There needs to be a better way..

[DJQuad]

So as we all know, setting up HyperSpin is an exercise in frustration. It literally took me months just to get a solid HyperSpin install working, even after the great tutorials from Simply Austin and many others. There needs to be a better way for people to get a basic install running without spending hours and hours of outdated tutorials. They just want it to work.

 

I truly know that building a system from scratch is the best way to understand the ins and outs of HyperSpin, but again, not everyone wants to do that. They just want a drive that works. As much as I love everything about HyperSpin, RocketRauncher, Arcade Classics, HyperSync, and even 3^rd-party utilities like HyperSearch, HyperSpeech, ROM renaming tools, etc, we have to make this easier for mainstream.

 

Programs like LaunchBox are getting some good press, and for very good reasons. It SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD to get the most simple of setups working.

 

The HyperSpin, RocketRauncher, etc devs are great at what they do, but what they fail at is making it easy for people to just get it to work.

 

I’m truly aware of the risks that “HyperSpin Drives” have. They could be preinstalled with Malware, Spyware, and even more dangerous, keyloggers.

 

I suppose what I’m suggesting is a solution that is basically a new front-end.

One that’s based on HyperSpin, RocketLauncher, HyperSync, etc.

One that would require a hard drive of your choice.

One that would require (and prompt for) memberships to both Hyperspin and Emumovies.

One that is open source so the community can vet it to ensure there’s no malicious stuff in it.

 

Believe me when I say this – not everyone wants to spend hours and hours getting a basic setup working, which caused a thriving business for malicious people to sell Hyperspin drives. Not to cause drama but at the end I actually blame the HS devs for making it so damn complicated. It’s no coincidence that there are literally hundreds of YouTube videos that have spent months and months getting something very basic to work.

 

 

[Avar]

This is why we have the new tutorial series being done, because it doesn't take hours to teach HS to people. Newcomers should be able to have a perfect setup in less than an hour or two, depending on how intense they want to get with systems. This is what I'm striving for with the official tutorial vids. However, Platinum Members do have the option of grabbing a complete HS build from the downloads section if they so choose. There's a plethora of issues associated with distributing roms, emus, etc to the masses that preclude the possibility of handing out game-ready setups and everyone's system is different though.

[32assassin]

. There needs to be a better way for people to get a basic install running without spending hours and hours of outdated tutorials. They just want it to work.

 

I

 

 

Only way this is going to happen is if Hyperspin,  and Rocketlauncher are never updated.

 

 

You can sit down and watch this 3 year old tutorial,  and set up HyperSpin and Hyperrlaunch2. 

 

 

  (only diffrence is all Hyperlaunh2 modules are included in Hyperspin 1.3.3 pack; you no longer download them individually)

 

The tutorial is only outdated because new and better options have been developed.  Yet you have all this people saying that Hyperspin is DEAD!!! simply because Hyeprsin 2.0 has not been released in over 3 years of its initial announcement.

 

 

Hyperspin is the ultimate DIY project,   you either Do It Yourself,  if you don't want  to spend hours and hours building it;  pay someone to do it.

 

If I have a pack of Hypespin ready roms,  I can download and configure a fresh copy of Hyeprspin in a matter of hours.  So it can't be that hard.

 

 

 

if you feel that hyperspin is not worh your time.  I want you to know that their are multiple options to choose form

 

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Front-Ends

[Metalzoic]

Don't forget that Gigapig put together pre-built & setup downloads with 40 or 50 systems ready to go right from this site.

That's pretty straightforward to get going. Even when you do it from scratch it isn't so bad if you follow a(good) tutorial. I had mine up and running over the first weekend I went to set it up.

[KlopjerO]

what a useless post. 

gigapigs releases have made setting up hyperspin as easy as never before. 

yes it's time consuming, yes you need to get tech-savvy to a degree.if your not willing to get intimate with your system then this FE is not for you. 

do you have  any usefull suggestions.. what are the difficulties that your are running into? and what would be an improvement in your opinion? 

