Neo Geo X Build

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

hey @ruckage could you release a 720p/1080p 4:3 version of your neo-geo inrto video? it is superb but again not really for 4:3 monitors... im infusing new and old, yes raspberry pi, yes LCD but keeping it 4:3 for a more natural feel, wheras 16:9 is kind of useless, the additional real estate can only be used for a glorious menu but in-game its only use is for a border overlay of sorts...

thanks for all that you do, you are some kind of demigod!

[FlyingTomahawk]

@linuxarcadeguy

I would say let him release the theme first and then we'll see from there. Giving him more and more to do just delays the release.
Anything can be updated later, like he did with the NES-mini and Famicom-mini themes.

[ruckage]

@LinuxArcadeGuy

Woah, slow down. That's a lot of questions/requests in very short space of time. This was designed to meet my requirements for my system and as such the initial release is not going to meet your requirements, as @FlyingTomahawk said wait for the release and I can see about changes/additions from there.
I will try to breakdown some of your questions below.

is the theme setup for 4:3 or just 16:9?

It's only 16x9 (1920x1080 to be exact)at the moment as it was designed for use on my TV. It will not work at 4x3. I may add 4x3 later but that's isn't a simple task, everything has to be redesigned to work at a totally different aspect ratio.

my main concerns are that its a stand-alone neo-geo only theme and the cps stuff can be omitted

If you only add NeoGeo games it will only display a Neogeo system - same as any theme.

the help section doesnt seem to match the neo-geo arcade button setup, but rather a omage to the arcade but the visuals look like that of a joypad configuration

The theme was made for my AES build so the 'help system' reflects my arcade joystick and the Neogeo AES joystick which have all of those buttons. I have a solution planned to offer some alternative help button layouts but it won't be in the initial release.

hey @ruckage could you release a 720p/1080p 4:3 version of your neo-geo inrto video? it is superb but again not really for 4:3 monitors...

I can do that at some point, though you may just have to live with it being letter boxed for the time being.

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

thank you for answering all my questions, hopefully this beautiful creation will be the first of many arcade themes as there currently aren't many if at all, as for the neo-geo only as any theme issue, as with any theme for neo-geo i break down the games into categories instead of systems i.e. Action, Fighting, Arcade, Puzzle, Shooters and Sports, I remove the config option as i can access it thru the back end (ssh) with my ipad, iphone or linux lappy, it would be cool if you could have template psd files available so i could make categories from the systems buttons, anywhore... thanks for being KOOL @ruckage also i am reformatting your intro from 16:9 to 4:3, not a perfect solution, but a solution none-the-less... i have been looking for a bad ass neo-geo themed video boot, found one that was so-so, but yours rocks!

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

i can post video if you like?

[hoodle]

From start to finish, this is just outstanding. Would love to see a video of it all running!

[ruckage]

@hoodle said in Neo Geo X Build:

From start to finish, this is just outstanding. Would love to see a video of it all running!

Thanks. I'll maybe see about making a video at some point.

@linuxarcadeguy said in Neo Geo X Build:

i can post video if you like?

I wouldn't worry, it would be better qaulity if done from my original source files as re-encoding vieos multilple times decreases image quality quite a bit. I will probably include the original mp4 file with the other assets when I upload them.

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

@ruckage yea, i cant seem to keep artifacts out, i know all too well about encoding and reencoding, was aware of copy of a copy syndrome, but I wanted 4:3 more than I cared about quality.... :(

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

i wish they added a way to "turn off" the ES logo at boot, it ruins the experience, i mean everyone using themes, boot screens and videos to hide the fact they are using retropie or a raspberry pi is fruitless when the ES logo pops up at boot.

[meleu]

@linuxarcadeguy Maybe our friend @Hex can take a look at it. Looks like he knows how to implement such feature:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11400/es-loading-video

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

ha ha... fruitless, unintended pun...

also WHY i LOVE the your theme for arcade or even a TV, it takes the reality out of the theme, all these themes with REAL console pics and whatnot, yours uses elements of the system designs themselves and puts it in a nice multi-cart 999-in-1 one interlace (pandora's box style) this idea hasn't really been done much before

[meleu]

@linuxarcadeguy
By the way, if you have a long enough video, you can make it hide the ES loading screen.
I posted about it here:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11735/video-splashscreen-not-skipping-es/2

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

also @ruckage if you need i made hi-rez 4:3 screenshots with proper scanlines (phosphors) for the 4:3 version of your theme will send to you on your selected platform...

also they are all title screens, no in-game shots

[Hex]

You can turn off the splash screen. There is a command line parameter for that.

[ruckage]

@hex
Yep, just need to add the argument --no-splash when launching emulationstation. You just get a black screen instead.

[ruckage]

@linuxarcadeguy said in Neo Geo X Build:

also @ruckage if you need i made hi-rez 4:3 screenshots with proper scanlines (phosphors) for the 4:3 version of your theme will send to you on your selected platform...

also they are all title screens, no in-game shots

Not sure what you mean by 'proper' scanlines? Title screens are a bit redundant though with this theme as I have the game logo displayed above the screen shot so a gameplay shot makes more sense.

[ruckage]

@meleu said in Neo Geo X Build:

@linuxarcadeguy
By the way, if you have a long enough video, you can make it hide the ES loading screen.
I posted about it here:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11735/video-splashscreen-not-skipping-es/2

Yeah, that trick works great. I find on the raspberry pi 3 with a decently fast SD card (I'm using a Sandisk Ultra) the NeoGeo splash video I made is pretty much the perfect length. As soon as it finishes ES is ready to use, makes it pretty seamless.

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

@ruckage i feel ya...

[LinuxArcadeGuy]

@ruckage when the hell did that get added, the last i heard you had to compile it yourself to disable screen

[ruckage]

Hi everyone,

I've just uploaded the first version of the theme for you try, sorry for taking so long but I re-worked a lot of theme to improve performance.
This first release only supports Neo-Geo and Capcom but I will be adding a general arcade system as well. I may also do some collection systems as that seems to make sense for this - eg. differrent genres such as 'fighting', 'shmup', 'platformer' .

I've also made changes to allow for different help system control schemes. So far it only has 'aes-controls' and 'arcade-controls'. These are more of a test at the moment as I don't know what control schemes people are using but I can easily add more if you request them.

To change the help controls to arcade open the settings.xml file and change the following line:

<include>./settings/aes-controls.xml</include>

To:

<include>./settings/arcade-controls.xml</include>

AES CONTROLS

ARCADE CONTROLS

I've also uploaded all of the required assets - these are quite big files but they cover a huge portion of the arcade titles in mame so that when I add a general arcade section to the theme all the assets will ready for it.

Finally I've also uploaded the splashscreen video in 16x9 and 4x3 aspect ratios. They will be much higher quality than you would get from the youtube video I uploaded.

If you need any help then post here and I'll try to answer your questions.

Here are all the files:

Neo-Geo Theme: DOWNLOAD
Marquees: DOWNLOAD

Launch images - black: DOWNLOAD

Launch images - stripes: DOWNLOAD

Launch images - stripes 4x3: DOWNLOAD

Splashscreen video - 16x9: DOWNLOAD
Splashscreen video - 4x3: DOWNLOAD