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As stated on the other page Mame is the most problematic emulator when regarding the correct screen aspect ratio. All the games run in different screen sizes and in different refresh rates. In the past the most famous Mame emulator for Xbox was MameoX 128! Plus, created by HK$. This piece of software was one of the most praised emulators out there, until a developer caled BritneysPairs started to work on something new, something called CoinOPS. After several releases and constant improvement, CoinOPS reached its final version called Ignite and it was released to the public. A new age for Mame gaming on Xbox was about to start. You can read more about CoinOPS on the official forum discussions.

CoinOPS and the different screen sizes

The official CoinOPS treat the game screen sizes exactly as the same way as Mameox128! Plus. You should calibrate your screen one time and this configuration will be global for all games in your ROM list. But wait... what is the advantage of using CoinOPS? Simple answer: on CoinOPS when filter antialiasing is turned off this emulator rocks! Sharpen pixel graphics with no blur at all - and better than that - with no screen tearing or other annoying graphic artifact! But keep reading... We can't just turn off the filters and go having fun playing, we still have the problem of the different screen sizes! The solution comes below.

Setting up different Mame CoinOPS

At the current stage of CoinOPS development, the only way for presenting correct screen aspect ratio is to install different CoinOPS emulators, one for each set of screen sizes. For example, games like Shinobi, Shadow Dancer and E-Swat runs under 320x224. Games like City Connection, Green Beret and Iron Horse runs under 240x224, and so on. After a small research (and also based on my personal taste) I selected the most famous games out there and grouped them by their screen sizes. In the next step I made several copies of my original CoinOPS emulator directory. Then, I hex-edited the executable files (XBE) for each emulator to save their configurations in a brand new location, (to prevent configuration overwriting) and finally created icons and skins fomr them. The last step was to fill the ROM directories with the compatible games. Let me explain in details every step now:

Creating a different CoinOPS - 320x224

Let's say we are going to create a 320x224 CoinOPS, yet on your computer take a fresh brand new CoinOPS directory and make a copy of it. Rename it to something like CoinOPS-320x224. Since we just duplicated a original install, your new emulator is still saving on the same location as the original one, so the next step is to change this. Now, open both default.xbe and mameox.xbe files on a hexadecimal editor. Since my operating system is Mac OS X, I will use in my example the software 0xED. Open the program and make a search for the following HEXADECIMAL value: 0920BEBA. This is the name of the save directory - BABE2009 - in hexadecimal format, in backwards. Check the image below to see the result of your search.

Result of your search

Now, we should modify this value to force the emulator save in a different folder location. Changing the value to 0820BEBA will make the emulator to save in a folder called BABE2008, so, please do that - and be careful to just replace and not erase anything, one bit out of the order and the sky will fall over your head! Don't forget to repeat the procedure above on the file mameox.xbe too, this is mandatory, otherwise your emulator will not run.

Installing the new 320x224 CoinOPS

Now we can upload the brand new emulator to the Xbox hard drive. Using your prefered method upload the CoinOPS-320x224 directory to your emulators folder. Then, if you take a look inside the original CoinOPS downloaded package in your computer, you will see there are two save folders, one intended to the drive E:/TDATA and other for the drive E:/UDATA. Both save folders are called BABE2009 (for the original CoinOPS). Rename them to BABE2008 (remember? This is what we changed in the XBE hex editing) and upload them respectively to E:/TDATA and E:/UDATA.

Adjusting the configuration file for the new CoinOPS

The next move in our proccess is to adjust the configuration file called mameox.ini located inside E:/TDATA/BABE2008/SYSTEM/. You can do that remotely right on the Xbox or do it in your computer and then overwrite it later, its your choice. I prefer to edit directly on the Xbox through my FTP program, it has nice editing features. Inside the mameox.ini file, search for the following lines and replace with the given values:

Supplying some game ROMS

Now you have a perfect 320x224 Mame CoinOPS setup. This emulator now is intended ONLY FOR 320x224 resolution games. Now take the shinobi.zip ROM and copy to the roms folder of your new CoinOPS. Run the game... and rejoice! Pixel perfect screen, no blur, no tearing, a success! Feel free to add more games but don't forget - they should be 320x224 games!

