Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes

[Stuart2773]

@ruckage

Here's my work in progress "DEDICATED FAM/NES" theme, ive made a few changes to the theme from Ruckage:-

ive merged both nes mini & famicom mini into one & made the look more accurate to the the mini consoles.

[ruckage]

@MapleStory

New version available. This fixes folders not being visible, for the most part these are now displayed in the same color as the selector bar so they stand out.

I've also added a feature to the gamelist font to further enhance folder display. What I've done is replace the @ symbol with a small folder icon.

Instead of naming a folder for example 'Arcade Games' you would name it '@ Arcade Games'
This will then appear with a folder icon as seen in my previews below:

It also has an added benefit of grouping all the folders together at the top of the list instead mixed in with any roms.

I chose the @ symbol as I wanted a symbol that was easy to type but the wouldn't affect names in the gamelist - I can't imagine any games use the @ symbol as part of a name but if I'm wrong let me know and I can change it to another character.

Download from Mega (I will also keep my signature updated with the latest version.)

nes-famicom mini themes v1.31.zip

[Squilenator]

@ruckage

I think the arcade layout should be in screenshot format, then it can fit screenshots and things like this:

Then i just need the nintendo DS layout and i'll be happy forever :D

This is the boxart format if you are planning on adding that

[ruckage]

@MapleStory

New version available. This fixes folders not being visible, for the most part these are now displayed in the same color as the selector bar so they stand out.

I've also added a feature to the gamelist font to further enhance folder display. What I've done is replace the @ symbol with a small folder icon.

Instead of naming a folder for example 'Arcade Games' you would name it '@ Arcade Games'
This will then appear with a folder icon as seen in my previews below:

It also has an added benefit of grouping all the folders together at the top of the list instead mixed in with any roms.

I chose the @ symbol as I wanted a symbol that was easy to type but the wouldn't affect names in the gamelist - I can't imagine any games use the @ symbol as part of a name but if I'm wrong let me know and I can change it to another character.

Download from Mega (I will also keep my signature updated with the latest version.)

nes-famicom mini themes v1.31.zip

...... Sorry for double post

[dankcushions]

@ruckage this theme is excellent :D do you want some help getting it on to github so it can be used by retropie 'officially' via the theme manager etc?

myself or someone else could do it for you, but i think it's best if you did it yourself so you can easily push updates as and when. here is a good quick guide for getting up and running: http://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/

[ruckage]

@dankcushions said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@ruckage this theme is excellent :D do you want some help getting it on to github so it can be used by retropie 'officially' via the theme manager etc?

myself or someone else could do it for you, but i think it's best if you did it yourself so you can easily push updates as and when. here is a good quick guide for getting up and running: http://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/

That sounds great, I'll have a read through the guide and then ask you questions if I get stuck (if you don't mind).

[Stuart2773]

@ruckage

Great update @ruckage

i found a few things that i dont know if your aware of that can be fixed? :-

( correct & )
1, the folder example '@ Arcade Games' does not appear as the top if the are games that begin with 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

2, the '&' symbol on the new font looks wrong compared to the rest of the fonts

[dankcushions]

@ruckage said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@dankcushions said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@ruckage this theme is excellent :D do you want some help getting it on to github so it can be used by retropie 'officially' via the theme manager etc?

myself or someone else could do it for you, but i think it's best if you did it yourself so you can easily push updates as and when. here is a good quick guide for getting up and running: http://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/

That sounds great, I'll have a read through the guide and then ask you questions if I get stuck (if you don't mind).

absolutely! also check out https://github.com/RetroPie/es-theme-pixel - this is a good reference to an existing retropie theme on github. you could re-purpose the readme if you wanted.

i think once it's on github we only need to edit the retropie script to include it in the theme manager - I could do that :)

[ruckage]

@Stuart2773 said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@ruckage

Great update @ruckage

i found a few things that i dont know if your aware of that can be fixed? :-

1, the folder example '@ Arcade Games' does not appear as the top if the are games that begin with 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

2, the '&' symbol on the new font looks wrong compared to the rest of the fonts

Thanks.

1. Regarding folders appearing after games beginning with a number - there probably isn't anything I can do about that unless you can find an unused character that would appear before numbers in an alphabetically sorted list- if you know of any then let me know and I can change the folder symbol to that character - it must be a symbol that isn't likely to be used in a game name though and preferably one that can by typed easily on a standard keyboard.

