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]

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.

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]

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.

I have access and a intermediate knowledge of the adobe suite.

I will shoot you my email via PM.

Thank you for your time!

[MYX]

What you need to do is make a resolution grid. This will allow you to map out on your monitor exactly where you want you graphics to occur.
So...
Make a new Photoshop document. You want 640x288 at 72 DPI. (this will not be your layout so do not worry about the low res for now). Under view, click ruler. Under preferences, set your units to pixels.
Press - D (Sets colors to defaults)
Press Alt + Backspace (Fills the layer with the foreground color.)
Then make a new layer. (Ctrl + Shift + D)
Use the line tool  (located under the text tool. You may need to click from the drop down set)
Make sure that the weighting is set to 1 px. Also make sure that the line tool is not set for paths. In the upper left hand side of the program there are 3 boxes when line tool is selected, make sure that the 3rd one (the 3rd from the left) is selected. This will make a rasterized line.
Press x (exchanges foreground for background)
White should now be the main color
Make a vertical line every 50 pixels
For an easier line click at the start location and press shift as you drag. This will lock the line vertical, horizontal, or 45 degree diag.
After you have all the 50's done you might want to add a few lines every 10 pixels for the first and last 50 pixels. =====
After you have your verts, then do the same but horizontally. Again making the first and last 50 pixels with 10 pixel increments.
Then get the text tool and mark the increments. don't make the font too small or it will be hard to see on the monitor, but don't make it so big that you can not tell which line goes to which number. You may need to stagger a text for the first and last 50 pixel sets (or you can just count the lines on the screen).
Once you have labeled the Hoz and vert lines save this as a PSD (DO NOT FLATTEN THIS FILE). You always want to keep PSDs editable. Once it is saved, click save as and name it as grid or something. Take the file and make a bogus layout for MAMEWah. Load it up.

Things to make sure of first is that 1. You have played some vert and hoz games and you are happy with the screen location adjustment. Then with the new mamewah layout, you can see exactly how the graphic will fall on the screen. Write down (do not try to remember) where the screen cuts off on the sides, top and bottom.

To make your layout, make a new document. 640x288. With the rulers on set up some guides by dragging from the ruler out onto the canvas. Place a guids for both sides, top, and bottom where the lines went off the screen in MAMEWah. Once you have your edges, then up the resolution. I would step up the resolution. 1920x864. This is 3 times bigger and you can work with more detail. When it gets squished down it will look better than if you started small. You want to increase your resolution BEFORE you start to work. You will notice that when you enlarge your image that the guides you set also stay in scale with the image. Cool eh'. Make sure that you have a background color or pattern or design that goes the full length of the 640x288, but keep your design work within the boundries you set prior to enlarging the image. Save often! Once you are finished, then save the file and then save as a jpeg. Once a jpeg then resize the image down to 640 x 288. Insert into MW and add your game list and snaps and play on!