Mala Zebra Layouts - Complete menu tree, menu snaps, backgrounds, etc..

[Katana Man]

Mala Zebra Layouts
A complete menu tree, including layouts, menu snaps, backgrounds, transparent images, and even Photoshop .psd files!

The Zebra Mala Tree has 3 levels (tiers):
    Main Menu
        Console Menu
              Gamelists

Here are a few screenshots:


       



       







I couldn't find a good Atari logo that I liked, so I made one:



The layout contains Arcade Games, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Commodore, PC games, and Jukebox.  Inside Atari is a selection for Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, etc.. Each tree level is color coordinated as well.

All images are .png's and most are very high quality. They are transparent, which makes it easy to change the backgrounds if you wish. It's designed at 1280x1024, but the .png's scale to a different resolutions very well.

You can choose if you want to download just the backgrounds, menu snaps, logos, or everything.  "Everything" contains all of the above, including the directories and subdirectories. This could potentially save some of you a lot of time.

The Adobe Photoshop .psd files are also available! Please only download the .psd files if you have Adobe Photoshop and plan to modify the images.
Please save my bandwidth, take only what you need.   

If you have better images, or high quality (800 pixels ore larger) images that I'm missing, please PM me, and I'll add them to the collection.
I chose the word Zebra because it would be easy to search for, and there are subtle zebra like patterns in the backgrounds. I plan on designing more 3rd level gamelist layouts when I have the time.

You can see more screenshots and download it here.

[loadman]

   I don't know much about layouts but I know what I like 

  I like a simple/clean look on a FE, sometimes less is more.

 

[philby85]

Cheers katana man,

Downloaded what i needed and donation made!

regards

Philby

[ARTIFACT]

very cool!! well done

[edge]

Katana Man - very nicely done!  crisp, simple, polished. I love it!

Edge

[Umpa]

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
I have been trying to get the Mala Tree working exactly like you have yours for about a 2 months on and off. You have made it possible for me to get the front end the way I want it.

Thanks again!

[RitchieTheBrit]

Damn, that's pretty similar to a style I was going to use!  Damn you and you long distance mind-reading prowess, Katana!

BTW, your titular Katana, would that be the sharp type, or the two-wheeled type?  I used to have a GSX-750SE.  Well, I had two, but together they made one good one.  Had to get rid of them, the GF wanted the kitchen back!

Heh, there's a bloody big arcade cabinet in there now!!! 

[Katana Man]

Thanks for all the kind responses. That makes my efforts more enjoyable knowing that it is working out well for some of you.  I spent about 6 weeks of my spare time (probably about 60 hours) working on setting up all of the emulators, mala, and collecting/making the images for the Mala tree. It was for myself and a birthday present for a friend. He is very happy with it.

BTW, your titular Katana, would that be the sharp type, or the two-wheeled type? 

Two-wheeled type. Pics of it.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
I have been trying to get the Mala Tree working exactly like you have yours for about a 2 months on and off. You have made it possible for me to get the front end the way I want it.
Thanks again!

You are welcome. Did it take a lot of work to get the Zebra layouts working properly for you?

[Umpa]

It was pretty easy to get them working. I changed the path in each .mil file to my directory structure and then created the tree directory in Mala Tree, and they work!
I am going to add a pic of my machine for the Arcade snap and re-create my game lists.

This is a great layout and thanks again for sharing!

[RitchieTheBrit]

BTW, your titular Katana, would that be the sharp type, or the two-wheeled type? 

Two-wheeled type. Pics of it.

Arrrrrrrgh!!! Thats not a Katana, it's a Teapot!!!!  Although, it IS a damn nice teapot... 

Actually, the GSXF was my fist bike.  Still love Suzuki's, but I totally fell outta' love with that machine.  Top heavy, slugish, and I never got away with the shape.  It looks like Mickey Mouse from the front! 

THIS IS the one I used to have.  Most Katana purists shun it as well (though, not quite as much as the GSXF) due to the fact that it was designed by Suzuki themselves, and not Hans Muuth.

If you get rid of the Teapot, check out the RF600R, thats what I went up to after the GSXF.  Seriously nice bike, and a lot of power for not a lot of money!  I topped mine out at 160MPH (by the speedo, probs more like 140, still scarey!), handles like a dream as well, esp if you;ve gotten used to the handling on the GSXF.  It leant that far for me on the test ride I thought for sure it was going over! 

[Umpa]

When I tried to unzip the menuBackgrounds .psd file so I could edit it, I get an unknown compression method error when I try to unzip. What did you use to zip these files?

[Katana Man]

Winzip Maximum Compression (PPMd).   I'll have to convert these later, but I can't tonight.

[Umpa]

Thanks!
 I went and downloaded the new winzip and was able to unzip the files.

Thanks again!

