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Arcade 3D Boxes 2.0 project W.I.P.


Mr. RetroLust

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Hi all,

I love @Robin55 work on the mame 3D boxes, I also love the 3D boxes by @spycat and @MadK9 a lot! So I wanted to make something in between this with a more darker colored Mame box variant while I await Spycats and MadK9's boxes for the future (can't wait! :) ). I got to talking with Robin for permission to overhaul his Mame boxes and he helped me out a lot with all my questions and on the automation process, thanks for everything bro! This project can be seen as a joint project as I couldn't have done this without his work and help. Also credit goes out to @spycat as I used the Universal Game Case as a base to work from and changed it, whom should I ask permission for for this box case? as I see more people use it, did you create it @MadK9?

Now I like to keep this project as automated as possible as I'm already doing manual work on the Arcade Cabinets Project 2.0, a lot of work those 4000+ images and research I tell you ? The best results will always be gotten by manual work but I wanted to try what I could do quality wise in automation. I used Robin's packs from Emumovies for the boxes and the game logo's from Emumovies as they both have the Mame shorthand filenames, I like to use these filenames for better syncing in the automation process and wider compatibility reasons but most importantly I don't have the full mame set so am unable to create a full set to release, I realize there are more versions of Robins boxes and game logo's on the launchbox database than on emumovies but I can't figure out how to convert these files to mame shorthand filenames automatically, is there any smart person or way out there that could help me out on this? @Jason Carr ? 

A few more questions in which I really hope people could help me out with to make this project work out, you will be added to the finished projects credits.

1. 1943 3d box on the launchbox database is a good example where a poster or side art was used instead of the flyer on the launchbox database. Is there a way to download these but keep or convert them to the mame shorthand filename? Same goes for logo's which are present in the launchbox database but it would be too much work to manually edit these filenames from launchbox to mame. (this is basically the same question as above)

2. Do you know of a way to batch sort the image files to different folders as in: Arcade, Pinball, Devices, Casino, Computers etc.? Using the mame metadata I'd like to put different category text on the spine. (see example below) There is a lot of complete metadata out there, could it be done to edit a dat file to a bat file changing zip to png with a lot of creativity? Surely there must be some way.

3. Do you know how I can sort the arcade image files to different folders based on manufacturer/developer, would be cool to put a logo on the spine of the company. (see example below)

4. Is anyone willing and able to help me out once I'm finished to provide a generated list from a full mame set of all 3D boxes that are missing in mame shorthand filenames.

5. And people that are motivated, willing and able to sort out the files in different folders which have something wrong with it, like a logo not lined out correctly, missing logo, better quality artwork needed or alternative artwork etc.?

Hope you guys like the results.

Example, this is where I'm at but am stuck with above questions.

720.thumb.png.b52dbc86f28655a7f7a8b9c0cc26f71f.png1942.thumb.png.e4f1884243f250967eba0b9aa01b0972.png

Example 2, this is what i'd like it to be:

_goal1.thumb.png.da7b3fb89374cfc52f2755b9939eb247.png_goal2.thumb.png.22c295641208b9f1ce436e4a881c3c28.png

Other examples of the automated project:

robocop2.thumb.png.4720b9b16bf359f3d7e01b4db87d8e20.pngmirninja.thumb.png.68f51f98e3e5c8c190f4433edfcb43b6.pnghooku.thumb.png.4261ea4eb7702e6effa22c69774d92cf.pnghcastle.thumb.png.72767d5637cb747af09195a0717316cb.pnghbarrel.thumb.png.779d0536220fb966f1ca0ffb5280323b.pnggorf.thumb.png.7c6c607dcfcfc4befe5920374db6feaf.pngblazeon.thumb.png.01d9ba2a1ed7d0cad709d8eb5954df88.pngberzerk.thumb.png.b8325f38b96a36c002ed12219015b6ef.pngbbusters.thumb.png.056cbf6e3296096b63ac1ac003b87f68.pngaso.thumb.png.acb0c947491b97407879f0d910bd62a4.pngakumajou.thumb.png.3719d905eb7fcee212dbdf4d316d5386.pngafighter.thumb.png.095c6988b98d355ffdbbc28cacecc6b7.png800fath.thumb.png.70a13ce32a1e823dc0b50780cf384014.png64streetj.thumb.png.bc140709db936100db4f3aa63da346a6.pngrobocopu0.thumb.png.2ad614aaa47370901b06a7da66ee3230.png

Edited by Mr. RetroLust
From Mame to Arcade as I'm only covering these in the project
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12 minutes ago, Robin55 said:

Really nice @Mr. RetroLust. I hope you are able to work out a way of adding the manufacturer logo, there all nice but those two look the best. I'm glad someone is making better box art for MAME, mine were always meant to be superseded. 

