Top requested arcade games for overlays

Ronoh55

I have no screenshot either (don't know/forgot how on the pi) But I can confirm dk looks amazing!

UDb23

@Ronoh55 just use your smartphone to take a pic ;-)

Ronoh55

backstander

Thank you @UDb23 for these awesome overlays! I haven't tired the Donkey Kong one yet but the Pac-Man has got to be my favorite so far on this thread!

UDb23

@backstander more overlays coming today...

UDb23

And here comes title ranking nr. 6 : SPACE INVADERS (Taito)

It's an adaptation of the image made by Metalzoic/Alexminasepm (Metalzoic's MAME Mega-Bezel Pack on Rlauncher forum).

Overlay and usual cfgs: here

UDb23

And nr.3: Galaga !

Download it here.

jdrassa

@UDb23 Great job as usual! You should create a project on GitHub for all of these overlays.

UDb23

@jdrassa Thanks.
And your're right about Github; that will be the next step once I reach a significant number of overlays.

jozzy1

Awesome overlays dude. Got my cab pretty much set up now and these look fantastic. Thanks!

UDb23

@jozzy1 thanks. Don't forget sharing some pics of your cab!

swaggers

@UDb23 Do you have a page where all of your overlays are?

UDb23

@swaggers Not so far. You can search this forum for "overlays" or check my posts.
I'll create a specifc thread with all of them as soon as I finish these top10.

meleu

The "overlay" tag brings useful links :-)
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/tags/overlay

UDb23

@meleu I'm thinking of defining some standards to create a common retropie overlay repository on github as you suggested. Idea could be having a global "index" file with relevant info about each available overlay. In this way a script or application could automatically detect/update and filter current available overlay list and select them for install.
Each time a new overlay is added this global idx file must be updated accordingly.
Another way could be having info/index file for each overlay providing the same info; in this case the app/script should go thru each overlay (one folder for each?) And compose dynamically the global list.
I don't know much about how Github works; what do you think?
In any case info contained in the index file should include ( for each overlay):
ROM name,game name, platform, supported cores, screen resolution, fullscreen/integer. A thumbnail could also be useful.
Could the folders you created for the overlays on github be a starting point ?
Second step could then be sharing not only overlays but full artwork pack for each game: splashscreen, overlay, image for ES gamelist XML..... And, why not, video preview ;-)

meleu

@UDb23 You are an artist. You can focus on the art. :-)
If you do exactly what you are doing but instead of uploading to mega.nz, upload to a folder in a github repository, it's enough. No need to create and manage an index file.

meleu

@UDb23 answering your question better

Could the folders you created for the overlays on github be a starting point ?

yes.

we can discuss about the standards (maybe create another thread to avoid polluting this one), but the files we need are

The folder in the github repository should have a "human friendly" game name. Example: Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
ROM_NAME.zip.cfg: the file that will be at roms/mame-libretro folder (maybe other arcade core directory too). This file must have the input_overlay line, where the script get the full path to the overlay config file.
ROM_NAME.cfg: the file that will be at /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/overlays/arcade-bezels/ (since the script will get this file name directly from the file described above, the name doesn't matter, but having a standard is a good practice). This file must have the overlay0_overlay, where the script get the image file name from.
the overlay image file itself: since the script will get this file name directly from the file described above, the name doesn't matter, but having a standard is a good practice. I like the RomName_ArtistName.png standard that you are using.

We can talk about the second step (launching images, images for ES gamelist XML, video preview) after... :-)

Cheers! And thanks for sharing your artwork with us!

UDb23

@meleu sounds good. Basically just keeping the current standard.
What about games (roms) having multiple overlays: from different artists or just different overlay options for the same game?

One more question: I now got a github account, can I create new folders for overlays in your existing github repository or do you need to grant me permissions?

Btw I'm not an artist at all ;-)
But having fun doing these.

meleu

@UDb23 For the sake of simplicity I suggest you create your own repository. I suggest the name MAME-overlays. Then you can just upload your files. No need to deal with Pull Requests, and other not-so-intuitive github features.

If you follow the standards I commented above you can leave the rest (the script) with me. ;-)

EDIT

What about games (roms) having multiple overlays: from different artists or just different overlay options for the same game?

Oh yeah. We need a standard for those image files. My suggestion is RomName_ArtistName_SequentialNumber.png, the _SequentialNumber part would only be used when needed. Examples:

pack with only one overlay: frenzy_udb.png.
pack with more than one overlay: mvc_udb_1.png, mvc_udb_2.png.

I'm proposing this standard and have just noticed that the "Marvel vs. Capcom" pack doesn't follow this. No problem, we can rename the files in existing packs and start to follow this standard from now on. What do you think?

UDb23

@meleu Your proposal is simple and effective, thanks.
Next weekend I should be able to start on this ;-)