Space Invaders colors

mediamogul

the path you referenced doesn't exist

hmm... just double checked and it exists on my machine.

Edit: There's always the possibility that I added it myself for some reason. I've made a lot of modifications and it's tough to keep track of what was vanilla.

settings menu, of which there are no artwork options.

Looks like MAME had yet to implement the artwork settings into it's gui in 2003. You'll probably have to set your preferences in a external file, like the 'mame.ini'. Unfortunately I've never needed to look for it's location in RetroPie and I can't at the moment.

armyofquad

Odd that you have that path, I did update recently, and it seems things vary from version to version which has made things rather confusing for me. I'm rather confused what either path is used for if it's not implemented. Anyways, thanks for the info.

newbie

If you added the path, are you using it? Do you have working overlays?

I'm kinda being attacked here, maybe hit me up on j_gatarz@yahoo.com? Perhaps if you're interested in internet radio we could get you in on an episode to help out people starting out things like this? It's rather sad that I'm finding this community to be very unfriendly for the most part, but I do appreciate your help here, and it's getting difficult to get help from you when people are declaring war and banning every account I sign up just to try and get a little help.

nhbradio.com, Mondays, 8pm EST.

UDb23

I currently use lr-mame2003 (romset 0.78) on my Pi3 as I found, after some testing over the last month, it provides the best combination of games compatibility, graphics quality and performance.
Unfortunately MAME .78 does NOT have overlay options and therefore lr-mame2003 does not offer direct support for MAME overlays.
But Retroarch (and therefore lr-mame2003) does support Overlays, thru options menu ( Select+X, if I remember correctly) or thru config files as explained by Floob.

I'll do some more testing but to me the config file method seems too complicated for the result I'd like to obtain: I don't want shaders or curved corners or scanlines etc. Simply looking for the most simple way to get the game Bezel and backdrop keeping the current game area (1080p full vertical with just left and right black space). Bezels/Overlays that are commonly used reduce game dedicated area on screen to show top and bottom bezel artwork.

MAME versions starting from .107 fully supports both Overlays and Backdrops making it much easier to people willing implement the desired artwork; additionally you can set desired crop or full bezel image.

I'll check if lr-fba, that support > .107 romsets, also supports MAME Artworks. Can anyone confirm this ?

If so I found a huge collection of MAME Artwork here, including different versions of bezels for each game, backdrops and other game graphics. Site is no longer updated but artwork is still downloadable.

UDb23

@Gators Space Invaders DX (MAME) includes different color options.
Still seems missing the original color combination (cellophane/vinyl over the screen) I used to play on the arcade cabinet: just red top row ("bonus" red ufo flying horizontally) and bottom green area (defenses and player).

UDb23

After some more investigation: FB alpha does not support Artwork.
But Advancemame does support it (.106 MAME roms)... will keep you updated if successful.
Any additional suggestions welcome.

mediamogul

@UDb23 said in Space Invaders colors:

Unfortunately MAME .78 does NOT have overlay options...
MAME versions starting from .107 fully supports both Overlays and Backdrops...

Thanks for doing the research. It is much appreciated. I know that I would have eventually been banging my head against a rock on this one.

UDb23

Solved: using lr-mame2010 and corresponding Space Invaders ROM, Mame provides the game with a "color overlay" option (tab-> video options). Colors of the game are generated, simulating the original cellophane; no external overlay files needed.

Concerning Artworks, Mame 2010 is supposed to fully support them (> .107) but it seems lr-mame 2010 isn't detecting the folder; probably due to some issues with folder paths/mame.ini file.

mediamogul

@UDb23

Also solved is why I happen to have the the artwork folder I mentioned earlier in this thread. I remember now, that I was trying a combination of many different things to get artwork read by one of RetroPie's MAME options. This would have been around the time I started that thread you referenced. I guess I gave up at some point. It's a shame there's no support for this because the artwork does indeed add so much to many of the games. Some even require the artwork to fully emulate feedback from the original machines. I might do a little research on what dankcushions mentioned there and see if learning to add such support is within my capabilty.

UDb23

@mediamogul Got it working !
Right path for mame2010 has to be "~/artwork/".
Mr. Do's invaders artwork looks great.
Unfortunately full screen Artwork, with overlay, bezel and backdrop all enabled, makes even an old game like Space Invaders too slow to be really playable.

Still backdrop only, with "crop" video option, works nicely.
lr-mame 2010 Artworkt

mediamogul

@UDb23

Wow! Well done sir! Are you sure there's nowhere in the gui to correct the aspect? This really is nice.

Edit: In the excitement, I went text blind to your comment about the slowdown. However, backdrop & crop is the only way I ever run it on my main Windows cabinet anyway. I can't wait to test this myself.

UDb23

@mediamogul That's the output with 1080p using the standard invaders Artwork package from Mr Do's artwork website. I do believe correct aspect ratio can be obtained thru changes in the included .lay file but as this nice full overlay slows the game too much I stopped further testing on this artwork for the time being.
You do can play Invaders at correct speed with backdrop only (and colors) by keeping this artwork file but using the "crop" option.

Next test I'll do is with older Artwork (before .0107) and Advmame. Will keep this post updated.

UDb23

Work in progress: using Mr Do's old mame original artwork (.ART file based layout), without any modification.

AdvMame .94: colors are ok but only backdrop is working (no bezel). Screen size correct

AdvMame 1.4: artwork is ok but actual game area is too small; bezel not intended for 16:9 screen.

Will try to create a new .ART file with specific Bezel: goal is to get maximum game area (full height) with backdrop and bezel filling black bars on the sides on a 1080p TV.

chavatar

@UDb23 Very cool. I've been playing with the various artwork options, wondered about mame2010 art and couldn't get it to work - so thank you! And after that, my idea was to try to move some newer format work into the .art format...so very interested to see how you get on :)

UDb23

More testing with Space Invaders with Retroarch (lr-mame2003):
1080p bezel - maximum game size with integer scale.

Unfortunately Retroarch does not support real backdrops and lr-mame2003 does not provide the game colors.

Thanks to Floob for info on how to setup the required cfg files.
Artwork coming from Metalzoic's MAME Mega-Bezel Pack; created by him and others for use with RocketLauncher.

Note: sorry for the image quality... still trying to understand how to get a screenshot WITH bezel with RGUI... meanwhile... I simply took a picture of the TV :-)

nitemarestang

I am new to mame. I have mame32 0.104u6. Does that support artwork? Thanks

UDb23

@nitemarestang That version of Mame should support the older .ART format artwork.
Check Mr. Do's MAME ARTWORK FAQ.

nitemarestang

Thanks, I will try that

nitemarestang

Ok. I downloaded the correct file for 1942 and placed it in the artwork file but still cannot get it to work

mediamogul

@nitemarestang

The only version of Mame that I've heard of in RetroPie that supports artwork is lr-mame2010 and the results apparently slow down emulation considerably. @dankcushions has made an effort to add support to lr-mame2003, but those efforts have been met with quite a bit of technical difficulty that might ultimately prevent it from working at all.