Thanks for everything bro! :) I just thought of an alternative to make two versions, one for launchbox and one for emumovies if all else fails. Do you happen to have a complete Launchbox collection of your 3D boxes and logos of Mame with identical filenames? My collection is an incomplete mess lol

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Thanks @zetec-s-joe bro :)

I'll abandon the mame shorthand filename version from the Emumovies packs as it is missing too many important games, so I can work on a Launchbox name version.

 @Jason Carr (or anyone else) In order for the automatic addition of the logo's to the box spines I need to pair 2 image files (box and logo files) with the exact same filename (It should be scraped in one go so there is no naming difference as the titles may have changed over time), I don't have a complete mame collection so I can't scrape this from the launchbox database, is there a way someone could send it or a trick I can do to make the scraper think I have a full arcade mame set? (pm answer is ok if needed) If I can get this to work I'm set to go.

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1 hour ago, Kondorito said:

Lust, if you need MAME clear logos with the default/MAME naming convention, I have the set. Let me know and I'll share what I have.

Thanks bro but I already downloaded the set of 6607 logo's from Emumovies to go along with the Emumovies 3Dboxes from Robin (4885 boxes) all in mame naming, but there are too many important roms not covered in these so I would have to manually correct all those and I simply don't have the time to do that, that's why I think it would be much better to switch to the complete launchbox logo's and 3D boxes now with some help. If you know anyone that can help could you let me know? Or tagging a person? Maybe @DOS76 @Lordmonkus @Retro808 @neil9000 know how I can obtain a full set of launchbox Mame 3d box and logo images from the database without having a full mame set. (sorry for my long explanations though)

Edited by Mr. RetroLust
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4 minutes ago, Mr. RetroLust said:

Thanks bro but I already downloaded the set of 6607 logo's from Emumovies to go along with the Emumovies 3Dboxes from Robin (4885 boxes) all in mame naming, but there are too many important roms not covered in these so I would have to manually correct all those and I simply don't have the time to do that, that's why I think it would be much better to switch to the complete launchbox logo's and 3D boxes now with some help. If you know anyone that can help could you let me know? Or tagging a person? Maybe @DOS76 @Lordmonkus @Retro808 @neil9000 know how I can obtain a full set of launchbox Mame 3d box and logo images from the database without having a full mame set. (sorry for my long explanations though)

You should be able to actually use the new mame importer, you would just need the latest mame emu. Launchbox doesnt actually scan your mame roms for what you have it just imports all known working games. So you could use the mame importer wizard point it at a random/empty folder and point it to the mame.exe as the emu and it should work. obviously the games wont actually run, but it should allow you to download the media you need.

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15 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

You should be able to actually use the new mame importer, you would just need the latest mame emu. Launchbox doesnt actually scan your mame roms for what you have it just imports all known working games. So you could use the mame importer wizard point it at a random/empty folder and point it to the mame.exe as the emu and it should work. obviously the games wont actually run, but it should allow you to download the media you need.

Dude, really! Bro-Hugs for you!!! ?? Thanks man, so happy with this!  Gonna try this out first thing tomorrow

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Oh @neil9000 one last question(s), I guess I can just start a new platform and name it "temporary" and do the full mame importer here so I don't mess anything up in my existing arcade platform media? Do I really need the newest mame for it to correspond well with the full mame importer? I have mame 0.198 installed at the moment but I guess I can just drag this folder to another place and put it back in place after the import fase right? 

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Just now, Mr. RetroLust said:

Oh @neil9000 one last question(s), I guess I can just start a new platform and name it "temporary" and do the full mame importer here so I don't mess anything up in my existing arcade platform media? Do I really need the newest mame for it to correspond well with the full mame importer? I have mame 0.198 installed at the moment but I guess I can just drag this folder to another place and put it back in place after the import fase right? 

To be honest i havent tested what im saying. :) any mame would work, in fact any .exe would probably work also, but i havent tested. Yeah just name it something random and simply delete it once you are done with it. All you are doing is tricking the wizard into downloading images,so as long as you give it a rom folder and a .exe for the emu the wizard should complete as normal.

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@Mr. RetroLust So @neil9000 was pretty spot on. It will work and really do not need to download a new Mame. I just created a test emulator folder called "Mame Test" and simply copied only my Mame 200 .exe file into it. Added Mame Test as an emulator and pointed to the .exe I copied into the Mame Test folder. Then ran the full arcade importer and chose to call the platform Mame. Chose only 3D box media and it downloaded.

Then when done closed LB and deleted the Mame Test xml from the platform data folder. 

No harm no foul and now I have all the 3D box images I dont need. LOL. 

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