Hey ResX,
I sent you D-Pad Hero earlier with the video

Cheers Stupot

Hey Rx,
Just wanted to touch base with you, since the site is back up and running.
I have been working on the HQ screen shot pack for the NES and I will be able to finish it within my next sitting. Unfortunately, I will be going out of town for today through Tuesday, and will not be able to finish it until then.

Hopefully, you can wait until I get those to you.

Later

PS: No blue...

Damn... lol. That's the day before I go back to work.

No worries if you can't get it to me before then. If it's early enough on Tuesday I may be able to get it in before I go back to work.

I'm working with pCe on the TGCD stuff now. It's been a LOOOOOOONG job, that emu. He's been a great help though. Hopefully we'll have a TG release soon.

Later,
~Rx

Oh... and stupot made 44 Gameboy videos. I would talk to him before getting back into the Gameboy videos since I haven't integrated them yet. I wouldn't want anyone to make double videos.




Hey stupot.... Did you get any more done? Those look great.

Hey ResX,

I was going to start doing some more i think the Translated stuff was next on the Gameboy but the spreadsheet don't work so im not 100% on what games to do????

any chance you could get that working again????

Cheers Stupot

Should be working. I didn't have a problem getting in and it's still published. Maybe it was a Google error.

Last chance for game additions to the Turbo Grafx 16/CD.

OutRun has been added, btw, stupot1...

I've added your Gameboy games to the spreadsheet stupot. They look great!


EDIT: Whoops.... I meant your videos. It's awesome knocking out another category like that. You pretty much just made 1/12th of the videos we still need for Gameboy. Can't wait to see more. Hopefully we get more help on the videos though. Don't know where everyone went that was going to help out with that project.

Once we get done with the Gameboy videos, there's not much left to do video wise besides any work people would like to do on Computer emus and the PSX. I am hoping that somebody decides to help me with videos for small emus like Odyssey II and Pokemon when we get all the major stuff out of the way.

pCe's made about 150 to 200 videos for Turbo Grafx 16 / CD. There are only like 31 more videos left for that one before an Xtras release. He's been a great help getting this one organized and making sure anything worth while in the Japan set is represented. An insane amount of work has gone into this project. The US CDs I set up about 2 1/2 years ago. I forgot what a project setting these things up are compared to normal roms. Glad it's finally done.

I'll have to see how the new beta works with this emu and also see if we can make the .CUT files work with the new format before I decide if I need to upload both versions of the artwork packs. I'm hoping that when it comes to release time for this we only need the new format.



Hey MM,

Any chance you can get those boxarts to me early tomorrow? Putting that together and putting out an updated artwork pack would be a great accomplishment this weekend. I've kinda been in limbo for a few weeks or more here, bouncing back and forth from one part of the project to another with no finished product or updates on the thread.






Everyone...

I'm making last call for NES &TG16/CD additions. I need some closure on these projects finally since all of these open ended projects are driving me nuts. I won't be adding any more games for NES once MM gets me those HQ boxarts, and I won't be adding any more TG16/CD games after pCe finishes the videos.

You can still always leave suggestions on the thread I made for adding roms. Who knows.... they may get added at some point. I just know we're really close on these two if we're not already there and I want to put them behind me.

Later,
~Rx

Yeah kudos to all those making videos. I know how much work it can take to do those and well it's hard for me to work on them and the emulators at the same time.

I am back
and I am going to try and knock those HQ nes boxarts out by tonight, Rx

Nice job stupot1

and madmab
let me speak for the hundreds of videos I have done so far and say: you're welcome.
I hope to get to more of my GB vids once we square away the nes beta.

Introducing...
My: MMQuestion HQ NES Boxart add pack - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O9LP3RDR
This pack contains 230 front NES boxarts. These are the highest quality possible, and were not available in any pack until now.

These came from raw images provided at:http://www.thecoverproject.net
Then, I did all the downloading, naming, cropping, editing, organizing, etc, etc.

It was a bit of pain at points... but I am now confident that with this pack powered together with the rest of the NES Xtras, makes this now (not only) the best and most complete artwork pack around... but the best even possible (to date).

