GameBase Documentation
© 1999-2004 James Burrows
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Using Pictures in GameBase

What are 'Pictures'?
Viewing your Pictures
Storing Multiple Pictures per Game
Using the Picture Selector
BMP-->GIF Rules
BMP-->PNG Rules
Taking Screenshots from Emulators

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are 'Pictures'?

Pictures are basically images of anything you want to store and view for each game. You can store whatever pictures you like: game screenshots, cover-scans, maps, cabinet-pictures, scanned documentation, flyers etc.. GameBase can currently load and display BMP, GIF, JPG and PNG files.

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Viewing your Pictures

Pictures are viewed to the right of the game list in the main GameBase window (if you have selected to see them from the View menu). They are loaded into a 320x200 (if you have large pictures selected) or 160x100 (if you have small pictures selected) display box. If you have pictures that are larger or smaller than these sizes, GameBase will center them and fit them snugly within this display size.

To Zoom in and see a close-up of a picture, left-double-click the mouse anywhere over the left-hand side of a picture (the mousepointer should change into a magnifying glass).

To scroll through multiple pictures for a game, left-click the mouse anywhere over the right-hand side of a picture. If you want to scroll up, click the right-top corner of the displayed picture area. If you want to scroll down, click the right-bottom corner. (the mousepointer should change into an up or down arrow accordingly).

To change pictures for the currently selected game, right-click any picture and select "Picture Selector..." from the popup menu (or press CTRL+P).

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Storing Multiple Pictures per Game

The GameBase database has only one field reserved for storing the picture filename for a game. There are, however 2 ways that GameBase can support multiple picture per game (selectable via the Options window): -

1. GameBase Style

To allow the support of multiple pictures per game, GameBase uses the following picture filenaming convention when in the GameBase style: -

E.g.

Filename in database: gamepic.png
Extra Picture #1: gamepic_1.png
Extra Picture #2: gamepic_2.png
Extra Picture #3: gamepic_3.png
etc..

When loading and displaying your pictures, GameBase will continue to search for the extra pictures (in all picture paths) and display them if they exist. As soon as a picture doesn't exist, GameBase will stop searching.

Note: Filename extensions cannot change across multiple pictures, i.e. the following would cause GameBase to think that there are only 2 pictures available (not 4): -

gamepic.png
gamepic_1.png
gamepic_2.gif <-- search would stop here
gamepic_3.png

2. MAME Style

To allow the support of multiple pictures per game, GameBase uses the following rules when in the MAME style: -

E.g.

Picture Path #1: c:\mame\snaps
Picture Path #2: c:\mame\flyers
Picture Path #3: c:\mame\artwork
Filename in database: outrun.png

When loading and displaying your pictures, GameBase will search in each picture path (in the order you specified in the Options window) for the filename specified in the database. Any matching/found files are displayed.

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Using the Picture Selector

Use the two file boxes (top half of the Picture Selector) to locate and select picture files. You can rename files, delete files and drag/drop files between the file boxes. When you have the file you want (and it is within a valid Picture Path - the filebox on the right), click OK to link it to the currently selected game. When dragging files in the Picture selector, you can copy instead of move files by holding down the SHIFT or CTRL keys whilst dragging.

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BMP-->GIF Rules

You can convert an uncompressed BMP file into a GIF file only if the BMP file's colour resolution is 1, 4 or 8 bits (either a 2 colour, 16 colour or 256 colour bitmap). 24 bit BMP files are not supported by the free 3rd party conversion program that GameBase uses (BMP2GIF.EXE - Copyright Ian D. Gay, 1999).

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BMP-->PNG Rules

You can convert any uncompressed BMP file into a PNG file. This uses a free 3rd party conversion program (BMP2PNG.EXE - Copyright Miyasaka Masaru, 1999-2000).

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Taking Screenshots from Emulators

Check your emulator documentation for instructions on how to capture screenshots.

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