Help a hypernewbie with some basic overview questions

[jamaster14]

So i've spent the last 2 or 3 days researching this forum and reading up on everything I had quesitons on. I also went through the guides, mainly:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?29481-How-to-install-HyperSpin

Tonite im going to start my install and try and setup an emulator. I had some questions im not quite clear on and was hoping someone could make sure im headed in the right direction as far as customization goes:

-for the wheel, do i need to change the name of all my roms to match what is in the XML? I have seen alot of posts on different utilites for changing the rom names, but not quite clear on why this needs to be done.

-for the artwork on the wheel, is anything built in, or are is there some kind of skin/theme i can download that will import the art on the wheel for every game or do i need to find/make the art myself and manually import it for each game?

-am i correct in that i will need to purchase software in order to have my usb game controller manipulate hyperspin to get into the games? i dont mind purchasing but want to make sure this is required before doing so

I apologize in advanced for questions that may be awnsered elsewhere or this being in the wrong forum. there is a TON of great information here which ive book marked and printed out for my install, but sometimes its hard to get clear awnsers on questions like these with so much info overall

thanks!

jason

[marxkemp]

- yes all artwork needs the same name

- hypersync subscription on this site

- xpadder rocks

[32assassin]

to elaborate more

- yes you need to rename your roms to match the XML

all the artwork uploaded to the site needs to be named to match a rom.

rom name = wheel art name = video name = theme name = ect name.

you can keep your roms named to whatever you want BUT!!! you will have to rename all the artwork to match YOUR name AND MAKE YOUR OWN XML.

the simple solution is to rename your rom to match the Hyperpsin naming convention witch matches all the artwork available for that rom.

nothing is built in, even the XMLs that come pre installed in Hyperspin need to be updated.

you will need to manually download all the themes, wheel packs, videos ect and place them in the correct folder

from here http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=109

you can become a donating Gold member and download artwork in bulk from the FTP or a Platinum member and download all the available artwork automatically using HyperSync.

keep in mind that you will also need a donating member account to emumovies for videos. emumovies and hyperspin are two independent sites.

Yes, you need a keymapper in order to control Hyperspin with a Joystick.

their are some free alternatives such as

AHK

joytokey --> http://joytokey.net/en/

the free versions require you to do allot of scripting, this is why most of us opt for the $10 Xpadder.

[jamaster14]

to elaborate more

- yes you need to rename your roms to match the XML

all the artwork uploaded to the site needs to be named to match a rom.

rom name = wheel art name = video name = theme name = ect name.

you can keep your roms named to whatever you want BUT!!! you will have to rename all the artwork to match YOUR name AND MAKE YOUR OWN XML.

the simple solution is to rename your rom to match the Hyperpsin naming convention witch matches all the artwork available for that rom.

Got it. is there a tool that best works to rename anything or is it just something i need to do by hand and deal with it? Which XML file do i need to rename my roms to match(would like to confirm this here as having to do this twice would stink

nothing is built in, even the XMLs that come pre installed in Hyperspin need to be updated.

you will need to manually download all the themes, wheel packs, videos ect and place them in the correct folder

from here http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=109

you can become a donating Gold member and download artwork in bulk from the FTP or a Platinum member and download all the available artwork automatically using HyperSync.

keep in mind that you will also need a donating member account to emumovies for videos. emumovies and hyperspin are two independent sites.

How do i become a donating member... in your opinion, after downloading the art, is it a pain to get it into hypersync where as a platinum membership would be beneficiary to not have to do those extra steps?

for emumovies, are those what play in the background when a game is selected on the wheel? if no movie is added, what is in its place?

Yes, you need a keymapper in order to control Hyperspin with a Joystick.

their are some free alternatives such as

AHK

joytokey --> http://joytokey.net/en/

the free versions require you to do allot of scripting, this is why most of us opt for the $10 Xpadder.

thanks ill definitely be picking this up

Thanks for all the detailed response. this place is great and has so many resources that sometimes its hard to see the forest from the trees. gonna start working on my first install tonite, wish me luck!

[cowbells]

jamaster, Hypersync will make your life soooo much easier. Especially in the beginning when you'll be setting up systems that have been very well covered by this community. No renaming necessary for probably most of the systems you'll want to set up at first (NES, SNES, Genesis, MAME, etc.).

