MAMEWorld Forums - MAME Artwork: Official

> That's my opinion on the matter. I can't help it if you or anyone doesn't like it. I
> do believe this is a public forum, and I do believe I'm well within my rights to
> express my opinions. I'm not here to win a popularity contest.

Yup... totally entitled to your opinion.

> I do feel most of the "body" of artwork IS junk. Why you may ask? Much of this
> so-called "artwork" in MOST cases is nothing more than a "scanned bezel" “marquee” or
> “instruction card”. The only “artwork” I can see being involved consists of photoshop
> "touch up work" from a scanned image. While all that may take time and effort, a
> bezel in and of itself is hardly what I would consider worthy Mame artwork. That is
> not to say those efforts are not appreciated. Digitally restoring old or obscure
> bezels, instruction cards, marquee etc is to be commended!

This part is funny. The body of artwork is junk, yet the effort is to be commended.

Now to correct you on one thing... 90%+ of what is in MAME Artwork is based on scanned material. This is for accuracy (remember that MAME's end goal is accuracy, right?).

Some of the final products are "touch up work." But many others are complete re-do's, yet based on the original scan. Some of those are in Photoshop, some traced using Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.

> Antolin’s artwork in my opinion is what Mame artwork should be. He has put together
> ALL the graphic elements in such a way as to give people an immersive "arcade like"
> gaming experience.

And here's your stumbling block; your opinion of what it should be, and someone else's opinion of what it should be could vary greatly. You like the whole immersion, others would prefer to see just the bezel artwork, or just the instruction cards. Some would prefer to have none of that, except for backdrop artwork. And then there's even others that would like to display the marquee or control panel on a separate monitor.

Which one's right? All of them? None of them? See more below.

> It’s also my opinion Antolin’s artwork will most likely never be apart of the
> “official” Mame artwork because of an old school mindset as to what is considered
> Mame artwork.

Well, no, that's not why it won't be official, I'll get more into that below.

Oldschool mindset? Sorry, not on my end. If you'd been keeping up, you'd see things are moving in the direction you would actually like to see things end up. For one, I added a small code change to MAME last year that added two additional layers in the artwork process for for marquees and control panels. Prior to that, the only way to add additional pieces of artwork was an "all or nothing" shot; if a game had all those different elements on the screen, there was no way to turn individual parts off.

And if you've looked at recent updates, you'd see that we've been starting to add in those missing pieces. They aren't "perfect," so to speak, as looking like the whole front of the arcade cabinet, t-molding and all, but at least now the pieces are starting to come together. I've also got people working on graphics for buttons and joysticks, so those can be added in. And when they are, you'll actually see the buttons and sticks move, too.

When Antolin first posted here, the first thought in my head was "Damn! That's cool." Five minutes later, I had already thought of a way to implement that "properly" in multiple layers, using existing artwork (the only "extra work" part being the angle of the control panel). If (when) I do it, I'm gonna do it properly, using the right tools. Unfortunately, things take time, so be patient.

> People don’t like change, and I believe Antolin’s ideas and efforts will be put in
> the “maybe" closet
> and forgotten.

Whether his efforts are lost and forgotten is completely up to him. There's no reason he can't create a webpage and put his artwork on it for all to see, to never be lost. Hell, Stuart Campbell originally did this a long time ago - http://www.excellentcontent.com/xbart/cb.htm - using low-res graphics and such, but it was done.

As for these not being added to "official" artwork, there is the reason I already stated (putting all elements in one PNG file, instead of individual layers), and here are a few more reasons:

Mr. Do uses the old version of the bezel, which is faded and not lined up correctly, with a Taito conversion control panel (these wouldn't have been mixed together in a real cabinet).
Donkey Kong 3 - colors are all wrong.
Cabal - homebrew bezel
Double Dragon - faded bezel with wrong colors (to this day, I can't understand why people think the dragons are actually blue).
Galaga - marquee is wrong
Golden Axe - homebrew bezel
Burgertime - DECO cassette marquee with dedicated bezel and control panel
Act-Fancer - he says so right in his post for it

So I like it; it's a cool idea, and it'll eventually be done right. But I'm not going to just start throwing things together inaccurately just because the look cool. There is an actual thought process behind everything that goes into this project.

So there, you got the attention you were looking for by stating your controversial opinion, and now you know the other side of the story. Hopefully, you can respect my opinion as much.

RELAX and just have fun. Remember, it's all about the games.