Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003

[UDb23]

@rbaker , @Jon987 This topic has been discussed in the past as I raised a similar question on colors and backdrop.
There are multiple ways to get the original colors.
BTW some versions of Space Invaders were just monochrome and some other had a cellophane applied on the screen to simulate colors (not only green ;-) ).

What is still unsolved (for me at least) is how to get the backdrop (moon) to display correctly (more info here). Retroarch does not support backdrops, just overlays. Placing the moon as an overlays with high transparency as I saw in some video is not an option to me as it doesn't look right.
With lr-mame 2010 you can use current mame overlay standard format that includes backdrops. Unfortunately applying it makes Invaders too slow even on Pi3.

As @rbaker mentioned best option is advmame: you get overlay w backdrop (old mame overlay format) but overlay is not made for 16:9 and you get very small game area.

Haven't tested again with advmame 3.1 but 1.4 refused to integer scale the gaming area correctly when using a specifically custom made "full heigh" game area overlay.

Anybody got it right with advmame ?

[rbaker]

@udb23 it works on my advancemame with that art config as shown above. The moon is part of the zip package.

[UDb23]

@rbaker It's basically the same as I tested. Any clue how to get the game area full screen?
I mean with a specific overlay, not with the crop option in the mame menu.

[rbaker]

@udb23 Not sure what you mean. I basically dropped the artwork in that zip but didn't use the bezel and the result is this

[UDb23]

@rbaker thanks. Did you remove the reference to the "bezel" in the .art file ?
What is the actual display resolution it is using ?

[rbaker]

@udb23 the art file above is exactly the one copied from my Pi. I shall take a look at the entire zip file and post it back. I think the art file came from the site. I didn't create it. The monitor is a 4:3 screen at 19" the resolution is the advancemame default for the rom.

[rbaker]

@udb23 Ok, so I have had a look. Here are the settings.

This is the file that I edited after placing the zip packages....

/opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/advmame-1.4.rc

I modified these lines:

display_artwork_backdrop yes
display_artwork_bezel no
display_artwork_crop yes
display_artwork_overlay yes

This only works with the old artwork files though.

The contents of my zip are:
invadbez.png
invaders.art
invaders.png
invadmask.png
invadmask0.png
tintmask.png
tintover.png

[rbaker]

@jon987 said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

I understand that lr-mame2003 is the recommended emulator for RetroPie for many reasons.

Yes but once you realise what effects are possible with other emulators, you will want to use them throughout your arcade experience. For example, if you are playing vector games then you must read this. You will not be disappointed.

[Riverstorm]

@rbaker said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

@udb23 Ok, so I have had a look. Here are the settings.

This is the file that I edited after placing the zip packages....

/opt/retropie/configs/mame-advmame/advmame-1.4.rc

I modified these lines:

display_artwork_backdrop yes
display_artwork_bezel no
display_artwork_crop yes
display_artwork_overlay yes

This only works with the old artwork files though.

You might know this already but another handy option is you can set it for just a specific game(s) if you don't want to set the same options globally or you can use it to override the global settings too.

invaders/display_artwork_backdrop yes
invaders/display_artwork_bezel no
invaders/display_artwork_crop yes
invaders/display_artwork_overlay yes

I see they have a Depthcharge overlay which is exciting I am going to give it a try. I had no idea one was available.

[Riverstorm]

@rbaker said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

This only works with the old artwork files though.

Is there a way to tell if it's old or new? Trying Depth Charge (depthch) I can't seem to get the blue overlay, control panel, marquee, basically nothing working just the game in black & white. Space Invaders looks great this way, thanks for this Baker!

[rbaker]

@riverstorm Well I am not sure about this. However, this is the link to visit:

http://mrdo.mameworld.info/old_artwork.php

I do not know how the files differ or what to look for. At the time of building, I just made sure there were references to the mame version in what artwork I downloaded.

[Riverstorm]

@rbaker said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

@riverstorm Well I am not sure about this. However, this is the link to visit:

http://mrdo.mameworld.info/old_artwork.php

I do not know how the files differ or what to look for. At the time of building, I just made sure there were references to the mame version in what artwork I downloaded.