Also, check out these utilities: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=315

Especially Don's Hyperspin Tools. My suggestion is to create a folder called Utilities in your root directory and put all that crap in there. My Utilities folder has a lot of useful stuff and its nice to have it all in one place.

[Fromlostdays]

Yes, a generic movie plays for your main wheel, and then individual movies for each game. If there is no movie present, there is a generic png image that points you to emumovies, but you can change this image to whatever you wish. Just know that it'll be the same for all systems. Some themes will just ignore the movie box altogether if no movie is present. I absolutely recommend subs to both sites, and eventually as you get more comfortable, donating to hyperlaunch as well. HyperSync does 90 percent of the work for you, including putting all of your art right there in the correct folders. It is very possible to get most if not all the stuff from the FTP, just takes longer.

For renaming games you should use Don's Hyperspin Tools (easy: you just point it at your official xml and then at your roms folder) , and or Clrmamepro (a bit more difficult to learn). The benefit of the latter is that it will zip up all your games for you when its done.

The benefit of using the official xmls, some come preinstalled and or can be downloaded from this site in the downloads section, is that they are all written with the No-Intro naming convention, which means that in most cases even renaming to an older version of the xml means that you're renaming your games correctly. What usually changes in updated versions of xmls is the addition of more games, but the ones already there stay named the same (in most cases). All of this may seem like a lot to take in, so if you want my advice:

Click the donate button up top

Become platinum.

Sub over at emu movies.

Open hypersync, click "sync" and enjoy. It does all the hard work for you (including updating your xmls).

I wandered onto this site in june or july of 2012. If 2012 me saw what 2014 me is doing with this program, he'd shit on himself.

[cowbells]

Oh and this is where you get XMLs for the most part:

http://hyperlist.hyperspin-fe.com/

That'll keep you busy for awhile

[jamaster14]

jamaster, Hypersync will make your life soooo much easier. Especially in the beginning when you'll be setting up systems that have been very well covered by this community. No renaming necessary for probably most of the systems you'll want to set up at first (NES, SNES, Genesis, MAME, etc.).

Also, check out these utilities: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=315

Especially Don's Hyperspin Tools. My suggestion is to create a folder called Utilities in your root directory and put all that crap in there. My Utilities folder has a lot of useful stuff and its nice to have it all in one place.

Thanks. I will actually only be setting up NES, as this will be going on an NESPC i'm building inside an old NES case. I might expand to other stuff, but thats would be down the road. really just interested in:

1) installing hyperspin with an NES emulator working on it

2) getting all the art, movies, backgrounds isntalled in it.

i've downloaded hyperspin as well as all the other resources on this site. im yet to start. is there a suggested order as to when to rename the roms. should this be the first thing i do? is hypersync a tool that renames them or syncs my existing names to whats in hyperspins standard XML?

thanks for the response, if at any time im asking stuff that is covered that shouldnt be asked here please point me in the right direction

[jamaster14]

Yes, a generic movie plays for your main wheel, and then individual movies for each game. If there is no movie present, there is a generic png image that points you to emumovies, but you can change this image to whatever you wish. Just know that it'll be the same for all systems. Some themes will just ignore the movie box altogether if no movie is present. I absolutely recommend subs to both sites, and eventually as you get more comfortable, donating to hyperlaunch as well. HyperSync does 90 percent of the work for you, including putting all of your art right there in the correct folders. It is very possible to get most if not all the stuff from the FTP, just takes longer.

For renaming games you should use Don's Hyperspin Tools (easy: you just point it at your official xml and then at your roms folder) , and or Clrmamepro (a bit more difficult to learn). The benefit of the latter is that it will zip up all your games for you when its done.

The benefit of using the official xmls, some come preinstalled and or can be downloaded from this site in the downloads section, is that they are all written with the No-Intro naming convention, which means that in most cases even renaming to an older version of the xml means that you're renaming your games correctly. What usually changes in updated versions of xmls is the addition of more games, but the ones already there stay named the same (in most cases). All of this may seem like a lot to take in, so if you want my advice:

Click the donate button up top

Become platinum.

Sub over at emu movies.

Open hypersync, click "sync" and enjoy. It does all the hard work for you (including updating your xmls).

I wandered onto this site in june or july of 2012. If 2012 me saw what 2014 me is doing with this program, he'd shit on himself.

