"How to play" diagrams for each individual game???

[zzsprade]

G'day guys!

Have there been updates or breakthroughs with  individual diagrams for "how to play" each game. Like what each button does etc for each game individually. Maybe have it come up on a dual display set up. Or to take it a step further and have the added information of how to do all the combo moves for each player or the like.

From memory people have spoken about this from time to time... so I was curious as to whether there has been progress. Any examples?

Cheers!

-Alex

[SirPoonga]

Well, there's the controls.dat project, read the software forum.

You can download instruction cards for games if you can find them.  I started a decent little collection.

If you use mame plud there is a commands.dat for it for fighting games that adds a menu o the combos and moves for characters.

[MrBond]

What happened with that "instruction card screen", where the instructions for a game would display on a small LCD panel mounted in/around the bezel?  People were talking about making software to make the display possible...any idea?

[zzsprade]

MrBond,

That is exactly what I was talking about... does anyone remember the names of who was talking about this at all.... I remember the thread but do not have the faintest clue as to what it was called.

-Alex

[Lilwolf]

Something I was thinking about for JFront... but haven't come close to doing it is this.

I can alt-tab between mame and my frontend in windows.  I haven't tried the others, but it seems to be pretty normal when launching other applicatinos... so maybe they all do.

THEN...

When I launch a game... Go full screen to an instruction page if there is one.  How do I do that?  I've been waiting to see.  JPG might do and easy.  But if the control stuff comes out that might be great.  Maybe a combo of the control stuff and the bottom 1/2 is game history?  I don't know... but anyway one full screen of instructions.

So everyone gets a quick help lesson when the game is physically loading.  Maybe even add a button press to it.

NEXT...

set a button for alt-tab in the control panel!

So to get a instructions, you press pause if needed, and hit alt-tab button (help button)..  Press it again to play the game.

Seems like it might work

[Wienerdog]

You can build a PocketPC into the cab next to the monitor.  When you launch a game, fire off a command that tells the PocketPC which diagram to show (it could be a jpeg, a web page, a word doc, etc).

I'm not doing this, but it is something you could do.  I like the Alt-Tab idea though.

[zzsprade]

It doesn't sound awfully hard... I think it would be just more of the case of having reproduce all the controls that were featured for each game and what each does... actually now that I think about it it is a very individual thing and would commonly be based on the individuals CP setup. Any other ideas to throw around???

-Alex

[Generic Eric]

What happened with that "instruction card screen", where the instructions for a game would display on a small LCD panel mounted in/around the bezel?  People were talking about making software to make the display possible...any idea?

I mentioned something like this.  Using a couple of the "mini console screens."  Currently the downfall is cash.  I would mean buying two of those screens, two additional video cards that could output at least compsite video and fancy software.  I thought that, at the minimum the frontend could pull up data based on the rom that was being played.  I would also like to see the frontend display character moves based on the character chosen.  Ideally, it could either automatically scroll through the possible moves or you could mount some buttons under the displays to choose the characters other moves.

I did mention this to a frontend guy.  I thought it was a cool idea, but he didn't know much about programming for multiple displays.

DinoRoger was working on some software that based on the rom being played, it would light up some buttons.  Not the same thing mind you, but it does make my idea sound a little more possible.

I don't know if I my idea is the one ya'll refering to or not, but I thought I would throw it out there since I had a similar idea.

[Daver4676]

What I had in mind was to make a basic diagram of my control panel in Photoshop or something and then label each control button needed (or which panel) and what it does.   I wanted a frontend to display up until a button is pressed right before the actual game is launched.   Anyone who has ever played console demos (such as those displays you find at videogame stores) knows what I mean.

I haven't gotten to the 'testing and configuring' of the front-ends part of my project yet, so I don't even know if any frontends have this feature.

[SirPoonga]

Daver, not yet, but soon.

[Aceldamor]

Ultircade plays a little movie right before the game launches, showing you which botton does what....It would be cool to have something like that

[hyiu]

I remember there are a couple of threads talking about this before....

what I say below is my thoughts for now... but most likely part of it is memories from reading other posts.... or someone else has thought and said about it already....

easiest way that I can think of is the following....

I believe in mame, there's an option broadcast current game to system.  (well... I have never tried to write a pgrm to read from the bcast to find the current game... but I hope this is not too hard....) - do we get the rom name ?? I believe that is unique...

When the program gets the broadcast game, it'll display the correct panel (or the panel that's best match....) and highlight the controls that is used with some description...
(we now have quite a few machines with multi- panels...)

The idea of using Alt-tab should be good and simple....

I think the most tedious part will be setup the database..... and then put in all the entries....

well.... currently... I have a loooong list of things to do....
including building my cab.... fixing the backyard... etc....
but when all that is done..... I might spend some time and try to tackle this thing by writing a VB pgrm.... (probably accessing MsAccess....

enough for now....

 




 

[hyiu]

ok.... my mind is spinning and can't get off this topic....
 

the following is what I think about the database setup...

TABLE:
ROM_NAME

FIELDS:
ROM, UNIQUE_ROM

This table will allow multiple versions of the same game using the same data....

sample lines in this table:
sf2, sf2
sf2asia, sf2


TABLE:
MAME_DESC

FIELDS:
UNIQUE_ROM, CTRL, DESC

This table stores for each game, what controls are used and a brief description....

sample lines just for the game sf2:
SF2, J1, Player 1 - 8 way
SF2, P1B1, Jab
.....
SF2, P2B6, Round House
(in here... J1 means Joystick 1 and P1B1 means Player 1 button 1... etc...) we'll need to define standard naming so that everyone (or most of us...) can agree on....

but of course, with different people has different unique things on their panels.... different options can be added on....
like spinner, trackball, or TB1, TB2,... LGun... trigger sticks etc.

TABLE:
CTEL_PANELS

FIELDS:
PANEL, SIZE_X, SIZE_Y

For most of us, we'll have only 1 line here....
(but for swappable panels, and rotating panels... they'll have multiple lines here...) size is just a pixel size.... (something I jsut thought of....)

sample line:
MY_PANEL, 600, 300

TABLE:
PANEL_LAYOUT

FIELDS:
PANEL, CTRL, POS_X, POS_Y

This table shows what is on each panel... the controls are placed where posx and posy are the pixel position... (or something like that....)

sample line:
MY_PANEL, J1, 100, 150
MY_PANEL, P1B1, 120, 100
MY_PANEL, P1B2, 150, 100
....
MY_PANEL, J2, 400, 150
....
and so on....

-----------------------

ok......

if the database is setup like this... then once we get the bcast rom name, we'll be able to get the Unique_rom and knows what controls they are using.....

then cross check with the panels, and panel_layout, we can decide which panel has the "most available functionalities"...
then we can highlight the appropriate controls that are available and gray out the others.... and / or also list the missing controls.... etc.

sounds reasonable so far ??....

 

[SirPoonga]

Sounds reasonable, but that's all already being done right now.

Plus mame controls are a little complex.  Hence why controls.dat is getting an overhaul this week.

However you are welcome to help out.

[hyiu]

ohhh.... its already being done.....

but its good.... hopefully... its going to be done soon and I can just download it....  

good work, guys !!!....