Moved from Maximus Arcade to Hyperspin...wow

[Epyx]

I was a registered user of Maximus Arcade but never really liked the FE...it was functional but still felt hobby. I donated to Hyperspin to get access to the themes and spent some time configuring it over the last few nights. I just have to say..WOW

Was like going from something that screamed hobby to a commercial product, only it isn't. Absolutely stunning to get themes/videos etc configured.  Even my jaded wife was "Wow that looks amazing". 

If anyone hasn't (unlikely as I appear to be the last person on earth to try Hyperspin lol) tried it yet, give it a whirl.  Im usually a less is more type of guy for interfaces but in this case...more is just...wow.

[shateredsoul]

Yup! It is great!  I might go back to it once they finish more wheel sets. I was very happy how nes and snes looked with the wheel art.  It's great if you have the patience for it.. and very rewarding once you have it setup.

[Epyx]

Agreed. I have roughly 6 consoles with MAME and wheels sets for all of them...of course there are a lot of consoles I haven't configured yet but so far I like it a lot.  I will look into setting up the C64 and Amiga next, maybe that is where I will start running into some issues...

[shateredsoul]

What systems did you setup?

I have mame, nes, snes, n64, and sega genesis,  I was working on other but it was really frustrating getting on the ftp

I'm still thinking I'll have hyperspin to impress, and maximus for gamer geeks....

[Dazz]

FYI - We have fixed the FTP issues.  HyperSpin & Emumovies have added a second full-duplex line and have full bandwidth available for the FTP servers now.

[shateredsoul]

Great news! I'll probably head over there to get the missing art I need.

Also, Dazz, any threads that give updates on the art available for Hyperspin? I'd like to know when there's new stuff to download

[Howard_Casto]

Since the app is heavily dependant upon user-created add-ons, perhaps it would be a good idea to make the app automatically check the site for updates on bootup?

Just a thought.

[Epyx]

Ya, ive been on the FTP at least half a dozen times and absolutely no issue.   The other thing I like is how involved the dev and artists are in the project to answer questions. While I respect the Maximus Arcade project I can say the author didn't involve himself much in any support issues that I could see. Although, Delusional did a great job volunteering support but nothing beats the author getting involved, which he really didn't.

Either way Dazz and others, great job!  

What systems did you setup?

So far:

Sega Master System/Genesis
Nintendo/Snes
TG16
MAME

Next up will be N64/C64 and Amiga.

[Dazz]

Since the app is heavily dependant upon user-created add-ons, perhaps it would be a good idea to make the app automatically check the site for updates on bootup?

Just a thought.

There are a couple things in the works...

[SmokinGun]

I made the move from Maximus Arcade to Hyperspin last week as well.  Man, it's great!

[trencej]

It LOOKS Wonderful.

Shame it has to be so anal about its rom lists. Why cant it just scan my rom folders and make a list from that, Is that so hard?

I have been trying this damn thing for 12 hours, and still have not launched a single game. Website docs, Forums, Just messing with it. And nothing. 

I bet when its up and running its fantastic, But i really dont have time for it. Instead i got mala set up with 16 different emulators in under half an hour. Not as pretty, But it works.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Ive had a lot of issues configuring Hyperspin, Ive said it before and I'll say it again, I would pay for a finished product with all the art and vids etc.  I had a real hard time getting Atarti 2600 added and then using the theme from the HyperspinFE page, I spent about 4 eveing in a row reading and trying to set it up...

EPYX what PC setup you using?  I have a P4 3.2GHz with a 7800GT and I can't get all the transitions running smoothly so I just turned them off.

Another gripe, why is it that it can't build a rom database on it's own instead of having one built in to where if I don't have a rom it still shows.  I know there is suppose to be a process using RomLister to do it, but it would be an awesome added functionality to do so.

[mwong168]

I tried out HyperSpin a few months and paid just for Bronze access and only have it setup for MAME only.  It is a bit tedious to setup but the end result is very rewarding but I mainly play MAME anyways so didn't want to spend the time for the other consoles.  I have both running on all my cabinets that can handle it but my bartop I have Maximus Arcade running with dynamic marquees, screen shots and videos courtesy of emumovies site and looks just as nice.

Right now I am in the process of figuring out HyperPin and wrote a program in C#.net that creates XML files for it by scanning a directory I specify which I suppose could be tweaked to generate it for other emulators like NES, SNES, N64, Sega, etc.