Thanks, i'm definitely going to go with the platinum sub. if not only to just further support this site/community.

if im a platinum member using hypersync, do i still need to rename my roms using don's hyperspin tools? or is that also done automatically?

When during the install/setup of hyperspin should hypersync be run?

Thanks for the reply. cant wait to get home and dig in to this part of the project!

[jamaster14]

Also, any idea how large all the art/movies would be to have the complete set for the NES? I have a 240 GB SSD in the machine im using, will this be sufficient or are the videos gonna chew that all up?

[dnbcyan]

NES with all artwork/videos/rom is about 5gb.

[jamaster14]

NES with all artwork/videos/rom is about 5gb.

Sweet! thanks for the info

[cowbells]

Hypersync will not download any roms for you. It will download the most recent database, wheels, videos, box art, and cart art for you automatically. Since all the xmls databases are based on the No-Intro rom naming conventions, getting a No-Intro set will be best as most (if not all) the roms will be named correctly already. Don's Tools will automatically rename any roms that need to be renamed for you once you get the xml. The order doesn't really matter other than that.

Are you doing anything special to the NES like getting it painted or anything like that? What route are you doing PC wise for inside the thing? You should post your project and pics when you get it going. We all know how to set up Hyperspin, but it's always good to see what people do with it!

As for games, normally I'd point you to Pleasure Dome, but since you're just doing NES and probably don't want to mess with building a ratio, Emuparadise ftw:

http://www.epforums.org/showthread.php?56293-MULTI-ROM-SET-No-Intro-Collection-(Complete-ROM-Sets)

[Fromlostdays]

To further that, and really drive the point home Hyperspin looks at your xml and then looks in various folders for files named the same as listed in the xml ie looks in your roms folder for .rom, your media folder for pngs and mp4s. In reality, everything must match the XML. So, you CAN generate an xml based on the name of your roms as is, and hyperspin will launch them. BUT, you'd then have to rename the artwork and movies to match, and its always preferable to just rename the roms. Using official xmls also have the benefit of having additional information about the games like genre, year, manufacturer etc which would be a pain for you to find and put in manually. I think you might overestimate how much time/ the difficulty of renaming. Download Don's Hyperspin Tools, unzip, click on Don's Rom Renamer, point one dialogue box to your xml, the other to your roms, and 3 seconds later its done. If you can't figure it out, private message me and I'll help you out.

And again, as stated above, this community isn't about GETTING roms for each other. Far from it. So none of the official hyperspin / hyperlaunch software is going to help you in that regard. Don's Tools were made by a third party.

Goodluck.

[jamaster14]

Hypersync will not download any roms for you. It will download the most recent database, wheels, videos, box art, and cart art for you automatically. Since all the xmls databases are based on the No-Intro rom naming conventions, getting a No-Intro set will be best as most (if not all) the roms will be named correctly already. Don's Tools will automatically rename any roms that need to be renamed for you once you get the xml. The order doesn't really matter other than that.

What do you mean by "no-intro" roms? I have all the roms, from forever ago. they all work in the NES emulator i used to use (RockXNES). I've donwloaded the NES XML file from what was linked in this thread. If im reading this correctly all i need to do is run don's tol, point it to the XML file, point it to the Rom directory and then pour myself a beer while it works its magic?

Are you doing anything special to the NES like getting it painted or anything like that? What route are you doing PC wise for inside the thing? You should post your project and pics when you get it going. We all know how to set up Hyperspin, but it's always good to see what people do with it!

Yes! I have alot planned for it. I'm getting it custom painted by this guy, who does amazing work:

https://www.facebook.com/Customnesguy

ive guy a few broken nintendos to work out the kinks, but once i confirmed everything fits and is working its going to him for the finishing touches. I using this Micro ATX motherboard which works well since it has a power brick outside the case for the power supply which saves valuable space and a 240 GB solid state drive to help it boot faster and run cooler/quieter. I've got a bluetooth controller im putting inside as well and hope to be able to modify a usb nes controller into a bluetooth one so its wireless.

Right now im at the stage where everything works, boots, and fits in the case, but not as seemlessly as i like. i want this thing to look just like an NES from the outside so im still working on the logistics of how to fit what where. I'll certainly post photos and a blog about how it went if you're interested.

