My thoughts about HyperSpin

[Nightlife]

I know I may be opening a can of worms, and perhaps the topic is a bit taboo. But I feel it is important that people get an opinion of HyperSpin from the perspective of a seasoned GameEx veteran.

Like many others, I was hypnotized by the flashiness and good-looks of this piece of software. After reading blog posts and seeing plenty of youtube videos, I decided to give it a go. I started from scratch, using a brand-new clean installation of XP and fresh romsets. I was going to set it up from the ground-up as a whole new HTPC experience.

The first thing anyone will notice is just how pretty it is. It's the "Michael Bay" of FEs... lots and lots of eye-candy. And, at first-glance, it seems like setup will be a no-brainer. There's a separate app for configuring the exe, and you just point the app to your roms and your exe's for the various emulators. I had MAME set up and working like a dream in no-time flat. Pairing it with the companion emuvideos available on the 'net and you have a pretty nice system.

Easy, right? Well, the truth is, it has a ways to go when it comes to the other systems. Admittedly, I never got to that point with the other systems before I threw in the towel.

I logged two days (about ten hours) of dedicated work to see if I could recreate the elegance and ease-of-navigation of my GameEx setup. The result was not a success.

The primary point-of-difference of the two pieces of software, and this is a huge one, is its database structure for displaying games. Each system in HyperSpin must have an XML that has the entire list of games. Right now, the method for obtaining this XML is through their web site (and an online portal that is still being developed, as I was unable to access it), and your romsets MUST correspond to the naming conventions of the versions they chose to use. If you don't have the same set (and, arguably, it's neigh-impossible to find the matching sets, especially if you're supposed to bring your own), you must create your own XML through a variety of 3rd party apps.

This is, again, where the trouble is. In order to have a flawless setup, you must have a matching:

- XML file

- romset named in a matching naming scheme

- screenshots or videos in a matching naming scheme

- boxart, cabinets, etc. in a matching naming scheme

If any of this is missing, you must be prepared for hours of manual labor ensuring everything matches up. And, besides, that, there are not uniform places for additional artwork files across themes. You'll drop artwork into a folder hoping it will show up, and realize a theme is not configured to use that folder. You must use "Artwork 2" instead of "Artwork 1," and the only way to determine this is through trial-and-error or reading through ini files.

Now, for us GameEx users, we're a bit spoiled. You point the app to your roms, and the list is populated. Need screenshots? Use the automated system. It's a level of convenience that doesn't exist in HyperSpin. Now, can you blame the software for users not having complete and matching romsets and extras? Not at all. However, GameEx is just that much more usable without matching sets, which is the camp I feel most of us are in.

Finally, the attention to detail is lacking with any and all emulator setup. Even something as tricky and particular as Visual Pinball has been handled with aplomb in GameEx. Not yet in Hyperspin. Now, truthfully, this FE is in its infancy, and it already has oodles of loyal followers. And, I can truthfully say that if you can, in fact, get a perfect setup working in HyperSpin, I'm sure it's a marvel.

So, the main question: Is there any reason for a GameEx user to jump ship? In my opinion, no. The ease-of-use is just not there yet... you will spend hours moving themes, art, and roms into various locations, hoping it all matches up, and tweaking options to get everything to function. It is a lot of work, and the return on investment, in my opinion, just isn't worth it.

I look forward to watching it develop and grow, and in a year or two I may give it another go. But right now, I simply wish the flashiness was backed by a solid, easy, and effective way of getting everything "into" the system instead of fussing about, hoping for the best.

I hope this has been helpful. It is just one man's opinion, and certainly I applaud both pieces of software. But after spending ten hours with Hyperspin, it sure feels good to come home to GameEx.

[Brian Hoffman]

I realize spending 10 hours setting things up is not everyone cup of tea. I couldn't even begin to count the hours I have put in or watched others put in that are regulars here.

Both Game-ex and Hyperspin are front-ends, but serve very different purposes in different ways.

I am not going to go into great detail why things are the way they are in each FE. I don't think people are jumping ship as you say, GameEx is a staple in the emulation community.

Brian Hoffman

[Nightlife]

Brian, I agree with you completely. And, after a while of experimenting and reading the docs, I came to understand why things are a certain way in Hyperspin, and it makes sense. For my money, GameEx has ease-of-use locked-down, and I look forward to seeing Hyperspin evolve the way GameEx has over the years.

