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MAME Options for Pacman


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Mega-quote from the New Pacman VCS thread. Let's start a new topic! ;-)

I've never observed this phenom but of course I don't have a Pacman Arcade in my garage either. PC emulation doesn't feel right to me so I have to rely on consolized ports or the occasional Namco Museum.

 

PC Emulation is a very good tool for discovering subtle nuances of the original games. Some games are a little off, but the old classics are usually pretty good.

 

The cornering speedup is a key tactic in the Pac games. Other than reaching the escape route or and energizer, it's the main way to get away when the monsters are in pursuit mode. On the counter side, eating dots will slow Pac-Man down, so cornering is only really helpful when the dots are already cleared from an area.

 

The 5200/A8 port of Ms. Pac-Man included this cornering speed up. It also included the slowdown for eating dots. The dot slowdown was a little too much, and it made the game feel a little sluggish, especially on early levels. I expect these things in "perfect" ports, like PS1, GBA, and up. (I also look for the trick to face a different direction at a stopped wall) . Not all of them feel right.

 

As far as this port, I think anything that could be included would be impressive, but I would not think any less of this port if nothing else was added. I used to wish that my 5200 Pac-Man had the cornering trick, but I still loved it at the time. I thought it was the best I would ever be able to get at home. Whatever this is in the end, I'll consider it the best I'll probably ever get on the 2600!

 

I wouldn't be so quick to say that 5th gen emulation is flawless. Namco Museum on the N64 doesn't do "cruise elroy" mode at all as far as I can tell.

 

Agreed! Definitely not. That's why I placed quotes around "perfect". The average person wouldn't know some things should be present, react differently, sound different, etc. These systems are capable of recreating an almost flawless experience, but often have missing elements. I expect certain things, and I look for them. I didn't mean to imply that I find them.. :)

I meant to also refer back to the value of emulation as a reference. I became aware of a lot of nuances from emulation, way before I bought my actual arcade machines. Many of them are missing little things here and there. It can help explain those "this looks good, but something feels a little off" situations.

 

Namco Museum (just regular) on Playstation 1 (classic) and Nintendo 64 are terrible. I can't stand those versions, they are terrible. If you are going by these for judging accuracy, you are missing out.



*However*, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Edition is VERY good for emulation. Gameboy advance 50th is only 'decent', the sound effects are messed up, but at least the code is intact.

Opcode made a 'code perfect' pac-man for Colecovision also somewhat recently (pac-man collection).

I always test out 'code-perfect' by using a 'go through blinky' little trick on the first stage.

Ms. Pac-man is accurate code-wise, if you keep eating power pellets on the first stage, until the sound glitches out. If it does-the emulation is pretty good.

 

Thanks for sharing your tests. That is pretty interesting. I almost mentioned Namco 50th Anniversary! For example, the sampled sound on the N64 is painful to my ears. It sounds like the eating sound (Pac and Ms) truncates one sample and harshly starts it over. Something is just annoying.

On the other hand, the Namco 50th sound is a little "slow". It is as if they chose to actually emulate the sound, and it's taxing on the CPU. Even though it's a little off, I prefer that, because it feels more authentic.

Opcode did a great job on his code conversion/ports. I would love to see the "go through Blinky" trick in a video.

 

Quote: I've never observed this phenom but of course I don't have a Pacman Arcade in my garage either. PC emulation doesn't feel right to me so I have to rely on consolized ports or the occasional Namco Museum.
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I do hope you've tried pac-man on MAME, and not just Namco museum on a Nintendo 64 or Playstation 1 (classic) emulator.

When you play pac-man, you MUST play on a CRT monitor or tv. The reason it doesn't feel right on a flatscreen is because it is upscaling a low resolution game to a high resolution. Playing on a crt will allow you to notice pac-man moving very quickly based on your movements (no lag).