Hey Rx,
You may want to put the Zelda's in an alternate section, because even though they are HQ and look great, they were modified at bit, from the exact originals. (meaning Zelda 1 was centered, apposed to being off-center, and both had that hole in the box, filled in.)

Let me know what you guys think,
I tested a chunk of the largest ones to make sure they would work fine in the emu, and everything checks out. You will get some more slow down when scrolling through the games, if you have the option to "view box art while scrolling", set to "yes". This was happening with the second boxart pack anyway and I don't think it's a big deal. (unless it becomes a big memory issue, our coders would have to decide on.)

Rx,
You are free to work your magic now...
Thanks


EDIT: 2 Fixes - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K97CBCG0 Here are 2 that I had to fix, please use these for the containing games (RX).

I think this project will be great when it's all finished i know how much hard work everyone is putting into this but we will get there in the end

I don't think there is anything else i will be adding to the NES & PCengine they look complete game wise

I have started doing somemore Gameboy stuff i'm doing the Translated list at the moment so hopefully by the end of today that shell be done too YAH

Cheers Stupot

Chilling because it's a lovely day in england for once

Thanks everyone. Great teamwork here.

I got those images MM and I'll be working on them today. I also have some new games to test and add as well.

Then I just gotta get this converter program figured out with BombBloke and we'll get the pack out there in time for madmab's public beta release. Hopefully we figure out a way to use .CUT files with the new sets pretty easily and then we will only need to have the artwork in one spot on the box for both in-emu and direct launching from XBMC

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to logically make the .CUT file creator pull a different image for games that don't have boxart. If everyone puts their stuff where I have it on my box though, I could just provide the fixed .CUT files along with the packs! What do you guys think about that? (The only caveat is you'd also have to have the roms in the exact same directory as I have them.... which is still undetermined at this point. It's not too hard moving them though... at least it would be a lot easier than fixing any bad .CUT files without boxart by hand)

Later,
~Rx

Hey MM. I'm going to shrink those images so they fit within the 500x500 maximum I've been using for the Xtras everywhere else just to keep them uniform. You don't mind, do you? It slows down the scrolling to much for my tastes anyhow when they're larger than that. Unless you had some objection...

Grumble.... Grumble... they're not named right.

I'll fix it. Hopefully sooner than later.

~Rx

Go for it... this only needs to be done to the big ones right? I would hate for the smaller ones to get even smaller.

named right...? I am sorry, I was under the impression that you were going to give them the .0001 naming convention, first, anyway. (and then some how use BB's tool)

otherwise I would have, since when I originaly downloaded them, the names had a bunch of extra stuff I had to clean up anyway.

In either case, these images are the cleanest you will fine. no dented edges or box imperfections here.

Good work Megaman, you saved me time with these (i have myself taken all the snes boxart from thecoverproject.net and resized them to 500 pixels widht max!

RessX is right, the boxart MUSN'T be higher than 500 pixels HEIGHT or WIDHT,
I know it because i play XPORT's emus on my HDTV, and with boxarts higher than 500 pixels, my xbox was freezing (out of memory issue). Now all my boxarts are max 500 pixels and no problems now.

Edit: TG16 and pc engine Synopsis near complete; (with all the us and jap licensed games) it will help the users to discover the fantastic games on this system! Can't wait for the tg16 videos!

Cool! Now back to the cheat codes slave!!!

Yeah as gilles kinda pointed out, some of these emu's are pretty tight in the memory area so it can be hard to predict what will happen across the board. Cause some emu's that use less mem will be fine, but then the bigger ones get kinda weird.

Hey guys,

Sorry, but I didn't get around to doing this before work. I'm still waiting to see what BombBloke comes up with to convert these too (although I'm sure I could have used what he already made to get it done manually if it was ready).

Stupot1 has given me 20 more videos for the Gameboy, for a total of almost 65 new videos, or one tenth of what needed to be done for that emu still.