As for games, normally I'd point you to Pleasure Dome, but since you're just doing NES and probably don't want to mess with building a ratio, Emuparadise ftw:

http://www.epforums.org/showthread.php?56293-MULTI-ROM-SET-No-Intro-Collection-(Complete-ROM-Sets)

thanks for the link, probably best if i a get newer/fuller more up to date rom set and could be helpful if i decide to add SNES into it down the line.

[jamaster14]

To further that, and really drive the point home Hyperspin looks at your xml and then looks in various folders for files named the same as listed in the xml ie looks in your roms folder for .rom, your media folder for pngs and mp4s. In reality, everything must match the XML. So, you CAN generate an xml based on the name of your roms as is, and hyperspin will launch them. BUT, you'd then have to rename the artwork and movies to match, and its always preferable to just rename the roms. Using official xmls also have the benefit of having additional information about the games like genre, year, manufacturer etc which would be a pain for you to find and put in manually. I think you might overestimate how much time/ the difficulty of renaming. Download Don's Hyperspin Tools, unzip, click on Don's Rom Renamer, point one dialogue box to your xml, the other to your roms, and 3 seconds later its done. If you can't figure it out, private message me and I'll help you out.

And again, as stated above, this community isn't about GETTING roms for each other. Far from it. So none of the official hyperspin / hyperlaunch software is going to help you in that regard. Don's Tools were made by a third party.

Goodluck.

Thanks, I appreciate the offer to help out if i hit a snag. as mentioned, im not here to obtain the roms, i have them already, im just all about customizing hyperspin to get this NESPC really as seamless and awesome as possible. after reading through the tutorials a few times i think i have it down, and now the part with the renaming seems much clearly. thanks for all the info.

[32assassin]

What do you mean by "no-intro" roms? I have all the roms, from forever ago. they all work in the NES emulator i used to use (RockXNES). I've donwloaded the NES XML file from what was linked in this thread. If im reading this correctly all i need to do is run don's tol, point it to the XML file, point it to the Rom directory and then pour myself a beer while it works its magic?

Don's tools works that easy, you might not have enough time to finish your beer.

their are different groups of people that release complete sets of roms. Some examples are Tosec, Goodset, No-Intro, Redump and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

- each group has their own criteria for including roms. Goodset, includes everything under the sun 5-10 ( I might be exaggerating, maybe not) versions of the same game.

Some of this versions are corrrect but will not boot in various or all emulators.

- each group has their own naming format.

- each group tags their rom with their own "Rom ID" also known as a CRC.

for example

if you have a SMB from a Goodset, the CRC will not be the same as the SMB found in the No-Intro rom set.

given that Hyperspin uses the No-intro naming format, you will have a much easier time renaming a No-Intro set over any other set.

Don'ts tools primarily looks for the CRC to match your roms to the official names.

[Fromlostdays]

"No intro" is a naming convention. In the simplest sense, its just a way to name roms. There is plenty of literature out there, even a post on hyperspin about why they chose to follow that convention. This'll get you up to speed. http://www.no-intro.org/ By the by a .dat file is just a file with a list of roms all named appropriately to a convention. Think about it like if you asked for a list of all NES games, someone had to write that list, and they had to make all the names match somewhat. They also had to decide what to do with releases from other countries. With no intro, they just amend the names with (USA) (JAPAN) (EUROPE) etc. Your roms might have something like a or [j]. Just a different naming convention.

Edit Better explained above.

[jamaster14]

Thanks... so im like 99.99999% done with the basic setup of hyperspin with Nestopia. I hit a snag at the end and cant figure out where to correct it.

I went over each step carefully in the stickied install guide. I then Ran Don's rename tool(that thing is fantastic) and that worked like a charm.

Ran hyperspin, it came up, all the roms where there, i went to select one and was greeted with "can not find hyperlaunch.exe" i checked the settings.ini file under D:\hyperspin\settings but the path was set correctly(d:\hyperspin\hyperlaunch\):

[Main]

Menu_Mode=multi

Single_Mode_Name=MAME

Enable_Exit_Menu=true

Enable_Exit=true

Exit_Default=yes

Exit_Action=exit

Version=1.0.0.0

Last_System=Nintendo Entertainment System

Hyperlaunch_Path=D:\HyperSpin\HyperLaunch

im assuming that somewhere that path is set to C: (as seems to be the default) instead of D: and needs to be fixed but i cant seem to figure out where. hyperlaunch does function properly if i launch it manually

[ghutch92]

Thanks... so im like 99.99999% done with the basic setup of hyperspin with Nestopia. I hit a snag at the end and cant figure out where to correct it.