Of course, the ultimate would be to get the REAL pac-man arcade machine which is already in its native 224×288 resolution (obviously). But you can get a special video card that will output in super low resolution (ultramarc or whatever) to an arccade monitor. If you don't, the resolution of pac-man will be blurred, because it is being magnified/distorted for any resolution higher than 224×288. So most pc emulations won't look quite right, but the mame version is likely the best (on a crt monitor). Some say that older mame versions did pac-man even better than the more recent ones also.

I guess I'm into all things pac-man :P

 

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Is Raspberry Pi MAME a legit option? Please don't laugh. Probably doing it wrong, but when I start working a real job and get a bit of disposable income to burn, this would be a nice piece of kit to assemble on my downtime:

http://www.retrobuiltgames.com/the-build-page/porta-pi-arcade-kit/
teaserbox_4093272389.jpg



True it's no arcade monitor (and I do prefer to play retro games on tube displays), but unless I get composite working and find a CRT that will work standing on it's side, a little LCD screen isn't a huge crime. Even the newer Ms Pacman + Galaga Class of '81 arcade machines use LCD displays. :P

 

Ms. Pac-Man passthrough Inky Trick (Strawberry Stage)

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Sweet. I do play it on MAME from time to time. Even though I have a flat panel, I spent a LONG time dialing in the controls (made my own png overlay) to try to mimick the arcade look. Based it off of the Pac-Man Fever album cover and my cabaret.
attachicon.gifNewMarqueeMonitorPanel.png
It's actually "Hangly Man", which I kind of prefer. It was the version (in a cabaret cabinet even) that was at the local Boy's Club, CYC, YMCA, and corner store, in my area. The YMCA still had a machine. I got the owner to sell it. :) It still allows me to check out the basic mechanics, although I doubt I will be able to recreate the Blink trick, since the maze is slightly different.

I use my Multicade (Running MAME, on left) for all others.
attachicon.gifMulti.png

Edited by stardust4ever
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Part Deux. ;-)

That Pi Mame looks fine to me :) Looks like a fun project for you in the future :)

You can also emulate a crt on a flatscreen with hlsl (the fishbowl effect).

 

Consider this: Mame easily pixel-bins in reverse. Pixel binning is a photography term that means you take a specified small number of pixels and treat them as one. Or oversampling. That means if an original game object is a10x10 pixel square on an original 256x192 display, it will now be represented by a 40x40 square on a 1024x768 display. But it will move and behave as if it was on a 256x192 grid. It will still scroll 1 pixel at a time in 256x192, or 4 pixels at a time if rendering at 1024x768. You do not all-of-a-sudden automatically gain more discrete movements or smoother more rounded corners.

In simpler terms, a pixel on a 256x192 screen would be, well, 1 pixel on a monitor of 256x192 resolution. But that 1 pixel now becomes 4 smaller pixels on a 1024x768. Don't worry. The object's movements happen in either 1-pixel steps on the lower res 256x192 screen, or in "same-sized", "same-distance" movements born out of a 4-pixel jump on the higher 1024x768 screen.

As long as mame is made aware of the destination LCD resolution (or the current desktop's res) there is no funky interpolation. Unless you want it. All the scaling is done in mame itself and not on the LCD.

You can have smoothing filters and all that going on, if you like.. And some of it looks like shit. Some looks awesome. Just gotta explore the options!



That's right!

 

With pac-man, you don't WANT smooth graphics, you want sharp jagged edges on everything (like the opposite of anti-aliasing). Doesn't going up in resolution cause things to be blurry/magnified? You lose focus when you magnify?

I liked reading your comments, I'm positive you know far more about this stuff than me (I'm not joking).

In a game like Mike tyson's punchout, when played on an lcd/flatscreen, what causes the lag in controller movements? Isn't it the upscaling of the resolution? I would think pac-man would suffer from the same type of lag as that, but perhaps mame compensates? These are just questions I want to understand more accurately.

