Keatah Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 You mean blindly choosing the games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 You mean blindly choosing the games?Scroll through the list, then select something to play at random or that has an interesting name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I've long ago limited my mame setup to most of the classics and the ones I like. There's just too much trash out there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I've long ago limited my mame setup to most of the classics and the ones I like. There's just too much trash out there.Yes but there are lots of titles I have not discovered yet. The ZIP files are often ambiguously named so it would be difficult to tell which files contain what games when cherry picking. Additionally, certain arcade games are dependant on ROM files contained within other zips. For instance, in order to play Pacman, it is depedent on files contained within the Puckman.zip. Many of the MAME sets do not contain duplicates across multiple files. Downloading files off the internet is also a crap shoot because you have no idea what version of MAME they use. MAME4ALL uses an old 15 year old ROM set, v37b5, and the repositories generally only supply recent versions. So I got a DVD with the MAME4ALL set and associated samples and artwork. I plug the samples and load all 2271 ROMs into the appropriate folders. I did not grow up playing in the arcades as my parents were frugal and felt arcades were a waste of money. So there are many games I haven't tried yet. The extra fluff does not bother me as I've got a 32Gb SD Micro, and the scrolling speeds up dramatically when I hold the joystick so no need to wait a long time to slowly slog through the files. If you used a 4GB SD card or didn't bother to expand the file system, then yes, full sets would be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Parents were correct. Arcades were a waste of money and promoted gross and subtle behaviors which weren't conducive to success. Not everyone that went there succumbed however, usually the gullible and addictive personalities are the ones that got modified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I had my RPiB2 pretty far along. I even had an acceptable emulation of N64 Star Wars Racer (Pod Racer). I had that back on Mac OS9, and the N64 version is the same. I had 2 backups on external storage. I took the Pi on vacation and tried installing the desktop, and messed things up pretty bad. When I got home my restore failed and the media became corrupted and recovery and repairs failed. Now I'm starting all over! At least I have a folder of the art for the theme changes I made. I am not good at making backups and now in this case I did have one and it failed. I have been lucky to still have all my songs and all the digital photos I have ever taken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 (edited) Parents were correct. Arcades were a waste of money and promoted gross and subtle behaviors which weren't conducive to success. Not everyone that went there succumbed however, usually the gullible and addictive personalities are the ones that got modified.No kidding. My Raspberry Pi arcade is addictive as hell. I played Ninja Turtles Arcade Game the other night, as Leo (the only Turtle accessible using P1 controls without reconfiguring the inputs) and played straight through until I beat shredder. I checked the bookkeeping tab and it said I spent like 80 credits ($20) to beat the game. And $20 back then was like $40-$60 in today's currency. That glowing red "coin insert" button has more than paid for itself, LOL! My parents wouldn't even buy me an NES for Christmas despite my loudly asking Santa Clause for one almost every year making sure my parents were within earshot, but it gave me respect the games when I finally found that dusty CIB NES that sat in the garage for over a decade until I was twenty one. Mom told me years later she never gave me that NES because my behavior was atrocious and she was afraid I might become a recluse. I do have that addictive personality after all... Edited June 30, 2015 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 ...backups...I'm definitely doing a backup of my Raspberry Pi SD card whenever the MAME scraper finishes. That way I'll have a "fully loaded" and valid PI image for MAME in the event I ever "brick" my Pi. I'm not sure if I'll add full ROMsets for the other consoles or just add my favorite games and arcade-inspired homebrews. I've already got fully loaded Everdrives for most of my consoles after all... Be extremely careful with the Windows imaging software. Disconnect any and all removable drives or flash media from your PC before proceeding. One wrong move and terabytes worth of backup data could be destroyed in an instant! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Be extremely careful with the Windows imaging software. Disconnect any and all removable drives or flash media from your PC before proceeding. One wrong move and terabytes worth of backup data could be destroyed in an instant! I can attest to that in the fullest. The only thing that (one time) saved my ass and 30 years of "yet-to-posted-to-FTP.ASIMOV" and other oddball Atari material was an off-site backup. But I had to spend 2 hours driving to and from it to retrieve it. Windows imaging software has the odd habit of shifting drive letters and volumes infrequently enough to let you gain confidence, then BAM!! Which is why I tell my clients to only image their system disk - the main boot drive. And all other data is to be backed up file-by-file, like a filesync or copy type of deal. If any one bit on the medium becomes unreadable for whatever reason, you will only lose that one file it belongs to. Besides, it doesn't make sense to compress thousands of incompressible jpegs and mp3s and other media into one large "container" file, does it? You fuck up that container, you fuck up the whole shebang! And it takes longer to make minor changes like adding or deleting or renaming 5 arbitrarily-chosen files. Pro-tips: 1- I advise my clients to keep their backup drives defragmented. Not for performance reasons but for facilitating easier recovery if something somehow damages the file structure components like the $MFT. A non-fragmented file is piece of cake for even the most basic recovery software. It is also easier to identify which sectors belong to which files. A single bastard sector usually has buddies tagging along. Best keep the gang localized to one file. 2- RAM that is even only occasionally slightly intermittent may never show up in everyday usage with everyday tasks. But it will render your backup invalid immediately. For a mission critical backup I recommend using a RAM test/diagnostics program. 3- Verify your backups are good. Conduct a test-restore. Or perhaps do a file-by-file CRC check against the original working files. 4- Develop a routine that works for you and your system. Every system is organized differently. Everyone has a different style and tolerance level. Find a balance and develop a procedure. 