genre based main menu instead of emulators

[reven]

this one would be a lot of work, but I think would make a lot more sense.

instead of the mainmenu listing emulators, it would be better if it listed genres. that way if you want to play say a fighting game, you dont have to hunt around to remember what emulator you have it under. or you can quickly switch between light gun games and not have to jump out and change emulator menus (eg from mame -> genres -> light guns to playstation -> genres -> lightguns etc).

end users dont really care what emulator/system games are under, they want to play games, and easily find them.

a lot of work and is dependent on getting games all put into genres (i'm not sure if most emulators have these listed, im new to hyperspin), but definitely beneficial IMO.

[reven]

or in the interim, have the ability to have a "Favourites" main menu item, which collects your favourite roms across all emulators ?

[ghutch92]

Sorry but unless you have good incentives, nobody is gonna go around making xmls at your request specifically for you and your setup.

request 1 (genre instead of emulators) can already be accomplished already with a little work on your part. I have not tested this but I believe it should work. This method requires all of the genre tags to be filled in for your games. You will also need Don's HyperTools.

Step 1 use the the HyperTools List Merger to merge all of your system xmls you will be using into one gigantic master xml. (make sure exe tags are included)

Step 2 use the HyperTools List Splitter to gigantic master xml by genre.

Step 3 add the genre systems to HyperHQ according to the names of the genre xmls you just made.

request 2 (global favorites) this is not easy to do right now, but I'm willing to make it very simple (because I want this as well) if someone will make a main menu theme for a favorites 'system' that I like.

P.S. lightguns is not a genre, calling lightguns a genre would be like calling dualshock a genre. A lightgun is a specialized controller.

[floatingyeti]

with all systems on one wheel you couldn't have a default emulator you would have to define the emulators per game. I have around 40k roms that task would really suck. Plus I imagine there would be a huge lag when trying to view the wheel. This isn't a practical idea.

[Polemicist]

Have a look at Startrekers Aim Trak Wheel. It is a lot of work but it is focused around the use of a single peripheral so that makes sense. Have a look at jeepguys Cocktail cab vertical theme. It again is focused around a single thing and is currently only in the MAME category.

The database creation process is very painful and extremely time consuming. Setting up a wheel across multiple systems is borderline insanity. No one is gonna make you XML files like that and no one would use them cause they would take FOREVER to setup and would have to be updated very regularly.

Heck no bro.

[ghutch92]

You can still setup the emulators connected to the traditional system names. Just make your HyperSpin setup with recommended as systems like Nintendo Entertainment System, MAME, Sega Genesis, etc. This way it's easy to setup HyperLaunch. When you get done (if you ever get done) do what I told you about combining all the system xmls into one xml. You are not gonna make this one giant xml a single system, this is only to make it easier to split them up into separate genres.

The exe tag list merger can generate can be used to trick HyperLaunch into what system name you are using, this way you don't need to change your HyperLaunch settings, such as removing the default emulator etc. Keep all the system xmls you used to merge as in the same place they were before when you used them to setup HyperLaunch. Also make a copy of your main menu.xml before you make a main menu.xml with just genres.

My advice is to get comfortable with the current way before you try and deviate. What you want to do for your own setup can be done currently, but like I said it will take some effort on your part. Nobody will do it for you.

[reven]

Sorry but unless you have good incentives, nobody is gonna go around making xmls at your request specifically for you and your setup.

I wasn't asking for somebody to make xmls for me and my setup, i was suggesting a feature/different way of display the menu. a end user doesnt care about emulators/systems. they care about the actual games. hiding what a game is running on and just showing the game is a logical step IMO.

im not expecting it to be done straight away, but to be considered as a easier way to navigate the system and perhaps be thought of in future versions.

request 2 (global favorites) this is not easy to do right now, but I'm willing to make it very simple (because I want this as well) if someone will make a main menu theme for a favorites 'system' that I like.

i thought this would be fairly easy to add and would work as stepping stone to easier navigation. if you could have

step 1. Global Favourites - on main menu, just lists all your favourites across all emulators

step 2. Global Favourites - with genre support. this way you could start straight into "Favourites", and have all your favourite games listed by genre, not the entire system and not replacing the main menu but a step.

step 3. option to use genres instead of emulators for main menu.