 

Love the mini cabinet. I saw those at the Cleveland Classic Game Show last year. I am not sure what is the most cost effective. I have found the windows computers to be the best for MAME. It concerns me that the MAME game is stretched out across the widescreen monitor. I am not sure if that is just a setting or a limitation the MAME for the pi. However, Win MAME allows preservation of the aspect ration. One can even add the bezel art to fill the area. It's pretty sweet! A core2Duo with Win7 would run about everything. Speed and RAM would determine the generation.

I had an old control panel. I bought sticks and buttons. They can be purchased reasonably on x-arcade's web site, or you could attach an x-arcade stick to a laptop. It might not LOOK the same on the outside, but it will probably play pretty well.

I populated my control panel with sticks and buttons. I used an iPac-2 for my pc interface. It works really well! X-arcade has their own solution, but I found the iPac is already lined up with the MAME defaults. Instead of an old laptop, I bought a 3Ghz PC from a local community college. It was only $50, and has 4GB of RAM. I can play about every MAME game, up to Tekken3.

I tore the computer down to fit in my enclosure.
attachicon.gif20130812_220422.jpg

And I use a regular PC monitor. I use LCD, because I can rotate this monitor to vertical for vertical games. The overlay png does a decent job of recreating the scanline effect. However, one could easily use a standard CRT. These are the only pictures I have at work. These were taken when I hooked an old 40" lcd up to my box. Yes, I turned it on its side to play Mr. Do. lol.
attachicon.gifPacOnBigScreen.pngattachicon.gifMrDO.png



If this is a topic of interest, I'd recommend we create a new thread. I do not want to hijac this thread. Maybe there is an emulation/multicade one out there. Idk. Let me know, and I'll gladly join the chat.

I would almost recommend just adding an X-arcade stick to your PC, or buy a cheap PC and x-arcade. Might be around the same price. I do really like those custom cabinets though!!

One last note. I only built this, because I won the basic box at a gaming convention. I had to do something with it. Otherwise, I would have probably just gone with the X-arcade. The version with the Trakball is even a bigger bonus for games like Centipede. Doesn't work too badly for Tempest either.

 

"If this is a topic of interest..."

 

Consider it done! ;-)

 

MAME overlays, when used properly, can simulate the appearance of the blocky pixels. I cropped my Mr.Do a little small in the above picture, but it has a scanline effect on it. Makes things look jagged and blocky!

Here's a closeup. Keep in mind this is on a 40" TV, so you're seeing more flaws in the overlaw than one would one a 17".
attachicon.gifMrDoClose.png

 

I HAVE to try that now! I wonder if that will work on Hangly. Thanks for sharing!!!!

 

Depends on how it's done. Original image:
attachicon.gif60x50.png

Scaled using Cubic Interpolation:
attachicon.gif240x200 cubic.png

Linear Interpolation:
attachicon.gif240x200 linear.png

No Interpolation:
attachicon.gif240x200 no interpolation.png

 

Maybe.. but with the maze change I highly doubt it. Pass-throughs, and thus deduced pass-through patterns were and are par for the course in Pacman, so of course Hangly-Man would have them too.. someone just has to figure some out. :)

The Ms. Pac Strawberry one was one of my favorites as a kid. That particular one was published in a magazine back in the day so I thought everyone knew it. You don't have to be Billy Mitchell. :lol:

 

There's another one on the second stage of pac-man...you have to first clear a route to the destination (eat all dots).

You lose a life, and then on each subsequent life, you travel up towards blinky (right at the start), and you can pass through him every time (while he is on his way to his home territory.)
You can repeat as long as you have lives left.

You will be facing left and he is going right.

Directions (the best I can): You take the first upwards left tunnel from where you start, and then go up around the ghost box, and take the rightmost upward corridor. From there you go through blinky, before he ever reaches his home. It is way easier to just show on a vid.

I don't know how I found it, but I was looking for other patterns that could be replicated for pass throughs.

