Top requested arcade games for overlays

[UDb23]

Another unforgettable arcade game I played a lot (on the real cab!)

Silkworm has interesting graphics and relatively fast-paced gameplay. The player can take control of a Jeep mounted with a machine gun or a Helicopter mounted with forward and downward firing guns. Two players can work simultaneously and cooperatively against enemies, with one playing as the Jeep and one as the Helicopter. (ref. Wikipedia)

[UDb23]

@UDb23 Will also create "scrape" and launching image soon.

[simbz23]

@meleu @UDb23 So I have an issue with NBA JAM - Tournament edition.

There is the original parent rom that is "nbajamte" but I also have Revision 2 which depends on the parent rom, called "nbajamt2".

This revision has secret mortal kombat characters as some of you may or may not know. Do I use the "clone" value in the info file, or is there more I have to do then that, to get the script to pick them up? Wasn't sure if a revision of a parent rom is considered a clone or not

[UDb23]

@simbz23 As far as I understood what the script does when you specify a clone within info.txt is that it will generate the same config files for the clone as for the original game (naming the ... zip.cfg filename with the name of the clone of course). In other words if the clones use the same game area as the original, adding the "clones" line into info.txt of the original is enough.

[meleu]

@UDb23 you are right, buuuut, I didn't implement the "clone config management" yet. Will do soon.

[meleu]

@simbz23 said in Top requested arcade games for overlays:

Do I use the "clone" value in the info file, or is there more I have to do then that, to get the script to pick them up?

If you made an image specific for this clone, just do as if it is the parent. Actually the script don't care about this parent/clone stuff.

[simbz23]

@UDb23 @meleu Thanks fellas!

[simbz23]

NBA Jam and Batman, done...

[simbz23]

All credit goes to @UDb23 for this Donkey Kong overlay, amazing work! All I did was add the instructions card to it, for my own personal taste, but may or may not appeal to some people here....

[simbz23]

Mario Bros. done! If anyone can find or has a higher resolution version of the instructions card, pretty please send it my way. That's the best I could find, and its barely legible.

[simbz23]

NBA Jam TE, done...

[meleu]

@simbz23 I've added your repo to the new script's repo list. Don't forget that the script is "work in progress", but it can install overlays and launching images.

How to use it?

cd
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/meleu/rpie-art
cd rpie-art
./rpie-art.sh

Any feedback is appreciated.

[simbz23]

@meleu Thanks for the heads up brother, I will for sure!

[simbz23]

@meleu

By the way, in the info.txt for the NBA Jam TE overlay, is this ok as it relates to the clone we were talking about, making sure it will apply the parent overlay to the clone as well, if a user has it?

game_name = "NBA Jam TE”
rom_config = "nbajamte.zip.cfg"
overlay_config = "nbajamte.cfg"
overlay_image = "nbajamte_simbz23-ovl.png"
launching_image = "nbajamte-launching.png"
system = "arcade"
rom_clones = "nbajamt2"
creator = "simbz23"

[UDb23]

@simbz23 Nice.
If I may give a suggestion; I try, when possible, to avoid cutting bits of characters or objects. Rescaling or moving single items works well typically.
Probably it's DSLR photography (another hobby) and related composition rules that influence me in making overlays. ;-)

[UDb23]

Yet another old classic: SPIDERS (1981)

Quite simple game mechanics but it soon becomes addictive !
And yes, I spent coins on the original arcade game many years ago.

It's so old that, again, nothing good is available in terms of images.
Doing vector text logos to recreate the original marquee takes quite a lot of time!

Actual cabinet bezel was just the simple image with the colored boxes; added the spider, logo and instructions from the game Flyer.

[UDb23]

It requires lr-mame2010 to work (2003 has no sound). Overlay has specific settings to force the correct aspect ratio ;-)
lr-mame 2010 default aspect ratio is really bad !

[UDb23]

@simbz23 said in Top requested arcade games for overlays:

If anyone can find or has a higher resolution version of the instructions card, pretty please send it my way

Is this big enough ;-) ?
7980*3450

[UDb23]

@simbz23 Can you handle vectors ? Can provide you the instructions in .AI or SVG so you can scale it as needed without losing quality.

[simbz23]

@UDb23 I appreciate the advice brother, and I totally agree, I actually try to do that as often as I can!

1. Often when I am working with with whatever I can find on the internet, some times I cant find the original art scanned. So then I can pick and choose what objects to include, and scale, etc..

If all I can find is partial scans or existing overlays that someone did, and parts of objects are cut, I have to work with what's available.

2. This part is more subjective, but often times even when I have every bit of art available, sometimes the original bezel scan when scaled down to fit the overlay dimensions, leaves ALOT of empty or black space, until it hits the game screen. So I will try often to add random objects to fill in if it makes sense compositionally in relation to everything else, otherwise there will be lots of empty space.

Are you referring to the mario bros scan with the instructions card cutting off the artwork? If so, I hated making that decision to do that. It was between making the card too small to look good, or shrinking down the side art to the point it would look unbalanced with the left side and too :-/

What do you think?