Hello Xbox fans
I started this new topic because the forum members were lost about our discussion in the previous thread, and there wasn't any explanation about the project in the first page of the topic.
I will put here all the must up to date dynamic skins for the future emulators
p.s. you can use the dynamic skins with the old xport emus, but you will have to rename your favorite config
to "settings.ini" and disable one of the dual windows for the dual configs since you can't display dual video/boxart in them

1)[b]What is the dynamic skin?

-Well,since we have the dual previews/boxarts and videos at the same in the news emus
(thanks to Nes6502, and now madmab, and for sure differents great coders in the future)
and since each user is different,We had a loooot of differents suggestions about the
best gameselect screen disposition:
alot of users like the videos dual with title screen,
other users want only boxarts since they don't have space for videos
other wants dual videos with boxarts
others want big videos and big boxarts
others want only screenshots
etc...
etc...
etc...
So, with only one skin, lots of users will be disapointed....
That is why we have created the DYNAMIC skin, a skin where you can move manually
the size/position of each of the gameselect elements: video window, preview window,
boxart, rombrowser blade, system logo,buttons, etc... you can even disable them!

You only want screenshots? eh, no problem, simply disable the video window sprite
you want only screenshots but sometimes a video for few games?
all in the same window?ok, set the video size/position in the preview window

i really think we have find a great solution with madmab, rezx and run088 about
this dynamic skin,it will solve a lot of problems, and the sprites render well
better in hd.It would have been a PAIN for the skinner to release 20 differents
versions with subtles differences of the same skin! what a confusion!
a lot of space saved for nothing!

2)You want to change the gameselect screen,How to use the DYNAMIC Skin?
-Well, there is 2 solutions:

A)The easy solution:
simply go to "configuration/video-skin configuration/skin configuration/select skin configuration"
and choose one of the following pre-made configs if you have a good old standard TV

-SDTV big movies_big boxarts
-SDTV big movies_big previews
-SDTV big previews only
-SDTV boxarts only
-SDTV med movies_med boxarts
-SDTV med movies_med previews
-SDTV med previews only

choose one of the followings if you have a HD TV:
-HDTV big movies_big boxarts
-HDTV big movies_big previews
-HDTV big previews only
-HDTV boxarts only
-HDTV med movies_med boxarts
-HDTV med movies_med previews
-HDTV only med previews

The less easy solution:
-None of theses configurations are ok for you?you want to disable the ATARI 7800 logo
or disable the buttons?
ok, you must set the sprites yourself!
go to
"configuration/video-skin configuration/skin configuration/gameselect screen/sprites
settings;here you will be able to move the size/position of each sprites,
replace them(change the number)or disable it(set the sprite number to "0"),
even animate it with the "motion x/y" feature

-the text isn't at your tastes?
ok, go to
"configuration/video-skin configuration/skin configuration/gameselect screen/text settings"
and set the size/position/widht/etc... of the text

-the video preview, the screenshots and the boxarts aren't at the good position?
ok, go to:
"configuration/video-skin configuration/skin configuration/gameselect screen/background settings"
here you will be able to set them (move to the right to see the differents settings)

then, you can save the changes you have made, simply go to:
"configuration/video-skin configuration/skin configuration/save skin configuration as"
to save your settings

3) special thanks to madmab, to make the DYNAMIC skin possible
especially the ability to see the differents sprites
(the windows sprites) when you are adjusting the video preview, the screenshots
and the boxarts.AND the ability to be able to choose your favorite skin settings
That's all, the hard part is done, now it will takes me a few hours to release differents
DYNAMIC skins for the other emulators(i have all the photoshop psd files plus a lot of
good quality pictures for the others systems now)

here are the dynamic skins:

Dynamic__LYNX_pm3_by_Gilou9999_06/10/2008


Dynamic__COLECOVISION_pm3_by_Gilou9999_06/10/2008


Dynamic_GENESIS_pm3_by_Gilou9999_06/10/2008


Dynamic_ATARI_7800_pm3_by_Gilou9999_06/10/2008


Dynamic_NES_pm3_by_Gilou9999_06/10/2008


note: now, all the logo in the top left corner are animated
p.s.1:madmab,perheaps you'll have to make some very little change to them, but the hard work is done; if you have other bg music, simply rename it to "bg music.mp3" it's the name of the music in all the skins

p.s.2:madmab, do you think you could add the game synopsis option in your emus?
i have send a "colecovision synopsis letter A.txt" in the previous thread; is the form ok?or must i change something (i'm trough letter F now) i mean, the first line are matching the rzx dat files,then it's the synopsis; like this:

*
2010 (1984) (Coleco)
name :2010 - The Graphic Action Game
Genre: Genre: Action > General
Release Data: 1984 US
Developer: Coleco

This is a game based on the movie, 2010: The Year We Made Contact.
You are an astronaut aboard the Discovery and need to repair its systems before it crashes into Jupiter's moon, Io. Time is limited so do not dawdle or the Discovery will be destroyed.
*

*
Alcazar (1985) (Activision)
name:Alcazar - The Forgotten Fortress
Genre: Action > General
Release Data: 1985 US
Developer: Telegames, Inc.

In this adventure game you control an explorer who's on his way to fortress Alcazar. To reach Alcazar you are travelling through a countryside of fortresses and you need to collect several items that you can find along the way. Once you enter the Alcazar fortress you have to search for the crown.
*

excellent work gilles9999! so let me get this straight you can't run dual video and boxart on the emus? What's the point of having both if you cannot do that or maybe i am mistaken. please help me out here, lol

also like i said to rx i want help make nes movies but how in the hell do i record them??

XT-

Dual previews and boxart is pretty much an up and coming feature. Which emu will debut it first is unknown (due to it being a work in progress) but there are a few candidates.

Video preview is already available on the Genesis, Nes, Lynx, and TG16 emu's.

These skins are "loadable" in current x-port emu's but the current emu's will still act like they usually do and the ability to select between skin "configurations" is not possible without manual renaming or coying files.

Gilles..

Sorry I didn't answer your question earlier about the "colecovision synopsis letter A.txt". Silly me just noticed it today. It should be doable with some tinkering. But I'm not sure how to get the text to word wrap or how I should determine what font to use, etc. So I'll have to look into the text display functions/routines to see what how they work and what they are capable of.

Like the skins, but anyway to change the Atari logo in the A7800x to silver (like it is on the console)?

As for music. Well that has always been a tough one for some emulators. Atarixlbox was fairly easy. Although I created "atmospheric sound/music" it was all based on the pokey chip. But the 7800 does not have much decent music to talk about. The colecovision, although it has some nice tunes. None of them are long enough to sustain being in a skin. So it's a tough call.

Here is a comment I made in the last thread. On the latest AdamX skin.


Which brings up a thought. I was thinking of having the movies automatically turn off if the movie screen "size" is 0,0.

Also I think I fixed the "blank previw screen" issue when exiting a game. Although it did create a few headaches for me there. I've "tweaked" that section of code more than I care to admit.

thanks for clearing that up madmab I'm glad i know that i was not doing something wrong. I was trying to do something that has not even been completely implemented yet i see, lol.

So i can use mednafenx-nes v10 to have a video but on the other hand right now dual is not implemented.

Ok well once i can get straight on recording and converting i will start doing some videos.

XT-

On a side note. I've been aware of the "gamescreen" thingy when in the game menu for some time now. Just never got around to fiddling with it. I suppose it could be squeezed in somewhere. It always seems to get in the way.

Good to see you will work with us Xtecuter, really,any other help from anyone is much appreciated
here is the new atari logo sprite for the DYNAMIC atari 7800 skin, simply put it in sprite folder n°28
madmab, you can thanks my girlfriend Odile, because it was impossible to find good quality atari 7800 logo
So she did it herslef from scratch, and the result is just, the true atari logo, cut from steel

atari 7800 logo to replace the old one

Nice. Thanks. It's really great to see all the work being done. I always worried that finding certain required "images" would be hard to do.