I'll try to post it if I can manage to vid it. :P

 

While we're on the subject, I've always liked this pattern which has TWO pass throughs. It also has a lot of close calls and an exciting ending. :)

 

Scanline effects are always nice as well. Just note that with portrait mode games, they need to be vertical.

 

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

While the X-Arcade cab is definitely the Rolls Royce of MAME options, space is extremely limited in my current living arangements which is one reason why the Porta-Pi is attractive to me. I may do this as a summer build. I do have an old 1600x1200 monitor which would be perfect for a custom MAME build. I'd probably use my old Athlon 3000XP shuttle PC which I tricked out in 2005. It holds some sentamental value to me and I never could bring myself to part with it.
http://stardust4ever.deviantart.com/art/The-Old-Shuttle-PC-156980683

If mods wanna create a new thread for this, go ahead. There's too many posts atm to quote everything and paste over. I'm browsing mobile (New 3DS) right now at my fiance.

 

Done. I had to borrow her laptop. ;-)

 

It's great to see more and more people going to emulation and multi-game cabinets. And LCD! They're so much easier to work with, plentiful, low-power, and enable new formfactors like this:

 

 

Raspberry Pi, cheap china crap 500-in-one boards, 2005-2010 era e-waste PC's.. All good sources for the main game engine too.

Edited by stardust4ever
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Part Deux. ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

"If this is a topic of interest..."

 

Consider it done! ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Done. I had to borrow her laptop. ;-)

 

This is pretty impressive. I want one for my desk at work.. :)

I am really impressed with the performance. Arcade SD is a really slick solution.

See below my DK blurb for my thoughts on pros for different solutions.

 

Off the Pac subject for a second (more general): I am also a Donkey Kong purist. The DK on there is better than most Jamma (60-in-1, etc) boards.

Mario's walk sounds as if it is emulated and not sample playback. However, the pitch is slightly higher.

 

Arcade SD with DK example

 

There was a company that would modify actual arcade DK Jr. boards to play DK & Jr. One could switch between the two games by holding p1 & p2 together. Due to a missing analog component on the Jr. boards, Mario's walk pitch was a little higher. This reminds me of the same thing.

 

In contrast, I have a DK and a Jr. Board in my DK cabinet. I use a switching mechanism by Vector-labs. It essentially does the same as above, but requires both boards.

 

...I share that, as I wonder if DK on the arcade SD was emulated from the multi-kong board setup. I still prefer the modern PC/MAME for DK accuracy, but I think the Arcade SD may have the ability to upgrade the firmware if there's ever a desire to tweak that sound into perfection.

 

Games like Pac-Man, Ms Pac, etc., have been accurately emulated since the late 90's, so I would ASSUME the results are spot on.

 

I chose a PC for my multicade for a few reasons.

  1. Space wasn't an issue. (I found the smallest PC I could)
  2. Emulation is a little more accurate, and easy to upgrade.
  3. PC allows me to also play MESS (Multi home console emulation), STELLA (2600), ColecoVision, Adam, C-64, A8, etc.
  4. I wasn't too concerned with "instant on", because I wanted the flexibility.
  5. PC will make a VERTICAL game look alright on a HORIZONTAL monitor by adding art. Many of the 60-in-1 type solutions are grouped as Vertical or Horizontal; so, one would want to purchase the one that matches how the monitor is mounted.

The Arcade SD and Jamma boards are nice:

  1. Instant ON (Don't wait for Windows to Boot)
  2. Menus are already set up. Setting up a nice joystick driven menu on the PC takes time, requires a lot of image downloads, etc. These solutions are plug and play (given #3 is in place)
  3. JAMMA wiring (already to wire to a universal arcade standard harness for 90's arcade games). One could plug and play with and old arcade cabinet, given the wiring is right and everything still works. (JAMMA harnesses are available online, even eBay
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@Stardust4ever: About the x-arcade:

 

You mentioned space. I wasn't suggesting the cabinet. I was suggesting just the stick. For budget, 1 player and space, there great version.

