Mame32 QA/Test & Art Dept. Official Art Pack(s)
by john iv

This is the htm which will accompany the snap[x] packs, the icons.zip, bkground.zip, and the cab packs.
Monday, December 31, 2001

j4_snap1, 2, 3...zip
Download all these and combine their contents into a single file called snap.zip file or you can unzip them all and leave the .png files freestanding in the \mame32\snap directory, which is what I do. These are my newly completed [01.04.10] screenshots and they take the place of the older ones with version information I had been maintaining since 1997. I re-did these for a few reasons. I wanted to start with 32bpp color, I wanted in game action shots [except for the mahjong games], I wanted the appropriate orientation to be quickly ascertainable, I like the uniform 4:3 ratio that they are being forced to, and I like the look of the white border which makes the image stand out like a flyer image. Also most of the version information, and more granular beta info, has now been added to Mameinfo.dat, so that is being preserved. The files are currently 15 megs each, because they’re 32bpp instead of 256 colors. People wanted the true color versions, so here they are. J

icons.zip
Place this file into your \mame32\icons directory [support for a zipped icons.zip was added in .37.1].  I've been adding these icons since I got into MameDOS back April ‘97, support for them was added in Mame32 .33b by Mike Haaland.  These started life as 32bpp true color images and were kicked down to 8bpp for space.  I finished coverage of all icons around .35.11 and add new ones as games become playable or are newly added. This pack also contains icons for the defaults, and the folder tree. The latest versions of my icons have been done w/ a small white border to match the screenshots, they look particularly nice in large icon view in Mame32. The icons are done in native 32x32 mode so there may be issues displaying them with the windows setting of ‘large icons’. The icons themselves are an amusing blend of game characters and pop culture minutiae. See if you can make the connection between some of them. Examples: the game Nova 2001 has Planet of the Apes Nova. Battle Circuit has Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors to match the plant character, etc.

j4_cab1, 2, 3, …zip
I wanted uniform high quality cabinet shots so I decided to start hitting E-Bay, grabbing snaps off there, from X-Ray’s flyers database [thanks for your help btw] and cleaning them up in Photoshop to make them presentable in Mame32’s cab view (222 wide, blacked out backgrounds, no included marquees, etc.) Download the above files, combine their contents and rename it cabinets.zip, or as with the other items, leave them freestanding as *.pngs in the \mame32\cabinets directory.

bkground.zip
This file must be uncompressed into your \mame32\bkground directory.   The file you wish to use for your background in Mame32 must be named bkground.png and placed in your \mame32\snap directory.   The majority are dark as that provides the best contrast to the icons.   You may also wish to utilise the custom built app. rotate.exe which, when run will randomly or sequentially rotate your images and rename the choice to bkground.png.  This is very cool to call from a shortcut or batch file [I have included my batch file in rotate.zip, it will run rotate, pick a sequential graphic file from the \mame32\bkground directory, rename it to bkground.png and copy it to \mame32\snap] and have Mame32 startup with a new background every launch, use rotate.exe /? for command params. Thanks again to Joel C. for writing it.

For updated files, other Mame32 related news, build progress, troubleshooting, etc. please visit the Mame32 QA/Test and Art Dept.

john iv
mame32qa@hotmail.com [note: put 'mame32' in the subject line or you will be spam filtered.]

Note: Please do not use these images on your web sites without appropriate linkage, and credit. Thanks.