34 replies to this topic

[Benjamoose]

Hi there!

My name's Ben and I'm a freelance (non-union) voice actor.

I've been a fruit machine fan and a lurker of this forum for a long time now and always wanted to sign up, but given how much I struggle to balance social networking stuff these days, I felt it was worth waiting until I had something to contribute to you all first vs. posting an introduction then vanishing for weeks at a time.

I was born and raised in Blackpool, (so as you can imagine I've experienced my fair share of fruit machines!), but currently live in Hawaii in the United States with my wife.

My all-time two favorite fruit machines are "Crazy Fruits Green" and "Homer's Meltdown".

I was super happy to discover a couple of years ago that there were emulators for these sorts of things and that "Crazy Fruits Green" had a brilliant and clean layout recreation by The Killer Tomato (mocochoco?) but was slightly disappointed that my absolute favorite-favorite of the two machines, "Homer's Meltdown" didn't.

I've been following the progress of "Homer's Meltdown" via emulation for a good while now too. Seeing it go from not working at all, to running (but with Italian Job sounds), to just recently having a basic layout made by mazza500.

But having Photoshop and Graphic Design in my background, I decided "why wait for someone else to do it for me when I can contribute something to you guys myself?".

So over the last several months (on and off) I have painstakingly redrawn and color matched every element on the board. Going as far as to track down the original fonts used and so forth.

In that time TommyC has released a brilliant mash-up made from several images (which I also recommend people download!) so we sort of already have a layout with the actual graphics now, but my version has been completely redrawn from scratch at a high resolution, so hopefully it should still be worth having!.

I still have a ways to go before I finish, but I wanted to introduce myself, let people know I was working on it and tease folks with my progress as I'm now heading towards the home stretch as it were.

When I'm done (or when I have more to show) I'll create a thread for my project in the appropriate section before release, but for now; Howdy folks!

Thanks for reading!

Pictures:






As you can see, I was inspired layout-wise by the Crazy Fruits layout. I love how clean and clear that one is vs. coping the machine angles (but obviously that's totally a preference when it comes to emulation).

Please excuse my heavy watermarking and zoomed out/in screenshots. The finished release will have absolutely no watermarking, but I want to keep this thing underwraps really until it's done.

P.S. I feel now that I'm getting involved, it's only right of me to admit that I made a second account way back when I first started my project as I needed to do some testing and accidentally downloaded the wrong emulator (D'oh!). At the time I wasn't aware there was a hefty rule against this (though I should have expected as such really), so please forgive me folks! 

[vectra666]

hi and welcome (again) look forward to your finished layout when the time comes and like us here it shows dedication to the cause and shows if you want something so bad and there's no resources at hand you can actually reproduce the machine  from scratch!

[mazza500]

Thanks for the mention. Huge fan of Homers Meltdown myself and recently acquired the machine. Great work with the graphics and awesome job with the fonts. Looking forward to the release. 

[evo1]

Hi and Welcome nice to have some new talent on board. 

[TommyC]

Welcome mate,that looks amazing that does. Proper dedication is that, Can't wait to see the final release. As you have probs seen my layout was a mish mash of photo's,some parts of layouts are a pain to lamp no matter how good the art is.

[westy20040]

Welcome aboard, I've got to say that looks amazing, so the release is something to look forward to. Hope you stay around and product more fantastic layouts.  

[Benjamoose]

Thanks for all the kind words folks!

I'm thinking of throwing up a thread in the "Forthcoming Releases" section so that I can post progress pictures now and then without cluttering up this section of the forum.

I have a quick question regarding titling though if I may?

As I understand it, there are layouts with no images, and then there are ones made to look like the machine which get referred to as "DX" (Deluxe?).

DX also seems to be the most popular go-to.

But I've also read the terms "WDX" and "HDX" too.

I was wondering which is most appropriate and what they mean?

I did try to do a search beforehand but the guide in the support section only refers to "Classic" and "DX".

Thanks for any help!

[westy20040]

DX is indeed Deluxe, WDX is Windows Deluxe and HDX i think is Hybrid Deluxe - i.e. where one machines game's rom will match the artwork and game play of a different machine. 

[Benjamoose]

DX is indeed Deluxe, WDX is Windows Deluxe and HDX i think is Hybrid Deluxe - i.e. where one machines game's rom will match the artwork and game play of a different machine. 

Ah! That makes sense.

So is "Windows Deluxe" a slightly defunct term then? Given the majority of layouts seem to be for Windows?
I don't seem to notice it used as often as DX anyways.

Based on your reply, I'd assume I'd be safe with just going with "DX" then?

Thanks again Westy!

[Benjamoose]

Though I notice that Tommy listed his as WDX. 

Edited by Benjamoose, 22 November 2017 - 12:46 PM.

[fuzion]

I think WDX was windowed layout. A defunct term now that mfme takes care of scaling layouts up or down.

J

[fuzion]

This looks superb by the way. I'm a graphic designer, mostly photoshop and indesign are my tools but I also dabble in Illustrator and Corel Draw now and again if need be.

J

[Benjamoose]

Thanks fuzion! I've used Photoshop since the early 2000s, but I really wish I had forced myself to crack Illustrator.

It's that thing where it's close enough to Photoshop to make me feel like I know what I'm doing,
but different enough that I get confused easily whenever I'm in it!

One of these days I'll master it, but I tend to only use it if absolutely necessary, heh!

In other news; I've had some new font revelations tonight that I'll post in the progress thread (whenever I get the chance to write it up!).

[TommyC]

The only time a refer my work to DX is if the layout is tiny,like less than 1024 pixels.

[vectra666]

Wdx normally has "side art" usually to the right of the main machine so when shown on a computer the art would subsequently fill the whole screen
You also have the term PDX ( pseudo dx) this afaik uses the exact machine ROMs but you/ the designer have no usable images of the machine so make your own up similar to what you're doing by adding the text, images etc
I did a similar thing with jumping jack flash.

[Benjamoose]

Thanks for all the input.

I think I'll go with "DX"

It seems to be the more common choice and since Tommy listed theirs as "WDX" it'd probably help distinguish it as a separate download.

[Benjamoose]

Just wanted to update this thread to say that I've made a "Forthcoming Release" thread now, and any updates or screenshots will now be posted there:

http://www.fruit-emu...rs-meltdown-dx/

[Geddy]

Brilliant so far, welcome back...

[Reg]

Brilliant so far, welcome back...

 

No your wrong there - that was my assumption and a lot of things when I did some looking all point the other way based on what I think I know about the person you're talking about.

This is not who you think it is IMO.

[Benjamoose]

Brilliant so far, welcome back...

 

 

 

No your wrong there - that was my assumption and a lot of things when I did some looking all point the other way based on what I think I know about the person you're talking about.

This is not who you think it is IMO.

 

 

I'm a little confused? Did you guys think I was a returning older member or something?

I initially just thought it was a "nudge-nudge wink-wink" at the footer in my introduction topic.

To clarify; you can all see my website URL in my forum profile. I've never had a public face on this forum until this account  .

In other news; Good Morning folks! Today I'll hopefully be getting the drinking Homer done!

Edited by Benjamoose, 24 November 2017 - 08:33 PM.