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Coverbox - Fragments


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Coverbox - Fragments

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Ever since I first laid eyes on Faeran's Coverbox I fell in love with it. It's by far my favorite BigBox theme, I've been using it for quite some time now. Along the way, I noticed a few things that could be improved or expanded. Faeran was nice enough to share his CTC files for coverbox so I figured I'd take a stab at making it look more modern. When I first started modifying the CTC files I had all the platforms mashed together in one theme, as you usually see people do when they make a BB theme. I realized later that splitting them up into stand-alone themes was way more flexible. I made a choice later to split them all up, I just couldn't do what I wanted to do with them all in one theme. At first this project was just something I wanted to do for my for my own collection, I started tinkering with the CTC creating frankenstein-coverbox variations out of themes from the downloads section and had alot of fun doing it. I had this idea of what i wanted Coverbox to look like in my head, but had trouble bringing it to life with the CTC. I went back and watched alot of faeran's tutorial videos, and y2guru's videos and set out (again) to recreate Coverbox in a way that pays tribute to the original and also adds all the elements I felt it was lacking. I didn't want to just tear through Coverbox making it my own, I wanted it to retain some of it's original feel while adding in some new stuff. These themes are my 3rd attempt at a Coverbox remaster, this attempt is at least worthy of sharing. The experience with CTC from the previous attempts, and a better understanding when I went back to watch the videos helped tremendously. After I completed a few I was surprised at how good they looked. I msged faeran and asked how he felt about me sharing them, he is such a nice guy of course he told me to go for it 😄 It takes me a while to finish them but I'll upload them as I complete them. Each theme only has 1 list view just like Coverbox, there are no other views so this theme can only be applied while within the game list menu in bigbox. Also don't forget to enable "remember separate view for each platform" in bigbox settings. After about 7-8 secs of inactivity in the game list the disc/cart stuff will display, pressing up or down will bring back the game list. I try to test them pretty well before uploading them but I may have overlooked something, it's alot to keep track of sometimes. This is my first experience sharing a theme and perhaps I took it a little too far with the small details, once it's all said and done I will go back over all of them and try to optimize them a bit more than I already have. If you find anything out of place feel free to leave a comment and I'll get it fixed up.

NOTE: These themes may or may not work well on low performance machines and have only been tested on my current setup. These were made with CTC 3.XX and Launchbox 13.8, I'm unsure if it works with any lower versions. Should also state that I used 1080 resolution, not sure if it will scale properly or not.

Platforms Completed: 20

  • Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom / Famicom Disk System
  • Super Nintendo / Super Famicom / Satellaview / Sufami Turbo
  • Nintendo 64 / 64DD
  • Nintendo Gamecube
  • Nintendo Wii
  • Nintendo GameBoy
  • Nintendo GameBoy Color
  • Nintendo Gameboy Advance / GBA Video
  • Nintendo DS / DSi / DSiWare
  • Nintendo 3DS / eShop
  • Microsoft XBox
  • Microsoft XBox 360 / Arcade
  • Microsoft MS-DOS / Windows 3.11
  • Sega Genesis / Mega Drive / 32x / Sega CD / Mega CD
  • Sega Dreamcast
  • Sega Saturn
  • Sony PlayStation
  • Sony PlayStation 2
  • Sony PlayStation 3 / PSN
  • Sony PSP / Mini / UMD Video / UMD Music Video

Some of the things I've added:

  • Reworked Coverbox Layout
  • Startup/Shutdown Themes (Optional)
  • Pause Themes (Optional)
  • More Publisher/Developer Logos
  • Animated Elements
  • Video Backgrounds
  • Custom Metadata Options
  • More Information Displayed
  • Try to stay true to each platforms official menu
  • Official UI Sounds (when available)
  • Custom Animated Marquee
  • On the Fly Region/Feature Changes
  • View Box Back when in details

 

Each theme must be applied individually in BigBox, enter platform game list, hit your theme hotkey, and apply the Coverbox - Fragment theme that matches that platform/playlist. Repeat for each platform

Each Pause/Startup theme must be installed individually into your Launchbox folder for them to display. If you do not plan to use the pause/startup themes you can skip installing them.

Custom Field metadata must be entered for some of the platform extras to display (FDS,GBA Video, etc)

Region metadata must be entered for region specific cases to display. Supported Values are North America, United States, Europe, United Kingdom, and Japan

 

INSTALLING THE THEMES:

Spoiler

Installing these themes is pretty straightforward. They are all split up into stand-alone themes, so they will require you to install and apply them individually. DO NOT combine them all into one theme folder and try to load it with Bigbox, this will break the themes.

 

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Start by copying the themes individually into Launchbox\Themes as you would any other BigBox Theme. Should look something like the screenshot above.

 

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After copying all the themes, make sure you have "Remember Separate View for Each Platform" enabled in BigBox settings. This allows you to use a separate theme for each platform and BigBox will remember the next time you enter that platform.

 

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Now all you have to do is apply each theme to its matching platform. Do this by entering the game list for that platform/playlist and hitting your Theme hotkey, and selecting the matching theme for that platform.