[Epyx]

Ive had a lot of issues configuring Hyperspin, Ive said it before and I'll say it again, I would pay for a finished product with all the art and vids etc.  I had a real hard time getting Atarti 2600 added and then using the theme from the HyperspinFE page, I spent about 4 eveing in a row reading and trying to set it up...

EPYX what PC setup you using?  I have a P4 3.2GHz with a 7800GT and I can't get all the transitions running smoothly so I just turned them off.

Another gripe, why is it that it can't build a rom database on it's own instead of having one built in to where if I don't have a rom it still shows.  I know there is suppose to be a process using RomLister to do it, but it would be an awesome added functionality to do so.

What kind of configuration issues? Its probably the most straightforward to configure out of any FE...even easier than MA.  I just tried adding the 2600 and it took me about 2 mins...what issues where you having with that one specifically?

As for PC setup...im using a Dual Core E5200@3.5ghz with my ArcadeVGA and transitions are very smooth for me. I will be moving to my 8800gtx once Sailorsats EDID dongle arrives so that I can play ST IV etc on the cab.

I tried out HyperSpin a few months and paid just for Bronze access and only have it setup for MAME only.  It is a bit tedious to setup but the end result is very rewarding but I mainly play MAME anyways so didn't want to spend the time for the other consoles.  I have both running on all my cabinets that can handle it but my bartop I have Maximus Arcade running with dynamic marquees, screen shots and videos courtesy of emumovies site and looks just as nice.

I am also a registered MA user but to me even with dynamic marquees etc, Hyperspin looks a lot more like I want a FE to look...commercial

Imo only...it completes what I want in a scratch build...a home built cab that feels like it could have rolled out of a factory.  Mala is great but feels hobby...MA is definitely a notch up but again imo still feels hobby as opposed to commercial.  I paid for gold access and with all the downloads it looks fantastic.  I will post a video in my project thread once I finish the cab back today.

[WhereEaglesDare]

I got the Atari 2600 set up and it worked, but it wouldnt play roms from the menu and the theme i downloaded from hyperspin didnt work....  I need to take a second whack at it, i did download a lot of teh videos and boxart, etc....

[shateredsoul]

I tried out HyperSpin a few months and paid just for Bronze access and only have it setup for MAME only.  It is a bit tedious to setup but the end result is very rewarding but I mainly play MAME anyways so didn't want to spend the time for the other consoles.  I have both running on all my cabinets that can handle it but my bartop I have Maximus Arcade running with dynamic marquees, screen shots and videos courtesy of emumovies site and looks just as nice.

Right now I am in the process of figuring out HyperPin and wrote a program in C#.net that creates XML files for it by scanning a directory I specify which I suppose could be tweaked to generate it for other emulators like NES, SNES, N64, Sega, etc.

what's a dynamic marquee?

[Todd H]

I've got a spare hard drive sitting in the closet. I think I'm going to install Windows 7 64 on it and give Hyperspin a try. I like Maximus Arcade but Hyperspin looks so damn sexy.

[youki]

Since the app is heavily dependant upon user-created add-ons

It would be may be more fair to keep the application 100% Free..  and don't have to pay for Bronze , Silver , Gold access...

Just let users free to donate , without limiting access to force in a insidious way users to pay.

What really annoy me with this Front end  is that as said Howard it is highly dependant upon user creation ,and these same users have to pay...   it's a kind of paradox.... they pay to use their own creation..

At least, offer a gold access to your contributors.

Aside that, Hyperspin is a really fantastic looking front-end.  And if it was not so dependant on users creation it would really worth to pay for it.

[RetroBorg]

What really annoy me with this Front end  is that as said Howard it is highly dependant upon user creation ,and these same users have to pay...   it's a kind of paradox.... they pay to use their own creation..

At least, offer a gold access to your contributors.

You need not be annoyed, I got given gold access due to contributing themes to HyperSpin and I'm sure others have as well.

[Epyx]

Aside that, Hyperspin is a really fantastic looking front-end.  And if it was not so dependant on users creation it would really worth to pay for it.

Personally, I find this is what makes Hyperspin such a powerful front end.  The inherent design is what provides it the flexibility and commercial look to accommodate user creations but it is the user creations themselves that raises the bar above a lot of other products in my opinion.

Sure other Front Ends allow user content but again imo they look hobby...on Hyperspin they look commercial. If you don't care, no problem, go with one of the free ones. Hyperspin does have default settings that don't require gold access but imo you get a hell of a lot of bang for a gold donation.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Have you set it all up with a bunch of emulators and video and art and roms?  How big is your hyperspin folders after all that?  Just wondering.