Beautiful work Gilles and Odile. Really looking forward to the day when we put all this together finally.

thanks for your supports guys here!

ATARI 5200 (ATARIXLBOX) DYNAMIC skin release
it was a HEEEEL to find good quality pics for this system (like always)
but it's my pleasure to find good quality pics for thoses emus (even for genesis it was hard to find)or else it isn't funny

Dynamic_ATARI_5200_pm3_by_Gilou9999_07/10/2008

like always: animated logo in the main menu, animated cursor (green light) in the main, 14 differents configs to choose from (for SD tv users and HDTV users), animated controller in the option menu, and animated system in the rombrowser, animated rombrowser blade.
and like always,splash screen with the system in its box (like a true old school museum)
the emu name with the xport logo, madmab name, and the skinner name appear in it (it's a sprite appearing on it)

Hey Gilles. Read your PM. Might be able to hook you up with a way to start a thread where you could keep your work on the first few posts instead of having them buried under pages and pages of comments. Just noticed how far down your newest skin was. Damn shame, that is..... You should be able to have all of your work showcased at the very top as you go, and also be able to change the link location on the fly if you decide to do any further updates or add somebody elses artwork to your skins.

You'd have to start the thread over, but the work would be well worth it when it behaves much more like mine does.

Let me know if you have any more questions about how I set mine up.

Later,
~Rx

Holy crap.. awesome work gilles.
Btw would a PSD be possible?
I'd love to add Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, SNES themes.

What's a PSD retroplay?

In the end, the hope is that anybody at all could make updates to the DYNAMIC skins through their own artwork or configurations. A lot of that functionality still depends on what work can be done to the emu itself to make it possible, but I haven't heard anything yet that it can't be done.

PSD file for Photoshop.
That way it's easy to add new logos and pictures for other systems such as C64 and Amiga to the skin.

Prolly wouldn't need much to add since only the small images are required now to be placed over the background(s). Once you dive in, you'll see how f'ing great this new development is. It revolutionizes how skins will be made in the future.

I look forward to dozens of possibilities for configuring every graphical element of the GUI in the near future when other graphic artists come forward and give even more artwork and configurations.

~Rx

Retroplay, i have already started working on the msx skin (i'm a big metal gear fan too )

I know, lot of guys simply don't like the pm3 theme but personnally i have seen the mario and zelda heads too much ; and we never see the systems themselves in the olds skins, too few people doesn't even remember what the atari 7800, or the lynx look like
That is the purpose of theses pm3 dynamic skins; show the olds systems in all their greatness;
and the objective is to cover all the systems with the same pm3 environment
that will not take me too much time now (only few hours for a system, the long part is to configure the 14 differents settings)
see: if i cover 20 systems, the dynamics skins will offers you 20*14=280 differents skins
after that i'll release the differents psd files i promise

retroplay and guys here: i need good quality "system pics"(for main menu) and system box(for splash screen) for mednafen pce,msx,amiga ,c64 and atari st

p.s.:i'm avoiding the "red" color in the skins, because i know, often the "red" color looks too blurry on the good old standard TV
thx in advance

I found some huge Amiga, C64, MSX etc pics.
Download.

Excellent retroplay, excellent
I see you love the old systems esthetism too
in wich internet site have you found them? I'm using google search and flicker.com eventually
(neverwill told me he was searching pics on google images-larger ones-)
but it's hard for the 1980-1990 systems

somebody have box scans of thoses systems? (it's for the slash screen)

I just used Google and searched for Large and extra large images.
However finding good PCE/TG16 and Sharp X68000 images is not easy.

Here is a challenge for ya...

See if you can dig up good picks of the following atari systems...

XEG and box. It had the pastel look (on the buttons).
Atari 800xl and box.

My guess would be atari museum....

for the atari 800xl and box it's ok i have the great quality pics to make thr dynamic skin
but for the atari xeg i can't find better than this

perhaps someone can send us a better quality pic,or take a good pic if he had the system at home
it's for wich emu madmab?atarixlbox can read atari xeg games?