[badkitty]

nice work katana. im working with your layout now. 

 but , i cant get menu snaps to work.   

my layout is

Main Menu
   Arcade
   PC Games
   Jukebox

i've tried renaming the menu snaps to ..  main menu_arcade.png  and menu_arcade.png.  neither way shows the pic or cabinet when ARCADE is highlighted.  the snaps are in menu_snaps folder still. i have changed the abosulte paths to my own in  mala_layout.    am i missing something

[loadman]

nice work katana. im working with your layout now. 

 but , i cant get menu snaps to work.   

my layout is

Main Menu
   Arcade
   PC Games
   Jukebox

i've tried renaming the menu snaps to ..  main menu_arcade.png  and menu_arcade.png.  neither way shows the pic or cabinet when ARCADE is highlighted.  the snaps are in menu_snaps folder still. i have changed the abosulte paths to my own in  mala_layout.    am i missing something

Have a look:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mala_Tree#Snapshots

[badkitty]

ya i did that...should each snap go into a folder named the same as file?    like is said..my main mene is called   MENU  then sub menu is Arcade. there for the pic i want to use as snap for the arcade menu is called  Menu_Arcade.png .   yet its not showing when i scroll down to Arcade.

UPDATE....i guess the file names are case sensative. even tho Main Menu have CAP M's the file cant have them.  thats all i did was make M's lower case and VOILA!!   weird

[loadman]

ya i did that...should each snap go into a folder named the same as file?    like is said..my main mene is called   MENU  then sub menu is Arcade. there for the pic i want to use as snap for the arcade menu is called  Menu_Arcade.png .   yet its not showing when i scroll down to Arcade.

UPDATE....i guess the file names are case sensative. even tho Main Menu have CAP M's the file cant have them.  thats all i did was make M's lower case and VOILA!!   weird

  

[badkitty]

ok now im having transparency issues.  i've made several control panel snaps for my arcade gamelist, and the edges are transparent so all u see it the CP, as it should be.

 Now im making a few of my own menu snaps, i found the common color each of main menu snaps use so as to be transparent, but when i apply to mine, it doesnt work.  You see the solid color edges.  i cant figure out what im doing wrong.

 the byoacwiki guide says to have transparency, what ever color the BOTTOM LEFT pixel, set any area you want to that color. well i did but nothing happens. the ZEBRA layout's MAIN MENU  color at bottom left is 4,4,4 almost black, the color of that ARCADE for main menu_snap is 0,0,0  doesnt match yet it is transparent. sighh.

[loadman]

Organic Jerk maybe able to help you.

I have a vague recollection that it may not be precisely the bottom left (or something like that)

... Try a search for a similar post, It may help.

[shock_]

You see the solid color edges.

Are you saving as JPG or PNG?  Sometimes JPG artifacts will change the colour and cause transparency to fail.  Always use PNG, or GIF if you can live with 256 colours.

What software are you using to create the transparency mask? A screenshot might be helpful for diagnosis too.

[badkitty]

i just had an epiphany (spelling)  somethign just click in my brain when i read  bottom left pixel,  i've been using the pixel color of the menu , not of my actual image that i want transparent. so right away  i put 1 pixel at bottom left of my image and WHAMO  it works.  the simplest things seem to fly past me somethings

[Katana Man]

Fellas, stay on topic please. There are other threads concerning Mala transparency issues.

[Circo]

Just wanted to say thanks for such a well thought out layout, very nice and professional.

[Mr Wilson]

very nice i'm using it at the moment but i cant get any mp3's to show up in the jukebox menu where am i going wrong?
help!

[LLUncoolJ]

Hi, I'm a MaLa noob. I downloaded your layout and I am trying to get it configured. I have got the snap and the marquee parts to work under Mame, but I am having no luck with the CP or the video parts. I have their folders plugged into the MaLa option menu, but I am getting nothing. Do these need to be in specific folders like snaps? Or am I overlooking something really obvious.
Any inout would be welcome.
Thanks!

[Katana Man]

Thank you to the few who donated a couple of bucks to help pay for the bandwidth. 

[Katana Man]

Wow, 56,000+ visitors have been on my Zebra Layouts site. I had no idea that many people were checking it out.  I wonder how many people are actually using it.

[markronz]

Hey Katan Man, love the layouts!  Is there something wrong with the PSD files?   I get errors for all of them, when I try to extract the data.   For example, this is what it says when I try to extract the Nintendo ones...

!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo-nes2.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo-virtual-boy.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\Nintendo64.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\Nintendo_64_2.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_combined.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_gameboy advance.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_Gameboy.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_gameboy_color.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_game_cartridge.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_game_cartridge2.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_logo.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_nes.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\nintendo_SNES.psd
!   C:\Users\Mark Ronsman\Desktop\psd_nintendo.zip: Unknown method in psd_nintendo\Nintendo_Zapper2.psd


Am I doing something wrong, or is something else up?

Thanks!

[Katana Man]

For the best compression, I used Winzip.  I forgot the method of compression I used, but if you get Winzip, you'll be all set. In the future, I'll rezip them with a different method.

[markronz]

Downloaded WinZip and it let me extract them now!  Thanks for that tip.   I tried using WinRAR and 7-Zip, and neither would work.  Strange...