SITE UPDATE - June 02, 2018

In-Game Artwork: 56 new systems; 3 systems updated artwork

Well that took longer than I thought it would. I was in a groove, then I hit one of those "personal life / work life" road blocks that pop up every so often. That is okay, though, because in the last two weeks, my two oldest kids graduated city college with their AA degrees, and my youngest graduated high school. Fall semester, I will have three kids attending 4-year universities.

This update takes care of a large chunk of the old MESS Artwork page. After today, there are only 36 files left to go so that the old page can officialy be retired. This also adds a bunch of stuff that I just happened to add in along the way:

• Added PasoGo; cleaned up the pic just a bit more.


• Added Cybiko Classic; replaced the file with a new pic. Also added Cybiko Xtreme. Added correct color overlay to both.


• Added Pokemon Mini; replaced the file with a new pic, and added the correct color overlay.


• Added Game Master; cleaned the pic up a bit more.


• Added the five HP calculators already part of MESS artwork; all existing pics were replaced with larger, clearer pics. Also added the HP38G and HP49G. Annunciators for all files were redrawn, based on an HP manual. Artwork is clickable in all of these files.


• Added Mega Duck; replaced the file with a new pic. Also added the Cougar Boy variant.


• Thank you to pernon for letting me know about the error on the BBC artwork last update. All three have been updated with more realistic artwork. I understand the Compact came with its own monitor, but I have not been able to find a good picture source for that one yet, so that still has the Cub monitor for now. Lamps have also been added to the floppy drive for bbcm; just need a driver update to use them.


• Added WonderSwan and WonderSwan color; replaced the pic in WonderSwan, and added the correct color overlay. On both, added the additional layouts needed so that when you play a vertical-oriented game, the artwork will automatically rotate with the game screen. The original WonderSwan supposedly had annunciators similar to the HP calculators, but I cannot find any more info on these. I do not know what they look like, and cannot tell if they are hooked up in the driver. If a kind soul could point me in the right direction, it would be appreciated.


• Added Otrona Attache, just because it looked cool.


• Added Kaypro II; replaced existing pic. Also added Kaypro 10.


• Added Osborne-1; replaced existing pic. Also added the Vixen and Excecutive while I was researching the Osborne.


• Added SYM-1; replaced existing pic.


• Added TEC-1; added missing capacitor and speaker.


• Added Tiger Game.com; replaced existing pic.


• Added the four Sinclair computers from the old MESS page; replaced existing pics with higher quality full pics, and added a data recorder to each. Also added the +2, +2a, and +3. All seven use an old tv for the monitor, tuned to the correct UHF station as noted in the manual.


• Added the seven existing Texas Instruments calculators from the old MESS page; replaced all existing pics. Also added TI83, TI83pse, TI84, TI84pce, TI84pcse, TI84pse. Pics for all of the preceding are courtesy of Wabbitemu. Also added the TI92, TI92p, and the Voyage 200. All TI calculators have clickable artwork, except for the two Color versions (the driver does not work at this time, anyway).


• Added 005, simply because it is the first file in MAME's game listing; I did this before I started working on the code for the new page, and wanted to ensure things worked correctly. File currently has a generic bezel similar in dimension to the actual one, which I don't have a scan of. I am working on the actual marquee, which will be added at a later date.


• Added Adventure Vision; I could not help myself adding at least one new thing that did not exist yet.

And breathe.

If you have not seen it yourself already, there is a guy by the name of Evan Amos who has spent a good amount of his time creating the ultimate reference gallery for old video game systems. A lot of his stuff will be used here for future updates.

• First off, we have both versions of the Atari Lynx. Each version also includes the additional layouts needed so that when you play a vertical-oriented game, the artwork will automatically rotate with the game screen.

Game Console artwork... I had been debating internally for a while on how I wanted to approach artwork for Game Consoles here. I did not want to just create some widescreen artwork, simply to fill the screen, with random related graphics of each console brand. After finding Evan's site, I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do. Growing up, playing console games was me sitting on the floor, console brought out from the shelf under the TV enough, so that the joystick will reach without pulling. I wanted to create that "sitting on the floor" idea. Between Evan's gallery, and a good pic of the right TV, I could do something simple; problem was finding a real good pic of a TV that I was happy with. My favorite tube TV that I ever had was my Sony Trinitron; I wanted something like that. By chance one day, I found the pic that I had in my head, and I am happy with it.

So as we add Game Console artwork here, whenever possible, it will be pics from Evan's site, along with the shiny new TV. Today we have:

• Sony Playstation; also added in the PSOne lid monitor from MESS artwork.


• TurboGrafx 16; added in both the original, and Turbo Duo versions. Also added a better pic of the Turbo Express handheld artwork, which was previously labeled under PCE on the MESS page.


• NEC PC Engine; added both the original and PC Engine Duo variants. Also added the PC Engine LT (similar to the PSOne flip lid) and the PC Engine GT, which is the JPN version of the Express.

That is it for today. Next update: Finally adding in all of the handheld artwork that hap and Sean Riddle have been working on. After that, the last of the MESS artwork. And somehow, I need to make some time to fit some actual arcade artwork in here also.