Mame32 QA/Test & Art Dept. Official Art Pack(s)
by john iv
This is the htm which will
accompany the snap[x] packs, the icons.zip,
bkground.zip, and the cab packs.
Monday, December 31, 2001
j4_snap1, 2, 3...zip
Download all these
and combine their contents into a single file called snap.zip file or you can
unzip them all and leave the .png files freestanding in the \mame32\snap directory, which is what I
do. These are my newly completed [01.04.10] screenshots and they take the place
of the older ones with version information I had been maintaining since
1997. I re-did these for a few
reasons. I wanted to start with 32bpp
color, I wanted in game action shots [except for the mahjong games], I wanted the appropriate
orientation to be quickly ascertainable, I like the uniform 4:3 ratio that they
are being forced to, and I like the look of the white border which makes the
image stand out like a flyer image. Also
most of the version information, and more granular beta info, has now been
added to Mameinfo.dat, so that is being preserved.
The files are currently 15 megs each, because they’re 32bpp
instead of 256 colors. People wanted the
true color versions, so here they are. J
icons.zip
Place this file
into your \mame32\icons directory [support for a zipped icons.zip was added in
.37.1]. I've been adding these icons since I got into MameDOS back April ‘97, support
for them was added in Mame32 .33b by Mike Haaland. These started life as 32bpp
true color images and were kicked down to 8bpp for space. I finished
coverage of all icons around .35.11 and add new ones as games become playable or are newly added. This
pack also contains icons for the defaults, and the folder tree. The latest
versions of my icons have been done w/ a small white border to match the
screenshots, they look particularly nice in large icon view in Mame32. The icons are done in native 32x32 mode so
there may be issues displaying them with the windows setting of ‘large
icons’. The icons themselves are
an amusing blend of game characters and pop culture minutiae. See if you can make the connection between
some of them. Examples: the game Nova
2001 has Planet of the Apes Nova. Battle
Circuit has Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors to match the plant character,
etc.
j4_cab1, 2, 3,
…zip
I wanted uniform high
quality cabinet shots so I decided to start hitting E-Bay, grabbing snaps off
there, from X-Ray’s flyers database [thanks for your help btw] and
cleaning them up in Photoshop to make them presentable in Mame32’s cab view (222 wide,
blacked out backgrounds, no included marquees, etc.) Download the above files,
combine their contents and rename it cabinets.zip, or as with the other items, leave
them freestanding as *.pngs in the \mame32\cabinets directory.
bkground.zip
This file must be
uncompressed into your \mame32\bkground directory. The file you wish to use for
your background in Mame32 must be named bkground.png and placed in your \mame32\snap directory. The
majority are dark as that provides the best contrast to the icons. You
may also wish to utilise the custom built app. rotate.exe which, when run will randomly or
sequentially rotate your images and rename the choice to bkground.png.
This is very cool to call from a shortcut or batch file [I have included my
batch file in rotate.zip, it will run rotate, pick a
sequential graphic file from the \mame32\bkground directory, rename it to bkground.png and copy it to
\mame32\snap] and have Mame32 startup with a new background
every launch, use rotate.exe /? for command params. Thanks again to Joel C. for
writing it.
For updated files, other Mame32 related news, build progress,
troubleshooting, etc. please visit the Mame32 QA/Test and Art Dept.
john iv
mame32qa@hotmail.com [note: put 'mame32' in the subject
line or you will be spam filtered.]
Note: Please
do not use these images on your web sites without appropriate linkage, and
credit. Thanks.