Game specific controllers in Default Themes?

[Dunk3000]

Haven't played around with theme creation much, yet, but wanted to see if anyone else interested in my idea. I don't have too much spare time for my hobby so only really interested in doing things to help the default setups that all community can use, rather than personalised stuff just for me...

 

So, I notice we have 4 artwork folders for each system, and mostly backgrounds, artwork 1 and artwork 2 are locked to system - leaving artwork 3 and 4 interchangeable per game for box and cart scans.

 

I'm wondering about making the default themes also have another artwork folder interchangeable per game (i.e artwork 2) that we could set an image for the controller each game used? So, main theme would have locked:

• Background
• Video Overlay
• Console image
• Console logo

And depending on game you selected you would then ALSO see:

• Game Video
• Game Wheel
• Game controller (artwork 2)
• Game cartridge (artwork 3)
• Game Box (artwork 4)

I just think it would be great to see before you boot up game whether its using paddle, lightgun, analogue controller, 6 button, 3 button etc. In a similiar way that it is helpful to see control layout for arcade games. Also means we don't forget some of the great controllers these systems had (Rob the Robot anyone?). We could also highlight multiplayer games by showing the number of controllers the max player support of the game is - no more hunting down those 4 player games!

 

Most system themes already show the standard controller already, so it wouldn't take up any extra real estate - it would just swap out this default controller for game specific ones.

 

I know there is a ton of changes going on with artwork anyway, so wanted to get this out there now so if its a go-er people can think about implementing it in to hyperbase for syncing (am guessing it would NOT be possible to add to hypersync). As I said, due to limited time I'm only interested in doing things that help community. Those that didn't want the controller swap outs could just disable synchronising the controller folder, same as people already do if they don't want box or cart art....

 

Anyways, what do people think? And apologies if this has laready been discussed / implemented (couldn't find anything on search)

[nimpa]

Bla bla... Heh.. So for our commodore 64 set.. We have to go through all games and put that art for respective game folder?

[Dunk3000]

Bla bla... Heh.. So for our commodore 64 set.. We have to go through all games and put that art for respective game folder?

If you wanted specific controller art for each game then yes you would. But if you didn't care you'd just leave controller folder empty

Same as people *having* to put box and cart scans in folders *if* they want them.

[SkyHighGam3r]

Personally I really like the idea. I absolutely hate that in my NES default theme games are listed as:

Duck Hunt ( Light-Gun )
Stadium Events ( Power Pad )
Stack-Up ( R.O.B.)

 

I'd much rather have an image pop up showing the accessory so I could get rid of the parenthesis in the game title.

 

However, I do see where it would be an issue getting it to work.
For one, I use all the art in my theme. Mostly because I have the video overlay as a stationary peice of art, instead of actually in the "Video Overlay" slot. That way it stays when the video is changing, and actually looks like the 'TV' is switching games.

 

Here's an idea though. We already have cartridge art for each game right?
Why not just, in that same image, off to the side add in the accessory? That way it would automatically load with the game. No major editing required.

 

In fact, I am going to go do just that, because that sounds brilliant. haha

 

EDIT:
Just wanted to update that I tried doing this and it was not only a synch, but it worked flawlessly. Thank's for the idea of getting controller images in there, I never would have thought to throw 2 elements together like this without that springboard. Once I get the chance I will post a picture or something.

[Dunk3000]

Yes, after getting the chance to play around with theme files I see that themes use ALL available artwork - I never realised there were only 4 slots plus background, so to free up an artwork section to use as controllers (or anything else) you would need to combine two of the other artworks together (or loose something)

 

I'm gonna have a try at merging console image and console title together so I have a free slot for controllers. That way I will maintain my box art and cart art as is incase I need for other things - hyperpause etc.

 

Not used hypertheme before so may be a while until I update - but I'm gonna use Atari 2600 as my test system so I can get paddles and joysticks etcs swapping per game - it will tie in nicely with the changes those nice guys at RL put in to the mess module for me to get correct controls set per game.

 

Oh, and I have no real image editing skills so please be gentle on the quality of anything I post - I just wanna see if concept works first

[Dunk3000]

Well that was a nice surprise, HyperTheme actually really simple to use

 

I made a few ammendments to the default Atari 2600 theme so it uses artwork 3 for controllers, then made some controller images with my limited photo editing skills and I'm quite pleased with how it works. I'm definitley going to use this process for all my systems and am happy to share whatever I create if anyone else wants it. With the controller images being separate you can add to any theme you like. The quality of the controller art is nowhere up to community standards, but is best I can do.  If anyone is good with a pen tool and wants to help out with supplying better source images then I could make controller art to community standards (I only need 1 image of each controller and I can do the game specific editing from there) but if not, I'll still do it anyway, just with lower quality artwork. I attached a little video.

Atari 2600 Controller Theme.mp4

[damageinc86]

there was someone who had a theme with grayed out xbox360 controller icon slots, that were filled with solid icons to represent the amount of players for that game.  I'd rather have each system's controllers follow that configuration, like your idea.  There was also some people working on genres that showed 2-4 player games.  I said the same thing on one of those old topics: I keep sitting down with the kids and wasting so much time trying to find 2 or 4 player games, that we usually just give up after starting and exiting the thousands of solo games out there lol.  I personally don't use any cart or box art, as it just looks so cluttered to me.  I just like seeing the gameplay video.  But i'd love to see not only the type of controllers used, but the amount of controllers (players) you can use.  It's a good idea to combine the controller images with the cart or box art, but what if we don't use that?  I wonder if adding a "controller" artwork folder would be something BBB could add to the new hyperspin? hmmmmmm.