I want to also say that I have the utmost respect for everyone involved in both GameEx and Hyperspin. They are both truly wonderful pieces of software and, as you say, serve different purposes. I don't mean to discount Hyperspin and it's truly not fair to brush it off (definitely not my intention). It's really great. It just takes a particular type of user with the correct files with the time and passion to get it all "hooked up" and working right.

[Tom Speirs]

I liked your post NightLife. Thanks for taking the time.

GameEx has been in development for 6 years, and is obviously going to be more mature and complete. Puely for the amount of time put into it by me and others.

The main area where they difer, if I could sum it up in one word is "content". Hyperspin does deserve credit and is very cool, but the desigin is not based on content (or allowing content) where GameEx is. If anyones has got any sense they should not make GameEx try and become HyperSpin and vice versa. I figured this out a long time ago. It does seem folks are more interested in visuals than content though right now.

[Tempest]

I thought it was a nice post as well. To me, it's like comparing apples & oranges. They are both fruit, but completely different. Personally, I like apples.

[GeorgeT]

I have tried to set-up Hyperspin on my MAME cab but it really is a resource hog and slows to a crawl on my pc. GameEX I figured out (knock on wood) and it runs like a dream on my old PC.

Thanks again Tom, the $$ for GameEX is the best $$ ever spent.

[Krakerman]

Well I been looking are other peoples systems on youtube with Hyperspin and they do look awesome! The one things that GameEx really needs is some Awesome looking HD Themes 1920x1080 for those who setup GameEx on our HDTV's. Slowly some users are starting to work on some, but they lack the visuals and emulator content as they just have the basic range of emulators out there compared to HyperSpin. Granted so far setting up GameEx is really been quite easy and with the hard ones the community has been awesome on helping us out on getting them up and running. I've actually just recently just installed XBMC and Hyperspin and gonna start messing around with them as I have GameEx all setup and running everything and I am getting bored now unless some eye catching theme comes out, but for now I'm gonna start messing around with these 2 and see how they turn out on my system. I don't have an arcade cab, I setup GameEx on my High end PC connected to my 47" Vizio HDTV in my GameRoom. I could never play it on anything other than a large HDTV again as it is awesome playing games on it. Maybe some day my wife will buy me my arcade cab for x-mas, then again prob not

[bkenobi]

1900x1080

[Krakerman]

1900x1080

You mean 1920x1080

Well Hyperspin is no easy task trying to setup as it is a bit more complicated, but I did get MESS emulator working with it, but takes way more effort than one would like to spend I'm sure. However the rewards are better when you see it in action with the eye candy!

[bkenobi]

You mean 1920x1080

Well Hyperspin is no easy task trying to setup as it is a bit more complicated, but I did get MESS emulator working with it, but takes way more effort than one would like to spend I'm sure. However the rewards are better when you see it in action with the eye candy!

Yup, you got me too!

[kewlkat007]

I tried to use Hyperspin like a year ago. Well what attracted me was the flashyness of it.(Some really good work by the community)

I did go deep into the setup but I just couldn't chose it as my, as I like to call it "BEAST of a Front-end".

Too much was lacking compared to GameEX(which as you know I'm still learning the little odd and ins). GameEX is just more complete currently and has great support.

Now in the future, lets say I build a SHOWCASE""Arcade Cab, HyperSpin could be what I use. My goal is to emulated 20 consoles/Arcade systems and

currently GameEX fits the bill perfectly.

Currently I'm in the process of Adding the Emus/Games to GameEX and matching the Snaps/Videos. Making all of them work with my Arcade

joystick(and some REAL console USB controllers) is gonna be work I'm sure.

10 Years ago, I had a DREAM about build a 4-player arcade after discovering MAME. I'm getting there, building the PC next month. My plan is do Donate a good sum to

every community involved once I'm complete with this.

[Krakerman]

Yup, you got me too!

hahaha

[IMBerzerk]

I tried it about 9 months ago on my cafe cabinet. It's the more kid friendly cabinet, uses the vertical plain, and is more visually attractive to the kids. So I thought, well, why not. I wish I had stopped there. It was a mess. A lot of time was spent learning how to set it up, and get it working. I nearly drove myself to tears, then when I finally got it working... the PC was not enough to run it, even with a decent video card, and plenty of power to run everything else on the cabinet.

