TheNamec - Mega Bezel Packs Amiga, Commodore 64, VIC20, CRTgaming soon

[TheNamec]

WOULD YOU MIND SUBSCRIBING THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL?

Afraid for begging, I’d like to get to 100 subscribers so I can customize the URL Thanks in advance.

FREE RYGAR INSIDE

Here’s a gameplay of Rygar unofficial Amiga AGA conversion on Mega Bezel Commodore Pack Amiga CD32 + SONY BVM-20F1U powered by Retroarch PUAE core and Mega Bezel Reflection Shader.

Rygar AGA (unofficial conversion) on Amiga CD32 - Mega Bezel Commodore Pack

Rygar: Legendary Warrior was released by Tecmo in 1986, a classic fantasy arcade hit that never found its way to Amiga machines despite the really nice Commodore64 and ZX Spectrum ports.

In 2019 team Seismic Minds with coder Mcgeezer developed its own straight-from-coinop unofficial conversion exclusively for Commodore AGA series, being A1200, A4000 and Amiga CD32 full with 30 rounds, new challenges, dual button controls, level codes system and, best of it all, the return of the iconic “Diskarmor”, a destructive chained-shield weapon.

Tip: you will find level codes and useful notes in the new game manual!

[Neofuuma]

@TheNamec

I’d like to get to 100 subscribers so I can customize the URL

Well, since you asked nicely, and it’s a video with Rygar, I just can’t refuse

I’m going to have to check out this Amiga version, it looks pretty sweet.

[Cyber]

@TheNamec

WOULD YOU MIND SUBSCRIBING THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL?

Subscribed! Good luck with the channel! Perhaps you can do some videos using my shader preset pack someday!

[TheNamec]

@Cyber

Subscribed! Good luck with the channel! Perhaps you can do some videos using my shader preset pack someday!

Thank you @Cyber , spread the word! I’d like to try a preset integration this weekend and make some test. Is there a specific IRL display that you’re trying to reproduce?

[TheNamec]

500 unique downloads!

Hey, I just realized the Mega Bezel Commodore Pack has already been downloaded 500 times, with 200 hits just for the recent RC2!

Noticed some people is still downloading the old RC1, I suppose there’s some ancient link circulating… Remember to update, as the latest revision is always fully tested against the current Mega Bezel Reflection Shader and Retroarch and is loaded with new features and content.

[Cyber]

@TheNamec

Is there a specific IRL display that you’re trying to reproduce?

No, not at all, just the imaginary ones in my head. Lol Where necessary I would put in the work to try to sort out some of the tricks and effects like dithering and transparency but my main aim is to create something that looks great to me without straying too much from the original presentation.

I also aim to eliminate anything that stands out, causes distraction and breaks the immersion. That’s what I’m after, a truly immersive experience, which appeals to my nostalgia senses and allows me to enjoy the beautiful artwork and all other aspects of these wonderful treasures!

After that my next aim is to share these presets with others, especially newer users who may not have a clue as to where to start with such an overwhelming number of preset choices available. I just want others to be able to enjoy what I enjoy.

Believe it or not, I originally started this preset tweaking stuff as a result of the newer RetroArch versions no longer supporting .cgp presets. I used to use a preset called Death To Pixels which was based on presets in the excellent Analog Shader Pack 3.0 by @solid12345 . So I wanted to find something to replace that going forward. I came across and fell in love with HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader and well the rest is history!

I grew up playing mostly on a Commodore 1702 Monitor. (It was 60Hz NTSC so correct me if I’m wrong about the model because I think there were both 50Hz and 60Hz 1702s.) I tried your preset once but I was having some strange performance issues. The frame rate seemed to be capped at 50fps for some strange reason. With that said, I might probably continue to use the plain, minimalist Mega Bezel overlay primarily but would still like to use the Commodore 1702 Bezel as a showpiece sometimes. I don’t really like the computer and console overlays as a background to the monitors though. I prefer to have a more natural setting, maybe just a dark room type of backdrop or a simple TV stand or living room decor.

Thanks for your support, appreciation and interest in my shader presets. Keep up the excellent work with your bezels!

[JHorbach1]

I don’t really like the computer and console overlays as a background to the monitors though. I prefer to have a more natural setting, maybe just a dark room type of backdrop or a simple TV stand or living room decor.

I also think a more neutral background is better with TV/Monitor, I would really love it if @TheNamec does this.

[TheNamec]

Like this one?

https://forums.libretro.com/uploads/default/original/3X/6/a/6a13e48977d05daddf1ae10fee647a9dfc62e6fe.jpeg

(Sorry, got problems uploading from cellphone)

[JHorbach1]

Exactly! That or some table, like this one:

P.S.: The only problem I saw in your example was that the colors of the background don’t band together smoothly, it can be my monitor thou.

