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Xromwell XBE Logo says "Linux" #28

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JayFoxRox opened this issue Dec 19, 2019 · 1 comment
Open

Xromwell XBE Logo says "Linux" #28

JayFoxRox opened this issue Dec 19, 2019 · 1 comment

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@JayFoxRox
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JayFoxRox commented Dec 19, 2019

Each XBE contains a 100x17 pixel, 4-bit grayscale logo that is displayed below the Xbox logo after the boot animation. A real XBE will contain the text "Microsoft".

More information can be found here http://www.caustik.com/cxbx/download/xbe.htm##XBELogoBitmap

The Xromwell logo apparently just says "Linux"; the data blob is here.

That isn't suitable as Cromwell is also able to load other software. A similar issue is present in nxdk.
So ideally a logo would be reusable. In case of nxdk the user will likely be able to change the logo through cxbe in the future - in Xromwell probably not.

In general, I feel like the default logo should remain neutral. The original purpose was probably as copyright protection, as also done by Nintendo in their GameBoy cartridge ROMs.
The other purpose is to show that the executable has loaded successfully, so it should not be completely black. As the logo is prominently displayed during boot, it should still be it visually pleasing.
As the "Microsoft" logo was on a black background, we should keep with that style, too; that also means we don't have to use the entire space.

For text style logo, I thought about these: "Homebrew" (a bit lax?), "Unlicensed" (Confusing under Xbox log), "Loading" (Misleading / depending on context), "Loaded" (Misleading / depending on context), "XboxDev" (Misleading, because also non-XboxDev software will be loaded in cromwell, and for nxdk this is even worse), "Xromwell" / "Cromwell" (okay, but still need solution for nxdk), "GPLv2+" (misleading as Xbox logo etc. are not "GPLv2+"), "{GIT revision}" (okay, but a bit cryptic), "Unknown" (very vague), ...
- longer text like "Unlicensed XBE" would probably be too small on some displays. Also it implies that the user knows what a XBE is (or they might think something is wrong with their Xbox). I'd like to avoid terms like "DVD", "Game", "App" or generic terms like "Software".

For a graphics style logo, I could imagine something simple, like dots, some gradient, a horizontal line.

@mborgerson
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I agree "Linux" is not accurate. Cromwell supports doing several things, including booting Linux and non-Linux binaries as well.

The original purpose was probably as copyright protection

Maybe another reason was to allow branding changes with new title releases.

For text style logo, I thought about these [...]

The thing that is loaded is Cromwell, which can then optionally load something else. I'm fine with having the logo just say "Cromwell". It's only flashed on the screen for a brief moment anyway.

still need solution for nxdk

Not relevant here, but we can permit users of nxdk to craft their own logo and just have "nxdk" as a template. We should create an issue about it on XboxDev/nxdk.

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