How do I add MAME Bezels?

[FlightRisk]

I thought the screen insert was separate from the surrounding bezel and you could turn it off. No? In any case, easy enough in photoshop or Gimp or to edit a layer file.

[Drakkorcia]

On 7/8/2018 at 1:22 AM, damageinc86 said:

I ended up going back to metalzoic's RL universal bezel packs.  Those realistic ones were very cool, but I started to get annoyed at the amount of screen glare and scratches.  Sometimes the reflections in the screen glare were so light and bright that it began to overshadow the game.  It ended up feeling not that realistic with that aspect, since most screen glare is very subdued in a dark arcade with crt light and very dark blacks.  Those screen glare layers were taken in a brightly lit room with the "screen" turned off.  So the glare is amplified under that setting.

the other thing I ended up not liking was the very small gameplay screen area that is used in order to accommodate most of the cabinet and bordering cabinet with background stuff.  With the RL packs, the gameplay area is maximized.

Same. Love the authentic bezel but the small gameplay area and the side cabinet backgrounds were frustrating for me. Regardless, the time and effort is remarkable and appreciated.

[vaderag]

I want to follow up the super useful info in this thread with an additional question...

I have the Mame bezel set from Emumovies and they work seamlessly from the artwork folder, but the problem I have is they shrink the game

I'd like to use them but actually have the top and bottom cropped off so that I'm just adding to the sides (i.e. the game is maxed 4:3 but my additional 16x10 space is used by the side of the bezels) - is there a way to do this?

I'm 99% certain I managed to do this with Rocket Launcher and Hyperspin back in the day but trying to do a fresh clean setup with solely Launchbox

Thanks!

 

EDIT: artwork_crop  1
in mame.ini

Edited August 26, 2021 by vaderag

[totoro]

Which is the most complete Bezel collection for MAME in January 2022?

I´m a little confused.

I found:

Emumovies: MAME Artwork Pack .201

Emumovies: MAME Unified Bezel Packs 1-6 by Metalzoic

Mr Do Homepage (about 1500 Artworks)

The Bezel Project (no idea how many)

...probably many more

And yeah, I´m no fan of realistic bezels, since I don´t want crazy sunlight spots on my gameplay, that´s a real life problem that doesn´t need to be emulated anyway. I grew up with CRT and don´t want it back, so all that CRT-emulation is not what I ask for as well.

On most screenshots and videos I think the gameplay window is too small or there are some CRT-curves/effects on the screen. I don´t want that, just a crystal clear square image like you would start your game in MAME normally, nice and flat with just the black bars replaced by bezels.

Which of these sets (or any other I didn´t list) covers the most games nicely and what settings need to get changed? Will artwork_crop 1 work with any of these sets in mame.ini?

[Headrush69]

On 1/12/2022 at 8:11 PM, totoro said:

Which is the most complete Bezel collection for MAME in January 2022?

I´m a little confused.

I found:

Emumovies: MAME Artwork Pack .201

Emumovies: MAME Unified Bezel Packs 1-6 by Metalzoic

Mr Do Homepage (about 1500 Artworks)

The Bezel Project (no idea how many)

...probably many more

And yeah, I´m no fan of realistic bezels, since I don´t want crazy sunlight spots on my gameplay, that´s a real life problem that doesn´t need to be emulated anyway. I grew up with CRT and don´t want it back, so all that CRT-emulation is not what I ask for as well...

Which of these sets (or any other I didn´t list) covers the most games nicely and what settings need to get changed? Will artwork_crop 1 work with any of these sets in mame.ini?

Based on what you said, the Bezel Project probably will serve you best. It's installer will take care of setting things up right for you.

If you are missing some, you can than check the MAME artwork or Mr. Do's. These you will have to install manually into your MAME artwork folder. Some of these might contain animated elements in the bezel  and might include things like marquess and control panels. These can all be disabled/enabled from within MAME, and also to zoom the bezel to the gameplay window. The bezel project bezels are all static and you shouldn't have to configure. MAME recently updated the layout system, so you might want to find a newer artwork set than 0.201. They will still work, but they are marked deprecated in favor of the new layout rules.

(I believe Mr. Do's stuff makes it into the official artwork. If I remember correctly, I think the Unified ones are for Rocketlauncher)

 

[totoro]

@Headrush69

Thanks. I was getting the artwork hosted by progetto-snaps since at least for MAME everything seems to by combined by different authors including Bezel Project, maybe some Mr. Do-Stuff and official artwork as well. So these include all bezels for Game & Watch, Slotmachines and other crazy stuff as well.

I must say, since no gameplay area seems to be cropped by the bezel project-artworks, these are the bezels of my choice mostly. But it´s nice to have the option to switch to different artworks.

[Headrush69]

11 minutes ago, totoro said:

@Headrush69

Thanks. I was getting the artwork hosted by progetto-snaps since at least for MAME everything seems to by combined by different authors including Bezel Project, maybe some Mr. Do-Stuff and official artwork as well. So these include all bezels for Game & Watch, Slotmachines and other crazy stuff as well.

I must say, since no gameplay area seems to be cropped by the bezel project-artworks, these are the bezels of my choice mostly. But it´s nice to have the option to switch to different artworks.

I use to maintain up to date artwork packs from progetto as well but since I've slimmed down my MAME collection, I pick and choose from all of them now.

I also prefer the biggest size play area so generally i start with the bezel project bezels and go from there. In many cases I'll use the extra features from the Mr. Do artwork and adapt it into the bezel project bezels. (Color overlay for Star Castle, or animated shifters for racing games like Pole Position for example)

[totoro]

@Headrush69

I see, good idea. I like those Mr. Do-artworks as well. Is it safe to merge Mr Do-zipfiles with already existing artwork-zipfiles? Which tool did you use to accomplish that? I honestly don´t want to work through 1.500 zips, is there an easy batch-operated solution for this?

[Headrush69]

4 minutes ago, totoro said:

Which tool did you use to accomplish that? I honestly don´t want to work through 1.500 zips, is there an easy batch-operated solution for this?

There is no automatic tool as it's subjective which you prefer.

My suggestion would be to just use the Bezel Project files, and if you are missing a bezel, or you remember a game looking different, than just look for those games on the other sites. 

For starters most games that had color overlays you'll need to look other than the bezel project. (If you want that) 

PS: MAME made changes to the layout system and as newer artwork is being updated, there is much greater option to enable only the artwork elements you want, which is pretty powerful.