 

This is in-between, for two players: http://shop.xgaming.com/products/x-arcade-dual-joystick-usb-included

 

I have the TankStick (bought it cheap on Craigslist). It's well built, and the Trakball is excellent: http://shop.xgaming.com/products/refurbished-x-arcade-tankstick-trackball-usb-included

 

This can just be hooked up to a laptop on the kitchen table, or keep it next to a computer desk. Just a thought.

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This is pretty impressive. I want one for my desk at work.. :)

I am really impressed with the performance. Arcade SD is a really slick solution.

See below my DK blurb for my thoughts on pros for different solutions.

 

I went to bed last night mulling over it and dreamt of playing Donkey Kong on the Porta-Pi on the kitchen table with the iconic sound effects. The little plywood box even had a vinyl Donkey Kong marquee on the side. It was almost surreal. Power was out and I was running the box completely self-contained with a 6V sealed lead acid lantern battery and a beefy 5V regulator. Outside my house the world may have been a post-apocalyptic wasteland but I didn't care because I had Donkey Kong. Must be the melatonin and Dyphenhydramine I take to help me sleep creating the most lucid and life-like dreams, LOL!

 

After I woke up, I knew I had to build one of these. Since the Raspberry Pi 2 is a thing now, the beefy quad core 700Mhz ARM and 1 Gb memory should at least be on par with any early 2000s PC emulationwise. I plan on focusing my efforts on the early 80s arcade scene. Since you seem very knowledgable about MAME, I wonder it it's possible to load the side art Marquees in Pi-MAME. I would assume the files you download from various ROM repositories online do not contain any supplemental artwork. The little widescreen monitor is 1280x800 so that extra real estate would be perfect for displaying Marquee graphics alongside vertical arcade games.

Edited by stardust4ever
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Since you seem very knowledgable about MAME, I wonder it it's possible to load the side art Marquees in Pi-MAME. I would assume the files you download from various ROM repositories online do not contain any supplemental artwork. The little widescreen monitor is 1280x800 so that extra real estate would be perfect for displaying Marquee graphics alongside vertical arcade games.

That sounds pretty cool. I didn't realize 2 is out. I am unsure about Pi-MAME limitations. The last portable version I used was for my Gp2x and PSP, aside from my Android. I do know that the Android version allows this, as I have set up artwork and scanlines on my phone! :)

 

I am at work, so I don't want to dig too much; but I think this might have what you're looking for: Mr Do's Art

 

I have also seen torrents and such with ROMs and Artwork, for specific versions of MAME. The ROMs change from version to version, so the ROM version you download may not work on your version of MAME.

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I chose a PC for my multicade for a few reasons.
  1. Space wasn't an issue. (I found the smallest PC I could)
  2. Emulation is a little more accurate, and easy to upgrade.
  3. PC allows me to also play MESS (Multi home console emulation), STELLA (2600), ColecoVision, Adam, C-64, A8, etc.
  4. I wasn't too concerned with "instant on", because I wanted the flexibility.
  5. PC will make a VERTICAL game look alright on a HORIZONTAL monitor by adding art. Many of the 60-in-1 type solutions are grouped as Vertical or Horizontal; so, one would want to purchase the one that matches how the monitor is mounted.

^^all true

 

I'd add to the list that the PC is far and away the best "bang for your buck" in a MAME project. Even if you don't have an old disused PC available in the house or from a relative, you can probably pick one up for $20 from the local classifieds that will put most other options to shame.

 

I've built 3 projects that I have used heavily for a few years and I've run MAME on everything that I can, from consoles to phones to tablets. Based on what I've seen first hand, the absolute only reasons to use something other than a PC for a "serious" MAME project would be a) you already have something available that you want to use (XBOX, old Mac, etc.) and you're so desperately broke that $20 for a PC is too much to spend; b) you're dead-set on a very small form factor project that cannot fit a PC or de-cased PC guts.