[Epyx]

Have you set it all up with a bunch of emulators and video and art and roms?  How big is your hyperspin folders after all that?  Just wondering.

Question for me?  If so, I honestly haven't been concerned with size...I have a 500gb hard drive and I am guessing that at most my Hyperspin configuration takes up 1gb? that is about .02% of the space I have available and for the end result a space I would happily give up

My main concern with a front end is performance, looks and support...and all three of those score high with Hyperspin for me.

[headkaze]

I think that HyperSpin demonstrates the power of Flash as a desktop multimedia development tool, and not to mention BBB's exceptional ability and artistry over it. It was only a year or so before HS was released I was writing a FE in AS/Flash that it performed so poorly I gave up. The Flash rendering is now so optimized it's quite amazing what it can pull off on the CPU alone. I do believe hardware accelleration is coming (if not already here).

I don't really think the user content or registration system is a problem. People don't mind supporting indy developers and a registration system really just encourages people to donate. You can find HS for free in other places, but if you want the latest content then pay for FTP access. They have to pay for the bandwidth, so why shouldn't users pay too? And let's face it HS is in far more active development than Atomic.

Anyway it all comes down to what you want. Some people still prefer other FE's but it all depends on what your needs and wants are.

[Epyx]

Anyway it all comes down to what you want. Some people still prefer other FE's but it all depends on what your needs and wants are.

Bingo. My needs and wants are a professional commercial looking front end and Hyperspin delivers. I am someone who does not mind donating (MA, Hyperspin, BYOAC etc) *if* I like the end product or service.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Have you set it all up with a bunch of emulators and video and art and roms?  How big is your hyperspin folders after all that?  Just wondering.

Question for me?  If so, I honestly haven't been concerned with size...I have a 500gb hard drive and I am guessing that at most my Hyperspin configuration takes up 1gb? that is about .02% of the space I have available and for the end result a space I would happily give up

My main concern with a front end is performance, looks and support...and all three of those score high with Hyperspin for me.

it was a question for you because my setup with a lot of art and videos is over 40GB now and I was wondering how big a complete install with all videos and art would be?

[youki]

My main concern with a front end is performance, looks and support...and all three of those score high with Hyperspin for me.

I disagree with the performance side.  Hyperspin seems performant because you have a very good machine. Performance is really subjective.

On the machines i uses for my cabs Hyperspin is simply unusable.

And let's face it HS is in far more active development than Atomic.

Atomic is still in developpement.  It is not because i post less update than Atomic is not evoluing.
But anyway , i don't try to compete with HS . If you have the machine that can handle HyperSpin and that you can deal with its setup  go for it.   Atomic , at this point in time, is still more powerfull than hyperspin in matter of configuration and flexibility. (Mala also is better than hyperspin on that point). Hyperspin is clearly far better now in term of visual effects , other point are getting better and better but there is still lot of work IMHO.
The big difference is just that Atomic can have "hyperskin" on a 500Mhz machine with 256 mega and standard VGA card where Hyperspin require a 3ghz one with 2 giga and accelerated video card.
We don't have the same target. We are just complementary.   Old school VS ultra modern. 

[headkaze]

As I mentioned Flash Player 10.1 will have hardware accelleration support so HS will probably run better than Atomic then. It's really quite amazing what Adobe have done with Flash since taking over Macromedia.

[youki]

I doubt, it will run better than Atomic on a 500Mhz machine with a VGA card that have not hardware Acceleration. 

But on modern Hardware no doubt!.

[SophT]

It would be may be more fair to keep the application 100% Free..  and don't have to pay for Bronze , Silver , Gold access...

Just let users free to donate , without limiting access to force in a insidious way users to pay.

That's a rather unfair statement.  Nobody has to pay for anything.  The bronze/silver/gold is strictly a donation- everywhere you look it says "donation".  In gratitude of the donation we give gold members FTP access (which, coincidentally is funded by donations).

There's no secret material on the FTP- if you don't want to donate, then download it from the downloads section- it's all there.  The ONLY exception is unfinished sets.  We'll keep WIP things in the FTP until they're finished and then add them to the downloads section.

[youki]

IMHO , limiting  artificially Bandwith access  is an  insidious way to force the users to "donate".

Users don't donate here, but somehow buy bandwith.   HS is not Free, but follow a very smart business model.

[headkaze]

IMHO , limiting  artificially Bandwith access  is an  insidious way to force the users to "donate".

