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Frustration with Mamewah
Leif:
I'm not sure if I need help or what... maybe I just need to vent a little.
I LOVE the mamewah program. I don't see how my arcade could be my arcade without minwah and what he has done for the community.
My gripe I have is that it's a catch 22 when running on a real arcade monitor. I'm limited to (without shaking) 640x288 or 320xYYY. This keeps the menus TINY and I can't use the slicker font or any other font I want because they don't go below a 8 font size. I can get my layout looking snazzy at 640x480 but I load it up and it looks like a parkinson's patient on the monitor.
Anyone have a suggestion? Anyone have some 640x288 or 320 layouts I can peer over?
MYX:
This is a place where you do have to do some R&D. There is really no other way around it. I suggest that you run at 640x288. There is a little flicker but nothing like what you get at 640x480. If you have another computer that you can work at, I suggest that you do your graphics work there and then transfer the files via USB thumb drive or something along those lines. You can put MAMEWay on that machine so you can use the layout program. This way you can do the long work on a normal monitor and test on the arcade monitor. I found that when I was working on mine that I had to raise the bottom of the graphic because it was going off the edge of the screen. If I adjusted the screen the the games would go beyond the edge of screen. I felt that the game play was more important than the FE graphics. I think in the end I raised the lower portion about an 1/8 about the bottom of the screen.
When working at 640x288 it is sometimes hard to remember that everything will squish up. It looks great when it does, but I forget and put some things too close and when it squishes, it looks like crap.
As to text, don't try to get a brazillion games on the list. Keep the font a little higher. It may take more scrolling to get to the game you want, but it will look nicer.
I also took several things off the screen, like the extra information. I basically had just a game list and a snap location.
I have since moved to Atomic FE which allows for a more Photoshop esk' experience. I like the way I can lay things out much more.
Leif:
--- Quote from: MYX on January 03, 2007, 04:43:01 pm ---This is a place where you do have to do some R&D. There is really no other way around it. I suggest that you run at 640x288. There is a little flicker but nothing like what you get at 640x480. If you have another computer that you can work at, I suggest that you do your graphics work there and then transfer the files via USB thumb drive or something along those lines. You can put MAMEWay on that machine so you can use the layout program. This way you can do the long work on a normal monitor and test on the arcade monitor. I found that when I was working on mine that I had to raise the bottom of the graphic because it was going off the edge of the screen. If I adjusted the screen the the games would go beyond the edge of screen. I felt that the game play was more important than the FE graphics. I think in the end I raised the lower portion about an 1/8 about the bottom of the screen.
When working at 640x288 it is sometimes hard to remember that everything will squish up. It looks great when it does, but I forget and put some things too close and when it squishes, it looks like crap.
As to text, don't try to get a brazillion games on the list. Keep the font a little higher. It may take more scrolling to get to the game you want, but it will look nicer.
I also took several things off the screen, like the extra information. I basically had just a game list and a snap location.
I have since moved to Atomic FE which allows for a more Photoshop esk' experience. I like the way I can lay things out much more.
--- End quote ---
Thank you for the reply... that makes me feel like I'm not alone in this matter.
You wouldn't happen to have some screenies of any 640x288 work that you've done do you? You're right it does look like crap when you're working on it at standard res and it's hard to get the alignment of things right when everything is squished. I'm having trouble with my snaps and mame previews window because it's hard to know what the aspect ration is going to turn out being like when you're done. You look at it and think... there is no way that is 4:3 when in fact it is.
My suggestion to anyone that takes note... have a virtual test window that you could launch mamewah in on a standard res machine to see how a low res layout functions.
I'm not sure if mamewah is even being updated much anymore though.
MYX:
Nope not alone. I fought it for a while. I will go in search of my mamewah stuff. PM me your email address.
Do you have access to graphics software? Does it give you a ruler feature? Can the units on the ruler be converted to pixels?
I have a couple of suggestions for you if you do.
Leif:
--- Quote from: MYX on January 03, 2007, 07:47:38 pm ---Nope not alone. I fought it for a while. I will go in search of my mamewah stuff. PM me your email address.
Do you have access to graphics software? Does it give you a ruler feature? Can the units on the ruler be converted to pixels?
I have a couple of suggestions for you if you do.
--- End quote ---
I have access and a intermediate knowledge of the adobe suite.
I will shoot you my email via PM.
Thank you for your time!
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