Thank you so much for sharing!
Welcome, and you are welcome. Doing overlay versions has been one of my priorities since I started this project.
Here is a WIP of the Atari 65XE.
I am re-using much of my XEGS assets, so it is beige by design and I am exporting separate layers and mastering in Photoshop. Since I began using Photoshop for color adjustments my life has gotten MUCH easier.
As you can see I have taken a few liberties. The keyboard is a bit wider, so the buttons don’t quite line up like the real thing. I also added a second decal for a 65XE logo so we know what we are looking at.
I will do a vintage monitor and post some more shots.
On another positive note… the ST should be relatively easy to do using this as a source.
Magnificent, it is super beautiful, I almost fell to tears, thank you very much I knew it would be worth it
My friend… since they are virtually identical, and I did this for you, would you like me to change the 65XE text to say 130XE?
@akuma22 I went ahead and made the change for you!
And here is a WIP of the Atari ST (4160 STE).
This was no walk in the park after all. Moving the pieces around and resizing them, even with effects resolution reduced to 72dpi, brought my system to it’s knees. It was VERY slow going.
I have ordered an additional 32GB of system RAM to bring my total up to 64GB. I hope it gives Illustrator some room to breathe.
I will finish up the Atari stuff shortly. Next on the list of RA core graphics is the Sharp X1. After that is the SEGA Pico.
Believe it or not, (I’m not sure I do. ) after the next two are done I will be down to the Amiga stuff at the end of my RA core list.
There are 7 of them though so it will be a while before I start on the MAME SL graphics.
A lot of the Amiga graphics will be like these last few… lot’s of tedious creation of keyboard details. I may skip ahead to the Amiga 4000 when it starts to get tiresome.
I am also thinking I may break away from my list order and do the FM-Towns early. (It is just so damn sexy!)
I don’t care, you can leave it like that if you want, the only difference between one and the other is that the XE130 had more RAM, in everything else they are basically the same, both were marketed in Europe, in fact I don’t remember exactly which one I had if the XE65 or the XE130 because they were identical, but it doesn’t matter because the games were the same for both machines.
@akuma22 I went ahead and made the change for you!
And here is a WIP of the Atari ST (4160 STE).
This was no walk in the park after all. Moving the pieces around and resizing them, even with effects resolution reduced to 72dpi, brought my system to it’s knees. It was VERY slow going.
I have ordered an additional 32GB of system RAM to bring my total up to 64GB. I hope it gives Illustrator some room to breathe.
I will finish up the Atari stuff shortly. Next on the list of RA core graphics is the Sharp X1. After that is the SEGA Pico.
Believe it or not, (I’m not sure I do. ) after the next two are done I will be down to the Amiga stuff at the end of my RA core list.
There are 7 of them though so it will be a while before I start on the MAME SL graphics.
A lot of the Amiga graphics will be like these last few… lot’s of tedious creation of keyboard details. I may skip ahead to the Amiga 4000 when it starts to get tiresome.
I am also thinking I may break away from my list order and do the FM-Towns early. (It is just so damn sexy!)
Thank you friend, you have anticipated my answer.
I’m curious what you will do with Amiga, although Namek has set the bar very high, the one for AMIGA CD32 makes me have erections
FMTOWNS is a very attractive system, the front of that computer is tremendous I hope you have taken it into account.
From Amiga I found a graphic from 1200 but I didn’t want to do anything out of respect for Namek.
Since the 4160 STE is a pretty high-end ST, I think it makes sense to keep a high-end XE along with it.
I am going to do a vintage monitor for the XE & ST to share. If I can find on I like I may do one for the 800 also.
For the XE & ST I am doing the SC1224…
And I am thinking about the Amdek Color-II for the 800 because I think the colors will balance well.
From Amiga I found a graphic from 1200
Yeah that is from a classic set created for FS-UAE and it’s built-in theme engine. There are some really good graphics in the series. One of them was my inspiration for the Mega Bezel’s night mode.
the front of that computer is tremendous I hope you have taken it into account.