Yeah. That's it. Ugly 'ol thing, aint it? Nice thing about it, though, is the keyboard is detachable.

Yeah the 5200 is pretty much the same as an Atari 400, 800, 800xl, 1200xl, 130xe, 130xeG, 65xe? The main difference was the controllers and it only has 16k of RAM. Why the released so many different machines is beyond me.

But the 800xl is considered by most to be the best to use. The XEG is, I believe, just a 64xe expanded to 128k and has a detachable keyboard.

Anyways yes atarixlbox can play games for all those systems. So I didn't wanna limit the picture selection. Of course it just hit me that AdamX can do the Colecovision Adam as well. I believe the original skin had picks of that. I still need to test the Adam stuff I have. I don't know much about it.

I'll ask around and see if I can find a good pick of the XEG and box.

Wow.... that is one ugly POS. lol

Can't say I've ever seen that one before.

I got my brother looking through boxes in the basement back at my parents house for our old 5200 games. There was one game we bought (at the local gas station of all places) and when we brought it home we were never able to play it because our last working controller went kaput. All I remember about it was the main screen when you started up had the title and credits underneath it and around the perimeter of the screen there were different colored robots marching. If I remember correctly, the cart was actually a gray color, and I think the label was black with yellow lettering. (I could be wrong about the cart, but I'll never forget staring at that start screen trying desperately for hours to get the start button to work on the controller).... F'ing 5200 crap controllers!

If anyone knows what the hell game that is, I'd love to know. I can't seem to find it anywhere, even on AtariAge. If he does manage to find it, I suppose I'll have to figure out how I can back it up.

Later,
~Rx

I just wanted to make sure of something.... The Genesis skin is not complete yet write?

THe icons dont line up and the music shuts off randomly and dosent even start up after the initial install.






The NES version is Awesome!!!

can someone confirm this?
strange, i have retryed the dynamic genesis pm3 skin from my first thread, and all is working good, even when i launch it for the first time, good display of all the sprites, the sonic bg music is ok too
have you ftp'd all the sprites in the skin?

pm3 ATARI ST DYNAMIC skin done(with remixed pacmania blocktown bg music from my french friends from grospixels.com )
DYNAMIC ATARI ST pm3 by Gilou9999 08/10/2008
splahscreen:
the "discovery pack box of the atari st" collector

mainmenu

and like always, 14 differents configs, plus a empty atari st box for all the boxscans configs

p.s.: they are "almost" final dynamic skins; but there will be some subtles changes (in the splash screen and in the sprites folder) when madmab will release new dual versions of his emus
the dynamic skins are here because the coders have a lot of work for the coding and i understand they don't really have the time to make skins

p.s.2:madmab, i think for the all in one emus (like neogenesis, atarixlbox etc...)i will simply add differents
sprites in the sprites folder to choose from:
ex: 32x, genesis or segacd banner ;like this, if the user is a 32x hardcore fan he will be able to put the 32x banner.what is your opinion?or should i make a different skin for 32x, sega cd, as the mainscreen is different?

p.s.3:at the end, when all the dynamic skins will be done, i simply add a "sprites extra pack"
so a user will be able to put a "metroid, zelda,shinning force,all sorts of banners"in the gameselect screen and in the options screen

p.s.4:I need the opinion of you guys here,
can you try my dynamic skins with your xports emus and give me your opinion about the bg music?
to my opinion:

-colecovision adamx:"bubblebobble remix" from my french friends from grospixels.com
quite good bg music from my own tastes
-atari 7800,5200:"mission impossible" eh, mission impossible was a great atari 7800 game
good bg music but we should change it
-nes mednafenx nes:"contra remix" from my french friends from grospixels.com
don't touch it it's my personnal favorite bg music
-neogenesis:"escape from the city"from sonic adventure 2:excellent bg music, but perhaps we should change it
-atari st winstonX:"remixed pacmania blocktown" bg music from my french friends from grospixels.com
i think it's a really great remix, what's your opinion?
-atari lynx:"double dragon remix"from my french friends from grospixels.com.I'm not a patriot, but i really think it's the best videogames remix better quality than the remix from overclocked remix; more professional

Are you using NeoGenesis v23??

v22 no problem
ok i see, perhaps neogenesis v23 takes a lot of memory and the xbox run out of memory ,it could explain
the random shut off of the bg music?
the skin can be optimized but i prefer to wait for the madmab opinion and nexts releases

Oh ok I thought I was doing something wrong.