Good to hear about the synopsis Gilles. One less thing I have to think about. (Although we'll have to decide how to best use the synopsis for the CD games since the CRC is out of the question)

Later,
~Rx

Hey RessX... Did you get the latest mednafenX-NES that I sent via pm?

I haven't grabbed it yet, but I got the PM. Thanks man. I'll check it out this weekend.

I think BB and I have everything sorted out on the converter too, so hopefully I can get the new set out this weekend too. He set the converter and the .CUT creator for use with .ini files, so I should be able to create a different instance of it for every emu in case I ever have to update one in the future.

So you guys have the artwork converter all coded up? cool

Yes, master...
I have been working on some.
Great work guys!

No two thumbs up symbol so...

Anywho... I went thru the code real quick to fix those "in-game screenshot" quirks I noticed. So I should be able to get the mednafenX-nes public beta out there for people to beat on. Let me know RessX if you wanna hold up (I know your busy transitioning the Xtra's). I should be able to crank out the TG16 you requested as well.

I should be able to get the new stuff up there in a few days, assuming everything runs smoothly with BB's code. I won't be able to look at it until tomorrow night though.

Hey madmab

Just give us a D - day...

And, I will see how many more letters I can add to the cheat database. (2 more so far K - L/about 40 games) I plan on getting "M - O" done soon.

I would also like to update my NES alt dat, once Rx, gets out the new stuff. Not that you have to wait on that, but I don't want there to be little problems and chaos, when you drop your emu.

I figure there may be a resurgence In Xtras downloading and we may get a lot more people comings around, or ones that have waited to download them, until the emu comes out.

2010 cant come soon enough! Then I can have dual previews for nes and genesis.

Some people have had the NES and other emulators for a while now. If you did any work instead of being annoying, you'd already have it too.

I made the surreal 64 gilles style skin! More than what 95% of the people that will download it will contribute. Let me in the special club. I wont leak it and will stop bugging you guys. Nes and genesis is all I need. Then I wont have to keep checking x-s every day.

The NES should be soon for real now. I just tested it out today and I didn't find any bugs myself (that's not saying there aren't any, just that I didn't find any). Madmab is holding back on the favorites and the sort/filter feature since that would maybe add another month or few to the beta release.

Genesis is too primitive and has a few bugs to work out before a release.

At least with the NES you'll able to see that we have actually been doing something all this time and this isn't just some elaborate hoax.

We can't just give you stuff if you're not actively participating in the project. That's something nice we can provide for people who have proven they have a vested interest in the project. Sure, it's leverage, but it's been a great way to do things so far. Most of the people who have betas now never even asked for them and since we never talked about it in the forums they weren't even expecting them when we shared.

Unfortunately on the reverse side, there is no way I could take you at your word that it wouldn't get spread around everywhere. I'm not saying that you would do that, but you could if you wanted to. In the mean time, those who have betas on their box can proudly show their families and friends something that only a handful of people in the world have now and know that they were part of the reason it happened. I trust these guys more than a lot of people that I know in real life, and I've never seen their faces and many of them I don't even know their name.

I respect that you made a skin for the N64, but that is not part of our project here. If you would like to help out with the synopsis, video creation, or cheat code database or if you have something else to offer, since you're already coming here everyday to check on this, just let me or MegaMan or Madmab or Gilles know and we'll get you set up to help out.

Otherwise, we thank you for your continued patience.....

~Rx

Whoops... look like there were some bugs. We're working on testing them out with madmab right now.



Hey MM... Damn shame that the XBox has the memory limitations. That artwork in its original form on the website is HUGE and it sucks that we have to bring the pics to such a small size in comparison. I was going to keep them at the size you had, but seeing as how we may be having memory issues with the videos right now, I'm still thinking about making them no larger than 500x500 when I finally do the convert.

I grabbed the other 24 that you didn't have. I know a lot of them are foreign versions of carts, but several of them I know look exactly like the US box since I had them when I was a kid. So, I'm going to make sure that I don't overwrite a US box with a different looking EU/AS box. So we'll have up to 24 more than the 228 you've provided (Sorry... but I'm not including the SMB/Duck Hunt or SMB/Duck Hunt/Track and Field since I removed them from the Xtras and my romset since we have each game individually).

