The Raspberry Pi and Retropie discussion thread

[Flojomojo]

That's kind of the beauty of it though -- once it's done, you can freeze it in time. When you have a kajillion games on there it becomes silly to change it.

[Osgeld]

 

Dude.. I'm laughing because I set up a Rpi3 a couple years ago and I really struggled with the process.. but eventually got it to work great.

 

But point is.. after all that effort, as time has passed I completely forgot all the knowledge I struggled to learn, and now I have no idea how to even start working on the thing... I should have wrote shit down. Heck I forgot I had to SSH into there to get roms going until just remembering now.

 

doesnt matter something changes every 6 months in the os so whatever you learn probably would have changed ever so slightly just to mess with you

 

my personal pull my hair out moment was adding a atx style power relay, there's a billion and 4 scripts out there and I still ended up writing my own cause I could not get any of them to work with whatever version retropi was out that week for the pi3

 

so yea do what flo suggests, get it working and make a back up of it and don't mess with it again ... unless you enjoy tinkering with it

 

its kind of like mame in that regard, once you get it working engrave a backup into stone and bury it in a air tight vault

Edited June 2, 2018 by Osgeld

[ClassicGMR]

That's kind of the beauty of it though -- once it's done, you can freeze it in time. When you have a kajillion games on there it becomes silly to change it.

 

 

so yea do what flo suggests, get it working and make a back up of it and don't mess with it again ... unless you enjoy tinkering with it

 

its kind of like mame in that regard, once you get it working engrave a backup into stone and bury it in a air tight vault

 

This.

 

I plan to continue to make builds when the bug bites me but my Super Kintaro 3B build is complete. I have zero plans to modify it any more.

 

I have 2 SNES bluetooth controllers and it runs the way I want. It is now (semi)permanently connected to my 52" tv in the living room and available to anyone that wants to play it.

 

I did a backup of the SD card using Win32 Disk Imager and put the file on my external HDD as well.

[youxia]

The back-up is a must, about to make one. But overall, in my case the problem is that the emus and cores for obscure machines that interest me are lacking features at the moment and are often updated. So there's no avoiding the tinkering.

 

I would issue a strong BEWARE! for anybody fancying "updating all packages" on a new Retropie 4.4 install. This will update your libretro to 1.7.3 (4?) which introduces a completely new control scheme, exploding your old one in the process. The new one is about as cryptic & convoluted as you get and there are no good docs or guides atm explaining it.

[Flojomojo]

For real? Don't tell me they stuck the WIMP GUI on the Pi version by default???

[youxia]

Haha no, they just went and completely turned everything over its head: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17228/coming-soon-to-retroarch-new-input-mapping-system-old-remap-files-don-t-work

 

I don't know, it may be for the better in the long run, but I saw enough "OMG how do I go back to previous version, this is chaos" to put me off updating for a while. This sounds like a day-and-a-half operation plus, yeah, I can't see any proper doc explaining it yet.

[Osgeld]

yea this is my general experiance of using linux for decades

 

finally got it down pat, well F - YOU we changed something and poorly documented it

 

its really not that bad but it is irritating

[Flojomojo]

 

My dog is from Tennessee and has the exact same attitude as you. I'll let you guess which one is him.

 

[Osgeld]

 

My dog is from Tennessee and has the exact same attitude as you. I'll let you guess which one is him.

 

IMG_8386.JPG

 

second to the left lol

 

the two showing teeth is the linux community and the black lab is apple while microsoft is the one barely in frame on the left late to the party, but somehow owns the pack

Edited June 3, 2018 by Osgeld

[Flojomojo]

LOL that's more analysis than I expected!

 

It occurs to me you have a different perspective, you know what you look like, but all I see is the Shatner Taco pic. The correct answer was the little tan one on the right with his teeth flashing. OK maybe I'm just projecting, and he's more like me.

 

Back on Pi topics. I bought a Canakit with game controllers even though I already have one of everything inside it, just because it was a nice deal and I like the concept. Maybe I'm just as bad as the atari boxers. Or maybe I should make a lunchtime arcade for f$cking around with coworkers.

[ClassicGMR]

Back on Pi topics. I bought a Canakit with game controllers even though I already have one of everything inside it, just because it was a nice deal and I like the concept. Maybe I'm just as bad as the atari boxers. Or maybe I should make a lunchtime arcade for f$cking around with coworkers.

 

After reading that I brought my 3B+ setup to work and set it up in the break room over lunch.

 

Fastest.

Hour.

Ever.

 

Probably one of the first 3rd shift lunches we've had that people were not walking zombies coming back from.

[Flojomojo]

Nice

[Osgeld]

i am redoing some stuff on my coleco chameleon which is a pi3 b and I wanted to make a backup but shrink it down as much as possible (which is easy since all my rom media is on an external SSD over usb) and I am about to go grab this

 

https://github.com/Drewsif/PiShrink

 

so the 16 gig sd card can produce an image that will fit on a dvd (or dual layer, havent done the process yet)

 

but I am sitting there fiddling with it and I notice I have my finger on mains voltage (the 120 to 5 volt power supply is inside the case with everything else), its about the same feeling as when you swat at a bug to notice its a yellow jacket lol

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Osgeld

[Osgeld]

just a follow up and its a duh once I see whats going on

 

poorly documented program above just says grab this run that and badda boom

 

you have to first make a image file of your sd card THEN run pishrink (all this on a different computer running linux, though i guess with usb storage and a different boot SD you could do it on a pi) , works good though

Edited June 6, 2018 by Osgeld

[ClassicGMR]

I like that case and your setup inside it Osgeld.

