how easy it looks to skin. It may take a bit of extra work than usual what with each emu being tied to it's own resolution, but still it seems pretty straight forward to get a universal theme going throughout out each emu... I feel a cough-blurt coming on... *cough* Evo *blurt* a somewhat universal GE dashhhhhhhhh with many other features as well as the save state menu *stutter, wheeze*

I'll let that linger for a bit... hehehehe

[DoCouto19]

Wow, this would be incredible as an add-on or implemented into the GameEx.

Really would make for a seamless gaming experience for someone looking to load and save game states.

[nullPointer]

The only issue with that is that Howard's Project is purely implemented at the emulator level, and thus the functionality is still owned, managed, and executed by the emulator itself. I think the closest one could come to a "fully integrated" experience here would be to create menus within the emulator scripting which approximated the general theme of the invoking frontend (and even then you're limited by the max resolution of the emulator).

I think this project is a huge step closer towards the dream of having a fully managed and integrated frontend / emulation experience, but we're not quite there yet. Really what it would take is for like some sort of consortium of emulator authors to agree upon a standardized set of exposed function hooks for save states, load states, etc. at which point frontends could leverage universal means of invoking those functions.

Still and all though ... these are pretty exciting times for emulation hobbyists!