 

If (a) is a problem, I'd question whether any sort of project is advisable (none of my business, just saying). If (b) is the reason, then fine, whatever yanks one's crank, but again, I'd urge you consider whether the small project is a true "need" or if you're simply being lured in by the novelty/gimmick factor of having a cute little arcade machine that runs on a credit-card-sized computer. It's neat-o, sure, but I promise you that, long term, you'll have more fun playing on a bigger and sturdier rig that doesn't slip and slide around and has a nice big display.

 

I've got an X-Arcade tank stick, but I'm not sure it's the best option if Pac-Man and other golden age titles are your focus because not only is it major overkill with all of those buttons and two sticks, but the stock joysticks would need to be replaced with something more Pac-Man-like (I found 4-way games absolutely unplayable with the stock sticks, but YMMV). At that point, you might as well build a little control panel with a single 4-way stick and 1-2 buttons and plug it into any PC you have available. You could build a top-quality controller for under $150.

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I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but this looks like a pretty simple and matter-of-fact swap for you:

 

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/pacman-ms-pacman-upright-cabinet-60-in-1-upgrade-complete-kit.html

 

 

It's $117, and comes with EVERYTHING you need to literally swap out your MS. PacMan upright to MAME, and gives you a 60-in-1 Arcade combo. The reviews are FAR better for this device than any of the other multi-in-1 devices I've seen. My wife actually played this in the Choo Choo Arcade show-room a couple of months ago when we bought my Galaga cabinet.

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Some people believe that emulation on the Raspberry Pi is cool because of the 35 dollar price and that it is so small, the size of an old-school mouse. And that you can take it anywhere.

But that $35 doesn't include the monitor, case, power supply, sd card, wiring harnesses, interface boxes, controllers, cabinet materials, cables, speakers + amplifier, keyboard, misc mounting hardware. All this support stuff certainly negates any small size and cheap price "advantage"

Might as well go with a small form factor PC that has more power and is more versatile, and supports loads more peripherals and even many other emulators. PC is still the premier platform for emulation. All other solutions may give you faster startup times or easier setups, but then turn around and limit your customization options and run things slower.

One must also remember that upgrading the software and adding games on a mame install is huge plus. You can tailor your choice of games exactly.

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Some people believe that emulation on the Raspberry Pi is cool because of the 35 dollar price and that it is so small, the size of an old-school mouse. And that you can take it anywhere.

 

But that $35 doesn't include the monitor, case, power supply, sd card, wiring harnesses, interface boxes, controllers, cabinet materials, cables, speakers + amplifier, keyboard, misc mounting hardware. All this support stuff certainly negates any small size and cheap price "advantage"

 

Might as well go with a small form factor PC that has more power and is more versatile, and supports loads more peripherals and even many other emulators. PC is still the premier platform for emulation. All other solutions may give you faster startup times or easier setups, but then turn around and limit your customization options and run things slower.

 

One must also remember that upgrading the software and adding games on a mame install is huge plus. You can tailor your choice of games exactly.

You make a valid point. I'm currently about one click away from submitting an order for the Porta-Pi kit. At first glance, the price tag at $330 seems a bit steep, but factoring in the cost of every part that goes into this, it really isn't. Many hobby projects are not cheap.

http://www.retrobuiltgames.com/diy-kits-shop/porta-pi-arcade-wood-kit-hd/

 

Given the bill of materials, the wood plus nuts and bolts is $78. This seems fair given the custom laser cuts and all. The screen is probably $100-$120, stereo speakers $10-$20, $20-$30 for the amp, joystick $10-$15, 10 arcade buttons $20-$30, AC adapter $10, wire harnesses and connectors, $20-$25. Summing up my high estimates of all the materials amounts to $328. Factor in paying shipping and handling charges from a dozen different sources would add up to a lot. Convenience of having all the materials in one package and not going on a scavenger hunt is priceless. I've easily spent $100+ on materials for some of my homebrew console joysticks and that is not counting power tools.

