Background images, coming back!!!

[herb_fargus]

@tronkyfran

As you are the creative genius and you are within your rights to utilise the content you create in any way you deem necessary.

Here are my concerns:

I got into retropie/retrogaming primarily for nostalgia/archiving. It's amazing to me that I can play all my childhood games on a tiny little box.

I support the open source community because it is all about everyone coming together to make something amazing and because of that everyone has free access to what we make together.

Yet, it seems every day there is a new person packaging the work of the community just so they can make a quick buck on something that is supposed to be free.

As far as GPL code goes there are no restrictions on commercial use, however a good portion of emulators, emulationstation themes, and the retropie image all come with non commercial clauses in their licenses which forbid commercial use.

The problem with all these so called entrepreneurs is they take the work of the community, make changes to the code and close source it so nobody else has access to any improvements they may have made so the community loses out on those developments. It's a low thing to do and really kills the motivation for the people who really do the work on these projects and as you mentioned nobody in the open source community has lawyers or the money to enforce the licences.

So where does that leave us?

I'll give you some examples.

Mini emu: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sumbodesign/mini-emu-all-in-one-retro-game-console-raspberry-p

Made 80,000 Euros off our/retroarch's work. Money that could have been used for development. All he did was repackage a pi in a crappy case and doubled the price. As you can see from the comments, all his customers realised they were swindled as he laughed his way to the bank.

Nostalgames: which had raised 30,000 euros before they were successfully shut down for violating licences

And seems every day there is a new one that the retroarch team has to deal with.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sp8drl

In the end we can't enforce it, and it sucks. But it's people like that ruin open source because they care more about their own greed than the collective intelligence of society.

[tronkyfran]

Well, Ive been thinking a lot about what you both wrote and sadly, you re absolutely right.
I suppose I had to think in avance in this subject when I said yes to their request, but I didnt.
I will speak to them and if their answer is not absolutely convincing (and after what I saw, thats going to be hard to believe) about not using RetroPie/libretro /emulationstation they wont have the right to show the artwork anymore. It maybe looks like if I had wishful thinking(can I say this?), and surely it is that way. I know that there are a lot of people getting projects ripped all the time but ,fuck, I refuse to be paranoid till people show me how bad they are.

So,personally, knowing ugly things that I didnt before, now Im sad, but even more commited to make better artwork for this community.

[tronkyfran]

SNES USA fixed:

SNES EU:

[bite_your_idols]

@tronkyfran said in Background images, coming back!!!:

SNES USA fixed:

SNES EU:

thanks!!

[pjft]

Only now did I see this thread, and wow - these images are majestic!

I am going to use these as loading screens for the roms, rather than the runcommand.sh prompt. :D

Is there any place where we're collecting all of these images, or do I need to download them from the posts one by one?

Thank you!

[herb_fargus]

@tronkyfran

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/retroengine-sigma-mini-console-media-player-cool#/

80k and counting. Sure hope you charged a percentage...

[jb32647]

@herb_fargus "Developers who write software can release it under the terms of the GNU GPL. When they do, it will be free software and stay free software, no matter who changes or distributes the program" (GNU website) Is this indiegogo campaign even legal? They are, in the video, clearly showing it bundled with RetroArch, EmulationStation, and while they do not mention the SOC, it seems to be a pi, which means that it will also have Retropie and by extension Rasbian installed.

The fact that they are charging money for this seems dodgy. Also it looks like a gen 1 Mega Drive, so I expect a cease-and-desist from SEGA-SAMMY at any minute now since they are now selling Mega Drive plug and plays, and this could potentially hurt sales.

[jb32647]

@jb32647

@jb32647 said in Background images, coming back!!!:

it seems to be a pi

Just double checked, they seem to running some kind of proprietary hardware, which raised the question: Can you edit Retroarch on this console, if not it is definitely in violation of GPLv3.

[tronkyfran]

Well,no, Im not writing this with a mojito close to a bahamas beach, so no money for me. 160k right know, thats almost ridiculous!!!

[JiggaWatt]

@jb32647
I've seen some speculation it's some form the Orange Pi running RetrOrange Pi (http://orange314.com/RetrOrangePi) Looking into both looks like good suspects. A big one is that this project is based on ARMbian 8, which the screenshots show. Port layout matches Orange Pi Lite.

In RetrOrange Pi's features they explicitly references RetroPie, but their code base isn't open. If they're getting a cut through this Doyodo company then that would be a big issue.

I'd rather this thread stay on topic of the awesome work that TronkyFran is doing. This is a bit of a depressing tangent. RetroPie is a great project.

[jb32647]

@JiggaWatt I agree with your last sentence entirely. @tronkyfran Your work is fantastic, I especially like the 48K spectrum and the Coupé. If you are in need of some GB pocket reference photos I am willing to take some.

[herb_fargus]

No sense in rehashing it all anyways. There will always be another greedy scumbag.

Nonetheless, must be gratifying to know your work is worth 180K!

Your work is brilliant. A mehstation module has been added in an experimental state and I've been playing with it, might be able to get your assets running for a theme perhaps, I'm short on time with life as of recent but I'll post any updates when I get it running.

[alexkidd]

@JiggaWatt i'm part of RetrOrange Pi team and we are not involved in any way with Retroengine Sigma, actually we're also pissed off in the same way you guys are. After a conversation with @BuZz , who advised us to proper comply with GPL, images were deleted from server until they're updated and in full compliance to be released again, with no commercial purpose. I apologize for hijacking the thread again, just wanted to keep you guys posted.
We also have a non commercial disclaimer: http://orangepi.club/showthread.php?tid=6

[tronkyfran]

Well well,this is just a sneak peek, new images for new theme are coming along nicely.
These are the things I can say about it:
-Its going to use the video preview .
-Its tematic is very similar to the old room theme.
-Its going to cover 10 systems at first, because its really time consuming for me, the rest will come at a slower pace.
-It has custom video previews for every system. That means that obviously not every game will be supported, Ill try to get roughly 100 of them for every system done. I'd like to have a way to make your own custom previews for this theme, well see.
-It probably will have problems to run at 1080p, so I have a 720p version to try. It surely run fine in x86.
-I know its not nice for me to say this, but it looks awesome, Im proud of it.

Next week Ill have the first system up and running, then testing and the next 9 systems!

[tronkyfran]

While polishing last things, new system. I'll try to do the 2 screens too!!!

[tronkyfran]

720p images uploaded too.

[tronkyfran]

I have more or less the background finished, just some details left. Here it is a mockup of the final look. It wont be so nice because I`ll have to make the reflections neutral and not related to every different video.
Atari 2600 will be ready for testing this weekend :D
Hope you like it,

Thinking about it, I suppose I'll need to change the tv for different emulators, a more 80s tv for snes, etc...

[jb32647]

@tronkyfran That looks absolutely stunning, keep up the good work!

[robertybob]

@tronkyfran I like the TV being in the background! Is it a still image on the TV or is it actually possible to blur the preview videos? @fieldofcows ?

[tronkyfran]

Its possible and will be that way ;)
In fact Im doing it right now, but its time consuming and difficult to automate, so Ill have to figure out how to make it easier for the rest of the systems!!!!