And on v23 the home screen has 7 options to choose from so thats why the icons dont line up.

It's still the best skin I think anyways. THanks for all the efforts!

warning:
if you are using my GENESIS DYNAMIC skin with neogenesis,
go to skin settings configuration/main menu/texts settings
and set number of lines per screen to "7"
SHMUP3R is right there is one more line in the neogenesis main screen "launch inserted cd"

Hehe. I was gonna bring that up today. While revamping all the menu screens I noticed that the main menu can have two extra settings. "launch inserted CD" (sega and any other system using this) and the Gamebase menu (C64).

Anyway of incorporating a pic of the HSC cart in the a7800x opening screen?

There is a picture of it here. I tried it, but me with my limited paint/photoshop skills it didn't look pretty.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1529493

You mean for the DYNAMIC atari 7800 splash screen?

like this?


if it is ok for you, just rename it "emuloadbkg.jpg" and put it in the DYNAMIC skin folder
For the (definitive) final versions of the DYNAMIC skins, i think i will put a folder named "alternate splash screen and main menu" with .jpg background in it
because once again, Xport has well done the skins configuration, and in each Xport emu, you can choose wich background you wish for each screen.
It's the best option since atarixl box , neogenesis are "multi systems emulators"
so, in the DYNAMIC genesis skin, you can use this main menu if you are a 32X Geek
(right click on the pic/save as)

Well I was kinda hoping to have the actual 7800 console in the picture as well. I was not sure how hard/easy it would be to somehow integrate the two together.

Good work BTW on keeping the look consistent but yet unique. I really like that aspect!

DYNAMIC ATARI 2600 released ok

Dynamic_ATARI_2600_pm3_by_Gilou9999

and...
DYNAMIC AMIGA released (special dedicace to retroplay)
Dynamic_AMIGA_pm3_by_Gilou9999


p.s. the texts displayed in the splash screen are "beta",
madmab, i need the names of all your future emus (I know it's soon, but eh! perheaps you already know the name of all of them?ATARIXL BOX GOLD, CRYSTAL, GALAXY, PLATINUM? what else?
now the hard stuff is made i 'm going faster to make the dynamic skins)

I have made a "special madmab splash screen" for atarixl box
even if it's not really my cup of tea
I don't understand why you love so much thoses "HIGH Score cartridges"?

Uggh.. Reached my rapidshare limit for the hour, day, or whatever it is. I have to do a better job of keeping up with these skins.

The reason I wanted the HSC cart on the 7800 screen because in some ways it is a first. A7800x is based on an old MESS source of which I made several additions that did not exist. One of which was HSC support, and the other was fixing the two button support. Two features that could/should be added to the MESS official fork. But no one over there seems interested in adding them.

It's just something I consider an achievement. There was/is only one other emulator known to support the HSC cart. So it's kinda a big thing for me. Plus I put alot of research and time into adding that feature. I really appreciate you integrating the two. It's something I wanted to do with the last release but my paint/photoshop skills are limited.

On a historical note. The HSC cart was never "officially" released by Atari. It was actually created several years later and released as a limited distribution by AtariAge. It is also supported by the Cuttle Cart.

Anyway to put a snappy of the 2600 screen up? I was gonna take a look at it when my rapidshare account reached it's limit. I always thought it'd be kinda cool to have on the startup screen the dragon (duck) from adventure come on the screen and eat the "adventure dot" which would be in the form of the dot on top of the letter I somewhere on the screen.

