Bezels

[Drybonz]

Does anyone know of a source for some nice classic looking default bezels for MAME (for the games that don't have artwork)? Or some widescreen format bezels? Been searching quite a bit today and can't find anything. Any help is appreciated.

[fromlostdays]

Try the rocketlauncher forums. You'll be surprised.

[spycat]

And see here too. http://arcadeartwork.org/index.php?/category/17

[Drybonz]

Thanks guys... I did find some stuff on the RL forums, but unfortunately it's stuff that requires RL, which is too complicated for me. I'm looking for the basic MAME .lay file stuff. I have a basic pack I got from Mr. Do's or some other place but it has many, many missing games and no default generic bezels. Thanks again.

[SentaiBrad]

Information on these .lay files: http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/LAY_File_Basics_-_Part_I A "Simple" generator for these files for users to create: http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame_lay.php

[Drybonz]

SentaiBrad said A "Simple" generator for these files for users to create: http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame_lay.php

Nice... thank you. I may have to try it if I can't find some pre-mades.

[spycat]

Try these packs. They are customised for 16:9, but could be reworked for 16:10 if needed. When installed, 3 new settings are added to the Video Options menu. http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?9558-MAME4droid-DIY-artwork

[Drybonz]

Thanks... I am checking these out. Any new source is appreciated. It looks like it's going to be hard to find any bezels (even re-worked ones) that don't appear on Mr. Do's site... so I need to get a default one set up for games that don't have official art.

[spycat]

For default ones, one for vertical games and another for horizontal ones, see the link. http://www.jammaplus.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=62800&title=mame-virtual-cab-widescreen-artwork The trick is in getting Mame to see that there is no artwork available for a particular game and use your default. To do this the default artwork needs to be a part of Mame, so you need to compile your own Mame. Scroll down through the link for help on this. If compiling is out then you could just make copies of your default artwork and rename to match all the games that have no artwork. The only easy way I know of getting Mame to use one artwork for several games is where the artwork zip is named to match a particular bios. If you made an artwork and named it neogeo.zip, then all your games that use the neogeo bios will recognise it. It may not automatically appear on first run like a custom one would, but you can set it in the Mame Videos Options menu. Any neogeo game that has it's own artwork would, of course, use this instead of your neogeo generic one.

[SentaiBrad]

I've also read that it can impact performance on which version of MAME you use, which fork of MAME or the specific game. So just something to keep in mind if you get performance drops.

[Drybonz]

scree said The trick is in getting Mame to see that there is no artwork available for a particular game and use your default. To do this the default artwork needs to be a part of Mame, so you need to compile your own Mame. Scroll down through the link for help on this.

Hmm... I guess I'm either going to have to figure out how to compile MAME or figure out how to run RocketLauncher. RL will probably be the most flexible in the long run for bezels.

[SentaiBrad]

If all you want is Bezels though I am unsure if just adding RL for this 1 function is worth it. From all accounts I hear it is a PITA. We're working on archive decompression so that takes another feature that RL could have been used for, and granted we're not fully there yet obviously. Also, this feature is totally in RetroArch. They call them Overlays. I covered this in the GBA Tutorial on the channel.

[SentaiBrad]

http://excellentcontent.com/xbart/

[Drybonz]

Ok, maybe I will have to get MAME set up in RA then. Lots of options.

[SentaiBrad]

They're also finicky in RA, don't get me wrong. xD You would load it 1 by 1 in RetroArch, but there is automatic loading of these files by MAME. The Bezel or Overlay file for MAME is just named based on the game, found, then loaded up. The site I posted has a lot of them and some info. They're 1 by 1 downloads but DownThemAll or JDownloader 2 can batch download them all. RA's solution is more concrete though, you just go in to the Overlay's menu and set them up then change the size or position of the game inside the window if need be. Like I said, I did cover this in the GBA tutorial if you want some examples.