P.S. lightguns is not a genre, calling lightguns a genre would be like calling dualshock a genre. A lightgun is a specialized controller.

check out the genres in mame, theres one for light guns. if you want to play a light gun game currently, you have to enter all the emulators, find the games. if you want to switch between mame, pc, psx etc, its a lot of jumping around.

this could be done now, via hacking xmls and creating an additional rom loader which would call hyperlaunch but knew what roms went to what emulator. but it would be a dirty hack. and it would be a personal hack, IMO many people would benefit from my suggested main menu alternative.

all im doing is making a suggestion, not trying to argue or demand anything.

[jimmyuk86]

I have noticed that there is a lack of system genre wheels and xml's in general out there so iv started to do my own..only got as far as super nintendo lol. And i have created a xml to match...

[ghutch92]

I have genre wheel and background artwork in my ftp folder. Also I believe the HL media download has genre wheel artwork included in it. But yes jimmyuk86 genre wheels themed specifically after systems are lacking.

Step 1: global favorites can be done but like I said I need an incentive to work on this in the form of a video and a main menu theme that I want to use. This global favorites would also let you do genres within the global favorites.

Step 3: does not require any extra rom loader. just do what I said and use the exe tags in the xml. The exe tags will define what system each game belongs to. So if you have game "xylophone" in system "Music Games" with the exe tag "PC Games". With the exe tag HyperSpin will send HyperLaunch.exe "PC Games" "xylophone" without the exe tag it would send HyperLaunch.exe "Music Games" "xylophone" so there doesn't need to be any in between factor as you suggest.

The reason genre xmls are hard to find is because of HyperTools List Splitter. It generates all your genre xmls from your normal xml. Just check it out.

[32assassin]

out of curiosity but say you do set up a genre based menu

an end user wants to play a fighting game say Mortal kombat

you would have a

Main Wheel = Fighting

sub wheel =

Arcade Mortal Kombat

SNES Mortal Kombat

Sega Genesis Mortal Kombat

why would you wan't so many duplicate tittles in one wheel?

seems like a bad idea to me

if someone wants to play super mario world, does it fall under action, adventure or platform?.

We can guess or go straight to the SNES wheel and look for the game.

[reven]

out of curiosity but say you do set up a genre based menu

an end user wants to play a fighting game say Mortal kombat

you would have a

Main Wheel = Fighting

sub wheel =

Arcade Mortal Kombat

SNES Mortal Kombat

Sega Genesis Mortal Kombat

why would you wan't so many duplicate tittles in one wheel?

seems like a bad idea to me

if someone wants to play super mario world, does it fall under action, adventure or platform?.

We can guess or go straight to the SNES wheel and look for the game.

games can fall under multiple genres, just like movies etc. so super mario would be under

- platform

- side scroller

- classic?

but you dont want to pollute the main menu with so many genres, so possible 2 levels of genres; could be computed on how many items are in a genre, say if theres only 20 games under "Light gun" no point putting a second level of genres under that. however with "action/adventure" you could have "side scroller", "platform", "classic", "3d" etc.

personally i wouldnt want duplicates listed. i would keep the best version with the best emulator. so it would be like

Main Wheel

- Fighting

-- Injustice

-- Mortal Kombat

-- Street Fighter

-- Street Figther 2

-- Street Fighter 4

-- X-Men vs Street Fighter

The end user doesnt need to know that SF4 and injustice are PC games, xmen vs street fighter could be mame, mortal kombat might be from snes etc. it doesnt matter, all the games of that genre are nicely listed.

I suppose if you wanted, you could have an option to then pick the emulator so

Main Wheel

- Fighting

-- Injustice

-- Mortal Kombat

--- PC

--- MAME

--- SNES

--- Gensis

etc, but that would be for advanced users if they wanted it. possible with a way to "default" which emulator to use. so default button would play with best emulator, another button would bring up a choice which emulator/version to use (with the option to set default from that list).

Having a better database type system which allows you to also filter games (2player, rating/certification etc) would make finding games a lot easier IMO. especially if you have young kids and you want to let them choose from a list thats is safe for them to play etc.