5- If you conduct off-line backups via a boot-disc (recommended) be double aware the drive letters can be different than what you are used to in Windows/Desktop. Adding or removing one drive can and will change device enumeration. So this must be checked prior to any operation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kokovec69 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I backed the Kistarter campaign for new C64c cases and received mine a while ago. I thought it appropriate to turn it into a Retro-Pi machine. I had to design and build my own C64 USB keyboard interface for it. It uses a Pi-2 and a Buffalo controller. https://www.flickr.com/photos/134750065@N07/sets/72157653462201064 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSG Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 I have a Pi B and I barely use it due to no time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 I backed the Kistarter campaign for new C64c cases and received mine a while ago. I thought it appropriate to turn it into a Retro-Pi machine. I had to design and build my own C64 USB keyboard interface for it. It uses a Pi-2 and a Buffalo controller. https://www.flickr.com/photos/134750065@N07/sets/72157653462201064 So you made a Commodore 64 out of a Pi? Cool. One thing I'm curious about: Using the Pi as an NES. Since the Pi has the capability of zero lag composite video output and zero lag GPIO inputs, do you guys think it could be possible to hook up a CRT and play zapper games? Do you guys think it would be possible to make a lag free "Pi NES emulator" work, even with zapper support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kokovec69 Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 It might be possible to support a PS2 Guncon controller but figuring out the USB driver would be tricky. I would stay away from the GPIO port in favor of portability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 (edited) GPIO would be the only way to achieve zero latency. USB protocol would create lag between the light signal onscreen and the CPU detecting the input mid scan. You would also have to control the 240p composite output in realtime. Might be impossible to due if the graphics hardware requires a frame buffer. Edited July 22, 2015 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Phruby Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Something I've been wanting to do for a long time is put my Raspberry PI2 in my x-arcade tank stick. This blog has some good instructions on how to do it. http://ardiri.com/blog/raspberry_pi_x_arcade_mame_joystick 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omegadot Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 That setup is a dream as long as you work out shutting it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 That setup is a dream as long as you work out shutting it off. Retro Pie lets you shut down without a mouse or keyboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kokovec69 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kokovec69 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 GPIO would be the only way to achieve zero latency. USB protocol would create lag between the light signal onscreen and the CPU detecting the input mid scan. You would also have to control the 240p composite output in realtime. Might be impossible to due if the graphics hardware requires a frame buffer. USB 2.0 can stream video at VGA resolutions. I might try to see if I can make it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omegadot Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Retro Pie lets you shut down without a mouse or keyboard. I want to say wah!cade as a shutdown by button combo option, actually. Seems like if I rolled a pi2 I could swing that as a front end. (It's what I use now on my mame box) Not sure all the libraries it uses. I need to get off my butt and start hacking on it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 (edited) I want to say wah!cade as a shutdown by button combo option, actually. Seems like if I rolled a pi2 I could swing that as a front end. (It's what I use now on my mame box) Not sure all the libraries it uses. I need to get off my butt and start hacking on it... You'll need a pair of admin buttons. In Retro Pie, Escape exits the emulator and F1 pops the emulation menu. From there, Start is ENTER and Select is RSHIFT. P1 joystick is the arrow keys. The action buttons can be any key you want them to be. The custom Porta Pi build I used sets them to a, b, x, y, l, r. The first time you run MAME you will need a keyboard attached in order to use the TAB key to access the config menu. From there, you can actually change the config menu to F1 to use your config button to pop up the menu and adjust settings like buttons and DIP switches. There is a global setting in MAME for all games, then you can tweak individual games. Use the arrow keys (joystick) and Enter (start button) to adjust config items in MAME. I set the P1 coin insert to use Select. Not 100% on this but I think trackballs use mouse emulation. I don't have room for fancies like trackballs or P2 controls on my Porta Pi, but at some point I may buy a Porta Pi Lite kit and use it as a P2 controller. Then put a 15-pin connector in the back and use the standard Neo Geo AES pinout for the P2 inputs. Concerning trackballs, I believe they can be configured to simulate a mouse via USB under MAME. MAME can use a joystick to simulate a trackball or spinner, making games like Tempest or Centipede playable albeit a bit twitchy. Porta Pi uses the GPIO pins for the controller inputs, but you can also run the USB ports to an IPAC for arcade controls or add HID gamepad controllers. N64 and PS1 emulators need lots of buttons and analog joysticks, so it may be easier to set up a USB-to-PSX adapter for 5th gen emulation than try to use a fancy arcade layout. On my built of Retro Pie 2.3, the N64 and Final Burn alpha (Neo Geo) EMUs appear to be broken. Also there are not enough inputs to play PS1 or N64. I still need to update to Retro Pie 3.0 though as the custom Porta Pi build I downloaded is over a year old by now and predates the Raspberry Pi 2. If I rebuild from scratch, I'll have to install the keyboard encoder to enable the GPIO pins and do a bunch of other stuff under the hood in Rasbian to prep it for use. I loathe command line interface, but with a mouse and keyboard I can navigate to most of the config files and use the built in GUI editor to tweak them. The only thing I really need command line for besides "startx" for Rasbian OS and "emulationstation" to load Retro Pie, is editing the config and expanding the partition. Edited July 24, 2015 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omegadot Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Now that I think about it, it may have been Maxius or Hyperspin. I know something had it. I sort of avoid the admin buttons out of personal preference. I ran an external PC power button to the top of my cab, which works since it's one of the prefab kiosk style deals and some old PC inside running some linux. I think I'd be more interested in the GPIO ideas floating around but I don't really know much about that aspect of the pi. Learning! http://www.raspberry-pi-geek.com/Archive/2013/01/Adding-an-On-Off-switch-to-your-Raspberry-Pi While typing this I googled for that and realized I'm over my head with some of the ideas at my current knowledge level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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