[spycat]

I forgot to mention it, but you can also use artwork files to apply bezels to the non-arcade (Mess) side of Mame. Unlike the Mame bezels which are for individual games, the Mess ones apply across a system. So the Mess nes.zip artwork will apply to all your Nintendo NES games emulated with Mame. You can find Mess artwork on the web, but while some of it is good, a lot of it uses poor quality pngs. If you're into DIY, the name of the zip and the lay file inside it need to match the Mame (Mess) shortname for the system. I don't normally use bezels, as I play games on my laptop using the laptop's screen. Bezels, especially the ones for horizontal games, reduce the game screen area too much for me. They do look good on a 40" TV, however. Also, if you're going to go down the road of making your own bezels, you can probably forget about actual game playing for a long time!

[SentaiBrad]

scree said I forgot to mention it, but you can also use artwork files to apply bezels to the non-arcade (Mess) side of Mame. Unlike the Mame bezels which are for individual games, the Mess ones apply across a system. So the Mess nes.zip artwork will apply to all your Nintendo NES games emulated with Mame. You can find Mess artwork on the web, but while some of it is good, a lot of it uses poor quality pngs. If you're into DIY, the name of the zip and the lay file inside it need to match the Mame (Mess) shortname for the system. I don't normally use bezels, as I play games on my laptop using the laptop's screen. Bezels, especially the ones for horizontal games, reduce the game screen area too much for me. They do look good on a 40" TV, however. Also, if you're going to go down the road of making your own bezels, you can probably forget about actual game playing for a long time!

That's why I thought that php applet that helps users create these Overlays was awesome. RetroArch has a similar thing though, if you set up an overlay for a core, it's saved in the RA config or the special config you have loaded. So you can make your handheld systems be surrounded by the image of the console. There's TV's in the default install to. You can find more specialized ones online too based on games.

[MattHenry]

Sorry guys, noob here and Brad quit taking my emails and directed me here :) So I bought this "hyperspin" machine off of a guy and I have all of the files needed, Hyper didn't come set up as it was supposed to and I got tired of messing with it and found Launchbox (which has been a Godsend of ease). I'm using MameUI64, on Hyper all of my bezels come up when I load a rom. In Launchbox they do not and I can't find any good help of or walkthough of using all of these files with Mame. Sorry if this sounds like an amateur hour question, but after two days of messing with it, I thought I would take Brad's advice and sign up here... And being 34 and not a tech guru, please do not recommend me to use Mess or Retroarch. I've spent way too much money on this computer, cabinet and recroom masters controller and have it all dialed in as is. I just need to know how to work these files I have in the Mame emulator since they are not running through hyper anymore I'm guessing.

[Drybonz]

Hey Matt... if you have all your directories set up right then you should be able to press tab while in a MAME game and bring up the in-game menu... then go to video options and you can enable and select your bezels from there.

[SentaiBrad]

MattHenry said Sorry guys, noob here and Brad quit taking my emails and directed me here :) So I bought this "hyperspin" machine off of a guy and I have all of the files needed, Hyper didn't come set up as it was supposed to and I got tired of messing with it and found Launchbox (which has been a Godsend of ease). I'm using MameUI64, on Hyper all of my bezels come up when I load a rom. In Launchbox they do not and I can't find any good help of or walkthough of using all of these files with Mame. Sorry if this sounds like an amateur hour question, but after two days of messing with it, I thought I would take Brad's advice and sign up here... And being 34 and not a tech guru, please do not recommend me to use Mess or Retroarch. I've spent way too much money on this computer, cabinet and recroom masters controller and have it all dialed in as is. I just need to know how to work these files I have in the Mame emulator since they are not running through hyper anymore I'm guessing.

I'm sorry if it seemed like I didn't want to take your e-mails, I am more than happy to actually. I just know that the forums are riddled with people and topics like this where answers to questions already exist. My suggestion of the forum was honestly so that you can get the best experience possible and have the full access of all of the great minds here. I never want to seem like I am unapproachable by anyone on our forums or through our support e-mail. So I am sorry if that is what happened here. Though Derek here knew the exact answer to your question and we have people who specialize in a lot of area's. I want all users to utilize our forums so that they know what to do. Here there is no such thing as a noob question. Like I said before, we want everyone to be able to enjoy their games as much as possible.