I needed to highlight specific arcade games that I enjoy, in Hyperspin. So I started using the Special Art feature that displays the joystick, Free Play and Genre info. I already have the joystick controls feature running on a second monitor, so I didn’t have a problem using the SpecialA feature that the joystick uses; for custom Art. This package (see below) contains art for the following arcade games: In The Hunt, Metal Slug 5, Power Instinct 2, Ribbit!, Rolling Thunder 2, R-type Leo, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, Street Fighter, Shadow Dancer, Shinobi, Sunset Riders, Tengai, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vasara 2, Vigilante, 1941: Counter Attack, 1944: The Loop Master, Art Of Fighting, Arkanoid, Daraku Tenshi: The Fallen Angels, Fatal Fury Special, Garou: Mark Of The Wolves, Ghouls’N Ghosts, G-Stream G 2020, and Gunbird.

Currently I’m using “Manufacturer games” type of info in the SpecialA section. I’m also using the SpecialB section that the “free play” graphics use, to display “featured” games. The featured games slides, have a brief description of the game, five images that flip in and out and the number of players for the given game. Hyperspin allows me to control how the slide animates in and out of the screen. It also lets me control the duration and length of time before the next slide shows on the screen.

How To Set Up Custom Special Art In Hyperspin:
Most of the settings will be done in HyperHQ. Look at the image below for my settings. Your settings will vary depending on the size of your screen and animation preferences. I added a red arrow to the “Length” field to point out that, HyperHQ only lets you go up to 6 for its value. To go higher on that value, you have to open the Mame.ini file in:
Hyperspin/Settings/Mame.ini

Once you have the file opened in a text editor. Simply look for the section titled “Special Art” and change the “length” value to suit your needs. I’ve set the length of Special art A to 16, and Special Art B to 17.

Where To Put The Custom Artwork:
Hyperspin has a specific location for the Special Artwork. Make sure you backup your current SpecialA, SpecialB files before you copy over my custom art files. Download all my custom art and put them into the following directory:

Hyperspin/Media/Mame/Images/Special/
I’ve included a txt file in the zip file with a list of the contents in the SWF files. Hyperspin displays the Special Art in sequential order, so you have the option of displaying the files as you see fit. If you want to re-arrange the sequence in which the files are displayed, just rename them in the correct numerical order.

Download SpecialB Art (Featured Game):

The zip file contains 25 Swf files of various arcade games. I’ll put together another package in the future and if there are any suggestions of the types of games that should be featured, send me an email so that I can include it in my list. These files can be renamed SpecialA if you prefer (but not SpecialC).

Download SpecialC Art (Genre):

The Swf files included in this set are the Genre titles. I currently have 68 files and hopefully that covers all the necessary categories. If I’m missing any, please let me know so that I can update it.

Download SpecialA Art (Manufacturer):

This zip file contains 17 Swf files of top manufacturer’s games. These files can be renamed to SpecialB if you prefer (but not SpecialC).