Readme CrashTest's Videos Collection for Mame 0.101 http://crashtest.retrogames.

com 2005/11/16 They They They They They They They They make any frontend look so much better. make a kickass screensaver. give the best possible preview. show an instant 'how to play'. are the only way to see every game running at full speed. are the smallest way to see all games running. are using lossless compression, so you think you're watching a game. are heavily optimized. Lossless, but not brainless.

1/ About This file is part of CrashTest's Videos Collection for Mame. Videos are taken in-game, usually at the beginning of the game. I don't make videos instantly. I don't "run, record, play, quit". I play each game until I think I know it, and then I record a video to make me a little presentation, and I share theses presentations. I try to show how the game works. 2/ Use these MNG files are perfectly viewed with any MNG viewer, especially those relying on libmng like XnView. Most advanced frontends can show these videos correctly too. They were initially recorded for AdvanceMenu, which can play the picture and sound in synch, in full screen format. AdvanceMenu screensaver function makes it great too. 3/ Video Format These videos are released in MNG/MP3 formats. They are recorded with the integrated option in AdvanceMame. They are recorded at half framerate, which can makes some objects look weird if they are blinking. downloading if you have only limited thebandwidth, MP3 files will still give a nice touch to your favorite frontend, whereas they represent 10% of the collection, in size. 4/ Video Picture Format the picture is in MNG format. MNG is a kind of advanced GIF, it's not a codec like MPEG or DivX. It means that the video is looking exactly like the game running on your favorite emulator. It's a lossless compression format with optimization for scrollings. 5/ Video optimization They are optimized with AdvMng. the following command will optimize most of the files correctly. advmng -z -2 -r -S16 *.mng if the video size seems too big, and the scrolling is particularly fast, try using advmng -z -2 -r -S32 *.mng if the video file is very big, you can try saving space using the maximum compre ssion

advmng -z -4 -r *.mng (usually for 3D games) 6/ Audio format the audio is encoded in MP3. It's just a standard MP3 file you can play in any players, software or hardware. 7/ Audio encoding the MP3 are encoded with Lame. with the extreme preset : lame --preset extreme MP3 volume level is normalized using Replaygain's track gain, with MP3Gain. 8/ Notes I re-record games after their emulation is improved. I don't re-recordgames if their emulation is temporarily getting worse. I don't record videos for clones except when they are very different (prototype version). I don't record some types of games because I can't play them well enough : American Football, Mahjong, Hanafuda... I only record working games. Some games are using half height resolution, so they might look weird. AdvanceMenu can play them with a correct ratio, using Mame informations. Mame (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) @ http://www.mame.net/ LibMNG @ http://gjuyn.xs4all.nl/libmng/ XnView @ http://www.xnview.com/ AdvanceMame,Menu,MNG @ http://advanceprojects.sourceforge.net LAME @ http://lame.sourceforge.net/ Replay Gain @ http://replaygain.hydrogenaudio.org/ MP3Gain @ http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ 9/ Distribution I used to run a torrent PC myself, but it died. These videos are distributed via various mirrors I don't manage anymore. Check my web page for up to date information : http://crashtest.retrogames.com 10/ Personal Don't hesitate mailing if you think a video is wrong. My email is Cr?shT?st@r?tr?g?mes.c?m I regret I can't make good videos for >2 players games. If you like what I did, and want to encourage me to go on, you can donate with Paypal at my e-mail address. Ange 'CrashTest' Albertini 2000-2005