Just an idea (instruction/cheat sheet cards)

[emb]

I was playing MK2 earlier on my cabinet, and then I realized that I didn't remember any of the fatalities. 

This gave an idea (which I am sure many others have thought of); what if you had a card which you could slide into a slot that contains moves, tricks, tips, and a little "potpourri" about each game+? When you load up a game you can just slide the laminated cardsheet into the slot between the control panel and monitor.

Does something like this already exist?

I know that localarcade and a couple other sites have the actual instruction cards for the game, but they only provide the buttons with a couple hints.  Each instruction-card are not the same size. This is great and all, but your control panel configuration may be a little different.

I could code an application where you would select a standard template, then select the list of games you wish to generate cards for. If you wanted, you would be able to go into each card and edit the card information if you don't like how the card looks. Yea, you could do this in illustrator and photoshop, but if you wanted to change your theme and you have about 50-100 cards....thats a lot of time and work, while instead you could just click a dropdown to change your theme.

I would probably use MAWS as a reference for getting all the detailed tricks/information/hints for the game. Of course, these would all be beautified up with some sort of templating system. Of course, the card theme system would be beautified with photoshop and illustrator.

The application would be rather self-intuitive. It would ask you to pick a theme (which you could make if you wanted to), and to select the games you wish to generate cards for. You would also be able to go into each "card/game" and do more customizations (e.g. take out text you don't need and such, or if there is any other things you wish to add).

The hard and tedious part would be to generate the "standard library" of the card layouts.

Does something like this already exist? I do not want to be re-inventing the wheel. Also is there a large demand for something like this? If not, I do not feel I should waste my time with it. But if you guys think it would be very useful or see any potential in it, I am more than glad to start working on it.

[javeryh]

That's a cool idea - maybe have the instruction cards sent to a separate 5" monitor on the cabinet somewhere...   

[emb]

Oh yea, that would be cool too 

[Ginsu Victim]

removed by Ginsu (had the wrong idea about what you're doing and suggested CPwizard)

[clickhea]

what would be even cooler would be to have an LCD screen which displayed the information and changed with each game change.

[Ginsu Victim]

I wish someone would make a 26" x 8" LCD monitor just for marquees....
It would be great to fire up a game and have the marquee displayed....

And it seems, after doing a quick search, this has been the subject of much discussion only a few months before I came here....

[javeryh]

I wish someone would make a 26" x 8" LCD monitor just for marquees....
It would be great to fire up a game and have the marquee displayed....

Some crazy dude around here made a projector type thing in his marquee area that did just that.  I don't have the thread link though...

[MK3FAN]

I realize that you are talking about a Mame application and having multiple cheat cards for multiple games, but I thought I would give an example of what I did for mine. I just did some screen caps of the MK games through Mame and used Adobe PhotoIllustrator to make my own cheat "cards." They turned out pretty good. Here are some examples...

[MK3FAN]

A few more...

[MK3FAN]

Last 3...

[emb]

I realize that you are talking about a Mame application and having multiple cheat cards for multiple games, but I thought I would give an example of what I did for mine. I just did some screen caps of the MK games through Mame and used Adobe PhotoIllustrator to make my own cheat "cards." They turned out pretty good. Here are some examples...

Do you still have the illustrator files for these? They are very done

[psychotech]

Or you could just use (and create your own custom) bezels in mame..

Works quite nicely ..on bigger widescreen monitors at least?

[emb]

Or you could just use (and create your own custom) bezels in mame..

Works quite nicely ..on bigger widescreen monitors at least?

That would work great for a couple games, but not all of them. Also I do not have a widescreen monitor

I really like the idea of having a separate lcd screen connected to the cab...the only problem is where you can find a cheap one, and where would you put it? If cost is not an issue, that would be the way to go (using a second lcd screen). I still think that using card-stocks good idea (yet it is still primitive) in terms of cost.

[Ginsu Victim]

Printer cartridges are expensive. No way I'm printing off a bunch of cards, then have to sift through to find the game I'm playing. A software solution is much better.

[emb]

True, I never thought about it that way. If you have a lot of instruction cards, the cost could really add up in laminating and printing. They also make smaller lcd screens for cars. Those would be perfect to use.

[Ginsu Victim]

Even the ones that attach to a console, like the older PSX/PS2/Gamecube screens, would work (and can be found cheap). They usually accept S-video, so if you could run dual display from a card with S-video, that might work.

[NickG]

I wish someone would make a 26" x 8" LCD monitor just for marquees....
It would be great to fire up a game and have the marquee displayed....

Some crazy dude around here made a projector type thing in his marquee area that did just that.  I don't have the thread link though...

so now I'm crazy! humph!

< > I was thinking about adding instructions to my marquee but I want to keep that thing purely marquee-ing.  I thought about keeping an instruction book around but that requires thumbing around.  Using bezels is good for old Mame'd games with less instructions but my monitor only goes up to xga, so for me most of the fight games might need an additional screen especially the console games.  Instead of just keeping an extra screen around my cabinet for this I am thinking of building a jukebox/touchscreen setup right next to my cabinet that could cycle instructions'n'stuff. </ >

I thought someone had a front-end plugin that could pause some games and emulators and display stuff; at least for Mame; but maybe it got stuck in the idea stage of development.

[Ginsu Victim]

HeadKaze's CPwizard?

[NickG]

Yeah that.  Thank you.

[MK3FAN]

"Do you still have the illustrator files for these? They are very done "

Sure. Here are some examples and a link to the rest of them...

http://s105.photobucket.com/albums/m202/zenomorp/mortal%20kombat%203/

[emb]

You rule MK3FAN!

[Neverending Project]

For those out there who are using a display capable of picture-in-picture, you could hook up a second source just for this. You would also need a video card capable of displaying two monitors (or two video cards).

As I sit here at work I am staring at my 24" LCD, and there are actually 5 inputs on it, with picture-in-picture capability too. Some TVs will also work. You could (theoretically) hook the second display from your video card to the PiP input of your display, and set your PC to display the instruction cards on the second monitor. You would still need to rig a way to turn on/off the PiP, but for the pathfinders out there... let us know how it goes!