Yes I am. The Sharp X1, Amiga 4000, and FM-Towns will all be front facing graphics, like my DOSBox graphic and the NEC Computers.
Since the 4160 STE is a pretty high-end ST, I think it makes sense to keep a high-end XE along with it.
I am going to do a vintage monitor for the XE & ST to share. If I can find on I like I may do one for the 800 also.
For the XE & ST I am doing the SC1224…
Unfortunately I did not have a monitor for the XE, or so I think … the memory does not reach me that much.
Yeah that is from a classic set created for FS-UAE and it’s built-in theme engine. There are some really good graphics in the series. One of them was my inspiration for the Mega Bezel’s night mode.
Yes, they are very good but the Namek ones are incredible, the C64 has a light effect where the cassette tapes go, which is wonderful, it shows that he has worked on it a lot, I would like him to launch it now, although I understand that this takes time. I myself am taking a lot of time with MAME and I use photoshop which is nothing compared to the illustrator.
the C64 has a light effect where the cassette tapes go, which is wonderful
Yes it does. I am hoping to get my hands on his source sometime to see how he did that. He actually has many more years of experience using Illustrator than I do, although I have been given what amounts to a master class over the last year.
The FMTOWNS tower version will always seem beautiful to me
By the way, since I’m with this, with retroarch’s mame 220 not all games work, but the most important ones like super street fighter 2, Splatterhouse, Tatsujin ou, Bubble bobble, Rainbow Island, Puyo Puyo, Genocide 1 and 2 and Slammasters if they work, and many more, I have a list of those that work.
A list would save me some time when I start the R&D for my newest HTPC. Thank you.
I am hoping that the current core begins supporting the FM-Towns soon. Do you get sound with it in 220? I get no sound in Kyrandia, although the game plays fine otherwise.
BTW. The same website where you found that shot had a pic if a cylindrical monitor also.
I will be doing that as well.
What ROM source are you using with the FM-Towns? I have been converting Redump to MAME CHDs and renaming them according to the MAME SL hash xml.
A list would save me some time when I start the R&D for my newest HTPC. Thank you.
These are all the ones that work well with sound and all.
- Tatsujin Ou
- Splatterhouse
- Super street fighter 2
- Rainbow Island
- Puyo Puyo
- Bubble Bobble
- Saturday night slam masters
- Mahou daisakusen
- Genocide 1 and 2 (is a compilation that includes the two)
- Pulirula
- Flying Shark
- Image Fight
- Volfied
- Raiden
- Viewpoint
- Rayxanber
- Lemmings
- Marble Madness
- Libble Rabble
- Flashback
- Galaxy Force 2
- Super shooter towns
I am hoping that the current core begins supporting the FM-Towns soon. Do you get sound with it in 220? I get no sound in Kyrandia, although the game plays fine otherwise.
In some games the sound does not work or works badly, this is the case of New Zeland Story or Chase HQ, the New Zeland Story is playable but does not have sound effects.
BTW. The same website where you found that shot had a pic if a cylindrical monitor also.
There is also the monitor and computer version all in one, although I prefer the tower version.
What ROM source are you using with the FM-Towns? I have been converting Redump to MAME CHDs and renaming them according to the MAME SL hash xml.
I do the following, I convert the games into CHD and name it as it appears in DISK NAME, then I create a blank file with the name that appears in SOFTWARE NAME, you compress that file into a ZIP file with the same name and use the zip to load the game.
In this case it would look like this:
The games must go inside a folder called fmtowns without capital letters, I recommend that the folder is called fmtownshr because that way you use the model that had 4 megs of ram, the fmtowns comes with 2 megs of ram by default which makes it impossible play games that ask for 4 megabytes like super street fighter 2.
And finally to highlight the core issue, it will only work with the current mame core from retroarch version 1.9.1, the problem is that if you download that version and download the core, the current core will be downloaded.
The working core weighs 440 megabytes and the current ones weighed between 200 and 350, I don’t know why.
To avoid problems, I can upload the core and that’s it, it is also the mame 220 core so it will not give problems with arcade games, as long as we use the romset of the mame 220 of course.