[Cyber]

@TheNamec

Like this one?

https://forums.libretro.com/uploads/default/original/3X/6/a/6a13e48977d05daddf1ae10fee647a9dfc62e6fe.jpeg

Yep! That’s the idea!!

I play on an OLED TV so something like that might completely blend into the background at night when the room is dark leaving just the monitor and it’s contents on my TV Stand! Perfect!!

By the way what shader preset are you using in that picture? It looks good! I also like that the curvature is at an extreme minimum. Is it even on in that picture?

I’m not completely against curvature, it’s just that I haven’t really seen the illusion done correctly to convey that the image is on a curved screen in the way that it looks on an actual curved CRT. Everything so far just warps the images in very inauthentic ways in my opinion and causes severe distraction especially when games are scrolling. I don’t remember Mario or Sonic looking like they were running around in a fishbowl. I remember the screens might have been curved but horizontal lines didn’t bend upward or downward at either end and vertical lines didn’t bend inward at the ends either like in a pin cushion. Sets probably came factory calibrated to reduce any type of pin cushioning and some allowed you to further fine tune the geometry to get things as straight as possible.

[Duimon]

@Cyber

horizontal lines didn’t bend upward or downward at either end and vertical lines didn’t bend inward at the ends either like in a pin cushion.

Actually, consumer color CRT TVs didn’t have scanlines, or really any type of visible mask, until the very late days of CRT TVs.

If you got really close you could see the sub pixels, especially if the divergence was in need of calibration.

My father was a TV repairman. I saw GE, Magnavox, RCA, and Zenith, but in all my youth I never saw a Trinitron. ( Smaller TVs were brands like Craig, Goldstar, Philco, Philips, and eventually SONY.)

The first time a saw a Trinitron was a PC CRT in the 90’s and the first BVM I saw was a SONY in 1998-ish. (Many years after my father had moved on to repairing other electronics. Solid State circuitry completely changed the TV repair business, board level repair just wasn’t done anymore.)

From my perspective, CRT enthusiasts that call their toys “Vintage”, is a bit like seeing a vintage cell phone for sale on Ebay.

This is the main reason I chose the RCA and HMV as my two vintage TV graphics. (All the existing generic TV overlays were based on much newer TVs.)

@JHorbach1

I also think a more neutral background is better with TV/Monitor, I would really love it if @TheNamec does this.

I don’t want to sound harsh, but I think us supplying presets is maybe doing the Mega Bezel a kind of disservice. Consumers (The users who download our presets.) are not learning that it is a simple matter of changing a single line of text in a preset to use your favorite background.

Turn on night mode and they will blend together rather well even if they weren’t developed as a set.

Our presets are not the shader, they are just us taking advantage of it’s features. Often, on Discord, I see people referring to the Mega Bezel as “Duimon’s shaders”, not “Duimon’s presets”.

[Cyber]

@Duimon

Actually, consumer color CRT TVs didn’t have scanlines, or really any type of visible mask, until the very late days of CRT TVs.

The horizontal and vertical lines I’m referrerring to are the lines and shapes in the source material like a line or rectangular area in the graphics or on whatever object was in the picture. I don’t remember them being bent in the X or Y axes.

What about your recollection of rectangular shapes, lines and objects?

Then there’s that whole fishbowl effect during scrolling that the artificial curvature induces. I never noticed that happening when playing on a CRT and I have an old CRT monitor that I’m sure if I hook up now, it wouldn’t look like that. I think I’ll hook it up one of these days just to make sure I’m not deluding myself.

As for scanlines and visible masks. I really don’t remember noticing those things on my 14 (or was it 15”) Commodore 1702 and most small 13 or 14|" or even 20” TVs, I can remember noticing these things on larger displays like 27 and 32" sets and I used to feel as though my small monitor had a higher resolution because of it.

@Duimon

If you got really close you could see the sub pixels, especially if the divergence was in need of calibration.

I used to get scolded for sitting too close to the TV and usually played games from very close up. I eventually outgrew that when I was a teen but I was fascinated by the RGB subpixel arrangement. I didn’t understand how all those elements could be red blue and green, yet the image was not.

@Duimon

I don’t want to sound harsh, but I think us supplying presets is maybe doing the Mega Bezel a kind of disservice. Consumers (The users who download our presets.) are not learning that it is a simple matter of changing a single line of text in a preset to use your favorite background.

