Planet Virtual Boy

Hey,

After reading through the thread about homebrew I got to thinking how nice it'd be if we had a repository where people could upload graphics, sounds, etc. related to VB games. This would be helpful so if someone wanted to make a new Mario game, they could just go to the repository and download a set of mario graphics and start working. I'm imagining something like: http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/ , where people can post arcade art.

It could have a couple different sections... like rips from the commercial games (assuming we wouldn't have legal problems with that), original graphics, converted graphics, and works in progress. We could also have a section for audio, where people could post similar things. Of course we don't really have an audio "format", but if we do a listing of the timing and register values, we could create it... or even simply post 5 or less channel midi/mod files, which can be converted to some degree to play on the VB.

I'm not sure if anyone else is interested in this, but it could help the programmers from spending a lot of time finding/converting graphics/sounds, and it could allow non-programmers to help contribute to the homebrew scene. Of course we'd need the page built and place to host it, but I'm sure that's doable if there's any interest. Any ideas/comments?

DogP

Indeed that's a good idea. I originally wanted to include something like this in the Dev Wiki, but it's too long winded to do it there. So we could either just create (a) sub forum(s), or a dedicated section. for a dedicated section, i could take any photo uploading module for xoops and modify it, or even write one myself. but the latter might take a while. the question is, what functionality do we need? and can the easiest solution, this forum, suit the needs?

I don't know everything that this forum can do, but I don't think I'd want to clutter up the forum with a bunch of sub-forums related to art. If you can have one sub-forum for art on the main forum page, then a bunch of sub-sub-forums for the various sections... that'd probably be fine.

And I was thinking more than just uploading photos, but also entire projects with original bmp files, VIDE project, already converted c header files, and even example c code to copy and display it (kinda like the file you posted for the competition). Of course not all of those would have to be there, but the more stuff there, the easier it is for new people to get started, and more options for an advanced person to use.

The kind of functionality I'd like is something similar to the localarcade repository I linked to. It'd be nice to be able to browse through categories, look at the thumbnails, and if it has graphics I'd like to use, I'd like to be able to download the zip with whatever files are available. And with the work in progress projects, it'd be nice to be able to make changes and update it (if it was originally yours), or upload another version if you're modifying someone else's project. Of course searching (and keywords) would be really helpful if it ends up getting large.

I'm sure other people would have some other ideas, but these are the ones that came to mind.

DogP

I second the idea of having a proper section for the repository... hopefully there is more people into the graphic/sound stuff than it is people into programming :-(.



jorgeche

I think this is a really great idea.

I do, however, think that either a wiki or forum could work, but I fear it might "overload" or otherwise "mess up" the wiki/forum we have. What about installing another, separate wiki or forum installation dedicated to this? They already allow both file attachments and edits/updates.

Actually, the first thing I thought of was a revision control system (e.g. CVS, SVN, etc.). This would prevent the problems of "complete new archives just for small changes" and "the scattering of small changes over numerous posts" (see: the forum posts about "crt0.s" and "makefiles" for examples of the latter... ) while also providing a convenient backup/restore system for contributors. The main problem would be no way for members to easily comment on projects/assets (do any existing R.C. systems have this functionality?) other than "readme" files. (Based solely on this old blog entry, I suggest "Mercurial".)

Another, albeit less powerful, alternative would be a simple FTP site. To make it a little more "high-tech," there could be a 'bot that generates thumbnails of images found in new/changed submissions.

You're thinking too much into this... I just want something so we can all share graphics and so we can just download graphics when we need something rather than having to make/find/rip them. Browsing by thumbnails is really nice so we don't have to download the whole thing to see if it has what we want.

Being able to update would be nice, but I assume most of the graphics are gonna end up being rips from games, and most of them will be uploaded and never changed again. Doing a complex CVS system would be pointless IMO. I was just saying that the original poster could go back in and replace the original file with an updated one if they wanted to.

Oh... and looking at the localarcade site, it says it runs 4images, which is free for private and non-commercial uses... so it may be worth trying out.

DogP

sys8 font
Description: 8x8 pixel, 96 characters.

Zub sprite
Description: 24x32 pixels, 19 frames
Credit: Ste Pickford, www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/archive/zub.php

I think the forum would probably be okay.

yes, that looks quite good. we could also have topic prefixes for that forum, like [rip], [homebrew], [audio], [sprites] or whatever we'd need.