Later,
~Rx


EDIT: Yes MM... I would appreciate if you or stupot1 could make the video for "Esper Boukentai" since it wasn't included before. Thanks!

EDIT 2: You guys ever hear of "Airball"? It's a canceled US game. I don't know if there's a rom out there for it, but there was HQ boxart for it on that site. I'm going to look around and see if I can find it. Might need one more video then.

I ended up using between 15 and 20 of those additional Boxarts Megaman. I'm also going to keep everything at the ratio you set unless we see any problems because of that (I kept backups of them just in case I need to shrink them).

Got a couple more things I need to do before I convert the artwork, and they're things that will take some time to do. (such as making sure the HQ images won't be a problem, testing Airball, making sure the artwork is all named right before the conversion, etc.)

I want this to be my last NES artwork upload.

Here's some info about Airball:

YOUTUBE VID

NINTENDO AGE ARTICLE

Not sure if it's available in rom form yet, but it definately is out there in cart form. Can anyone clear this up?


EDIT 3: If this rom is not available, would somebody mind giving me screenshots from the video and converting the vid to WMV to add to the set. We could at least have artwork and video for it in prep for when somebody rips it.


EDIT 4: Rom is available in newest no-intro.

Looks like we have a full artwork set now. Here's the specs:



Sweet...

Just waiting to see if we have memory issues in NES causing those bugs now before I convert the pack over.

Sounds good Rx,
I really appreciate how thorough you are being with the new HQ stuff, and you looked into the site and found more... sweet!

I will have to look into video making later tonight or tomorrow, for I have work.
That is, If stupot1, doesn't get to it first.

Yeah, I was having the same thing with videos, disappearing problem in the emu, and I was using the old screen shot packs, too. At least we know it is happening to more than one of us. Hopefully we can get it worked out.

Yeah... hopefully that video thing is just some nasty little bug that can be worked out and not really a memory thing. I can't imagine it's a problem with our artwork as it was always the same artwork pack (unless new changes are more memory intensive).

I couldn't wait to do a convert though, so I just put it through BombBloke's awesome converter program. It copied nearly 6,000 images and renamed them to the right format in about 10 minutes. That would have taken me weeks to do on my own. I'm currently FTPing them to my box now. We'll see if the videos crap out when the emu is grabbing the artwork from the new Media\NES\Artwork folder instead of the old SCREENSHOTS folder. I'll let you know.

As soon as somebody gets me those last two videos I'll start re-packing/uploading the NES videos too. They take forever to upload, so I'd expect them next week. You'll want to grab them since there may be as many as 200 new videos in there since the last set and I didn't keep track of what was new.

Later,
~Rx


EDIT: Sadly..... the video glitch still remains when using the artwork from the new Media folders as well. Drat!

I'm going to start wrapping up the artwork for upload anyways. I really don't believe that the artwork size has anything to do with this, and if it does we're screwed anyways because that means we're going to have to alter all of our images down to possibly 400x400 or something.

EDIT 2: For anyone who's been waiting, I will hopefully have the Enhanced Artwork uploaded within the next 4 hours for you to grab.

The art can't be the main problem because we were both using the old pack.
If you still have a stable beta beta built around, try using the new artwork with it somehow... if the new system doesn't get in the way that is... (probably does, huh?)

I don't think I'd be able to test it backwards like that in any meaningful way MM. Not a bad suggestion, but I don't think I can.

Got a few more hours left on the artwork upload now. Shouldn't be long.

Have any time to knock out those two vids for me man?

I don't think artwork is the issue, but keep in mind. I've been running at 720p (which uses more memory) and when I was working on getting the code to display screenies and boxart at the same time (and it had that nice little memory leak). It didn't take many displays of the "Balloon Fight" boxart for it to crash and in my set the "Balloon Fight" boxart was pretty large.

Anyways I got past those issues. In fact I even made some memory savings with the cheat code ssytem. But you can only imagine what can happen when you add in other stuff and try to display them at the same time. Nevermind the fact that I'd like to leave a little room for the Synopsis sorting which I have no clue how much memory it will use up. That plus something else I'd rather not mention cause memory is pretty tight.