I went over each step carefully in the stickied install guide. I then Ran Don's rename tool(that thing is fantastic) and that worked like a charm.

Ran hyperspin, it came up, all the roms where there, i went to select one and was greeted with "can not find hyperlaunch.exe" i checked the settings.ini file under D:\hyperspin\settings but the path was set correctly(d:\hyperspin\hyperlaunch\):

[Main]

Menu_Mode=multi

Single_Mode_Name=MAME

Enable_Exit_Menu=true

Enable_Exit=true

Exit_Default=yes

Exit_Action=exit

Version=1.0.0.0

Last_System=Nintendo Entertainment System

Hyperlaunch_Path=D:\HyperSpin\HyperLaunch

im assuming that somewhere that path is set to C: (as seems to be the default) instead of D: and needs to be fixed but i cant seem to figure out where. hyperlaunch does function properly if i launch it manually

Hmmm, you might be running an older version of hyperspin that didn't read that setting.

[jamaster14]

Hmmm, you might be running an older version of hyperspin that didn't read that setting.

I was able to get it working. it was a permissions issue with that folder. running hyperspin as administrator did the trick, as did making the user i was logged in with an administrator.

Anyhow, its working now, thanks so much for all your help guys, that went alot smoother then i thought it would have, although i assume most of the hard work is in the customization which is still ahead of me. Any chance you guys could point me in the proper direction for the following:

1) Xpadder - i have it set up so that it works with hyperspin and i can select the games and navigate the menu with my gamepad. the problem is, xpadder is STILL working as my mouse/keyboard when inside nestopia and thus eventually exits me from the game. is there a way to set it to work with hyperspin but not nestopia or a guide on this. ive searched xpadder/hyperspin set ups and wow... a bit daunting. is there a good guide for this? basically i need 1 set of controls for hyperspin and then another once nestopia or another emulator opens. whats the clean way to do this?

2) hypersync - is this an all in one tool that does the legwork similar to how dons tool did? can i just download all the art from there and then it sets it all up?

edit: I got this working. great tool!

3) customizing the loading video - can you customize the loading video for hyperspin? is this what the themes are for?

edit: all set - thanks for the info!

3b) How can i remove games from the wheel? for instance i dont nees super mario brothers AND super mario brothers + Duck hunt. do i just remove the enteries from the XML file?

edit: all set, thanks for the info!

4) shelling hyperspin - ive seen tons of write ups on this... is there one that seems to be the best setup for a clean boot to hyperspin?

thanks!

[FANCY]

2) hypersync will download all the media and put it into the proper folders for you, its already named to match the xml

3) the loading video (intro.flv) is in hyperspin>media>frontend>video

you can replace it with any .flv or .mp4 video you want

edit: oops!! .mp4 vids don't work there, gotta be .flv

3b) there is a setting in Hyper HQ to show only the games that you have roms for

[ghutch92]

1.) Hopefully this link answers this question. http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?29481-How-to-install-HyperSpin&p=279517&viewfull=1#post279517

3b.) yes, it's easier to just remove it from the xml using don's tools.

4.) I just went by a couple of xbmc guides for shelling my version of windows since those were easier to find.

[jamaster14]

1.) Hopefully this link answers this question. http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?29481-How-to-install-HyperSpin&p=279517&viewfull=1#post279517

3b.) yes, it's easier to just remove it from the xml using don's tools.

4.) I just went by a couple of xbmc guides for shelling my version of windows since those were easier to find.

thanks....

for 3B, is it the same tool use to rename the roms or one of the other ones?

ill check that link for #1... thanks!

Also, im sure this is staring me right in the face, but how do you start hyperspin in full screen mode?

[jamaster14]

2) hypersync will download all the media and put it into the proper folders for you, its already named to match the xml

3) the loading video (intro.flv) is in hyperspin>media>frontend>video

you can replace it with any .flv or .mp4 video you want

3b) there is a setting in Hyper HQ to show only the games that you have roms for

i tried replacing intro.flv with an .mp4 video i named intro.mp4. when i did that and started HS all i got was a black screen that never went away

EDIT: got it, i guess it has to be named intro.flv

is there a section somewhere for premade intros? i found some on youtube but id love to pop on a nintendo themed one