 

The small form factor would be convenient for me and once I get MAME and whatever system emulators loaded on it and up to date, I don't have too fool with it much except to add game ROMs. I'm thinking about placing a bulk order of Cherry micro switches from Groovy Game Gear since I used those on my SNES and 7800 joysticks and I prefer them since they make less noise and have a lighter actuation pressure compared to the stock Happ. Throw in an extra balltop upgrade or two for good measure. I'll probably update my other homebrew joysticks with the Cherry switches as well.

 

As for the 8-way versus 4-way bit, you can play 4-way games on an 8-way joystick even if it's a bit clunky, and I believe you can configure MAME to ignore diagonals or sticky the oldest actuated direction to prevent undesired behavior in the arcade ROM. I've gotten used to playing PMP Pacman games using the Happ Competition 8-way in my 7800 joystick. Yes, a panel with two joysticks for player 1 (one for 4- and 8-way) would be ideal, and so would spinners and trackballs and the whole kit-and-kaboodle of extras. Might as well add a duplicate set of controls for the second player and a bigger monitor with swivel and at that point I'd have a mammoth-sized X-Arcade rig with nowhere to put it. :P

Edited by stardust4ever
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Description Unit price Qty Amount

Porta Pi Arcade: HD 10.1"

Item# W-F-K10HD , Kit Type: Full Kit , Pick Colors for 10 Buttons: 4x black, 2x white, 1x red yellow green blue $330.00 USD 1 $330.00 USD

Acrylic Control Panel: 9in Porta Pi

Item# ACP Clear , Pick Color: Clear $4.00 USD 1 $4.00 USD

Extra Long Stacking Header

Item# 2x20 header , Select Type: 2x20 header (B+) $4.00 USD 1 $4.00 USD

Subtotal $338.00 USD

Shipping and handling $32.00 USD

Total $370.00 USD

Payment $370.00 USD

Description Unit price Qty Amount

Raspberry Pi 2 - Model B - ARMv7 with 1G RAM

$39.95 USD 1 $39.95 USD

Subtotal $39.95 USD

Shipping and handling $9.10 USD

Total $49.05 USD

Payment $49.05 USD

:D Edited by stardust4ever
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. Factor in paying shipping and handling charges from a dozen different sources would add up to a lot. Convenience of having all the materials in one package and not going on a scavenger hunt is priceless.
...

...
The small form factor would be convenient for me and once I get MAME and whatever system emulators loaded on it and up to date, I don't have too fool with it much except to add game ROMs.

 

There are all kinds of web vendors that could serve as one-stop shopping for all of the parts you need to build a MAME project. No scavenger hunt necessary.

 

As for getting around the hassle of setting up the emulators, I've never understood why it's even a hassle. Sure, my mom would struggle with it. But if you have the faintest clue how to use a computer and are willing to spend a few minutes of your time, it is not difficult to setup emulators on a PC. Even though there are a million different emulators out there, the steps are always pretty much the same: Download software. Acquire ROMS. Load emulator. Point emulator to ROMS. Map controls. Play. Anybody inclined to build a project like this probably has a bit of "tinkerer" in them, which should make it even more of a trivial task.

 

Clearly you're set on the porta thing and that's perfectly fine. There is no need to attribute imaginary problems to the alternatives.

 

You're definitely right that the tools needed to build custom stuff can double or triple the price of a project if you don't already have access to them.

 

I'd be interested to see how that Pi thing works. Maybe you can do a YouTube review when you get it running? :D

 

 

 

I believe you can configure MAME to ignore diagonals or sticky the oldest actuated direction to prevent undesired behavior in the arcade ROM.

 

I've heard that this is a feature in later MAME releases, but I just don't know how it could possibly work. All trickery aside, how does the software discern the player's actual intent? In a twitchy game the joystick moves all over the place. Just because you hit, say, "up" first before "left", doesn't necessarily mean that "up" was the intended move.

