Futura Theme

chrisdodgen

Dear Mr. Tomahawk,

I would like to ask your opinion on the screen grabs for the infocom (zmachine) panel. I'm stuck trying to decide what to do.

I may be saying things you already know here, so forgive me, but I want to make sure I provide full context for the question.

The Zmachine wasn't hardware, like all the other things being emulated on a Retropie system. It was a software that made text adventures easily port to other systems, like the Amiga, C64, and PC. Therefore, there isn't really a standard of how the Zmachine screenshots should look…UNLESS, that is, if you believe they should only display in the manner that Retropie (via Frotz) will run them…

But that makes them sort of…well…ugly. The version of Frotz running on Retropie doesn't handle graphics. So if I use that measure, they'll all just be text. For some games, like Journey: The Quest Begins, I can't even find text-only screenshots. And the ones that have color pictures look really nice.

Should I choose a shot that reflects exactly the way the games will display with the weak text interpreter in Retropie? Or choose what looks better, even though it won't run quite that way under the Zmachine emulator?

I have used Zork 3 and Hitchhiker's guide (both text-only) in the left and right, so we're only talking about the center panel here.

FlyingTomahawk

@chrisdodgen

Hmmm...
So you need to decide between a good looking image that won't be like that in the actual game on Retropie or a ugly image that shows the actual game play?
Just go with the good looking one. If someone find it not to be a good match he can create his own screenshot later by using the layouts that are included with every Futura theme.
I had many users that liked my Futura theme but changed some of the screenshots because they felt that the ones they chose are the better ones. It is up to the end-user to choose whether he keeps the original screenshots or changes them.

Just go ahead and create them as you think is right and I'll upload them and if someone has a better idea he can comment here in this support topic and I can adjust the screenshots later anytime.

And one more thing, please don't be so formal. Hey Tomahawk! or Hey! Is good enough. ;-)

chrisdodgen

@FlyingTomahawk

LOL. "Dear Mr. Tomahawk" was a joke, actually, so no worries, there.

Got it. I was leaning toward just doing what looks best, but "I'm a bit of a stickler Meseeks" sometimes. Thanks for pushing me over the edge.

FlyingTomahawk

Added new systems.

Change log

v1.3.6 - 2017-05-18

Added Famicom system
Added Japanese Megadrive system
Added Super Famicom system
Added Sega SG-1000 system
Added SuperGrafx system

The video packages have also been updated. For links to those video packages please check first post of this topic.

hansie

Hi,

I want to thank you for this great frontend, I really love it!
I do have one question:
I noticed that when I switched between Futura-10px-video and Futura-10px-video-big, that the time between showing the boxart art and the video is a lot shorter in the big version...
It is one off the nice things off this frontend that it first shows the boxart and the video afterwards, but in the big version (which is my favorite) it is a bit to short for my taste.
Is there a way for me to delay the showing off the video for say a second?
Hope to hear from you and keep up the good work!
Greets,
Hans

FlyingTomahawk

@hansie

Hallo Hans

Danke, I am glad you like it.
You're right the video delay in the video-big packages is shorter. That was not intentional, will fix that thanks for pointing it out.
To change the delay time open the futura.xml file and under this section

<!-- BOF VIDEO VIEW //-->	
    <view name="video">

find (around line 256)

<delay>0.5</delay>

and change that to

<delay>1</delay>

or any number you like.
1 = 1 second
0.5 = 0.5 second
etc...

UPDATE

both video-big zip packages have been fixed.

hansie

Worked like a charm!!
Thanks a million!

FlyingTomahawk

UPDATE

Futura video themes (v1.3.6) now available at github.
(Links inside the first post of this thread.)

chubsta

Great work - best theme by far!

chrisdodgen

Hey there Tomahawk,

Sorry it took me so long, but I got a wonderful flu that put me down for about a week and a half.

I'm double checking the files real quick and will post within the hour.

chrisdodgen

Here's the package:

10px and 20px versions included, plus source images.

Amstrad CPC
Apple II
Tandy Color Computer (CoCo)
Vectrex
Z-machine
ZX Spectrum

Download Link:
Additional Futura Panels

PS: I discovered some mistakes I'd made in the previous XML files. These new ones should be all correct.

Thanks!

dsstrainer

Great theme. I've been using it on my latest build but just switched to a 16:10 monitor and it doesn't scale right. Anyway to get this working for 16:10?

FlyingTomahawk

@dsstrainer

Thanks.

Without re-creating the frames, screenshots, reposition the text, so basically redo everything from scratch again, no.

There are 8 different Futura repositories on github to maintain/update and at the moment I don't have the time to recreate everything from scratch.

dsstrainer

@FlyingTomahawk So.. just make time :) 9 versions of futura .... a good round number

FlyingTomahawk

@dsstrainer

lol, hehehe...
Yeah, 9 sounds good doesn't it.
Maybe I can remove some of the current versions and add 4:3 and 16:10 instead?
Another problem would be to simulate 16:10 since I don't own such a screen format device.

I would need to start a poll and see which Futura versions are most used.

FlyingTomahawk

UPDATE!

Change log

v1.3.7 - 2017-05-31

Added Amstrad CPC system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Apple II system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added CoCo system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Intellivision system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Vectrex system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Zmachine system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added ZX Spectrum system (All credits to chrisdodgen)

All credits and special thanks for these new systems go to @chrisdodgen.

-- IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! --

These were the last systems that I added to the Futura theme, at least for the time being.
The support for the non-video Futura themes stops today. I will only update and improve the video Futura versions since those seem to be the way forward. The non-video themes will be still available on github.
It was brought to my attention that there are some issues with the alignment of the system or system_year text and the system logos. That issue will be addressed asap.
I will try to create a 4:3 and 16:10 versions of the Futura video themes
~~Futura video themes will be added to the RetroPie repository for direct download through the RetroPie menu. Unless someone tells me that there are issues with the video versions.~~

Thanks

FlyingTomahawk

Great news, pull request has been accepted!
All 4 Futura video themes are now available via RetroPie menu.

Enjoy!

FlyingTomahawk

@herb_fargus

4 new Futura themes have been added to the RetroPie repository and the 2 old ones have been removed.
They have new names and video support.
The docs could use an update with new screenshots.

Thanks

chrisdodgen

@FlyingTomahawk said in Futura Theme:

Added Amstrad CPC system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Apple II system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added CoCo system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Intellivision system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Vectrex system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added Zmachine system (All credits to chrisdodgen)
Added ZX Spectrum system (All credits to chrisdodgen)

Thanks, man. Glad I could contribute.

msheehan79

@FlyingTomahawk

Great looking theme!

Can I make a very small suggestion to add a "tg16" system folder with the appropriate logo?

When I followed the instructions on RetroPie docs and created a "platform.cfg" file with the lines below in order to configure ES to have pcengine look for the TurboGrafx-16 logo, it comes up as an unthemed system as this particular folder is not currently in the theme.

pcengine_theme="tg16"
pcengine_platform="tg16"

It was easy enough for me to manually add the tg16 folder and copy the theme elements from pcengine to the new folder, but just thinking it would make sense to have this folder available in the main theme repository so any other users who want to display the TG16 instead of PC Engine logo don't have to mess with the filesystem (other than making the platform.cfg file, that is...)