 

NOTE: If you plan to use the custom Pause/Startup themes you need to install those into their corresponding folders as well in order for them to display.

 

 

CUSTOM FIELD OPTIONS: (Optional)

Each theme has custom options that can be enabled by adding custom values to a games metadata. Enter any of the values in the txt file below into a games "Custom Fields" metadata section (via launchbox) to enable certain features within each theme. Each setting is on a per-game basis, to add custom values to many games just select them all and do a bulk edit. All the options are listed in the txt file posted below.

Custom Options.txt

 

HOW TO USE CUSTOM OPTIONS:

Spoiler

I've been asked a few times about how to use the custom options, so I decided to write a small guide explaining how to use them. After doing a few of these themes I quickly realized that each platform cover is unique, none are all the same with the same exact logos or labels, even if they share the same platform. This bothered my ocd eventually so I added extra options so I could attempt to get the cover looking as close as possible to how it looks in launchbox. I get that this may not be something other people want so all of these are optional, the on-the-fly region changes and most other features will show automatically (most of the time) with no custom options added.

Using a random SNES game as a example, I will explain how to enable a custom option for a individual game.

111.thumb.jpg.5eb0dac731d4bce5831c808dde04ba51.jpg               111-1.jpg.0d16cac0da7011927fc9086269d77157.jpg

I'm not sure if you can edit metadata in BigBox or not, I only use Launchbox for that so this guide will assume you are doing the same. You can see by looking at my SNES list that there are a couple of games with a "Only For" label that are not like the others. Let's add that option so we can make that game look as it should.

 

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Right-Click on the game you want to add a option to, go to Edit>Edit Metadata/Media

 

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Select "Custom Fields" tab to the left, and add the NAME and VALUE from the Custom Options.txt file to this list. In this instance we are adding the name "Only For" and setting it's value to "Yes". If the name/value doesn't exist already, go to the very bottom and add it into the blank area. NOTE: Value MUST be what is listed in the text file, unless specified otherwise. Repeat this process for any game that you want to add custom options to. For options such as FDS, Satellaview, etc, select all the games from that playlist and bulk edit them to add options to many games quickly.

 

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After you have set the options in Launchbox, BigBox will read those settings and apply them on-the-fly as you browse through your list. Hope this helps anybody that may have been confused about the options, sorry I didn't post this sooner.

 

Credits:

 


 

Edited by KingSlayer420
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On 12/1/2023 at 7:12 AM, supercollider said:

This theme isn't dead is it? It was amongst my favorites on this forum, a diamond in the rough.

I don't know, the creator doesn't even seem active anymore. It's a shame that he ALSO removed the files or didn't pass the project on to someone else.

However, I hope he is well, disappearing so suddenly is worrying.

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10 hours ago, Noxistence said:

I don't know, the creator doesn't even seem active anymore. It's a shame that he ALSO removed the files or didn't pass the project on to someone else.

However, I hope he is well, disappearing so suddenly is worrying.

Worrying? no, others left overnight for no reason (others were also pushed to leave: either because they spoke too loudly or because they had different opinions) I have rarely seen so much moderation in 3 years that this year for example. Some people also decide to go it alone (often on patreon) Y2guru/ retrohumanoid / pademonium and it works very well for them. There can be many reasons and sometimes there are none. it could just be a break! Well, someone suddenly removes their contents, I've seen that a few times and it smells like vinegar! :/
In my opinion I lean towards patreon I asked him the question in pm but no answer yet!

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On 12/5/2023 at 11:40 AM, Noxistence said:

I don't know, the creator doesn't even seem active anymore. It's a shame that he ALSO removed the files or didn't pass the project on to someone else.

However, I hope he is well, disappearing so suddenly is worrying.

Yeah I'm hoping he's okay too. I'm especially bummed out on missing the Sega themes he added in the latest release. I was only able to download the version prior.

If anyone still wants any version, I can look into uploading a mirror. Hopefully that will suffice until OP returns.

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On 12/15/2023 at 5:23 AM, supercollider said:

Yeah I'm hoping he's okay too. I'm especially bummed out on missing the Sega themes he added in the latest release. I was only able to download the version prior.

If anyone still wants any version, I can look into uploading a mirror. Hopefully that will suffice until OP returns.

Which Sega themes do you need? I still have .zips for Genesis v2.1 and Dreamcast v2.6 in case

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16 hours ago, Noxistence said:

Which Sega themes do you need? I still have .zips for Genesis v2.1 and Dreamcast v2.6 in case

The one I downloaded didn't even have themes for Genesis, or the Sega CD/32X themes advertised in the OP. If you could upload those I would appreciate it a lot!

I'm not sure how to check which version I have of the Dreamcast one.

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On 12/17/2023 at 7:28 AM, supercollider said:

The one I downloaded didn't even have themes for Genesis, or the Sega CD/32X themes advertised in the OP. If you could upload those I would appreciate it a lot!

I'm not sure how to check which version I have of the Dreamcast one.


This one pack should recognize games platforms between different sega ones, so try set it for genesis, sega CD, etc 

Coverbox Fragment - Genesis v2.1.zip

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