Well what might be second nature to us might be a lot more of a challenge to others. Some might be knowledgeable and familiar in some areas but unfamiliar in others. It all depends on one’s focus at the time. I like making these techie stuff as accessible as possible so that more can enjoy and share in what makes me happy.

[Duimon]

I really don’t want to belabor the issue but I was intentionally referencing vintage TVs in my dialog.

Here is a video of Mario 64 on a 1973 RCA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwt10u16R0g

One hell of a lot of distortion going on.

@Cyber

I have an old CRT monitor

Yeah that was kind of my point with the cell phone reference any CRT monitor is going to be much newer than a vintage TV. How many 1973 CRT monitors are there floating around.

Every consumer computer was solid state. I remember many times, helping my father fish through a box of vacuum tubes, trying to find a compatible replacement from the conversion catalog.

I also remember bridging broken trace on old single layer TV PCBs.

One of the features of the Mega Bezel is independent curvature. Using this you can retain curvature for the bezel but eliminate it for the screen.

@HyperspaceMadness really does try think of all possible scenarios.

@TheNamec I am really excited about this BVM/PVM shader settings thing. I am sure that @guest.r and his contemporaries were thinking along these lines with the various masks. Maybe we could enlist their cooperation?

[Cyber]

@Duimon

Yeah that was kind of my point with the cell phone reference any CRT monitor is going to be much newer than a vintage TV. How many 1973 CRT monitors are there floating around.

Well “old” is relative and contextual. That monitor was never one that I would have been referring to from my memories or accounts. It was actually a giveaway from a customer of mine that I used to use when doing PC repairs exclisively. The monitor that I usually refer to is an old Commodore 1702, from circa 1985. I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s so sets of those eras would be what I was used to. My neighbour had a huge Zenith I think that looked like it could have come from the 70’s though.

@Duimon

One of the features of the Mega Bezel is independent curvature. Using this you can retain curvature for the bezel but eliminate it for the screen.

I’m aware of this. I’m cool with the perfect screen and bezel geometry of the curvature off setting though. If I were to use this setting, I’d probably have to zoom the screen in and crop off all of the overscan and hopefully not too much of the content in the process but I’m not obsessed with getting things to look as vintage as possible. I don’t mind a hybrid approach, where modern technology is embraced to have something that is probably just as good if not better than the old CRTs in some ways in terms of overall presentation.

@Duimon

Here is a video of Mario 64 on a 1973 RCA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwt10u16R0g

One hell of a lot of distortion going on.

Don’t want to nitpick here and I’m definitely not a physicist but perhaps this isn’t the best example to illustrate this point about distortion. I say this because of the perspective of the camera. It’s being filmed from an angle way above the screen and that may actually be exaggerating and inducing further distortion in the geometry. You can see this if you observe the curvature of the top and compare it to the bottom of the screen. The bottom appears more curved than the top as far as I can tell. A fairer choice might have been one with the camera dead on center of the screen. Perhaps the curvature might have appeared more in the Z axis as a result instead of in the X and Y axes. What do you think?

@Duimon

@HyperspaceMadness really does try think of all possible scenarios.

Yes he is a boss!..and you, @TheNamec, @Orionsangel, @Nesguy, @solid12345 and @guest.r too of course! And so are all the other contributors to this scene and RetroArch in general! A multitude of talents and disciplines all coming together to make something great! I salute and thank you all! I don’t know if you can understand how happy I am and how much it means to me to play my games using this HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader together with my presets. Words alone can hardly describe the feeling!

[TheNamec]

Wow, lots of things to talk about!

@Cyber

what shader preset are you using in that picture? It looks good! I also like that the curvature is at an extreme minimum. Is it even on in that picture?

It’s my ADVANCED custom preset, nice visible pixels with a little smooth to blend it all together. Curvature is a 2D fake cylinder, to mimic those high performance PVM/BVM, I used to set higher values for older Commodore Displays.

My general idea is to enhance the visual while “suggesting” some of the best aspects of CRT displays. Clearly, this means we don’t have to suffer the limitations of old hardware, we just have to mix the best of it for a modernized experience. In fact, I don’t design 1:1 bezels, I try to get the right amount of gameplay area while keeping nice bezels in the viewport. Testing & Composing is a precise step in my workflow and requires lots of adjustements of the vector drawing. But hey, I’m getting faster and faster at it!

@JHorbach1

I also think a more neutral background is better with TV/Monitor

@JHorbach1

That or some table, like this one

Ahaha, you’ll make mr. @soqueroeu proud! We discussed about it in the past, it’s a philosophy of design: I’ve always been a ‘desktop’ gamer, meaning I’m more used to have a bigger monitor close to my face, while @soqueroeu captured the ‘couch’ gamer visual, with smaller display and some furniture.But while I love it and appreciate its complex composition, I think it sacrifices too much of the gameplay area.

