Backdrops in mame2003-plus

Riverstorm

@Clyde - You're a scholar, thanks for the date and other tips. I think it will be very useful and will simplify needing to rename every file. The icing on the cake would be getting raspi2png to trigger with a keyboard shortcut and not needing a "laptop" solely to SSH and get a screenshot.

@UDb23 - I thought of you the other night watching a movie named Polar who's main protagonist was a retired cold war assassin named "The Black Kaiser". :)

Also they just closed us down due to weather, no snow, sheer temps and high winds are creating blizzard conditions. We are supposed to bottom out with cold tonight again. We are getting pounded with cold pretty hard this year. It sure doesn't feel like global warming. ;)

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in Backdrops in mame2003-plus:

The icing on the cake would be getting raspi2png to trigger with a keyboard shortcut and not needing a "laptop" solely to SSH and get a screenshot.

@mitu already posted a tip about keyboard solution in my other thread, but alas, I won't have time to test it before the weekend.

We are getting pounded with cold pretty hard this year. It sure doesn't feel like global warming. ;)

*dons his scholar hat* Why Global Warming Can Mean Harsher Winter Weather :)

Take care, I wish you all the best.

Riverstorm

Clyde you crack me up! I was being facetious but at least now I may articulate the difference between weather and climate. That last paragraph about "wasting" fossil fuels by turning up the heat and just when I need it the most. =/

We have wind gusts up to 50MPH/80KHM so it's creating severe ground blizzards. It looks like it's snowing and foggy-ish due to snow being whipped around. They even shut down the airports. We are at a stand still until the wind dies down.

If you don't modify your inputs (TAB menu) from the defaults wiping your .cfg files shouldn't matter. They are created when you launch a game (even when you don't change anything from the defaults).

If you have a lot of customization you might want to screenshot each one before wiping them. Well just the ones that have been changed.

The different modes I can't explain very well.

grant2258

Well the cfg files made are for game inputs dips and sound mixer settings ect. I myself cant explain none legacy mode all it does is hide the tab menu so you can set anything in mame you will need to ask mark how you set stuff up with no tab menu and its not mapped in mame because the config files are seperate.

All i did was separate the modes so they save there own config files. You need to restart when switching from legacy and none legacy all this done was cause an extra layer of confusion but lets people setup there mame the normal way(legacy) the tab menu or(none legacy) marks way.

You need to delete you old mame20030plus cfg files the format of the cfg changed to be compatible with mame078 format.

Clyde

@Riverstorm @grant2258 Thanks for your explanations. I've renamed my cfg directory to cfg.backup if I may ever need one of the old files. It will go into my backup the next time, then I'll delete the cfg.backup from the original. The incremental backup is set to delete old snapshots after six month, that should be enough time to notice anything that I'll miss.

UDb23

@Riverstorm said in Backdrops in mame2003-plus:

...high winds are creating blizzard conditions.

That's a really tough winter this year in your area!

With all that cold already, I wound't watch a movie called Polar ! :-))

Clyde

@UDb23 said in Backdrops in mame2003-plus:

With all that cold already, I wound't watch a movie called Polar ! :-))

Or Snowpiercer. 😄

UDb23

@Clyde lol

Riverstorm

@UDb23 @Clyde - There's definitely some irony in watching a movie named Polar in this weather such as this. It's a Netflix original that has a lot of gratuitous violence but also some dry comical moments that are pretty funny. It definitely won't be winning any awards but then I hardly watch any award winning movies. I like the one off B-movies. ;)

I was just curious did you guys grow up speaking English as well as your native language. I always thought it was true when they say that you really understand a "second" language when you get the subtle jokes.

UDb23

@Riverstorm Haven't heard of that movie, will check.
Concerning languages I grew up as a kid speaking german and italian; so english is actually 3rd ;-)
I studied it at school for many years of course. When I started learning I was really interested in understanding the lyrics of the (english) songs I loved (no google or internet in the 80's): listening and re-listening and writing down. Sometimes luckily the lyrics were printed on LP's covers. Learned quite a lot on top that way.
As I use english at work on a daily basis it still have chance to find and learn new english expressions. In the forums too as you know :-).

Getting back to backdrops: going to work on Gorf this WE using @grant2258's tips to get better res by "extending" the BD boundaries outside of the game area (forcing mame to generate higher res)

UDb23

@Riverstorm Did your weather conditions improve ?

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in Backdrops in mame2003-plus:

I was just curious did you guys grow up speaking English as well as your native language. I always thought it was true when they say that you really understand a "second" language when you get the subtle jokes.

My English comes mostly from books, comics, movies, and games. My school only laid the groundwork if anything. I sometimes joke that I rather could "demand to surrender the tiny speck of rock you puny earthlings have the presumptuousness to call a planet, lest I hurl it into the sun to die a far more quicker death than it deserves" in English than ask for the next bus station or the price of my breakfast on holiday. 😉

Since the dawn of the internet, I also try to hone my language skills in online discussions like this one.