 

I had to temporarily give up on the X-Arcade Solo build I wanted to do. I can't fit a 3B+ board inside plus the extra wiring. Too tight. I REALLY didn't want to go down to a Pi Zero so - gear change! Trying to recoup the Solo cost, add a few bucks and get an XGaming Dual or even a TankStick. Duals are going for $119 and a refurb TankStick is $129. Not too shabby. I love my TankStick and have had it for 6 years now.

 

Meanwhile my friend had bought a 3B before I even started looking at the Pi and he doesn't use it. He just lost interest and never got beyond a Raspian boot. So when I was showing off my Super Kuma 9000 build he just handed it to me and said I'd get more use out of it. Score! Another 3B with a 32GB card and power supply. Just what I needed. ANOTHER Pi!

[mthompson]

First off, I hope you can forgive my ignorance. I'm new to using MAME on the Raspberry Pi, and I'm loading up late 70s – mid-80s arcade games. Is there an inexpensive way to play games that had a steering wheel (Pole Position, etc.)? I have original Atari paddle controllers, so I'm wondering if a DB-9 to USB box like the 2600-daptor would get the job done.

 

I'm not as concerned with arcade games that had a trackball, but am I right in assuming that a modern USB trackball is a solution if I go down that road?

 

I'm in the middle of completing this project, so right now I'm all set for 8-way joystick games.

[Osgeld]

the linux usb joystick drivers will work with just about anything so if the 2600-daptor works with the driving controller it should work, but never tried

[mr_me]

The atari paddle is a different type of controller than pole position's steering wheel but Mame has the ability for one to simulate the other so it can work.

 

The atari "paddle" is an analog controller and pole position's steering wheel is a free spinning digital "spinner". To a computer the atari paddle controller becomes an analog axis e.g. analog stick, and a spinner becomes one axis of the mouse pointer. So technically a mouse emulates pole position's steering wheel correctly but of course feels different.

 

There's no simple option for a usb spinner controller. You can look into making one, then you can use it for games like tempest.

 

Computer trackballs like computer mice can emulate arcade trackballs well. Generally they feel different. Arcade trackballs are more free spinning than computer trackballs. I play missile command with a mouse and it works well.

 

Edit:

They do sell usb steering wheels and foot pedals for modern driving games. I'm not sure if they translate to a mouse axis for mame. Pole position has an analog gas pedal as well.

Edited July 11, 2018 by mr_me

[ToddL]

An Atari trackball with a 2600-daptor II works well in Mame (although a mouse or modern trackball also works). I don't think paddles or a driving controller will work well for Pole Position in Mame, but I haven't personally tried. See below -- although the Pole Position wheel is larger on the arcade machine, I believe it works the same way as a spinner.

 

From: http://2600-daptor.com/2600-daptor.htm:

 

The driving and paddle controllers do *NOT* work for "spinner" games like Arkanoid or Tempest.

[mr_me]

The atari driving controller is a spinner; but it's resolution is too low to be useable for other games.

You can use an analog joystick/axis/paddle for any spinner games in mame. Mame translates it to a spinner. I wouldn't recommend it for Tempest but it does work. I think you should get good results with pole position steering. I'm testing with a recent version of mame. Retropie will have a much older version. And I'm testing with an analog stick not an atari paddle.

 

edit:

The problem with Pole Position is you need more buttons. One for gear shift, one for gas, and one for braking. Ideally the pedals are analog, and you could get away without braking.

Edited July 11, 2018 by mr_me

[mthompson]

Thanks for the advice on the driving games. Would 2600 driving controllers work well if paired with a 2600-daptor? I think I have one.

 

Which "daptor" is best to use with driving controllers and something like Pole Position and Night Driver, or does it not really matter?

[mr_me]

The Atari driving controller should work as designed. I don't have one but I wouldn't expect it to work well with any game except Indy 500 for the 2600 or a game that's specifically designed for it.

[mthompson]

Thanks for the info. I got the 2600-daptor II, hooked up the Atari driving controller, and got decent results with Pole Position. I use the joystick as a gearshift, and the controller button can be used as the accelerator. Maybe not ideal, but still quite playable.

 

Other driving games, like Night Driver and Speed Freak, don't respond to the driving controller well at all. I wasn't surprised by that, really. Pole Position was my main interest, so I'm calling this experiment a qualified success.

[ClassicGMR]

Thanks for the info. I got the 2600-daptor II, hooked up the Atari driving controller, and got decent results with Pole Position. I use the joystick as a gearshift, and the controller button can be used as the accelerator. Maybe not ideal, but still quite playable.

 

I am having one hell of a time visualizing this configuration in my head...

[mr_me]

Thanks for the info. I got the 2600-daptor II, hooked up the Atari driving controller, and got decent results with Pole Position. I use the joystick as a gearshift, and the controller button can be used as the accelerator. Maybe not ideal, but still quite playable.

 

Other driving games, like Night Driver and Speed Freak, don't respond to the driving controller well at all. I wasn't surprised by that, really. Pole Position was my main interest, so I'm calling this experiment a qualified success.

That's great, I was thinking you'd have to turn the knob too fast to be usable. Have you tried adjusting the mame dial sensitivity in the other games.

 

The driving controller becomes a mouse axis; is that correct?