So I will come up with my own ‘Retrowalls Project’ (provisional name) to make at least the display fully visible, with some original solution for unobstrusive, eye-friendly backgrouds. It’s been in the working for months, the capture with the dark background I posted is a part of it (it’s called ‘dark stucco’ preset). So… expect surprises in the future.

@Cyber

The horizontal and vertical lines I’m referrerring to are the lines and shapes in the source material like a line or rectangular area in the graphics or on whatever object was in the picture. I don’t remember them being bent in the X or Y axes.

Problem is: thanks to @guest.r and @HyperspaceMadness (and countless shaders contributors) we may try to implement many kinds of grills/masks, scanlines and artifacts in post-processing but… will it be enjoyable? Will it even be VISIBLE, taking account of LCD/OLED tecnology we use to reproduce it? Were we really playing so close to displays as kids to appreciate every single bloomy pixel? I don’t think so.

What I’m doing here is trying to create suggestion, respect original artists vision, not just making a scanline museum! But I have to take lessons from real hardware, to perfect the layers of my own visual language.

@Duimon

@TheNamec I am really excited about this BVM/PVM shader settings thing. I am sure that @guest.r and his contemporaries were thinking along these lines with the various masks. Maybe we could enlist their cooperation?

I believe this is our next quest along the road for defining a nice base for our presets. I’ve been taking some beating on Reddit for my presets pretending to be too much ‘retro’ with unnecessary effects… hence the idea to come closer to real PVM/BVM with the help of people who actually owns (and properly set up) the displays. We’ll need as much help as we can get!

@Cyber

I don’t know if you can understand how happy I am and how much it means to me to play my games using this HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader together with my presets. Words alone can hardly describe the feeling!

It’s a pretty exciting ride, considering we came from much different professional roots, sensibilities and experiences, from all over the world. We all have fun giving our contribute, extending our limits and aiming higher. I started less than a year ago with my personal Amiga500 presets, now I have parallel projects interleaving and I’m part of an exquisite team of lovely retro-experiences builders.

I’m proud of it.

[Cyber]

@TheNamec

@Cyber

The horizontal and vertical lines I’m referrerring to are the lines and shapes in the source material like a line or rectangular area in the graphics or on whatever object was in the picture. I don’t remember them being bent in the X or Y axes.

Problem is: thanks to @guest.r and @HyperspaceMadness (and countless shaders contributors) we may try to implement many kinds of grills/masks, scanlines and artifacts in post-processing but… will it be enjoyable? Will it even be VISIBLE, taking account of LCD/OLED tecnology we use to reproduce it? Were we really playing so close to displays as kids to appreciate every single bloomy pixel? I don’t think so.

I see you quoted this statement I made about lines and shapes then proceeded to speak about scanlines, grills/masks and artifacts. I hope my statement wasn’t misunderstood as I was referring to graphics from a game or an object in a game or show not appearing geometrically distorted despite being displayed on a curved screen.

@TheNamec

It’s my ADVANCED custom preset, nice visible pixels with a little smooth to blend it all together. Curvature is a 2D fake cylinder, to mimic those high performance PVM/BVM, I used to set higher values for older Commodore Displays.

My general idea is to enhance the visual while “suggesting” some of the best aspects of CRT displays. Clearly, this means we don’t have to suffer the limitations of old hardware, we just have to mix the best of it for a modernized experience. In fact, I don’t design 1:1 bezels, I try to get the right amount of gameplay area while keeping nice bezels in the viewport. Testing & Composing is a precise step in my workflow and requires lots of adjustements of the vector drawing. But hey, I’m getting faster and faster at it!

I’m in agreement with your idea of enhancing the visual while “suggesting” some of the best aspects of CRT displays. I’ve said that I’m after a CRT-like experience (in my presets) and definitely not aiming for a simulation of any specific type of screen or model.

@TheNamec

What I’m doing here is trying to create suggestion, respect original artists vision, not just making a scanline museum! But I have to take lessons from real hardware, to perfect the layers of my own visual language.

Again I agree with and support this.

@TheNamec

I believe this is our next quest along the road for defining a nice base for our presets. I’ve been taking some beating on Reddit for my presets pretending to be too much ‘retro’ with unnecessary effects… hence the idea to come closer to real PVM/BVM with the help of people who actually owns (and properly set up) the displays. We’ll need as much help as we can get!

I don’t think you should pay too much attention to what people think of your presets to the point where you feel the need to change them to suit others’ tastes. You should have your own vision and goals that might be influenced by others and evolve over time but it should never be that you’re trying to please others. What about you? Doesn’t your vision count? Don’t accept what you like any less because it may not be what you think the majority likes or even a vocal or authoritative minority. Let “you” shine through in any and everything you do.