[THK]

Hey, the internet is partly to vent & share frustrations. If it takes you months to set up HS or change the tire of a bicycle, you should be able to tell ppl how much it's their fault you suck xD

[gigapig]

The 51 system build is in the Platinum section and perhaps needs a bit more advertising certainly on the front page and when people click the donate button.

[potts43]

The 51 system build is in the Platinum section and perhaps needs a bit more advertising certainly on the front page and when people click the donate button.

I've been a user for quite a while but not checked out your setup. I'm always interested in learning something new. I must take a look and I bet your guides help most users - of all experience levels!

[Hutty]

Gigapig's setup is amazing, can have everything going in minutes.

[gigapig]

I've been a user for quite a while but not checked out your setup. I'm always interested in learning something new. I must take a look and I bet your guides help most users - of all experience levels!

I have retired myself from making guides, they did their job when there were no guides for RocketLauncher.

Avar has done some stunning new guides which should be in the tutorials section.

[kylecp1979]

Hyperspin isn't for everyone. Yes it take's some time to setup and learn but that's fun for some of us and the end results can be pretty awesome.

 

 

If you don't want to take the time to figure hyperspin  out then it's probably not for you and you should try something more your speed.

 

Just my thoughts.

[Avar]

I have retired myself from making guides, they did their job when there were no guides for RocketLauncher.

Avar has done some stunning new guides which should be in the tutorials section.

 

Yeh I can totally understand a complaint of this nature if it was a decade ago, back when we had to actually code half our own modules. The current HS/RL iteration is super user friendly imo with tool tips literally everywhere. Only difficulties ppl should run into now stem from the setup of arcade systems with finicky emus. All the mainstream stuff is a walk in the park now.

[BakerMan]

Hey, the internet is partly to vent & share frustrations. If it takes you months to set up HS or change the tire of a bicycle, you should be able to tell ppl how much it's their fault you suck xD

[damageinc86]

I think what the OP is really getting at is that Hyperspin could make a more significant impact if it was easier for the mainstream/average user to setup and use.  It's like trying to convince a manufacturer to add a power steering pump to their next model.  Hell if you want to drive a car, just work out and get buff enough to turn the damn steering wheel!, or go use something else!  Sure I guess, but then you just loose your place in the world, and your market share pretty fast once the new cars from other manufacturers come out with P/S pumps in them.  
 

I think Hyperspin is great the way it is, but then again, it took me like 6 months to go from nothing to having a basic good setup running, and another year or two of constant tweaking for finishing touches because I do want to have a lot of stuff like bezels, fades, RA shader for handhelds, etc.  It's still not complete, but it's totally functioning and all set up.  almost 3 years later lol.  Sure, it's because I wanted more, but still, even the initial trouble to set it up for basic stuff was way overkill.

 

If the Hyperspin community doesn't want to be more popular or gain new ground in the form of easy setup/use with little to know knowledge of emulation, then yeah i'd suggest staying the way it is.

 

But really, a handful of well placed features would propel Hyperspin way beyond other front ends.

[JoyStickKilla]

I don't see why people have so much trouble and say setting up hyperspin is hard. The hyperspin portion is literally add new system in hyperhq, type a path in a file, download some stuff and stick them in already created folders. That is all there is to hyperspin. Rocketlauncher is no more difficult people, look at module, download emulator, set it up and configure how you want it in the settings. If people need it easier then this well then perhaps they should stick with no frontends or a playstation or xbox.

[DJQuad]

I think what the OP is really getting at is that Hyperspin could make a more significant impact if it was easier for the mainstream/average user to setup and use.  It's like trying to convince a manufacturer to add a power steering pump to their next model.  Hell if you want to drive a car, just work out and get buff enough to turn the damn steering wheel!, or go use something else!  Sure I guess, but then you just loose your place in the world, and your market share pretty fast once the new cars from other manufacturers come out with P/S pumps in them.  

