About This File
This theme is a port of the HyperSpin Unified Widescreen Megatheme project, which was originally started by gibbawho and continued by many other talented artists over the years. It’s supposed to bring a unified look (hence the name) across all platforms while giving every platform it’s own individual touch.
I’ve tried to stay very close to the original look and feel but also took some creative freedom, especially when it comes to the new fading info panel at the bottom of the screen.
This theme was designed for 16:9 screens and display resolutions only. Big Box will automatically scale itself to a 16:9 aspect ratio when you use a different aspect ratio on your machine.
Features:
- Individual Artwork for a lot of different platforms and playlists + some alternatives you can choose from
- Matches with the Unified platform video set from EmuMovies
- Fully animated wheel pointer
- Spinning discs for disc-based platforms
- Various other custom animations
- Templates to build your own platform artwork are included as .psd files
- Brings a small taste of the HyperSpin feeling to your Big Box setup
Currently featured Views:
- Games Text List View: 3D Box
- Games Vertical Wheel View 1: 3D Box
- Games Vertical Wheel View 2: 3D Box + static cart/disc
- Games Vertical Wheel View 3: 3D Box + rotating disc
- Games Vertical Wheel View 4: Fullscreen video
- Platform Vertical Wheel View 1: Fullscreen video + scrolling text
- Platform Vertical Wheel View 2: Fullscreen video without scrolling text
More Views are planned, so stay tuned.
The theme includes artwork for the following 498 Platforms/Playlists:
The theme will also display a default artwork for Platforms/Playlists which are not yet covered or wrongly named.
How to install:
This theme only works on LaunchBox version 9.4 or higher!
- Just download the archive and extract it to: “..\LaunchBox\Themes\”
- Go to the “Plugins” folder inside of the extracted folder and right-click on the .dll file. Choose Properties -> Click on “Unblock” at the bottom of the window. Close the window. If the "Unblock" button isn't there than you are already good to go.
- Open the Options menu in Big Box -> go to “Views” and change the Theme to "Unified".
- Change the “Games List View” and “Platforms List View” to one of the currently featured Views that are listed above.
- Make sure that in the Big Box Options -> Views –> “Show Games List Title” is enabled.
Info: Never rename the theme folder! The theme folder has to be named exactly "Unified" or the theme won't work properly! (that's btw. an universal tip for all other themes as well)
Known issues:
The logo of the Platform/Playlist and the individual video border don't show up in the Game Details screen and the theme displays the generic Big Box logo and metallic video border instead when it gets opened through any other Games View than the Text List View.
Tips for tweaking your LaunchBox setup for this theme:
- In LaunchBox: Tools -> Options -> Cart Front Priorities -> Select all Cart and Disc related entries, deselect everything else.
- In Big Box: Options ->Transitions -> Change "Game Image/Video Transition” to “Fade”
- In Big Box: To avoid spinning cart art go to: Options -> Views -> Make sure that „Remember separate View for each platform” is checked. Than go either to the Keyboard Mappings or the Controller Buttons settings and set up a key/button for “Switch View”. Now you can go back to your platforms and switch the games Views for each platform individually on the fly.
- Use the Unified Platform videos from EmuMovies for an overall uniform look. You can either download them as free user from the EmuMovies website or if you are an EmuMovies premium user you can get them directly through LaunchBox under: Tools -> "Download Platform/Playlist Theme Videos".
Individual platform artwork not showing up?:
The media files that are inside the “..\LaunchBox\Themes\Unified\Images\Theme\..” folder have to be named exactly like your platforms inside LaunchBox. I've went with the HyperList/RocketLauncher naming conventions for the filenames in this package.
If Big Box doesn’t show any individual artwork for a system that is listed above you may need to manually rename the relevant files for that platform in all four sub-folders.
Also make sure that in the Big Box Options -> Views –> “Show Games List Title” is enabled!
Discs are not spinning / showing up?:
Make sure you have the right Games List View selected and Disc images in your Cart Image Priorities enabled (see the tips section of this download description).