Anyways I've been running in the new format for a couple weeks and had no issues with the movies. RessX did suggest setting "always display screenshots" to yes. I have not tried that yet, but I have a feeling that is the culprit. I usually have it set to no due to the amount of unecessary wear and tear it can cause on the hard drive.

What do you mean...? That is the setting I have always used but if it is bad, I will stop.

I am also not using 720p

Hey Rx,
I have been all over today... I will try and get those vids done tomorrow.
later

Setting "Always show screenshot to Yes" means that when you use the left/right triggers to scroll thru the game list the emulator will "ALWAYS" attempt to show the screenshot for each game. Whether it is your intention to play the game or not.

As a result it reads the directory and the 1st screenshot for each game you pass over. Including displaying them. Under the new code that also means it will read the movie file, and the box/cart art screenshot as well. So as you can see this can cause a fair amount of reading from the drive to go on.

When it is set to "off" it won't attempt to show the screenshot, or load the movie it will just scroll down the list until you stop.

In fact, just for kicks why don't you guys try setting this to "no" and see if the problem goes away. This should give me more to go on for when I get off of work and have a chance to look at it some more..

I'll give it a shot a while later. I may be done for the night right now. Been working since before noon.

I always had it on because it's good for my testing. I've never even seen what the emu looks like when you're not using it. Hope it's still as cool




EDIT: I did want to get this out there before I went to sleep..... Allow me to introduce you all to the Enhanced Artwork.




New dats, new videos and an updated "old screenshots" artwork pack to follow...


EDIT2: SHIT! It did it again. When I get to Donkey Kong Jr it stops showing videos. I also tried resetting the emu and starting from scratch with the show screenshots on scroll option to "NO" when I started the emu and it still stopped showing the videos.

Could you download the artwork now that I've got it out there madmab and give it a try and see if this happens to you. It's very frustrating that for some reason the coder who can fix the problem is the only one that isn't having the problem

(I just thought of something else madmab.... You have all of your roms separated by Letter, right? At least that's what I thought I saw on your video. I have all of mine separated by region, which leaves me with 725 roms/videos/images for the single US folder. Could that have anything to do with it?)

Hey ResX

Has mega man sorted out those video's for you yet????
if not i will do them & send them to you

Cheers Stupot

Nope, he hadn't. Thanks for doing them stupot1.

Note to self..... we no longer need the videos. (I just watched Dirty Work yesterday )



UPDATE:



I've added the artwork pack in its original form too, just in case you find you liked the way the screenshots used to work. (They will work either way depending on which set is on your drive. I wouldn't put both on your drive though because there would probably be some weird results).

I'm starting on packing up the final videos. Those will probably take a few days to get up here though. In the mean time I hope to get the new datfiles up here too if somebody wouldn't mind making the alternates.

Later,
~Rx

EDIT: Okay... the datfiles are up now. My apologies to anyone with newer romsets that has to wait until the alternate sets are made. If you're already set up with MM?'s old datfiles, everything will still work for you. You will just be missing around 200 or so roms until it gets an update.

I'm starting the video upload process. 3 parts totaling 2.10GB. That's a large step up from the old videos which were only 1.91GB. Thanks to everyone who helped put them together.

Hey Rx,
Note to self: get ass wort cream for huge wort on my ass... (or something like that)
I just have to figure a way I am going to separate and find the new 200 (or so) added roms in the new set and integrate them into my dat. You said you didn't keep track huh?, could you at least point me in the right direction, I know some were new hacks on the "fixer list" and others were new japan games or something...?

Hey stupot1
Thanks for doing the vids.

Hey madmab
I know want it did, and all though I like seeing all the games flash before my eye's as I scroll through fast... I am sticking to the option now set to "no" to put less stress on everything. (for that reason and the speed of the scrolling , this way is probably equally as good.)

By the way, all my vids are on my HDD and I was still getting the videos stopping even with the very first (low quality artwork pack) being used.