 

I think Hyperspin is great the way it is, but then again, it took my like 6 months to go from 0-60, and another 8 months of constant tweaking for finishing touches because i end up finding new artwork, bezels, getting into the RA shaders that i found, etc, etc.  It's still not complete, but it's totally functioning and all set up.  almost 3 years later lol.

 

Exactly. Some got the wrong idea from my original post.

 

It didn't take me months to set up HyperSpin. It took me a weekend (probably 12 hours or so?) to get a pretty solid setup. The rest of the time was spent by what you mentioned - the artwork, bezels, shaders, better looking themes, fine-tuning the emulators, testing and deciding what 3rd-party utilities are fairly vital, and so on.

 

I agree that it's a hobby and HyperSpin isn't for everyone, but the thing is, it should be for everyone IMO. I also agree that Gigapig's setup is pretty epic.

 

My OP wasn't a cry for help getting my system working. It was about ways to make it easier for the public to have a very solid setup. If they choose to go nuts with further customization like we do, they obviously can.

[FrankyRizzo]

The emulator setup part has very little to do with HyperSpin.  Most people use RocketLauncher as their launcher and not HyperLauncher.  HyperSpin is just the sexy system / game selector.  Really unless developers stop updating their emulators, RocketLauncher will always need constant updates.... There will never be that super simple setup for anyone.  RocketLauncher updates have broke my setup so many times because of updated modules for versions of emulators I don't use.  

 

I find HyperSpin is the easy part of the Arcade.  The headaches come from RocketLauncher.  But RL is really amazing.  I have emulators working through RL that I dont even know how to use without RL lol.  

[Avar]

 RocketLauncher updates have broke my setup so many times because of updated modules for versions of emulators I don't use. 

 

Had this happen once when it first came out, now I just religiously backup my modules.

[DJQuad]

Had this happen once when it first came out, now I just religiously backup my modules.

 

That's kinda my point. I do as well. In fact I don't make any change, no matter how insignificant it seems, without doing a complete backup first.

 

I'm working on a backup/restore utility called HyperBackup that I've referenced in another thread. I won't bore you with the features but at minimum there's a quick backup for xmls, inis, and ahks. That would cover the modules.

 

The reason I'm developing HyperBackup is quite simple. It's primarily for what I call the "in betweeners". People that have a solid setup and want to extend and experiment with other features. If they fuck it up, a restore could be done literally within seconds. 

 

Although I'm more than happy to provide that to the HyperSpin community, and release it as open-source for the community, there should be no reason for it, if that makes sense.

 

I mentioned LaunchBox earlier, and there of course others like RetroPie. Guess why those solutions were made?

[Avar]

That was caused by updating when I had no reason to though and not doing a simple copy/paste, and that was strictly RL related.

[Avar]

Also once you have a stable setup there's really no reason to update emus, RL, or rly anything until it provides something you need.

[DJQuad]

I know what it was caused by

[damageinc86]

When I tested out launchbox I just pointed it to the emulator.exe and that was it.  Set it to fullscreen, and launchbox literally did the rest.  If Hyperspin could add the scraping and all artwork stuff by default, then it would be one big giant step in the right direction.  The only thing that I'd like to see launchbox have would be the PAUSE feature from RL.  Then I wouldn't even need to use RL for anything.  Also, I'd like out of the box controller support for navigating the menus for both launchbox and hyperspin.  

[Metalzoic]

You know I've never even once tried HyperPause. I really don't even know what it's for.

[damageinc86]

It's a menu that pops up over your emulator where you can look at the manuals, artwork, and for me, the best part of it is the save manager.  You can put in autohotkey presses into RL for your emulator, and Pause will send those to the emulator to take up a save slot.  You can access them through the Pause menu in order.  So that way you don't have to try to remember the different emulators save functions, or press any keys if you have a nav profile setup on a controller.  I really just use the savegame feature of pause, I think it's a great idea.  If it was integrated into being a standard feature of a frontend then that would be a big huge step forward.