@UDb23 On topic, I'm looking forward to see the results of your (non-radar) Battlezone and Gorf work. 👍

Clyde

@Riverstorm @UDb23 I just stumbled over a funny rap battle about the "correctness" of the various English variants. I posted it in the music thread along with a German cabaret song about how non-native speakers will ruin the language of Shakespeare. 😇

Lyle_JP

I just noticed that the Space Invaders backdrop now automatically loads in Mame 2003-Plus. Might I suggest that you remove sicv from the clones which do this? The color version wasn't meant to be played reflected on a backdrop, and the darker colors are almost invisible. Also, there seems to be an aspect ratio issue with the backdrop, but I'm sure it's been mentioned.

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - Hey gentlemen, I just made it home. I had a Valentine's "date" with my wife, as next weekend will be busier for the holiday. It's an overrated holiday anyway but a great excuse to go out and have drinks, a nice dinner and dessert.

Three languages, that's impressive! I've been encouraging our youngest daughter to learn a second language. Spanish is definitely the second most spoken language regionally here but I would be perfectly fine with Italian or German (both taught here as electives in high school) or whatever she enjoys the most even if only an island of 3 speak the language.

If you wanted to learn Spanish would it be fairly easy since I know it's somewhat phonologically and grammatically similar to Italian? I know some Spanish from over the years (enough to be polite and ask where the bathroom is located--a bunch of words and phrases basically) but not enough to have fluid conversation.

I am a huge fan of all music from the 70s and 80s. I'm looking forward to seeing Kiss coming up here in a few weeks on their final tour. I hope they go old school with real incandescent bulbs, pyrotechnics and all the other antics they used to entertain during a concert back in the day. I remember rocking out to them in the 70s.

I agree that the internet was much less influential (and useful) in the 80's but it did exist here. We were using Netscape Navigator, AOL and IE was the underdog back then. We mostly were interested in BBS's and downloading "warez" as it was called back in the day.

The weather has settled down but it is still below average temp wise basically (below freezing) for the next week or so.

Clyde every time I read your English it's so neat I wonder if this guy is an English major. I would have never known it was a second language for you. If you ever heard the saying crossing your t's and dotting your i's, that's how I would describe your English. If not look it up! ;) It's meant as a compliment.

Thanks for sharing the links. I got a good laugh out of them both!

I did wipe out all my cfg files and started over. If you changed anything in the TAB menu you'll need to redo some of you inputs but it doesn't happen to often. I setup 4 players using 4 controllers. I had a weird anomaly happen similar to AdvMAME. I had two controllers timeout and when I reactivated them my #4 controller became #1 but Plus still thought it was #4 when configuring so I had to exit Plus and restart it.

I've been trying to setup Spy Hunter which has a nice lighted overlay but it requires 5 buttons for "weapons" in addition to gas, brake and gear shifting.

I look forward to Gorf and if it will work with Grant's suggestion too. You figure Omega Race was in the same situation, maybe(?) and it looks fantastic with the BD.

@Lyle_JP - It does load automatically due to Space Invaders (invaders.zip) is the parent to all of those clones. I don't know the exact number but SI has quite a few. I think the devs designed it that way for ease of use and no need for interaction. If you want you can disable loading artwork for the specific clones you don't want to use it. Goto Retroarch Quick Menu -> Options from within the game or disable it globally or just delete the zip from the BIOS/artwork folder. The colors are definitely different but the aspect ratio is correct if you're using an HD TV or monitor at 1920x1080, what RA displays isn't the actual game aspect ratio but the game aspect ratio is correct for the game and the BD looked correct.

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in Backdrops in mame2003-plus:

Clyde every time I read your English it's so neat I wonder if this guy is an English major. I would have never known it was a second language for you. If you ever heard the saying crossing your t's and dotting your i's, that's how I would describe your English. If not look it up! ;) It's meant as a compliment.

I did and now I'm feeling very flattered, thank you. 😊 I'll have to admit though that I do look up single words in an online dictionary while typing if they don't come to my mind, or if a word known to me doesn't fit my intention precisely enough, so I'll try to find a more fitting synonym. (I'll do that even in German from time to time, so …)

Because I like languages very much, I want to use them in the most respectful and refined way possible. 🤓

Riverstorm

@Clyde - The extra effort shows for sure. I do something similar where I have a notepad and pen on the end table in the living room. When I watch a movie or show and they say a word I don't know I write it down to lookup later. I also like Kindle's with built the dictionaries. With a double tap you can look up the definition of the word right in the middle of a sentence in a second. I like enjoy reading every night and try to learn new words here and there as I come across them.

UDb23

@Clyde @Riverstorm
Little time to dedicate to retropie stuff this WE, sorry.

I still was able to almost finalize UV Battlezone overlay.

Current status:

UDb23

@Clyde Also updated the 4:3 bzone ovl: removed Radar text, higher radar "circle", moved right box (score) slightly.

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - Thanks for the new overlay. We had one of those weekends a few weeks ago where nothing seemed to go right. I spent the whole day replacing the water filtering housing in our fridge and then the dish washer starting causing issues. It was a long weekend.