No need for all the excess work. I am very aware of how finicky the MAME cores are… that is the very reason I am hesitant about doing graphics for it.
I have the FM-Towns running using the MAME 220 core. Since the Philips CD-i fiasco a few months back, I keep a local copy of every MAME core version I have on my various storage HDDs.
My biggest concern is that creating MAME graphics will turn into a support nightmare. I could include a readme that lists the required core version and a repository of core DLLs. But people just don’t read anything.
Couple that with the fact that you never know when the current core will start supporting a system or a new core breaks one, and it may just become a senseless hassle.
Thanks for the fmtownshr trick.
BTW. Here is a WIP of the Atari SC1224 Monitor.
It needs a bit of work. The real thing had fairly sharp edges but I feel a little roundedness might make it look better on top of the background. I also think it needs a little more drop shadow.
Setting these things up in the Standard core is quite tedious… you don’t have the option of scaling one layer and using it’s scale mode on another. Everything has to be done manually. While it is possible, I can’t help feeling that I am ignoring the reason we developed the Advanced.
@HyperspaceMadness made a few changes a while back so I am hoping I can change the reference shader with only minor parameter changes. Otherwise I will have to do everything multiple times. Oh well, the process only needs to be done once.
My biggest concern is that creating MAME graphics will turn into a support nightmare. I could include a readme that lists the required core version and a repository of core DLLs. But people just don’t read anything
Can the core version cause problems with the graphics? I thought that the core and the graphics that you make are independent and have nothing to do with it, maybe I haven’t understood it.
Setting these things up in the Standard core is quite tedious… you don’t have the option of scaling one layer and using it’s scale mode on another. Everything has to be done manually. While it is possible, I can’t help feeling that I am ignoring the reason we developed the Advanced.
What is the difference between Standard and Advanced? It may seem ridiculous but I always use the Standard ones, the Advanced ones consume more resources and that’s why I don’t use them.
Can the core version cause problems with the graphics?
No. You are assuming though, that when users can’t get the MAME core to run FM_Towns, that they will not come here and ask why. Since they are using my FM-Towns preset.
That is the nature of software development though. When I decided to release presets and not just graphics, I committed to supporting them.
What is the difference between Standard and Advanced?
There are many differences. What I am talking about here is that the Advanced have 8 image layers. Each image layer has multiple blending modes, (Add, multiply, & normal.) and they can scale in relation to each other.
So if you scale the Decal layer with the screen and you want some other layers to also scale with the screen, you can set them to scale with the Decal layer… since it is already configured. (Scaled and positioned.) As long as your source is the same scale and aspect it will automatically work.
With the Standard I have to do each layer individually, although I can use the scale and position settings from an already configured layer. It is just not automatic.
There are also HSV parameters for the Bezel Image Layer, the order in which the layers are stacked, (Z-depth.) can be changed, and each layer has multiple masking modes.
This means that we can do things with the Advanced that can’t be done with the Standard. For example, the 3DS Advanced uses the Cabinet Glass Layer to put a dark version of the controls over the default version, at 0% opacity. Changing the opacity will darken the controls.
Plus a bunch of stuff I am forgetting.
Here is another WIP on the SC1224.
I beveled some of the edges, tweaked some highlights and shadows, increased and adjusted the drop shadow, and darkened the whole thing a bit to set it apart from the background.
It is getting pretty close. (It still needs the SC1224 decal.)
Here is the final version. (I think. )
I changed the new beveling a bit and increased the drop shadow as much as I can without causing clipping. I also made some adjustments to the bezel inner and outer corners in the parameters.
I think it looks pretty cool at night, with the 3 different colored LEDs.
For people who want a little vintage flare but a bigger screen, this can scale so…
Even though this Monitor was designed for the ST, I will also be adding a preset to the XE, since the monitor reflects both systems.
Next let’s see what I can do with the Amdek monitor.
BTW. There is nothing the DOSBox monitor setup has that this one doesn’t, so I can add the vintage monitor to the DOSBox Standard.