Print

[XTecuterX73]

Hey everyone,  with the launch of mednafenx-nes v9_fixed i've decided to try to continue to work with madmab and maybe we can roll another update out sometime soon. This time around i would like to state that i am going to try my hand at some things here,

changing the default skin to more of a xbmc skin such as 360 glass skin. Removing the "send item to garbage" option.

 list some features/requests that you would like for me to take a look at and try to implement into the next update of mednafenx-nes. Im still getting my feet wet here but would love to hear any requests. One thing i am looking into is a built in good nes header checker kinda thing, haha. It will automatically clear garbage and repair headers if it is incorrect.

I hope all you guys are enjoyin the latest build as well. The palette fix was kinda me being way obsessed with the old palette and wanted the correct color. It was kinda like eating french fries with ketchup, but the ketchup was green.  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  bad analogy i know,  either way post some thoughts here and let me hear what you guys would like to see changed/fixed.

As always big ups to xport as without him, none of this would be possible. Very thankful that he left us something to work with. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

XX_73

This post has been edited by XTecuterX73: Apr 11 2008, 02:08 AM

[ressurectionx]

Hey XT,

Congrats again on the update.

My suggestions for the future release:
1)  A nice 360 Dashboard type skin.  One that would be very easy to convert over to all XPort emulators.  (Only minor changes necessary to make it fit with the other consoles, for example)

2)  Don't get rid of any functionality that is already in all of the XPort emulators, including the "send item to garbage" option.  I don't think it is a good idea to strip any functionality in future releases.  A better fix would be to make a very long list of features that you/other members would like to have removed in "idiot proof" mode.  Likely 95% or more of the options would be hidden this way in the end.  You could make it so that if somebody pressed Black, Back and Right trigger together then it would switch from "idiot proof" mode to "full feature mode" and back.  It doesn't have to be that particular key combo, but whatever it is, it should be difficult for somebody to accidentally do.

3)  If we were to put together information for NES games in some sort of spreadsheet or something, it would be cool to have an area that displayed a short synapsis of the game, or some other information, such as genre and year of release.  I've heard scrapers mentioned before, but the problem with scrapers is that they need to be updated when the site changes, and there's always the chance that the site might close down and the scraper wouldn't work anymore.

4)  Keep the XPort screenshot setup, but also add the ability to scrape the screenshots from a singular folder which contains filenames that match your roms exactly as well.  This would be useful for dumping in a boxart pack along with the screenshots, for people who would like their screenshot and boxart to switch back and forth.  (If this one turns out to be way too hard to do, it's not that big a deal.  Just thought it would be a nice feature).

Tell me what you think,
~Rx

[competes2win]

I'd personally rather not see a 360 skin... I definitely support your idea of a new "xbmc" esque skin upgrade. However, I think that we can come up with something a bit more unique and original than the 360 theme. And as much as I see the benefits of having a universal skin to port to all xport emulators... Being a Nintendo fan, I can't help but think it would be nice to have a more nintendo themed skin... but again possibly have the graphics interchangeable with others to still make it portable to all the other emu's...

my opinions of course, it's your project.  

[ressurectionx]

Heh... It's been so long since I've looked at anything other than the PSX emu and MAME that I forgot there is already good 360 skins on there with the glass skins.  How could I forget that?  I actually made about 5 of them myself for the lesser known systems that XPort ported.  All I did was take the existing skins and drop in the logos and console pics over the existing ones.  So I guess that that part is already done pretty well and would only need to be updated a bit if you add the synopsis information feature to the next release.

There is already two pretty good animated skins for NES right now, but they're both Mario.  It might be cool to see some Metroid or Zelda or something like on the ZSNES emu.  I don't know if you're really that big into skinning though.  Either way, if the synopsis feature was added, it would probably be a good idea to alter the existing Mario skins to display that correctly since a lot of work went into them and they're both really nice looking skins.



Yeah... it can all be pretty overwhelming man.  I'm still just getting my feet wet now.  I have a few new things I've added to MAME that haven't been out there before, and one really awesome fix in the works now, but there is already a great coder working on it making current releases so I don't have an oppurtunity to release such a great fix in such a short time like you did.  I've got tons of work before I can release anything on my front.  

Just try to map out a plan of attack for yourself.  Brainstorm it, and then try to organize it in a step by step process.  You'll probably come up with new things you'll need to incorporate as you go along too.  Good luck, and hopefully we can work together at some point if we decide to improve something that we're both interested in and we're not wrapped up in our other projects.

Later,
~Rx

[lawdawg0931]

Hey XT, Thanks for the corrected palette files - it DOES make a difference. I agree with several ideas above: the 'idiot proof' is pretty much needed. I would like to see a newer skin also, but maybe have choices for several of the top games skins - like in Zsnexbox (Metroid, Mario Etc...) Looking forward to it!

