Ikari Warriors 4k Vertical Overlay
3 Likes
I saw the new Arcade1Up version of this cabinet that was announced at CES. I really didn’t know that much about this game but the cabinet art looks awesome. Here’s my take with a custom bezel based on the CPO graphics:
Golden Axe 2 - The Revenge of Death Adder 4K Vertical Overlay
3 Likes
Beautiful as ever.
Any chances you’ll keep making horizontal overlays, too?
1 Like
Definitely, I’m just focused on the vertical for right now because I want to get to a baseline point of bezels for my new vertical cabinet. Most of what I’m creating is just getting caught up with the horizontal overlays I’ve already done. Once I do that I’ll keep the horizontal and vertical overlay releases in sync and do both versions for anything new. (And do a big release for MAME to get that caught up as well)
3 Likes
Very nice.
In the meanwhile I’m working on some additions for my tool.
At the moment i have a very preliminary “image stack” command that can pile images vertically (or horizontally) to assemble a vertical cabinet overlay from, say, a marquee, a speaker panel, a bezel and a filler panel.
It needs a considerable amount of work and polish before it can be distributed, but it’s on its way.
5 Likes
That’s an interesting idea. It wouldn’t really come out looking like mine, as I put a ton of effort into each game to adjust the shadows and reflections etc to match the content and colors etc for each design. The other challenge might be the bezel, as there is a lot of variation in those and it sometimes needs to be altered or stretched/cropped a bit to work right.
I had been thinking to create a high quality generic template with the shading etc but a placeholder for the marquee, and automating photoshop in some way to inject it with the proper lighting effects etc. But even for that, marquees also vary quite a bit sometimes between games and need to be properly cropped.
I’d love to see the output of your idea with some sample games.
I’m happy to contribute my art assets to what you are doing as well, just let me know…
2 Likes
Updated Galaga to latest format.
I took some creative license with the bezel here (and I did the same thing for Gyruss), where the positioning was a little funky due to the cabinet design, so I extended the bottom graphics in both bezels. I doubt anyone would notice who wasn’t very familiar with the original bezels, but it looks more natural in this format. Those bezels are out on the dropbox in case anyone ever wants to use them for another purpose and would like the more standard formatting.
Larger Screen version:
6 Likes
Absolutely, they will NEVER come out as perfect as your hand-made pictures.
An automated script can not replace the eye and hand of the artist, still there are cases where it can be of much benefit.
I’m thinking of mass generation of overlays for systems you care less, you don’t have hi-res images to work on or you miss completely, or as placeholders until you find time to work on.
Currently, basic scale, align, stretch and crop facilities are implemented, so cases where the bezels or marquees diverge a bit from the “standard” are already covered. Of course, starting with images with dimensions and resolutions as compatible as possible will yeld better result.
The workflow I’m thinking is launching the tool with multiple passes. For instance, first pass to assemble the “top stack” (bezel + speakers), then the “bottom stack” (filler, logos, panel mockup…).
Next step would be scaling and pasting the previously created images over a background, aligned to top and bottom respectively, abd paste the actual bezel to a fixed position.
I’d really like to have some of your assets to experiment on, so that I can compare the output of the script to a hi quality hand-made result and gauge the quality of the script better. also the generic template would be great.
Also, I’d appreciate some thoughts and feedback from your experience. For example, I assume you place the bezel so that the center of the screen is always at the same height to you eyes, but it might not be so. Plus, do your playable screens all have the same area or do you make some bigger or smaller?
3 Likes
That all makes sense. Very cool concept.
As for how I work with these, I’m not aiming toward a particular height for the monitor really, as long as it is reasonably centered. However, as I mentioned on my Galaga post I have sometimes made modifications to the original bezels to adjust the framing.
The monitor size is often determined by the original bezel. Older bezels were designed for 19 inch monitors so the opening is smaller, newer bezels tend to be designed to support a larger monitor and have a larger space for the monitor. But depending on the cabinet design, the actual opening location can vary quite a bit.
For my own designs, I have a few templates that I use for both vertical and horizontal games, but even then I will make adjustments based on the artwork and overall look I’m trying to achieve. So unfortunately, you will find there isn’t that much consistency in bezels, though most are roughly square.
Two levers I can pull in terms of the overall layout are the bottom wood/metal texture and the speaker panel. I can adjust the size and position of both of those. So sometimes to move a bezel down a bit I will expand the speaker panel, likewise, I can move the bezel up by expanding the bottom panel. That’s about it in terms of adjustments to placement.
I’ll try to work on a generic template next week, this weekend I won’t be around so no progress on this stuff 
When I create that generic template I can also break out the assets for you into individual files. I’ll include files for the shadows I use with some reasonable default opacity values that should help with the overall look as well.
1 Like
Galaga '88 4K Vertical Overlay
I’m not 100% certain who did the original bezel artwork here, it may have been Nightvoice from the Mameworld forums. I’ve tweaked that a bit to add elements from the control panel:
EDIT: Larger screen variation:
8 Likes
Thank you very much.
Any asset you can provide you will of great value to me.
2 Likes
Ninja Baseball Bat Man 4K Vertical layout
Many thanks to @Orionsangel for restoring the bezel and providing it to me. Also many thanks to Mr. Do for providing the source material.
Large screen version:
5 Likes
That looks so nice! Such a fun and unique game as well.
3 Likes
8 Likes
One cool thing about restoring these things and making the artwork available for overlays is when we do it for something as rare as NBBM. I was reading about this game and only 50 were originally sent to the states, and most of those were cabinet conversion kits, so the actual cabinet artwork must be incredibly scarce. It’s great to make this art accessible for anyone to enjoy when they play.
8 Likes