@TheNamec

we came from much different professional roots, sensibilities and experiences

While this is true it seems like the more @Duimon speaks its the more I realize we have a lot in common. I also have memories with my dad fixing stuff. He used a crude old soldering iron but enough of that still rubbed off on me to spark an interest in electronics repair. I have repaired cracked amp boards using jumper wires in the past and right now I’m replacing a trace on a laptop motherboard. Hopefully it won’t all come apart when I try to resolder the LQFP chip back in place.

Keep up the excellent work and the enthusiasm! It is appreciated. Love the YouTube channel touch! @Orionsangel 's own is awesome as well! I forgot to mention @soqueroeu in my earlier salute, another boss as well! I’ve switched back and forth between being a couch and desktop gamer and now I’m a sort of hybrid - A Home Theater PC gamer!

@TheNamec

I’d like to try a preset integration this weekend and make some test.

By the way, this is on the HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader to-do list. Just thought I’d mention that in case you didn’t realize.

[TheNamec]

@Cyber

I hope my statement wasn’t misunderstood as I was referring to graphics from a game or an object in a game or show not appearing geometrically distorted despite being displayed on a curved screen.

It’s fine, I took the argument of “distortion effect” to the “excess of CRT effects in post-processing”

@Cyber

What about you? Doesn’t your vision count? Don’t accept what you like any less because it may not be what you think the majority likes or even a vocal or authoritative minority. Let “you” shine through in any and everything you do.

Ahah my vision is in every bit. But to avoid my design being just pure cosmetic , I have to take care of feedback, elaborate on it and try to come up with some innovation. In some way, this Libretro thread is my ‘safe house’: nice people, even nicer team to confront with… but “in the wild” there’s real criticism, and you’d be surprised how many good ideas (and consolidated processes) can come up after a bad argument.

After all, we’re creative minds!

[TheNamec]

THE FIRST-BORN: AMIGA 1000

Following the discussion on Libretro thread, I decided to test some ‘ambient’ solutions with the Amiga 1000.

My tipical design for the background layer is a top-down view: many beloved Commodore machines have embedded keyboards (A500, A600, A1200) and top loaders (ACD32) so all of the interesting elements are seen from a top perspective!

This is not the case for some of the PC-like models with a frontal customizable plauqe and detached keyboard (A1000, A2000, A3000, A4000) so I preferred to avoid these, for design reasons and for their minor resonance (and diffusion) in the gaming fanbase.

Well, until now.

Of course I had to go creative to fill the gaps in the sides, but I think the final result is quite nice and works well with the horizontal responsive feature. This design also includes the external A1010 floppy disk drive, as it was the perfect match for the Amiga 1000 (in fact they were interchangeable).

Some IRL photos for reference

Coming soon in RC3

[TheNamec]

The most shameless and desired clone. Enter Giana Sisters Special Edition!

Here’s a gameplay of The Great Giana Sisters Special Edition AGA rebuild on Retroarch overlay Amiga 1200 + Commodore C1084S-D1 from TheNamec Mega Bezel Commodore Pack. Featuring Death to Pixels Arcade Sharp post-processing by @Cyber lab.

Giana Sisters Special Edition AGA (remake/hack) on Amiga 1200 + C1084S - Mega...

In the late eighties, if you were a gamer you had two paths you could go by: to be a console couch gamer or to steal your parents PC to have some fun! At that time, lot of console ports come to Amiga, but Nintendo games were undoubtedly a prohibited dream.

It was 1986. Manfred Trenz, the future father of Turrican, became involved in a project without precedents: a clone of Super Mario Bros so shameless and so desired by people that it could be a nice commercial idea. Problem being that Rainbow Arts team went too far with “inspiration” to the “reference materiale” and copied not only gameplay principles, but even graphics and level design!

With a memorable original soundtrack by master Chris Huelsbeck, a legendary (never happened) lawsuit by Nintendo and 36 levels of twisted dreams, The Great Giana Sisters was success on both Commodore 64 and Amiga, despite being quickly retired from stores. Of course, Giana Sisters Amiga port deserved better graphics but because of its troubled history we’re lucky it was actually released!

In 2018 Pixelglass Games updated the game hacking in new content from the DS remake, resulting in a really nice unofficial remake with new graphics and sfx, a shiny AGA intro, the same old floaty physics and still no run button (if you are wondering about it).

The Great Giana Sisters Special Edition AGA unofficial remake is free to play.

[Duimon]

I can’t wait to try this!