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Bezel or not to Bezel


IdahoTech

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Hello Everyone,

This is just a personal struggle for me and wonder what other people think about it.

I want to create as close to the arcade as possible when I build my cabinet and get it all setup and running. My OCD moment is to have the bezels for some machiens and not others (since there are none for some) or no bezels at all??

I have the bezels downloaded and the ones that are there are great and make it look more authentic to when I grew up under the warmth of the arcade I used to go to..( it was hot even in winter).

Some people I see have the bezels show up per game like I want and some dont have bezels. Fish or cut bait it what i feel this is like. Just wondering about others feelings on this issue....

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I prefer bezels always. Even with my PS2 collection, I use a bezel. I was trying out this last week a new set of bezel for retroarch along with some shaders, and the combination of them, make me feel so nostalgic. Specially the MAME collection. 

And since you are building a cabinet, have you consider adding an extra monitor to be placed on top and use hypermarquee? I have seen some cabinets on youtube with it and it looks so cool. 

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Love bezels and use them with nearly everything expect a few emulators i have Sweetfx running. If you don't have per game bezels you should have at least one default and if you don't you should be able to knock one up, or get someone  to do it.

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I didn't like the idea of bezels, for me it was all about the games n playing them the way they looked when I was growing up, but I'm playing on a 16:9 screen and the black bars didn't look good and started to look like wasted space.

 

I ended up downloading @Metalzoic bezel pack and I'm glad I did because the games look so much better without the wasted space on either sides and it looks a lot more like I remember the games.

I've gone and downloaded more bezels for the consoles now, and again it looks I now prefer it with the bezels.

I'm a fan of the bezels that @SIMPLYAUSTIN gave out with his media pack downloads because seeing the controller buttons on either side brings back nostalgic memories and it helps when someone else might be playing and is not familiar with the controller layout because I try to use a layout close to the original on my 360 controllers (seriously considering trying to set up PS4 controllers because the dpad on the 360 controller is just terrible for retro games that are all about precision.

I'm also considering adding instruction cards in the future which can be clicked on n off at the push of a button combination to help for people who may not know the buttons.

If @SIMPLYAUSTIN sees this thread, I'd love if you put together a pack of all the console bezels you have, the same as the the ones you included in your media packs that show the controller, I'd love to have a complete set of these for all consoles "hint hint wink wink"

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  • 2 weeks later...

@thenoob You can always use @Metalzoic's bezel pack, which takes all of the existing bezels and runs them as background images. By doing this the game play area is displayed on top of the bezels, essentially forcing all games to run in full screen. The downside is that you'll lose some of the original bezel art for many of the bezels, but maybe that's not something you care a ton about.

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I d/l that pack but never got around to trying it.

whats the settings? Set beZel to true and select use backgrounds?

im away from RL at the moment.  If I remember there's some sort of setting (fill/4:3:16:9) drop down menu? 

Ive been trying to get into bezels and I'm hoping tonight is the night I try.

if someone can post there bezel RL setting page so I know I have mine setup correctly pleeeease do!

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I got it going... kind of.

except when I cycle through bezels...I don't get bezels really.  Just goes from windowed mode to full screen.

metazolic's bezel pack is in RL/media/bezel/MAME.  That is the correct place? 

 

Really weird. Anyways I'm just coming to grips it just doesn't look right or fun to play on a 19" with bezels I think. I can only dream of a 26" cab!

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5 hours ago, thenoob said:

I d/l that pack but never got around to trying it.

whats the settings? Set beZel to true and select use backgrounds?

im away from RL at the moment.  If I remember there's some sort of setting (fill/4:3:16:9) drop down menu? 

Ive been trying to get into bezels and I'm hoping tonight is the night I try.

if someone can post there bezel RL setting page so I know I have mine setup correctly pleeeease do!

Instructions are in the first post of the topic.

Your 19" is 16:9 right? 

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11 hours ago, thenoob said:

It's an older 4:3 dell monitor in there 

Ah that's going to be an issue if you're not looking to shrink the play area. The whole premise of RL bezels was based around filling the black bars with something useful. Up to you, I guess.

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Instead of making a new thread, I'm poking around the ftp , maybe you guys can point me in the right direction...

is there system collections of backgrounds floating around, like say when the fade screen loads that has a background of that game/art?

ive got some off retrohumanoid , his stuff has been great, not complete yet, but been a huge help.

Reference to the pic...I'm having a problem figuring out the diff between "fades" and "background" folders in RL... is that a mix of two? Fade being the screen and background being the art?  I'd really like to start collecting them for model2/3/Naomi etc

 

would like to start amassing a focused collection of them..

 

IMG_1713.JPG

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On 3/11/2017 at 5:55 PM, thenoob said:

It's an older 4:3 dell monitor in there 

Yeah then you probably don't want to use bezels. Nearly everything you'll find here for bezels are made for 16:9 monitors and won't work right on a 4:3. there are a bunch of MAME bezels for 4:3 monitors out there, but they all really squish the game screen down to tiny ultra-lame stank ho cheddar butt micro weiner diaper headed baby proportions... In my opinion of course.

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Thanks for the input everyone.

I (as we all probably have) grew up in the arcade and remember how much cash I put toward those things. The bezels do make it feel like the old machine. Right now i have probably 50 games in my Mame wheel and only about 60 to 70 percent have bezels.

I am even looking for the artwork on the wheel for certain games.

If I tried to build a machine for every game I have I would go broke!! Work at a school district and pay is not all that great because it seems life gets in the way with bills etc....

I have always struggled with bezels and love that they are there but did not know if I should go all in and just let the ones without work, or none at all in a generic cabinet. I am thinking of having them for the ones that have them.

You know where i used to game there is a Arcade that was built not to far from where the arcade I used to go to once was. It is on Ogden Ave in Brookfield called Galloping Ghost Arcade. I wonder if they would allow someone to photograph the machines they have there and their bezels???

If you have not seen or heard of it here is the link:

Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL

I was there a few years ago and became a donor. The minute you walk into there it takes you back to when you were a kid and for the price of getting in is great 20 for all day so you can come and go as you please all day for that 20....

And yes I have seen the HyperMarquee Badboo and kinda expensive so gonna have to leave that one out.

Thanks for the all the input on this for me. It does help.

IdahoTech

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