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Post by vysetd on Aug 28, 2006 23:03:26 GMT -5
Okay. I read the guidelines, but I have a problem. My computer is a hunk of junk, see? I can't even save a picture in the .png format (Isn't that on Windows XP or something? Not sure). However, I can save bitmaps, .gifs and .jpeg/jpg no problem. What I do is, I play as far into a rom as I need and then I Alt+Print Screen to get cool screenshots if need be. I then copy and paste the screen (on full screen resolution) into paint and save it as the specified format. As most shots are too big, I have to scale them down to 250 x 250 pixels. This generally produces images that are seen on cool sites like VGM.
I know that was long winded. Basically, what I'm asking is if you accept other formats besides .png? Finding pictures of obscure games can be a real pain otherwise.
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Post by Discoalucard on Aug 29, 2006 8:24:26 GMT -5
What emulators are you using? Most of them have a screenshot function built in so you don't need to do the copy/paste thing. (The only exceptions I can think of are some Neo Geo Pocket Color and Wonderswan emulators.) I say this because if you're running an emulator in a window, it's usually filtered, so when you resize it, it looks all washed out and stuff. Usually straight screencaps put it in its native res.
Otherwise, if you can't use PNG...then GIF is OK for most screenshots (256 colors and below...so basically anything from the 16-bit platforms and prior.) Any higher and you might want to use a JPG file, just don't keep the compression too high. Leave the picture at its native resolution (i.e. don't resize it), I'll take care of it if needed.
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Post by vysetd on Aug 29, 2006 17:09:11 GMT -5
The emulator I used was Zsnes. I do own cart forms of the games, but I don't have a scanner or anything like that. Anyway, I guess, I'll try .gifs for now. Thanks a lot.
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Post by Discoalucard on Aug 29, 2006 17:59:37 GMT -5
In ZSNES, go to "Misc", then "Game Keys". At the bottom you should see a field for "snapshot". Either map that to your joystick or assign it to a keyboard button. Depending on the version, it'll output BMP or PNG (I think you can choose somewhere.) Either will work. (this is in ZSNES 1.36, but it should be similar in other versions.)
GIFs limit colors to 256, which can be a problem due to the way some emulators handle transparency effects.
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Post by vysetd on Aug 29, 2006 20:16:28 GMT -5
Thanks guy. You are the man.
I've found it and gotten it to work. As far as boxscans, I found "one" for Trinea, but it's an awful ebay pic. That's the only one I could find though.
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Post by ReyVGM on Aug 30, 2006 2:24:56 GMT -5
Vyse what the heck? You don't have to go through all that trouble with Zsnes. Just press F1 and then enter to take your snapshot. Any Zsnes from 4 years ago suports PNGs already, so you dont even have to convert them. My computer is a piece of crap too, 600mhz with windows 98. I'm sure you can get the lastest zsnes for DOS or Windows which takes snaps in PNG format. And don't use JPG, no matter what Kurt says JPG is the worst image format EVER. For non-true color images at least.
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Post by vysetd on Aug 30, 2006 2:53:50 GMT -5
It's like I say on gamefaqs; I only really use emulation to test something before I buy it. I had no idea you could do all of that with Zsnes, or emulators in general.
You say they should automatically convert to .png, but mine came out as .bmp using snapshot. It still looks good though, so it shouldn't matter too much I hope.
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Post by ReyVGM on Aug 30, 2006 14:44:09 GMT -5
Yeah I think the version you have has BMP as a default, but when you press F1 you see a menu and on the bottom option you can change between BMP and PNG. I suggest you take them in PNG directly because you'll probably don't have the tools to correctly convert BMP to PNG or in batches for that matter. Not to mention that sending BMP files takes a lot longer than PNG
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Post by Discoalucard on Aug 30, 2006 14:59:42 GMT -5
I tend to use JPGs for any picture over 256 colors (usually anything from a Saturn/PSOne game, or anything video captured) because they end up being 120k+ per screenshot otherwise. And with all of the images that goes up on a single page, that's just too much. I use low compression though, so it doesn't muck with the quality too much (I use ThumbsPlus for a lot of it, and set the quality at 85, which is pretty high.)
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Post by ReyVGM on Aug 30, 2006 15:25:54 GMT -5
I use thumbplus too That is a great program, I've been stuck with the 4.50-R version though. I think you should stick with PNG no matter what. JPGs are only good for true color images (real life pictures, FMV, etc.) I know right now those JPGs look good, but in a few years they will look awful; just like less than 256 color JPG images from the old days looked good bad then, but terrible today. Besides, most people already have a high speed connection these days. My download speed goes at 50kbs and according to some speed tests sites my connection ranks at 1 1/2 stars out of 5 compared to the rest of the world. So that means that the rest of the world has speeds twice as fast, at the very least. And with my crappy connection all the pages load very quickly for me. So I don't think a 1 meg difference for using PNGs would be much trouble considering 1 meg only takes a few seconds to download. Like I said, right now using JPGs looks like a good solution, but in the future it might come back and bite you in the ass. The whole point is: better safe than sorry. But that's my opinion of course.
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Post by Discoalucard on Aug 30, 2006 17:19:28 GMT -5
Bandwidth is a concern too. It's not a big deal with Gamespy (so far), but in the future, if I ever move, having a single page with a meg or two of images alone is going to be killer. I save super high quality (almost uncompressed) copies of practically everything I capture though, so if there's every need to replace things, it's there.
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Post by ReyVGM on Aug 30, 2006 18:30:36 GMT -5
Ah, smart move
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Post by aganar on Dec 9, 2006 18:04:48 GMT -5
Yo, question:
I'm debating writing a Fire Emblem article. Keep in mind this won't be immediate, as I still have to play through games 1, 3, and 5, as well as the BS titles before I can say I've played through the entire series, and until FE3 Book 2 and FE5 are completely translated I doubt I'll try to play through them, so this probably won't even happen for another six months. But when it does, here's my question:
Do I need to play completely through Fire Emblem 1? If you're not familiar with the series, Fire Emblem 3 is comprised of two Books, and Book 1 is a flat out remake of Fire Emblem 1, with new graphics, some extra characters and story bits, etc. Now that's not to say I would avoid FE1 altogether--I would probably still play through a good portion of it, and I would list its differences from FE3 based on research and FAQ's, but since FE3 I will certainly be playing through and is essentially the same game as FE1, is it mandatory I play all the way through it?
For that matter, to my knowledge the BS titles are unwinnable, and I can't really find out much about them, so do I need to include those as well?
Thanks.
BTW, is there some kind of archive you guys use to find Japanese and American box covers, or do you just use google search?
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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 9, 2006 21:00:39 GMT -5
There's already a Fire Emblem article underway (halfway at this point).
Anyway, you don't need to complete the games, but you should be familiar enough with all of the highs/lows, and what sets each game apart.
As for box art, I either Google Image Search it, or scan it myself if I have it.
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Post by zzz on Dec 10, 2006 2:50:02 GMT -5
WOAH, what? Fire Emblem's BS games were originals? They were not portions of other Fire Emblem games? Or is that not what you meant?
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