I might try to adapt the current z26x skin over to dual preview (although limited support). Just because I kinda like it. Although the music does tend to drive me crazy! I'll probably try and redo the atarixlbox skin to dual preview as well (and hopefully fix the stupid transparency issues). Since I put so much work into that skin.

I was thinking this was making its way to all the emus. At least all the major ones. Am I mistaken in thinking that most of the work you've done on Coleco will be easy to port to other emus?

The skins that currently exist for all of x-port's emus were not designed for Dual Preview. So although my recompiles of said emu's will add support for dual preview, the old skins will not have that functionality. That is the whole purpose of Giles9999 creating the new skins.

But being that I'm partial to the 2600 and atarixlbox skins (especially since I created the atarixlbox skin myself) I was thinking of modifying them to handle dual preview.

I was just thinking. Is there any reason we need to know the version numbers? Now that I think about it. It's probably not a good idea to have any graphics with the version number so that when it does change we do not have to worry about updating the graphic.

As it is now the version number is part of the main menu text.

But in case your wondering. Here is the format.

If I make major changes to the emu the format is "emuname Main Menu v99 (Madmab ed)".
Any emulator that I recompile for Dual Preview will just be "emuname Main Menu v99".

I've been adding the version number because I got tired of trying to figure out which version I had running on my Xbox's.

The reason I ad (Madmab ed) is to signify that the major changes were done by me. That way people will know to bug me and not X-port if any issues come up. Well that and they can blame me for all the goofups.

Oooohhhh.... gotcha.

I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about the emus themselves. I like your Miner 2049'r skin. That was my favorite game on the 5200 back in the day.

Can I assume that 99% of the work and features you've done on Colecovision will be easy to port to other emus then?

~Rx

The dual skin and movie preview stuff (although alot of changes) should be easy.

All the other internal changes I made in Atarixlbox are a different story. The biggest thing is. I changed the way the queuing system works (for record/playbacK) so that would have to be tested. Plus the changes affect netplay as well. Althuogh not as important (probably hardly ever used) it would need to be tested as well.

Keypad changes should only require small changes (depends on the available overlays on the internet).

Keyboard changes... If Ireproduced each systems keyboard (like I did with atarixlbox) would take alot of work. That particular section of code is a bigtime hack.

All other changes should have no effect on the emu but would take a little work modifying it so they would compiles.

Here is an animation of the "Adventure" dragon/duck I was referring to. I thought it'd be kinda cool to somehow integrate into the opening screen.



Hmm... seems the speed is a little too fast. But you'all get the idea..

Don't forget the Atari 800xl and box...




See top half of picture.

I don't forget this old piece of plastic
Just time consuming to configure correctly the 14 configs of the skin:
Dynamic_ATARI_800XL_pm3_by_Gilou9999

it's the atari 800xl with a sort of "expantion pack"?(good quality pic)

WOW great.
A small request though.
It would be über cool if you could make this skin with the classic Amiga logo.


I can be found here.

DYNAMIC AMIGA (with official logo) (I thought the first one i put was the good one, but retroplay say it isn't)
so here it is:

Dynamic_AMIGA_pm3_by_Gilou9999 with official logo

DYNAMIC PC ENGINE released
(draculaX bg music, 14 configs to choose from,animated system logo and system banner, custom pc-e box for any boxarts settings)

Dynamic_PC_ENGINE_pm3_by_Gilou9999

Not trying to be picky bud, but that doesn't look anything like the TG16 that I had....

Here's the one I had:



Lovin' your work.

Later,
~Rx

Yes I know there is a looot of differents versions:
pc engine, coregraphix, coregraphix II, supergraphix,super cd rom, and even one more version i think
So i had to make a choice: the first one as default
"alternate splash and main menu folder" will come in the future in the root of this DYNAMIC skin

The first one is Amiga Inc. official logo.
The one I suggested is the "classic" logo on Amigas from Commodore.
Nice to have a skin with both.

Such a demanding public!

PCE Is awesome!!!!!


Any plans for a 2600???

I have already released the 2600 DYNAMIC skin on page 3, post 34