spy hunter: weapon lights on screen

[TheShanMan]

My static snapshot shows weapons lights at the bottom of the screen, though my video snap doesn't, and when I run mame 0.126 it doesn't either. I'm assuming this was removed at some point for accuracy, and apparently it is available through the output system for something like the led wiz.

But seeing as though I don't have the hardware to do that (yet), I'd like to run an old version of mame. MAWS doesn't indicate when the on screen display was dropped. Anyone running one of these old versions? What was the last version with it, and which version would you recommend? What are the disadvantages with the older versions?

[2600]

You are either missing the artwork and/or do not have artwork enabled.

http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork.html

[TheShanMan]

Artwork, huh? I never would have guessed that artwork could be used for output (lighting and unlighting). I'll give it a try though! Thanks!

[TheShanMan]

That's great! Now I just need to modify the artwork to get rid of the bezel so the actual game isn't so small.

Are there other games where the artwork is an "essential" part of the game like this? Most are just static bezels, which as much as I'd like to use them, I don't because I don't want to give up the real estate. It would be cool to get a huge square monitor so I could turn them all on.

[TheShanMan]

If anyone wants a "minimal" spy hunter bezel that just shows the game plus the weapons lights (i.e. no bezel), here you go. AFAIK this should work regardless of your resolution or whatever. Works on my desktop (horizontal) and cab (vertical).

EDIT: the image in the zip was larger than necessary. This version is smaller yet the result is identical.