Zaparoo Card Helpers

Scripts for generating print-ready game cards compatible with Zaparoo — the NFC tap-to-launch system for retro gaming setups.

Each card displays a game's cover art and marquee logo on a styled template, labeled with the game title and system name. Print them, cut them out, and tap to play.

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Scripts

imagemagick_composer.sh — Card Image Generator

Composites cover art and marquee images onto a card template for every game in your library. Processes one or more system folders in a single run.

What it does:

• Reads cover and marquee images from systemname/covers/ and systemname/marquees/
• Scales both images to fit the card area while preserving aspect ratio
• Spaces them evenly on the template
• Stamps the game title and system name at the bottom
• Optionally pulls proper game titles from a gamelist.xml if one is present
• Saves results to systemname/output/

Usage:

./imagemagick_composer.sh

Run from the directory containing template.png and your system folders.

Requirements:

• ImageMagick 7.x (magick command)
• Perl
• A template.png (638×1012 px) in the current directory — see the templates/ folder for options
• System folders structured like:

  gba/
  ├── covers/
  │   └── Metroid Fusion.png
  └── marquees/
      └── Metroid Fusion.png
  

  Cover and marquee filenames must match exactly.

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print_composer.sh — Print Page Arranger

Takes the generated card images and lays them out on standard 8.5×11 print pages, ready to send to a printer.

What it does:

• Arranges cards in a 3×3 grid per page
• Centers everything with even margins on a 300 DPI white background
• Outputs numbered page files (page_001.png, page_002.png, …) to a print_output/ folder

Usage:

./print_composer.sh gba/output   # process a specific folder
./print_composer.sh              # process current directory

Requirements:

• ImageMagick 7.x (magick command)
• PNG images sized 638×1012 px (the output from imagemagick_composer.sh)

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Templates

The templates/ folder includes three card template variants:

File	Description
template-batocera.png	Styled for Batocera setups
template-mister.png	Styled for MiSTer FPGA setups
template-nologo.png	Plain template with no platform branding

Copy your preferred template to the working directory and rename it template.png before running the composer.

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Typical Workflow

# 1. Drop covers and marquees into system folders
# 2. Copy a template
cp templates/template-batocera.png template.png

# 3. Generate card images
./imagemagick_composer.sh

# 4. Arrange cards for printing
./print_composer.sh gba/output

# 5. Print print_output/page_001.png (etc.) and cut them out