Benjamoose

File Name: Homer's Meltdown HD - DX

File Submitter: Benjamoose

File Submitted: 04 Jan 2018

File Category: Epoch

NOTE: This release is for MFME v6.0 and not v5.0 or v5.1 - you will need to download the latest version of MFME to play this ROM/layout combination!
 

 
 
=SPECIAL THANKS=
mazza500 - For gifting me a subscription to Fruit-Emu, for making "Homer's Meltdown Classic" which served as a great resource for lamp numbers and for being supportive.
 
Reg -  For helping me with any questions I had via PM and for providing me with an excellent PDF guide that helped get me started with understanding the basics of MFME.
 
TommyC - For thread support and for his DX of "Homer's Meltdown", which assisted in lamp numbering and figuring out specific elements of MFME.
 
Johnnyafc - For also helping me with PM questions, support, for providing me with some super high quality reel photos at request and for sending me a copy of "Homer's Meltdown"'s manual! Additionally, his basic "Homer's Meltdown" layout also helped with figuring things out and mapping out numbers.
 
Wizard - For assisting me with MFME specific issues and for support via PM.
 
Geddy - For answering questions on the upload format, for PM advice and for giving me the go ahead to release here.
 
And everyone else in the WIP thread that either offered supportive comments, suggestions or feedback that contributed to helping me figure things out.
 
 
=ORIGINAL WIP THREAD=
http://www.fruit-emu...rs-meltdown-dx/

Click here to download this file

Howdy again folks.

I saw that I had several replies to my introduction thread and was somewhat disheartened to find that my identity had been questioned and that my thread had been locked by an administrator.

I was a little upset as I was then unable to reply to someone asking genuine questions about my project or to even attempt at defending myself.

Obviously I'm not looking to argue and I hope the administrators and moderators of this forum will oblige me by allowing this thread to stay open, both so that I may respond to anyone that wishes to ask me something and also so that I may use it as a place to clarify my identity among other users.

I don't normally do this as I'm not entirely comfortable with leaving footprints online that lead back to my personal life, but I've made the following video in an attempt to clear up any confusion to those who think I am some nebulous person by the name of "Andy".



I don't want to go forward with users thinking my every move are the act of a snake-in-the-grass or someone lying about their intentions, and would like to contribute as a part of the community and not someone constantly on stage for someone elses drama.

My Official Website: http://benjaminrudman.com
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/Benjamoose
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheGmodGtards

or

https://www.youtube.com/c/Benjamoose

If there is anything else I can do (beyond obviously insecure things like showing my passport) to prove my identity as a new user to you all, I'd be happy to do so.

But if this is enough to satiate for now, I'd appreciate it if I could be respected for my actions as a new user going forward vs. people thinking I'm making up for transgressions that I had no part in.

Thank you for your time folks, and here's looking to the future of MFME! :-)

==============================

In response to @stevedude2 from my previous thread:
 

 

Keep up the good work Benjamoose, this really is quality stuff 

 

How do you do the outlining?  Is there a special tool in Photoshop or do you simply trace it by hand and keep redoing each bit until you're happy with it?

 

I wouldn't mind trying to redraw something one day but I only really use Paint.NET.

I use something called the "Pen Tool" in Photoshop. It allows you to make points and then adjust the curves in-between.

I'll see if I can do a quick clip showing how it works sometime.

There is definitely some trial and error involved when the original image is heavily compressed or low-resolution though!

Howdy!

As many of you may already be aware (thanks to my introduction thread),

I'm working on a layout for "Homer's Meltdown".

When I started this project a few months ago there was no proper layout for this ROM and limited images available online of sufficient quality, so I began the process of redrawing the entire thing from scratch in Photoshop.

Literally everything you see has been remade, colormatched and font-matched to the original to ensure the highest possible clarity.

This of course also makes it slightly tedious to get just right!

Tracking down the fonts was a pain in itself. There are two fonts in the set that look almost identical and are only used in a couple of places, so I didn't even manage to get the similar font found until recently!

Below are the heavily watermarked preview shots from my introduction thread, but all future updates will be posted in this thread to keep the forums tidy.

Thanks for your interest!

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!