Top requested arcade games for overlays

UDb23

Concerning Asteroids, the only one missing from the Poll list, the best core to play is AdvanceMame as it supports line drawing in full 1080p resolution.
This means there's no need (almost no space) for an overlay.
On the other hand it's nice to add a background as explained by @caver01 (thanks!) in his thread on how to make arcade vector games look their best.

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Image by @caver01.

caver01

Thanks for the callout. Actually, this example is Asteroids Deluxe which animates the rocks a little better than the original, but the gameplay is somewhat different with the goofy cluster enemies, shields, etc. The gameplay in astdelux is not for everyone. That said, there are overlays for both, and you can get them running in AdvanceMAME. However, you won't find those details in my early thread about vector games as I don't really use them on 4:3 games. The original asteroid artwork does have some interesting shapes that obscure areas of the screen a little. If you like that sort of thing, you can find the appropriate files online that work with AdvanceMAME's artwork function. As it applies to this thread, we are talking about BEZEL art. In AdvanceMAME, this is all controlled with artwork for romset .106 which are zip files. You can edit the details of how it all works by unzipping the artwork files, editing the .art text file, and so on. Once you get into them you will see what I mean. It's a different animal than using retroarch overlays.

UDb23

@caver01 Thanks for the detailed info. I "studied" the old mame . art overlay file format months ago and did some test: it's a big headache to implement things as you want them (more details here).
That's probably why the .lay format was introduced with later version of mame.
Lr-mame2010 supports .lay but becomes too slow when using overlays with the Pi.

caver01

@UDb23 Thanks for the link to that thread. Space Invaders is a title that I would like to improve on my system. Right now it is just a dopey white on black, but I need to explore other emulator options I think to get a nice color overlay and the cratered planet backdrop. I run the game sideways, as I play vertical titles from the ends of my cabinet. It's high time I revisit this one.

UDb23

New Overlay for a great classic: Astro Invader (1980)

Available now in the Overlay Repository.

HurricaneFan

@UDb23 Looks Awesome!

mviars

@UDb23 Thanks again for making our games look so much better!

UDb23

@mviars I've been even more busy (with other life related matters) over the last 2 weeks.
Work on additional overlays is still progressing.... just slowed down ;-).
Currently finalizing a couple of less known classics with great and very rare artwork.
Almost no bezel images available on the web so I directly asked selected collectors on KLOV 's forum if they can kindly take/share pictures of their real original cabinets to be used to create the specific overlays.
I should be able to provide some result here over the weekend.

HurricaneFan

@UDb23 Thanks for all the work you've been putting into these overlays!

mindel

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for!
A cool generic arcade overlay would also be great for the rest of the games.

UDb23

@mindel For generic bezel have a look at this thread.

mindel

@UDb23 thank you for the link, but I don't want the whole thing, just the side overlay for filling a 16:9 screen like in this thread.

UDb23

@mindel There cannot be a single "universal" generic overlay as depending from the game the actual game area is different. Most arcade classics of the 80's do use same area but others don't. Also there's vertical and horizontal.
That said I could create a limited set of "generic overlays" if there's enough demand for.

Feedback required for what games (screen area size "family") they should target.
Suggestions on how graphically you'd like them also welcome.

mindel

I have configured all the games that have a custom overlay in this thread and they look terrific.
I would love to have a specific overlay for some other of my favourites (let's say Street Fighter II CE, The king of dragons, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, ...) but I understand that this is an ongoing work and I thank you all guys for that.
I am aware that not all games share the same screen display resolution, but it looks to me that a good number of them are 4:3 horizontal, and for those it would be great to have some overlay in the meantime.
I am no artist, but I will try to do something and share it inspired in pictures like this

UDb23

@mindel Nice picture, concept understood. Not an easy task btw :-)
Will see what I can do. Can't promise anything in terms of timing.
SF II CE is now on my to do list...

UDb23

Just finished a brand new Overlay: here.

UDb23

Yet another classic now available: Scramble

The artwork is so gorgeus & colorful !!
I fear I'll have to make the scale integer overlay too someday... all that nice artwork cannot fit in the sidebars.

UDb23

There's chance to request new overlays here ;-)

Nataq

@UDb23 said in Top 10 requested arcade games for overlays:

@mindel There cannot be a single "universal" generic overlay as depending from the game the actual game area is different. Most arcade classics of the 80's do use same area but others don't. Also there's vertical and horizontal.
That said I could create a limited set of "generic overlays" if there's enough demand for.

Feedback required for what games (screen area size "family") they should target.
Suggestions on how graphically you'd like them also welcome.

Seeing what you can do, I'm totally IN for a set of generic overlays ! Also, could that be done for other systems for which overlays would all be the same sizes no matter the games ? Like for Atari, NES, NEO GEO... ?

Edit 2: With same format, without taking screen space on top and bottom :)

Can't wait for the Street Fighter 2 CE overlay ;) Keep up the good work ?

meleu

@UDb23 I'm trying to find time to work on our automated way to install those amazing overlays. I can't promise a release date but I'm taking the first steps.

I would like to ask you to avoid to put any "regular" file in the repository root directory, only directories (just keep what is being done currently). The README.md file is OK.

The reason is that I don't want to force the users to download every single file in the repository with a git clone (even the unwanted overlays). And to avoid it I'm taking the list of the files in the root directory of the repository...