Users don't donate here, but somehow buy bandwith.   HS is not Free, but follow a very smart business model.

The word 'insidious' is often used to describe some terminal disease like AIDS. So I think you're probably exaggerating a bit there Youki! LOL

I don't know about 'smart business model' but having users pay for a value added service is certainly a smart way to pay for your own expenses. Do you think it's a bad thing to make money from your hard work or even to pay for something like bandwidth? Are you a Socialist where your think each should get according to their needs? You're welcome to have a donate button and hope that some day some kind soul might click it and give you $5. I've written quite alot of freeware that encourages donations but I'm lucky to see $5 in 6 months. That actually stifles progress because sometimes you can't afford to justify working on a free project like that. So I think people sometimes need a little more incentive, and if you add value to a free product and people like the product or service they will most likely be happy to pay. Personally I haven't heard one person who's paid money towards one of the more popular FE's and demanded their money back. Have you?

[youki]

Sorry for the "Insidious"  , i translated french to english and may be the meaning of the word is not exactly the same...
I want say, more or less , it is an hidden way to force user to donate.

I'm not socialist , in fact i don't care about politics at all.  But it is real i don't like the today society where that the only things that count is money and profit. 

I have a donate button for Atomic, and users are free (never forced) to click on ads on my website , and that cover more than my needs concerning development of Atomic.  I got some donation up to  300 USD!!  Generally is around 20USD. Donation and adds give me a average income of 800 USD/year , largely enough to pay my internet hosting  with illimited bandwith and huge storage.

Of course all users don't donate , and i don't blame them , i didn't created Atomic with Profit in mind.

I like frankness , If something is a paid software say it is a paid software.  IMHO : GameEX, Maximus and Hyperspin are paid software.  From the 3 , Only Maximus claimed that since the begining.

and i don't say it does not worth to pay for that software.  They are good , and I understand you can pay for them.

But as i already said in the past, Don't give money to FrontEnd Developper , Give your money to Emulator's Developper. The real magicians are these guys , not a Front End Dev. 
 

[Epyx]

I disagree with the performance side.  Hyperspin seems performant because you have a very good machine. Performance is really subjective.

On the machines i uses for my cabs Hyperspin is simply unusable.

Of course you would disagree as you use slower processors...I said for *me* it was an important factor because as mentioned previously my cutoff for MAME emulation is running Starblade 100%...if a processor can do that it will be more than capable of running Hyperspin.

I don't like using slower processors for MAME as it limits me in other areas of gaming and emulation on my Cab...sure for those of you just running MAME classics, Hyperspin in its full glory will create some problems but for those like me running on faster processors its fantastic and gives *me* the look and performance I want.

[fytr]

I've installed Hyperspin to see what all the "Hype" was about . It's certainly very professional and flashy in it's presentation. I'm looking for a front-end for an arcade (MAME) cabinet, and after a few hours of use have the following observations/questions about Hyperspin:

• Too noisy/flashy! While stunning in effect, the themes for the wheels and games outclass the visual/audio presentation of the games themselves to such a degree that the classic arcade games are a letdown after the A.D.D. nature of the front-end. Maybe this could addressed with less busy themes?
• Seems to lack flexibility in terms of configuration. For example, how the game wheels are sorted/grouped, etc. Maybe there's more to it but it seemed like it would be great if you like what it does, but painful if you wanted more options (sub wheels by category?)
• Analog joystick support? I have U360s but no trackball and would like to spin the wheels faster/slower based on how far the joystick is pushed in a given direction. Can Hyperspin do this?

Regards,
  Ken

[Dazz]

Seems to lack flexibility in terms of configuration. For example, how the game wheels are sorted/grouped, etc. Maybe there's more to it but it seemed like it would be great if you like what it does, but painful if you wanted more options (sub wheels by category?)

Lack flexibility?  HyperSpin is easily the most flexible front end out in terms of configuration.  People are always thinking out of the box and for the most part it's doable in HyperSpin, but may not be doable with the default setup.  List are grouped on however you setup your database file (XML).  If you want all your mahjong games on one list, you can do that... Sub wheels by category?  Use the Genre system and add your own categories. 

Analog joystick support? I have U360s but no trackball and would like to spin the wheels faster/slower based on how far the joystick is pushed in a given direction. Can Hyperspin do this?

Map the HyperSpin button, hold the button while you move the joystick.

[fytr]

Good to hear. I'll have to spend some more time with HyperSpin to learn the ins and outs.

Thx.
  Ken