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@ICEknight Yeah =)

Last edited by hap; 03/22/16 08:00 PM.
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Originally Posted by ICEknight
Maybe this is the post in question?
Originally Posted by ICEknight
Regarding the current vectorized VFD Artwork, I've noticed that, compared side-to-side, they sometimes are not very accurate to their source.

This is specially noticeable when looking at certain cartoony figures, which sometimes look like they've been drawn by using tracing paper over the original art (kind of how other artwork in MAME would look if it was replicated by hand, I guess).

I ignore how these are being made, but perhaps there may be some alternative way of creating more accurate vector files out of the originals?

I fear that this could be a problem that will be carried over to all future supported handhelds, and will be specially noticeable in those with more elaborate graphics, licensed characters, etc, so now that the ball is just starting to roll, it may be a good time to look into it...
As I've already said, I'm sorry if my criticism ended up feeling too harsh to anybody, it was not my intention to bash anybody's work but to point out the incorrections I had observed at the time. Can we please move on now?

It'd be nice if we could... But this was Kevtris' response to what you wrote, in case you missed it:

Originally Posted by kevtris
I will let others vector them from now on I think, since it takes a huge amount of time to do this that I could spend REing and dumping stuff, and some people were complaining about the quality. Let's see if they can do better :-)

So now we have no one creating the artwork required to play these games. It's not that the criticism was too harsh, but that someone was making an effort to make useable graphics so we could play the games, and you made it sound like the work he was doing wasn't being appreciated since it wasn't perfect... There was no reason to suggest that these were going to be final graphics or anything, anyone is welcome to improve them (which I assumed people would, even adding the layers to make them look like VFDs with the little screens and such). Hap mentioned that not everyone 'agreed' with the artwork? I don't really remembering anyone else saying anything bad about it, but I haven't followed a lot of the artwork conversations... I was just ridiculously happy that someone was making these games work at all...

A better approach might have been to _provide_ better graphics, rather than complaining about them. And offer your services to create them to your liking in the first place.

If you can't, we just have to sit and wait until (hopefully) someone else steps up and figures out how to do it... Or maybe at least create a detailed how-to on using something like Inkscape for this specific purpose... I've tried a couple of times, but am really at a loss as to where start.

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Here is Entex Space Invader artwork, good enough to put it on the MESS artwork page. http://tsk-tsk.net/net/temp/einvader.zip
I didn't finish einvaderc(the COP4xx version) since it's not playable yet.

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http://tsk-tsk.net/net/temp/bbtime.svg
Bandai Burgertime potrace 1 layer per color, no manual vectoring. Is this quality good enough for now?

*edit* i think i can do pre-autovector cleanup, like for the fuzzy burger guy at the top-right area, or wiener's eyes. The colors can be tweaked too of course.


Ok, it's now playable in MAME.
http://tsk-tsk.net/net/temp/bbtime.zip
http://tsk-tsk.net/net/temp/bbtime.png

Last edited by hap; 03/23/16 07:15 PM.
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Bandai Pengo too: http://tsk-tsk.net/net/temp/bpengo.zip
A bit rough around the edges, but looks alright and is playable. I didn't do manual cleaning before autovector.

That leaves:
- Gakken Jungler: should be doable for me as manual vector svg
- Bandai Ultraman: too much frown
- Bandai Zaxxon: have to think about how to handle fake dual-layer vfd

Last edited by hap; 03/23/16 10:31 PM.
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Cool!

I finally figured out what was causing me all the headaches with Contra. Somewhere along the line, I had swapped its PCB with Gradius'. I've got 8 of these games, and the PCBs are all very similar looking. So I was trying to energize the Contra LCD segments using the Gradius wiring, which is a little different. Now that I've got that sorted, I'll finish typing up the info.

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I posted the Contra info: http://www.seanriddle.com/contra.html

I took some pics of the LCD, but they have shadows and I need to work on the lighting: http://www.seanriddle.com/contrasegs1.jpg
http://www.seanriddle.com/contralcd2.jpg

And here's a pic of the background: http://www.seanriddle.com/konamicontra.jpg

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Of the 4 sensors in the back, 108 is the eye part and 110 is the shell part? There are 3 segments per sensor, is the middle part the shell or the eye?

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Originally Posted by hap
That leaves:
- Gakken Jungler: should be doable for me as manual vector svg
- Bandai Ultraman: too much frown
- Bandai Zaxxon: have to think about how to handle fake dual-layer vfd

Haha, everyone is afraid of Ultraman... smile Even Kevtris was like 'Uh, no...' after doing the Doraemon game that took him forever... And there's one more game in this series that's just as complicated. smile

I'm okay with rough work for now, as I just want to _play_ them! smile

I'm curious about the Zaxxon games (both Coleco and Bandai...) Bandai uses a single VFD split by a mirror, Coleco actually has two different VFDs with one reflected over the other by a mirror. Not sure what technique would be easier to put in MAME.

Last edited by Rik; 03/25/16 12:18 AM.
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Just out of curiousity, how are you getting them that far? Just getting from the photograph to .SVG is where I'm kind of lost... I may be able to fiddle with them from that point as time allows, I just couldn't get a good result at that stage.

What's the best .SVG you can get for Ultraman, with minimal amount of time? I may be able to work on it from there...

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