[competes2win]

@XT- actually haven't looked at the new build yet, no time really. but will this weekend most likely for sure.

And ya now that I think of it, I actually like the default skin as it stands, the animations and such are umm for a lack of a better word "cute." but a new skin is always welcome in my opinion.

[kimota2004]

QUOTE(competes2win @ Apr 11 2008, 05:08 AM)

I'd personally rather not see a 360 skin... I definitely support your idea of a new "xbmc" esque skin upgrade. However, I think that we can come up with something a bit more unique and original than the 360 theme. And as much as I see the benefits of having a universal skin to port to all xport emulators... Being a Nintendo fan, I can't help but think it would be nice to have a more nintendo themed skin... but again possibly have the graphics interchangeable with others to still make it portable to all the other emu's...

my opinions of course, it's your project.  

This is also how I feel. I don't like the mc360 as I like my Xbox to be an Xbox. A Nintendo themed skin would be nice, but no matter what you do, you're not gonna please everybody. I use Slate for XBMC and would love to see a skin based around this but I'm no doubt in the minority so I wouldn't expect it.

Cheers

[XTecuterX73]

QUOTE(kimota2004 @ Apr 11 2008, 06:50 AM)

This is also how I feel. I don't like the mc360 as I like my Xbox to be an Xbox. A Nintendo themed skin would be nice, but no matter what you do, you're not gonna please everybody. I use Slate for XBMC and would love to see a skin based around this but I'm no doubt in the minority so I wouldn't expect it.

Cheers

yea i sure do understand that you can't please everyone.     Im going to let this thread go for a week or two then sit back and assess the responses to it before i start anything. So any kind of input from you guys is greatly appreciated. I know that i want to at least release things that there is sort of middle ground on that everyone can tolerate and meet at the middle at.

There are very few people left releasing things like this for xbox, but im trying to do what i can to make 2008 a year of good releases.

XX_73

[XTecuterX73]

QUOTE(XTecuterX73 @ Apr 11 2008, 05:42 PM)

yea i sure do understand that you can't please everyone.     Im going to let this thread go for a week or two then sit back and assess the responses to it before i start anything. So any kind of input from you guys is greatly appreciated. I know that i want to at least release things that there is sort of middle ground on that everyone can tolerate and meet at the middle at.

There are very few people left releasing things like this for xbox, but im trying to do what i can to make 2008 a year of good releases.

XX_73

ok so i fgured out where i am going to start next. I am going to give a go at  implementing nestopia's internal rom database into mednafenx-nes to automatically repair bad rom headers. Not promising anything but i am going to give it a go.  

XT

[competes2win]

QUOTE(XTecuterX73 @ Apr 11 2008, 08:05 PM)

ok so i fgured out where i am going to start next. I am going to give a go at  implementing nestopia's internal rom database into mednafenx-nes to automatically repair bad rom headers. Not promising anything but i am going to give it a go.  

XT

  what's a bad rom header?

lol i put the smiley there, but seriously I don't know?

[ressurectionx]

Yeah.... I was thinking the same thing as Competes2Win.  I've heard of headers in my work on XBox, and I've also heard of bad headers as well, but whenever I had a problem with a rom I just acquired another version of a rom.  

Automating anything I'm sure is going to make this emulator even better, but I think that like Paperboy II and the other two NES roms mentioned on another thread in here in the last month are the only 3 roms I've encountered for NES that I just can't get to work.  Is this something that will help people who just got the emulator and try to use their existing romsets that may have problems with the headers then?

Curious, is all...
~Rx

[XTecuterX73]

[quote name='competes2win' post='4255534' date='Apr 11 2008, 09:57 PM']

[ressurectionx]

Awesome.... lol so it's going to fix Paperboy II.   You're much more advanced than I thought and I'm really looking forward to it.

That's a lot of work for Time Lord though.  Don't get me wrong, its' a great game, but it'd be great to get that running right without jumping through hoops.  Any chance your header fix might fix that?  

Here's hoping,
~Rx

[madmab]

Well in theory all X-port emu's are capable of reading gamebase format databases.  So if a NES gamebase exists with all the proper info one could "dummy proof" quite a bit.

I've only glanced at it though cause I was toying with the idea of activating it for the atarixlbox emu.

[Cospefogo]

don't remove SEND TO GARBAGE option

It is one of the most important features ever.
This tool is REALLY useful when you need to CLEAN UP your romset.
I don't give a damn to MANY, MANY, MANY sports games and japanese table games,
and I did remove all of them from all my romsets.

And I know that a LOT of people out there think the same way too!

I could suggest something for the default skin, but I see most
of the people here REALLY like THEMED skins, like MARIO SKIN, METROID skin
and so on, so I am out!

Regards, my friend!
Cospefogo.