Hacking New Theme for EZ-Flash Omega!

Sterophonick

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Great update to the kernal! Thanks so much!

A few questions:
1. Anyone know if this works on the EZ-Flash IV model / version?
2. Only (1) .sms rom shows, despite loading many. Any ideas why the others would not show?
3. Neo Geo Pocket Color folder & roms do not show. Any ideas why they wouldn't?
4. While TG16 games run slow, sound doesn't appear to play. Any ideas why it wouldn't?


Thanks again!
1. This is strictly for the Omega and Omega DE
2. This sounds like an SD Formatting issue. Make sure it's formatted as FAT32.
3. See above.
4. The TG16 emulation is just plain slow. You can increase the speed by messing with the settings in the menu, and you can enable some... not great sound emulation there as well. It's accessed with L+R.
 
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epistaxis

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I use it on an Omega DE with my Pocket if you have any questions.
I don't think the DE has the same problem OG Omega has with the Pocket (where the Pocket will only recognize the factory flashed fw and ask for an update on every boot regardless of what fw has been flashed by user). I imagine this would make using Simple not work. I'll try it out tonight for the hell of it.
 

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I've been using this amazing thing to play Pokemon Crystal for days, but it's suddenly acting like theres no save. It LOOKS like the save is still in the SD card when I check on my computer, but it always prompts a new game when I start up Crystal. Is there anything I can do or is that it?
 

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Hello! I had a question regarding the .bmp and .jpeg/.jpg archives. Sometimes .jpeg/.jpg archives show up glitched or corrupted even though they don't show up like that on a PC, is it because of a size/color limit? And for the .bmp what option is recommended for them to not glitch up like they do in systems like Windows 7? (Colors being messed up and sometimes the .bmp files even crash the GBA)
 

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I'm still having trouble playing V-Rally: Edition '99 for GBC :( the colors just flicker
The game is a gameboy color game and therefore likely to be less compatible. That being said, I tried the game (as well as the championship edition) and both run, albeit with sprites flickering massively using the jagoomba 0.4 emulator.
 

pedrocaseiro95

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The game is a gameboy color game and therefore likely to be less compatible. That being said, I tried the game (as well as the championship edition) and both run, albeit with sprites flickering massively using the jagoomba 0.4 emulator.

Thank you for going through all the trouble! I know it is a pretty obscure game for the majority
That's what happens when I try to play. The original emulator that came with the EZ Flash is no good either
 

Sterophonick

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Hello! I had a question regarding the .bmp and .jpeg/.jpg archives. Sometimes .jpeg/.jpg archives show up glitched or corrupted even though they don't show up like that on a PC, is it because of a size/color limit? And for the .bmp what option is recommended for them to not glitch up like they do in systems like Windows 7? (Colors being messed up and sometimes the .bmp files even crash the GBA)

For JPEGs you might wanna look at this:
https://sterophonick.github.io/pages/projects/omegamanual.html#toc_46
 

timdmackey

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@Sterophonick I'm working on a new theme based using your Simple theme as a starting point (along with some graphical inspiration from @Nona_Elexis's theme here.

I want to explore changing the fonts, but I'm not sure how to go about generating a compatible font file. Could you offer any information about how you created a C file from the custom font you used in your theme? Did you use Usenti?

@Nona_Elexis used a different font in their theme and happened to include the original character map as a png, so I was able to decipher the layout and grid size. I can't figure out the correct settings thought to make a C file with the same format as what's in the EZFlash kernel. If you can help I'd appreciate it!
 

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Mancore

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@Sterophonick I'm working on a new theme based using your Simple theme as a starting point (along with some graphical inspiration from @Nona_Elexis's theme here.

I want to explore changing the fonts, but I'm not sure how to go about generating a compatible font file. Could you offer any information about how you created a C file from the custom font you used in your theme? Did you use Usenti?

@Nona_Elexis used a different font in their theme and happened to include the original character map as a png, so I was able to decipher the layout and grid size. I can't figure out the correct settings thought to make a C file with the same format as what's in the EZFlash kernel. If you can help I'd appreciate it!
Looks amazing. I want this theme.
 
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GASH

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I've tried the newest Simple version for the normal Omega. It's a very good start, but the clock is all over the place. I'll have to go back to stock, until it's fixed.
 

timdmackey

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I've tried the newest Simple version for the normal Omega. It's a very good start, but the clock is all over the place. I'll have to go back to stock, until it's fixed.
What’s the issue you’re seeing with the clock? I have the Omega DE, so I haven’t explored the differences between the two kernels yet. That being said, I did notice a couple bugs with the clock which I have fixed in my build. The one bug I can recall at the moment is the clock popping up on the “Recently Played” screen… it’s not supposed to show up there and overlaps with the the page title.
 

timdmackey

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Looks amazing. I want this theme.
Thanks! I’m adding some extra features to it as well, one thing I just finished implementing is a cleanup of the “Recently Played” screen:
  1. Removed the folder paths so only the game name is shown
  2. Added game system icons
  3. Made the screen scrollable and increased the total list size from 10 up to 64
  4. Fixed an issue with the clock showing up and overlapping the title
In terms of the design, I'm creating the theme in a 2-bit style like the original Gameboy (i.e., only 4 colors). The current style is similar to the classic Gameboy green, but I'm going to rewrite the code so that the theme can support custom palettes, similar to the way the Gameboy Color colorizes original Gameboy games. The theme is currently a "light" theme, I intend to also support a "dark" version as well.

I'm also looking at customizing the fonts, if it's possible within the GBA's memory limitations I might try to include a list of user-selectable fonts.

Once I get a little further along and have more to share, I'll start a new thread so I'm not clogging up @Sterophonick's thread here 😄.

EDIT: With some tips from Sterophonick to point me in the right direction, I managed to crack the code on generating new font files for the EZ Flash! To celebrate, I loaded up my cartridge with this fun but ridiculously unreadable font 😝

IMG_6507.jpg
 

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