So I gave up. That cabinet has Mala running on it which works great for the kids. My other two cabinets are solely GameEx, with one being a MAME dedicated, the other being MAME and other games.

Nothing tops GameEx for use and content. I am amazed at what I have put into it, and it keeps asking for more. Thanks to the design of it, I now have a working museum of game console emulators dating from the late 70's to the early 90's... complete with pictures and descriptions. I love it!

Great post.

[iano]

I'm tricking around with it at the moment and i have to agree with Nightlife. I can't seem to get the artwork (mame wheel) to match my roms correctly. They have a good tutorial on how to use romlister (which i followed) but still i can't the mame wheel to match the roms i have. In fairness the Hyperspin community have produce some good tutorials to make setting up HS easier. I'll play around with it in my spare time - don't want to get bogged down by it.

[Krakerman]

I have to say I really like GameEx better after messing around with HyperSpin as it's a pain the butt to setup. What a shame as the eye candy is really cool to look at, but not worth the time you have to spend to set it up as GameEx is a no brainer darn near to setup. Just wish we GameEx'ers had more eye candy for our themes

After setting it up and running I've been kinda bored with the Kab.net theme as it is lacking background images for my other emulators, but I do like how the Daphne image looks on it.

[headkaze]

Just wish we GameEx'ers had more eye candy for our themes

I made a theme called HyperStyle but then just extracted the backgrounds for use in any theme. These are obviously influenced by HyperSpin but I did NOT rip any of their graphics, everything was made from scratch by me. I have total respect for the guys that make the HS themes, it's all very time consuming (and quite frankly RSI inducing).

Anyway you can check them out here.

[vsilvalopes]

Greetings Everyone !

First of all , great topic. I really like comparatives between two things.

Let me share a little of my experience on this.

I've already tried A LOT of programs for Media Management and Emulation frontend.

My choice ? GameEx and XBMC.

I've already tried Hyperspin , and at a first sight , it looks amazing.

But as soon you start using it , the clutered interface gets annoying. (my opnion)

And as everyone already said , It's a huge pain to configure. I never put it on my HTPC. Just tried it on my desktop.

About the XBMC , I've choosen it because of the legacy that this one have. I use it since the times of the old Xbox.

So, it's a program that I already know a lot about.

I've already tried the GameEx for media management , and boxee , and Windows Media Center.

But my final choice is XBMC.

The same is for GameEx.

It is easy to setup, easy to customize , powerfull even on old/low-end machines.

My first GameEx setup was an AMD Duron 1,3 Ghz with 1 GB RAM and a GeForce 2 (64mb) and it worked like a charm for one year.

Than I decided to build a more powerfull machine. And GameEx is there , running fast as it used to run on the old machine.

So , it's my choice! Thanks Tom for your great software.

About the themes , as already said , the community is getting more and more involved about it.

I think if we start a project joining all the "theme builders" we can have something unique.

[Draco1962]

I think we have more talent contributing to GameEx than Hyperspin. that is not saying that they have none. It is one heck of a program and has come a long way in a short period of time. It just seems to be a bit much to have to learn and tweek - not use out of the box friendly.

I like some of the Mamewah and MaLa themes although I have not tinkered with either FE yet. I have tried the Maximus Arcade demo and it seems to hold some promise. I am concerned by some of the posts on their site about support and other issues and I am a bit hesitant to go beyond and put down any $$ for something that may be on its way out. I know things happen, people have the best intentions, but life gets in the way and you have to let go as your priorities become realigned, so no ill will intended by this observation.

I like this community that GameEx has forged in support of one fine feat of programming. I like that I can pretty much modify things on the fly and quickly churn out a theme to share (although when I look back, there may be one or two that I wish I hadn't ). I appreciate the assistance and feedback from the community; being able to pick the guru's brains (not their noses, because that is just gross) for details I may be missing and bouncing ideas about some of the friends I have made here.

Ok, that's it for now. I am not sure if Krakerman has a good enough voice to start us on a round of Kumbaya..

[starbuck]

Agee with all the above. But am curious. I know in several months past support was made for flv files in GameEx. Is it possible to use a hyperspin theme in GameEx. Or could one be motified (Easily) to be made to work in GameEx.

[bkenobi]

You can't get the fancy movement in GameEx, but you could have the overlay type effects I think. Also, you can't have a game-by-game theme unless you set each game up in its own emulator and have its own background set to it. Possible? Yes. Painful? Probably.