The most important titles for me are Shinobi and Shadow Dancer, but there are many many others out there. To learn more about each game resolution the best website is the MAWS Database, just check the Deluxe Search and you will be able to sort the games ina a wonderful and complete list accordingly to their native screensizes. You will have information to be able to build your own romsets!

OK... But can you help me more?

Yes! The whole idea behind this website is to help people to play the games on their real aspect and feeling, so I have prepared some downloadable goods that will speed up a lot your proccess of installing different CoinOPS for different screen resolutions. Take a look in the next table for a complete package of files, but please note: THERE ARE NO EMULATOR SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD. You should find the software by your own self. I am provinding only TEXT CONFIGURATION FILES and IMAGES for the SKINS.

Downloadable Goods

Resolution	Save Directory	Skin & Icon (480i/480p)	Highlighted Games and Suggestions
240x224	babe2005		City Connection, Green Beret, Iron Horse and others.
256x224	babe2007		Bionic Commando, Choplifter, Elevator Action, Ghouls'n Ghosts, Salamander, Rygar, Toki and others.
256x240	babe2006		Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja, Cobra Commando, Mad Motor, Robocop 1, Sly Spy, Trojan and others.
288x224	babe2077		Block Hole, Gokujou Parodius, Parodius, Sexy Parodius, Rolling Thunder, Rolling Thunder 2, Salamander 2, Sunset Riders and others.
304x224	babe2888		Art of Fighting 1-2-3, Ghost Pilots, Nam1975, Puzzle Bubble, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vendetta and others.
320x224	babe2008		Altered Beast, Golden Axe, E-Swat, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, Shinobi, Shadow Dancer, Out Run and others.
320x240	babe2066		Blockout, Cadash, Captain America & The Avengers, Gun Force 1-2, R-Type Leo, Super Trio, Undercover Cops and others.
224x256	babe2004		Raiden, Gun Smoke, Circus Charlie and others! You will be amazed by playing Gun Smoke with this settings! The screen aspect ratio is perfect but the top is cropped out of the screen. Please note that I have selected only games that have a "dumpable" top screen.
224x280	babe2003		Configuration perfect for Contra! The screen aspect ratio is perfect but the top is cropped out of the screen. Contra has only a black area on top with score information that is perfectly sacrificable.
224x288	babe2033		Configuration perfect for Super-Contra! The screen aspect ratio is perfect but the top is cropped out of the screen. Just like Contra Super-Contra has only a black area on top with score information that is perfectly sacrificable.

Important Notice!

• If you intend to use my very own saves you will need to edit your CoinOPS to match exact the same name for the save folder as described above, or if you change the save location to something else in your XBE files, remember to adjust also the name of my save folders. This is the key to everything!
• After the download of the packages, your shuold copy the save folders to drive E:/TDATA and E:/UDATA respectively. Also, you should copy the LowDef skin to the skin folder of CoinOPS and the default.tbn (the icon) should be placed in the root folder of the emulator.
• A nice tip is: Create a single directory in your Xbox and put all screenshots of the original CoinOPS there. Do the same with the CFG files and the NVRAM files. Doing that you will have all common files (used by all emulators) in a single place, working as global directories. And for God... DON'T FORGET to open the mameox.ini files in each save directory and adjust the PATH to the NEW LOCATIONS for this stuff!
• Right after the install of my saves and upon entering in the emulator for the first time, you will see my list of roms (it is bundled inside the save files) but of course - your rom directory will be empty. So, you should enter in the emu config menu (by pressing start) and pick the option scan all your games. Doing so will wash out my "phantasm" list and replace with yours. If you don't have any games installed, the list will be empty.

Values of screensizes for manual installation

If you are going to hex-edit your own emulators and create your own saves, use the values below to get the correct screen sizes for your emulators. Feel free to change the ScreenPos values, since they are the position on coordinates X and Y of the image on the screen, but please don't mess with ScreenUsage or you will damage the screensize. And remember, the key is: GraphicsFilter = 0, SoftDisplayFilter = 1, FlickerFilter = 0!