4K Vertical Overlay Community Contributions

[ArsInvictus]

Demon Front (IGS - 2002)

This game is a shameless clone of the Metal Slug series of run and gun games but with a brighter feel, similarly beautiful pixel art, 60fps graphics and somewhat faster pacing. It’s definitely worth a try if you are a fan of the Metal Slug series.

The marquee and CPO here were contributed by @evil_jarrad (on insta) of Wizard Reproductions. He created this artwork for use on his own arcade cabinet for this game and I thought it looked really fantastic so I reached out to him to see if we could use it for this overlay. He was happy to share this so more people could use his work and I gave the marquee a facelift with a vectorized logo and smoothed out character art.

I was also lucky to find that MuckyFingers on one of the arcade forums had a high resolution scan of the english instruction strip for the game and he shared that with me as well.

MAME - Demon Front

RetroArch - Demon Front

[DonkyKong]

@walter.farmacia access denied on your google drive share of COMMANDO

[walter.farmacia]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jCx3HduTrs6iNdENi4blOLwJp_qhgaf7/view?usp=sharing

[walter.farmacia]

This is Konami’s famous 1992 “Wild West Cowboys Of Moo Mesa”

I used this amazing marquee from @Thoggo, Thanks!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D-6nW3HishFUiRnhYE9oAJTLoiWMa7LU/view?usp=sharing

[Dustygibbs1984]

These are all great! I’m assuming you have all had several requests so keep up the good work!

[ArsInvictus]

Bomb Jack (Tehkan - 1984)

I’m not totally clear on the lineage of the art used for this game. Most of the photos and flyers I’ve seen of original cabs used the generic Tehkan bezel, which I recreated for Star Force and used again here. Other photos showed a dedicated bezel, but those photos are less frequent and more recent. Maybe there were two releases or different regions used different bezels…

In any event I’ve included both options here but defaulted to the Tehkan bezel as it seemed more prevalent. I also think it looks better because it breaks up the sunbeam patterns on the marquee and CPO a bit:

MAME - Bomb Jack

RetroArch - Bomb Jack

[tommyb]

First time back in a few months and I’m catching up. WOW, really amazing stuff, you all have taken these to the next level by combining your talents! Thanks again for all the time you put in to making these amazing assets available to everyone.

It looks like the preferred way of setting these up is to use Mame directly instead of RetroArch, especially if you want to have multiple layouts available. Is that correct?

Is there a keyboard shortcut to cycle through the views defined in the LAY file? Pressing one button to go to the next view would be a lot nicer in a cabinet than bringing up the menu and selecting a view.

Happy holidays, all!

[Briball]

@tommyb

Is there a keyboard shortcut to cycle through the views defined in the LAY file? Pressing one button to go to the next view would be a lot nicer in a cabinet than bringing up the menu and selecting a view.

I like that idea, that would be cool. Worth an extra button or combo in my book.

[ArsInvictus]

Welcome back @tommyb! Glad you like where we have been going with this project. Yes, the MAME lay file format is definitely the easiest to install and manage, especially in terms of switching between the different views. At one point RetroArch was also supporting LAY formats for MAME but I think it was dropped due to technical issues. So depending on whether you use both vanilla MAME and/or RetroArch exclusively, MAME would be the first choice followed by RetroArch if that’s all you have. Unless of course you prefer the RetroArch shader support, which is the main reason I still use RetroArch as my primary setup for MAME games.

Ideally RetroArch will at some point support the LAY format again, which would be the best of both worlds. Easy overlay configuration + great shader support.

[ArsInvictus]

Legendary Wings (Capcom - 1986)

Update here for packaging, but also included a new control panel and updated other shading and lighting effects.

MAME - Legendary Wings

RetroArch - Legendary Wings

[ArsInvictus]

Astro Fighter (Developed by Date East, Distributed by Sega/Gremlin - 1979)

I was introduced to this game by RaspBear from the MameWorld forums. He’s a big fan of this title because it was the first arcade game he’d ever played. He’d found a good quality marquee online for a good price and I picked it up so he could vector it while I did a raster restoration. The CPO was provided by Mr. Do and the bezel was done by RaspBear based off the Moon Cresta bezel.

MAME - Astro Fighter

RetroArch - Astro Fighter

[benlogan]

Totally meaningful project. True Christmas spirit, here!

[ArsInvictus]

Thanks @benlogan!

Looking forward to bringing the community a lot more classic, popular titles and lesser known games with rare artwork in the coming year!

[ArsInvictus]

Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (SNK - 1989)

This one was a journey. There weren’t any complete sets of art available for this game and I love the artwork so fortunately I was able to find these for sale without cropped borders. I scanned and restored both the bezel and marquee at 600dpi. For the CPO I recreated that in vector format (which I can use for other titles like Psycho Solider) from reference photos.

All in all this represents about 30 hours of work to produce. So hopefully there is a Prehistoric Isle fan or two out there who will appreciate it one day

There are two versions, one with the full bezel artwork and another with a cropped bezel and larger screen.

MAME - Prehistoric Isle

Retroarch - Prehistoric Isle

Full Bezel:

Larger Screen:

Also, Merry Christmas!

[walter.farmacia]

Operation Thunderbolt (1988) (TAITO)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SuxQBfHDF_t9rDT_t-eWaSFB89uIAFTG/view?usp=sharing

[walter.farmacia]

Commando (1985) (DATA EAST / CAPCOM)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PIi-NMEsIEB7j-Du07wI0wqtQAKN-QiQ/view?usp=sharing

Happy Christmas!! Another CPO style, I used this amazing marquee from @ArsInvictus Thank!!!

[ArsInvictus]

Buster Bros (Capcom-1989)

Marquee, CPO and bezel all provided thanks to @mrdo. I restored the marquee and CPO. I provided two variations again, full bezel and a cropped bezel with a larger screen area.

MAME - Buster Bros

RetroArch - Buster Bros

Full Bezel

Larger Screen

[ArsInvictus]

Great job on Operation Thunderbolt @walter.farmacia! Love those guns

[ArsInvictus]

Super Buster Bros (Capcom - 1990)

A big upgrade to the original game with a new “Panic Mode” gameplay option. The only difference in the art was the “Super” logo on the marquee and CPO, which I recreated by tracing the side art.

The next game in this series is Buster Buddies, which was released to the arcade but I’ve not found any visual evidence of that art on the internet and I don’t see that any collectors own it either. So that one may require something custom.

The last in the series is Mighty Pang! And I have the marquee at low res that I believe I can trace in vector format, as well as the CPO stickers which I should also be able to trace. There is also only one very low res image of the instruction sticker, and I can basically recreate it as the elements there were also found on a flyer. Anyway, more to come on Mighty Pang! at some point, hopefully soon.

MAME - Super Buster Bros

RetroArch - Super Buster Bros

Full Bezel

Larger Screen

[ArsInvictus]

Battle Circuit (Capcom - 1997)

I think this will be the definitive and final overlay set for this title for me, finally. All custom stuff here. custom marquee, translated instruction card from japanese to english. Custom control panel decal stickers for the joystick and buttons based on other titles from this era by Capcom.

Three views available, plastic bezel with CPO, which is the default as it’s the most likely look Capcom would have had for this game had it been released to arcades. But also the custom bezel I did when I first started with overlays, and a coin door variation with the plastic bezel.

MAME - Battle Circuit

RetroArch - Battle Circuit

Plastic Bezel with CPO

Custom Bezel with CPO

Plastic Bezel with Coin Door