Ah ok, Depth Charge has a listing in the main artwork but not the old. It looks like quite a few differences between the two types. I would love to see Depth Charge restored to it's glorious blue overlay and control panel. It such a simple game that has a lot of appeal. :)

[UDb23]

@riverstorm said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

Trying Depth Charge (depthch)

I made an overlay for Depth Charge months ago:

It's a Libretro overlay so it works with any lr-mame version.
Blue may not 100% the same as original but on the other hand you get the original side art from the cabinet. No good images of that art existed so I asked an owner (on another forum) of the original cab to take some pictures; that makes it unique ;-)

[UDb23]

@riverstorm said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

It looks like quite a few differences between the two types

As said previously I researched and tested quite a lot on "Overlay matters" for Retropie.
In the end the best option is to use Retroarch/Libretro overlays (not Mame overlays).
This also gives you exact control on screen resolution and game area size, position and aspect ratio.
The only limitation is you can't have backdrops (images below game), only overlays (images on top).
Concerning Mame overlays the "old" .ART standard format was used until mame .106 (if I remember well); all successive Mame releases require .LAY standard ("new"). The two standards are not exchangeable.
Advamame supports .ART files but seems to fail on some resolution settings. I have not tested w the latest 3.1 advmamem version but have intention to do it soon. Will update on this when I have news.
Edit: forgot to mention: lr-mame2010 requires and supports the "new" .LAY (but tipically makes game too slow)

[UDb23]

@rbaker said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

The monitor is a 4:3 screen at 19" the resolution is the advancemame default for the rom.

Thanks for checking and letting me know you settings and config.
I get the issues with 16:9 @1080p; as you're 4:3 that's probably the reason it works for you.

[Riverstorm]

@udb23 said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

I made an overlay for Depth Charge months ago:

Yeah the hue/saturation looks slightly off I suppose you have to eye-ball the color and guess on the RGB value. You have a great eye for art and converting it to overlays! Amazing work! Thank you!

http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame_artwork/depthch.png

[UDb23]

@riverstorm said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

Yeah the hue/saturation looks slightly off I suppose you have to eye-ball the color and guess on the RGB value

Glad you like it.
Getting the right blue is a little tricky as you choose a "starting" color and then you have to apply significant transparency (to show the game area below) and that changes the resulting color. So the point is finding the right starting color: trial and error.
Even searched for some sort of formula on RGB values... with no success.

[UDb23]

Did some tests with advmame 3.5 . Opened a separate thread for the issue with overlays.

[Riverstorm]

@udb23 said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

Glad you like it.
Getting the right blue is a little tricky as you choose a "starting" color and then you have to apply significant transparency (to show the game area below) and that changes the resulting color. So the point is finding the right starting color: trial and error.
Even searched for some sort of formula on RGB values... with no success.

That makes sense and is quite a bit more complicated than just picking the correct color. I was able to get the Depth Charge overlay installed this past Saturday and what a significant improvement over the plain monochrome screen!

To use the blue screen I manually modified the .cfg file to point to the second overlay as the first is the default. Is that the way you recommend? When it came to variations of a specific game I just renamed all the files to match the ROM.

Also I noticed the overlay/cfg filenames for Bubble Bobble are inconsistent. It still works fine as the calling .cfg has the correct name for the overlay but thought I would mention it.

One last thing is when running
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/meleu/rpie-art cd rpie-art it installed fine on Saturday but I was missing ./rpie-art.sh from the directory. It downloaded all the files though. I was able to manually copy them to the correct locations and everything worked. I know the last time I installed it the menu option worked perfectly.

I see you have "In The Deep" and "Seaquest" on the 2600 too, good choices! ;)

[UDb23]

@riverstorm said in Original Space Invaders Green Overlay in lr-mame2003:

To use the blue screen I manually modified the .cfg file to point to the second overlay as the first is the default. Is that the way you recommend?

Yes
@Meleu's script should let you choose when there are multiple overlays to choose from (set in the info.txt file).
Also he can check/tell you what went wrong with the script (he's the author ;-) ).