2. The & symbol was actually changed from the one you posted to the one used now for 'accuracy' - I copied it directly from the font used on legend of Zelda (see below). I do prefer the & symbol you posted personally and as I say it was the original symbol in the font so it can be changed back (it's possible and very likely different nintendo games featured slightly different fonts).

[ruckage]

@dankcushions said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

absolutely! also check out https://github.com/RetroPie/es-theme-pixel - this is a good reference to an existing retropie theme on github. you could re-purpose the readme if you wanted.

i think once it's on github we only need to edit the retropie script to include it in the theme manager - I could do that :)

Thanks for that, I'll see about getting it setup on Github this evening and I'll get in touch once it's ready (or if I get stuck :P) .

[felleg]

@ruckage said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@Stuart2773 said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@ruckage

Great update @ruckage

i found a few things that i dont know if your aware of that can be fixed? :-

1, the folder example '@ Arcade Games' does not appear as the top if the are games that begin with 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

2, the '&' symbol on the new font looks wrong compared to the rest of the fonts

Thanks.

1. Regarding folders appearing after games beginning with a number - there probably isn't anything I can do about that unless you can find an unused character that would appear before numbers in an alphabetically sorted list- if you know of any then let me know and I can change the folder symbol to that character - it must be a symbol that isn't likely to be used in a game name though and preferably one that can by typed easily on a standard keyboard.

I personally use the ! symbol to put my folders on top. Sadly, the ! symbol appears in many game names. Food for thought I guess

[edmaul69]

@ruckage just to throw a monkey wrench in the ampersand "&". here is another ampersand that nintendo used. this is my favorite of the 3 and the one i use

[ruckage]

@felleg said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

I personally use the ! symbol to put my folders on top. Sadly, the ! symbol appears in many game names. Food for thought I guess

That's a shame it's such a commonly used symbol or it would be ideal - there must be something else that appears before numbers - I think I need to do some research.

@edmaul69 said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@ruckage just to throw a monkey wrench in the ampersand "&". here is another ampersand that nintendo used. this is my favorite of the 3 and the one i use

That is a nice ampersand, and I agree best so far. I also like the exclamation mark, apostrophe etc. Out of interest do you know what games it was used in?

[ruckage]

Just did a very quick bit of research and it looks like all these characters should appear before numbers:
! " # $ % & ' ( ) * , - . /

We can definitely rule out ! & ( ) , .'

That leaves " # $ % * - /

Some of those probably can't be used in folder names so it's probably an even narrower list but what character do you think would be the best to use (and least likely to appear in a game name)

Edit: Just checked and it seems after excluding characters that are not allowed we have a choice of: # $ % -

[edmaul69]

@ruckage the "mario bros" and "press start k" fonts are the identical and this is the font set from them. The caps, numbers and some characters are from super mario bros. the exclamation point is from super mario bros as well. i cant find the complete super mario bros tileset to verify that the ampersand came from that one as well

[ruckage]

@edmaul69 said in Cardboard Mini NES + Nes mini and Famicom mini themes:

@ruckage the "mario bros" and "press start k" fonts are the identical and this is the font set from them. The caps, numbers and some characters are from super mario bros. the exclamation point is from super mario bros as well. i cant find the complete super mario bros tileset to verify that the ampersand came from that one as well

Thanks, I just found an image of lots of ripped font sheets from nintendo games which will be very useful.

[edmaul69]

@ruckage i found that too. You should download "nintendo nes font" and "classic nes font" both use the same "&" you use but they have other stuff. Both fonts has 3 exclamation points. One of them being the one i posted

[ruckage]

@edmaul69
Wouldn't do any good downloading those fonts as they wouldn't work with the theme but I can easily edit those few characters into the current font using the font rips as a guide.

[edmaul69]

@ruckage yeah thats what i figured. But at least you have a guide to help your font set. And their are alternate fonts for I, K, O, P, Q and R. Nintendo was weird for changing a couple font characters between some games and even in the same game.

[ruckage]

Regarding the folder icon would anyone like to give any input into which character to use?

We have a choice of:
# $ % -

I think # may be the best option as I can't think of any game name that would use that symbol and for other themes without an edited font the # symbol would still be quite a good way to distinguish folders.