Thanks everybody.

Note to self: Remember no matter how bad life gets, there is always beer!

RoR (Raffing out Roud!)



There were things added all over, unfortunately. In licensed, probably only Japan. There may or may not have been any translations. A few in the Pr0n. A few in prototypes. A few in "other hack upgrades". A few in SMB hacks. (Possibly a few in other hack categories). Possibly some in prototypes.

They're all over man. And probably there will be more than that. Sorry I didn't keep track. I'm going to keep track of anything new after releasing an Enhanced Artwork set for an emu in the future.

Later,
~Rx


EDIT: Yeah... I didn't know the boxart and video came up just as fast when you land on a game as with the setting to ON. Unfortunately, that's not our problem now, but if it is a memory leak at some point it's good to know we can just turn it off (or block it altogether on memory intensive emus).

UPDATE:






Unfortunately, the TG-16 doesn't include CDs since datfiles are basically useless. The vids and artwork will be there though.

EDIT: Crap... Videos 2 screwed up on me so I have to start it over. Uploading now. Hopefully be done with that in about 3 1/2 hours. Videos 3 is a lot smaller.

I already have the old nes videos,screens,boxarts renamed properly saved on my xbox in a emulator-less nes folder.

What all is updated from the new set. A few added games and higher quality boxarts? I'll most likely not mess with my current setup and wait for the beta emus. Or did you guys screw around with the naming and now I need to update crap?

All of the above man....

The old stuff should work fine if you don't want to bother. Don't be surprised if a game here or there doesn't work because the names are bad though. You'll have lower quality boxart and be missing about 150 or so games too if you keep the old sets. Plus, the old screenshots directory is limited in its capabilities compared to the completely different Enhanced Artwork.

It's up to you really. With the thousands of hours I've spent on this project, I really can't feel to bad about anybody having to spend a weekend downloading and FTPing stuff that's perfect.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of what was new since I first uploaded the stuff since I'm too busy documenting about 8 other things for each game when I'm going through this stuff. I really think that's it for NES and TG16 though, so if there are a few extra games or new hacks/translations down the road, I will keep track of those so I don't have to re-update everything again.


UPDATES:




Uploading the last of the videos and then I'll start on TG16/CD.

Wow! Someone has been busy...

All of our technical issues are pretty much solved except a problem with screenshots not changing when screenshot time is set to 0 and the user presses l/r on the left analog stick. (sorry gilles).

But we are pretty much ready for a release. Not sure if megamanfan has any more cheat codes and I probably need to download the latest synopsis file.

If I get a chance I'll try and see about the changing screenshots issues, but it aint really a show stopper so I may just put it off till later.

TheMaster3.. You shouldn't really have to do anything. The old screenshot directory layout (for the most part) will work just fine. The new one just has the advantage of displaying screenshots and box/cart art at the same time and box/cart art will always be in the proper place on the screen.

I know man... tell me about it!

It looks like I've done a ton of work this weekend (and I have) but this is the culmination of many weekends of work coupled with the help of others who have really made me happy that I've brought this project public.

I have about 6 to 10 more uploads to do for NES and TG16 and when you get me that LYNX update I'll do the same for LYNX. (I may need help with a few more vids for it, and I need you guys to tell me if I should add any more games first!)

I also have another Xtra that's a surprise until I upload it. Nothing to fancy, but something that will end a long time annoyance of mine when you FTP it over to your setup.

Great teamwork stomping out those bugs this weekend. We really kicked their asses

Later,
~Rx

The mad mabber keeps calling me megamanfan...ehh,
I'll take it.

Yes madmab, I have at least 2 more letters for the cheat database, and more on the way.

Nice going guys

We're close on this one... I can feel it!

Oh... thought I should note that there is nothing new about those Manuals downloads. I just wanted to bring them up to code with my new naming conventions on the thread. Any additional manuals acquired will be separate downloads "[V2]".

~Rx

uh, eh, er sorry megerman_?^..... Just half a sleep on my end. Didn't sleep well at all.

UPDATES:



Videos done. Moving on to TG16 now!