GBZ 3.5" Theme

RxBrad · 20 Dec 2016, 13:51

Having built a couple Gameboy Zeros, I wanted a theme that was a little easier to read on a 3.5" 4:3 display. The original backgrounds were more-or-less from SimpleBigArt, and I've created many more in the same style. I also took some inspiration/art from the Spare and Carbon themes to make it work.

Here's what I came up with...

Now installable through RetroPie-Setup! (Thanks @meleu)

gbz35

gbz35-dark

No Hands 55 · 21 Dec 2016, 16:30

Hey this looks pretty good! I built a SuperGameGirl and was getting really sick of all the themes looking terrible on it, so I was modifying carbon no meta to suit my needs, but im still not happy with it. I will be giving this a shot for sure!

Rookervik · 21 Dec 2016, 19:55

@RxBrad Looks great! Don't forget, many themes have a small-screen variant. PixelTFT, and MiniLumi for instance.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/4794/theme-with-big-text/4

No Hands 55 · 22 Dec 2016, 15:53

@RxBrad Just put this on my SuperGameGirl and it is perfect! Just what i was looking for! Nice and minimal and clean. I really like the large simple background. Makes everything look a lot better on such a low res screen.

RxBrad · 18 Jul 2017, 11:59

I've made some recent updates to my theme. It now supports video previews (use these with caution on a Pi Zero.. should be okay with a Pi2 or Pi3); along with the recently added Favorites, Last Played, Custom Collections, and All Games lists.

Also, note that there is also a dark variant of the theme. I'm crossing my fingers that it should be available in RetroPie-Setup relatively soon, since @meleu offered to hook me up.

Dark theme is here: https://github.com/rxbrad/es-theme-gbz35-dark

meleu · 18 Jul 2017, 19:15

@rxbrad Pull Request submitted: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/2048

EDIT: the PR was merged.

meleu · 19 Jul 2017, 04:18

@RxBrad your theme is now installable via RetroPie-Setup! Maybe you like to edit the OP with this info. ;-)

RxBrad · 19 Jul 2017, 10:45

@meleu Done. Thanks again!

RxBrad · 20 Jul 2017, 20:10

While we wait for custom-collections, you can arrange ROMs into folders within a given system. With the update I just published, if you prepend the name of the folder with " § " (that's [space][Alt-0167][space]), you can show a folder icon next to the folder name -- and that folder will be sorted to the top of the list.

Note that Windows File Explorer does not let you rename files to start with a space. You need to do it in command prompt, like so...

rename Batman " § Batman"

RxBrad · 24 Jul 2017, 13:57

Here's my to-do list for the gbz themes, in case anyone is curious:

Working on a gbzHD variant which includes metadata and is optimized for 16:9 and 4:3 full-sized displays. This is actually mostly-complete, but I'm holding off on release because I want to complete points #2 & #3 first.
Working on converting the background graphics to SVG on top of solid-colored backgrounds, so there is no squishing/stretching when viewed on 4:3 vs 16:9. I'm still considering how far I should veer from the original simplebigart background source art. At a bare minimum, I plan on making the "orange" color more orange and less brown.
Making sure the default theme is okay in preparation for custom-collections (I'm still investigating what exactly I need to do to pull this off)

strongbadialand · 22 Mar 2018, 14:40

I love this theme but it does not have any support for Reicast (Dreamcast). Any way that can be added in?

strongbadialand · 17 Apr 2018, 20:58

@rxbrad I love this theme but it does not have any support for Reicast (Dreamcast). Any way that can be added in?

RxBrad · 24 Apr 2018, 16:09

@strongbadialand

A Dreamcast theme has been added, after I noticed your Reddit post. Sorry I didn't catch this earlier. ~~(I really wish this forum did email notifications)~~

EDIT: I fail. Apparently I just had email notifications turned off. My bad.

strongbadialand · 24 Apr 2018, 16:27

@rxbrad Not a problem at all. I figured if I posted here and on reddit you or someone would see it. I appreciate all your work. It's a perfect theme for handhelds!

tsoliman · 24 May 2018, 19:51

I love this but it is missing the Atari 5200.
Can you please add this as well?

RxBrad · 24 May 2018, 19:58

@tsoliman Added that to the issues list. I'll take a look at it.

In the meantime, here's an almost-finished project along the same vein that I'm working on that you may be interesting in previewing. I have all of the same systems themed on it as you'll fin d on the Carbon theme.

It's not on RetroPie-Setup yet, but the wiki give instructions for installing which should still be compatible once it does end up in RetroPie-Setup.

https://github.com/rxbrad/es-theme-freeplay

RxBrad · 1 Aug 2020, 20:22

Just pushed a few updates to the old theme... These changes should be available now by updating in RetroPie-Setup / ESThemes.

Improved handling of missing systems.
Fix system logo alignment in detailed/video views.
Added Atari 800, Atari 5200, PC Engine (alternative PCE naming), & ZX Spectrum.

~~More to come before the new year.~~ EDIT (Jan 8, 2020): Or not.. I'll add them eventually. I promise.

Dezmancer · 4 Jan 2020, 09:57

@RxBrad love this theme on my CRT pi image, is there any support for PC Engine CD/Turbografx-CD?

RxBrad · 8 Jan 2020, 20:21

@Dezmancer said in GBZ 3.5" Theme:

@RxBrad love this theme on my CRT pi image, is there any support for PC Engine CD/Turbografx-CD?

There is now. I just added them. :)

RxBrad · 20 Jan 2020, 16:16

At some point, an update of EmulationStation caused clipping from the right-edge of several of the system logos in this theme. I've just updated the logos in both versions of the theme to prevent this clipping.