Robo-traders processed RetroCopy mortgage

This all sounds awesome! Do you think there can be an option to show an image of the game's logo in the game list instead of just plain text?

Glad to see you capitalized those titles in the next version

I'm not really feeling that image preview window on the side though, having what looks like to windows docked together doesn't look right to me, mame32 was so 90's

Love what your doing with the input thing that's really innovative, it's one of those things that looks so right you wonder why it was never done that way before.

Yes I'm not sure why I didn't do input like this the first time around either. It's one of those things I guess that you don't really see until you've done 8+ different systems and have all this "input mess". The reason I was going over input initially is for the netplay coming in the next few weeks, and while there I thought I should really do it properly. So I looked at what people have been asking for (global key setting, images, analog controls, more ease of use) and set about doing it.

As to the preview window, you mean the covers and screenshots? You have a better idea about where and how to show it? I'm always looking to optimize GUI layout so if you have any suggestions go ahead!

@waxonator - A 3D cover preview for games will likely be coming soon in the next overhaul to the game browser. It will be coming after the stuff I'm currently working on is off the queue.

Great Work Ralf, It's amazing.

Interesting, I'm not very found of the graphic design (imo, icons or vectorized images suit better than photo-realistic pictures which generally come with different quality) but the idea of disconnecting controller emulation from the emulated system is good.

I don't want to imagine the mess it will become when you will start emulating Team Player adapters though

I will also be a little picky and say I don't like the naming choice for "Genesis" Pad and "Megadrive" Menacer (it's Mega Drive by the way but it's ok, a lot of people make the mistake), as if controllers came from various region.

Oh, and I agree with one of the comment above, the 2D previews above the 3D cartridge area does not look right, it would be better to have an additional tabs for screen shots, I see there is some room left for that.

If you could make them displayed as a slide show in a TV model, it would be perfect imo ;-)

There actually are some differences between regions and controllers Eke-Eke, but that doesn't explain the naming I used (which as one of my testers says is haphazard at best). The latest build actually adjusts these differences and allows you to prefer EUR, JAP or USA naming for consoles and devices.

The Sega Menacer seems different for PAL regions, at least games adjust themselves differently for it. It explains why Body Count (europe only) has a different "Y offset" in your emulator, compare T2 in PAL/NTSC modes for some other differences. I don't think I will have a PAL menacer and NTSC menacer from an input configuration perspective though. Thanks for your document on the light guns, I was going to email you and talk to you about the PAL differences soon.

On SMS Front there are some differences between sports pad and paddle on Jap/Export systems, the Mark III/Jap lacks the ability to write to the controller port for instance.

3-Buttons & 6-Buttons controller are definitively not region specific, I know some 8-bit devices were (the paddle for example) but it's not the case here.

From an hardware point view, I don't think there were different Menacer for PAL/NTSC consoles, this would not be very logical considering how it works (it just detects an electron beam, does not care about the vertical refresh period).

Games might be using different offset on different regions to compensate the difference between NTSC and PAL video (number of lines, etc) but honestly, I think it's just they use various algorithm to calibrate the raw value and calculate an average position coordinate. For example, I don't think T2:Arcade Game is region protected and it does not change the algorithm y-offset if it detects another console region...

NTSC and PAL TVs are different, things like the amount of phosphor delay and general timing. So I think it's possible there could be two different menacers considering it works a bit differently than the simple light guns (doesn't need to blank the screen white).

Further to my previous post Ralph, quickly off the top of my head I would....

Ditch the side window altogether so that the main window is larger.
Make the game treeview slightly narrower to make a natural space for the game box.
Incorporate a portable TV into the console display area at the top, this serves two purposes, it displays the screenie, it adds 3D to that horrible 2D feel of screenies.

won't be perfect but there's food for though at least

@retroRalph

Damn, you are hard to convince (or is it natural spirit of contradiction ?) :-)

Read the Sega patent that is mentionned in my document, it clearly shows that the Menacer was designed to be compatible with a high variety of TV system (which all have various way of producing the dots), it's basically a photosensible diode which react to light, no matter of tiny horizontal frequency differences.

Also if they were different, a game that is not region specific would handle HV counter differently in its code, which is not the case. So, from an emulation point of view, they are strictly the same.

No I'm just open to possibilities. Since Body Count is the only? European only Menacer game and the fact it's different stands out for me. Testing might not have been too rigorous on PAL televisions with NTSC based developers. I don't think the developers of Body Count would have shot at the screen up close and had the cursor be so far off from where they shot, but I guess it could happen.

I like the idea of having the pictures in another tab. It would be nice to have pictures in there as default but also being able to change the pictures to something else. Now im not sure if you already have something like this but it would be cool to also have a tab for cheats and save codes where you can check them and it will automatically start with those codes so you dont have to put them in the game manually. I dont know if something like this is possible or not but would it be possible to make something like a macro to do this?