Thanks and Credits:
- @ninja2bceen for creating the default and various other pointers
-
All the artists who created the original HyperSpin themes, pointers and other work that helped me to create this theme (please contact me if I have forgotten someone!):
- Gibbawho
- @Styphelus
- Unknown50862
- @Klopjero
- Neonrage
- @knewlife
- @Creloce
- Ghostlost https://www.youtube.com/user/GhostlostGames
- @ninja2bceen
- @THK
- adamg
- @RetroHumanoid http://retrohumanoid.weebly.com/
- Rkh
- Rondar
- @scooter1974
- Zinger19
- Aloner187
- @guyverjay
- MetalThrix
- SophT
- Ledgerewskie
- hoscarconh https://www.youtube.com/user/hoscarconh
- @viking
- @bmonomad
- @Jason Carr
What's New in Version 1.2 See changelog
Released
v1.2 - 02.13.2019 - requires LB v9.4 or higher
- General: The Add-on package was merged with the main theme. All media is now included in a single package
- Removed: The weather plugin by @Grila was removed as it's being broken at the moment
- Removed: The HelperControl plugin was removed as its functions are now integrated in Big Box itself
- Updated: The theme was updated and tested for the new theming engine changes in LB v9.4
- Updated: All backgrounds were converted to maximum-quality JPEGs; reducing their size drastically (thanks @JasonCarr for the tip)
If you have added and/or renamed some background images before you have to convert them to JPEG as well! Sorry for the inconvinience
- Updated: Some backgrounds were replaced with new ones (the old ones were moved to the "Alt" folder) (thanks @RetroHumanoid)
- Updated: The TextList Games View now uses the normal Game Boxes element, which means that you can now switch there between the Image Types (and probably have to if you want to use 3D Boxes)
-Fixed: Due to the above change does the "Flip Box" function now work again in the Games Details screen if you have "2D Boxes" selected as your current Image Type
- Updated: The Main Menu and Option Views now feature custom artwork + there is finally a logo for the theme (in the style of the HyperSpin logo). Thanks @dragon57
- Updated: The size and position of the wheel was changed a bit. It's now farther away from the pointer and therefore it's not overlapping it all the time. Also it fades away more smothly now.
- Updated: All Clear Logos, Boxart, Carts and Discs now have a slight Drop Shadow (thanks @Jason Carr)
- Updated: The sizes of the Box and Cart/Disc Art were slightly changed throughout all Views
- Fixed: Top bar modified to prevent triangle corner overlap issues (thanks @JasonCarr)
- Fixed: The TextList list is now over the Platform/Playlist logo and doesn't get covered from very wide logos anymore.
- Fixed: The Cart and Disc art now appears in higher quality
- Fixed: The theme didn’t showed the proper artwork for playlists in some cases
- Added: A bunch of new icons were added/replaced (thanks @ bmonomad)
- Replaced the icon for favorite games
- New icon for completed games
- The rating was replaced with star icons
- Added: Logos and backgrounds for 3 new playlists were added. (thanks @RetroHumanoid)
- Ball & Paddle Games
- Maze Games
- Multigame
Add-on package v1.1 - 05.05.2018
- Artwork for 200(!) new collections created by @RetroHumanoid were added to the Add-On package
v1.1.1 - 04.15.2018 - requires LB v8.2 or higher
- Fixed: The video in the Text List Games View was off-centered in all display resolutions besides 1920x1080.
v1.1 - 04.15.2018 - requires LB v8.2 or higher
- General: Introducing the first release of the official Unified Add-on package. It features complete artwork for 95 Playlists; all created by @RetroHumanoid
- Updated: The TextList for the whole theme was revamped
- Updated: The Clear Logos in the wheels are now slanted for a more authentic HyperSpin feeling
- Updated: The "Vertical Wheel 4" View and all Platforms Views are now stretching the videos to fill the whole screen for a more authentic HyperSpin feeling
- Updated: The timings for switching between the game title and additional game metadata were slightly reduced for the "Vertical Wheel 4" View
- Updated: The year of release in the Games Views was moved behind the game title
- Added: The community rating was added to the additional game metadata line
- Added: A new Games View was added: Text List
- Added: The changelog was added as .txt file inside the theme folder
- Added: A guide for setting up the weather plugin was added as .pdf file inside the theme folder
- Added: Pointers were added for all platforms that were previously missing them. All platforms now have a complete artwork set
- Added: An alternative background and logo for the Commodore Amiga CD32 was added (by @reaper595)
- Added: Artwork for 14 new platforms was added. The theme now includes artwork for 198 platforms total!
- Big Fish Games
- Commodore PET
- Creatronic Mega Duck
- GOG
- HBMAME
- Java Games
- Nintendo Super Game Boy
- OUYA
- Origin
- Pinball Arcade
- Sony PlayStation Minis
- Steam
- Uplay
- Visual Pinball
v1.0 - 04.01.2018 - requires LB v8.0 or higher
- Initial release