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I'll definitely show off some photos of the build. Which version of MAME ROMs do I need to use with RetroPie? Not sure if the others will work well because the Porta-Pi build is pre-configured to navigate using the joystick without a keyboard/mouse combo.

 

I wanna do a classic multicade type setup with DK (Jap and US stage orders), DK Jr, Mario Bros, Popeye, all the Pacmans, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Galaga, GaPlus, Joust, Burgertime, Mr Do, Mr Do's Castle, a few "newer" ones like Ninja Gaidan and Toki (I played these on my Lynx as a Teenager - I actually enjoyed the Lynx port of Arcade Ninja Gaidan much better than the NES versions everybody else got), and a bunch of others. I'm not much into the 90s NeoGeo style fighters though. Prolly get some classic SHMUPs too.

 

How do Centipede and Millipede work out? I know these used a trackball but the 7800 port of Centipede with a joystick is awesome too. Does MAME do a good job emulating a trackball with joysticks?

 

 

 

I've heard that this is a feature in later MAME releases, but I just don't know how it could possibly work. All trickery aside, how does the software discern the player's actual intent? In a twitchy game the joystick moves all over the place. Just because you hit, say, "up" first before "left", doesn't necessarily mean that "up" was the intended move.

This is an issue sadly. I've died plenty of times playing Jr Pacman on Atari 7800 because my character went the wrong way. After I died, I was still holding the joystick in shock and had a diagonal actuated. :P If anyone can recommend a good switchable joystick with rotating baffle, preferably one that's compatible with the Sanwa/Happ mount holes, I'd appreciate it. Clearance is extremely tight so no giant parts in there but the control panel lifts out in seconds so switching it from beneath would be a breeze. I never liked the Magstik much even though I used it on my original NES and Atari joysticks due to being switchable from up top. Problm with switchable joysticks is the baffles are too squarish when operated in 8-way mode. I would love a good octagon baffle for 8-way as it would cut down on mistakes. I loved the octagon feel of the Game Cube thumbsticks too.

 

I'm curious if this will fit the porta-Pi cabinet:

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=383

 

EDIT: $500 sunk into this project so far. Hobbies are expensive :P

 


------------------------------------------------------
20 x Groovy Standard Soft-Touch™ / SST™ Microswitch (GROOVYSST1) = $17.80
1 x RED Female Quick Disconnects .187 - 50 Pack - Fully Insulated (QDF-RED187) = $3.95
1 x Black Player 2 Pushbutton (P2BLKPB01) = $1.50
1 x Black Player 1 Pushbutton (P1BLKPB01) = $1.50
1 x OMNI2™ 4/8-way Switchable Arcade Joystick (OMNI248WYJOY01) = $37.34
Joystick Switch Options SmoothJoy™ Switches (Installed)
Dustwasher High-Gloss Black Acrylic
Ball Color Ruby Gemstone
------------------------------------------------------
Sub-Total: $62.09
United States Postal Service (Standard Post®): $11.76
Total: $73.85
Edited by stardust4ever
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My Porta-Pi kit arrived today! :D Here's a quick unboxing and mock build (no glue) with my assistant DK:

 

post-33189-0-78701400-1431388359_thumb.jpg

 

I've got some more parts on the way. I'm planning on staining the wood kit a dark ebony black but first I'll need to mark the backside of each part and sand/prep the outside panels. Some of the symmetrical pieces look nicer on one side than the other.

 

EDIT: The internal panel that supports the speakers kinda looks like E.T. in a way! :P

Edited by stardust4ever
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  • 3 weeks later...

Overdue update. The weather did not cooperate for me as it has been raining nonstop here in Louisiana since forever. I had to wait for sunshine to go outside and stain/finish the wood before I could assemble it. I used Minwax Ebony for a nice black finish that still shows off the beautiful wood grain. I did a little photo op of Donkey Kong playing Donkey Kong, inspired by a scene from Dk 64. :grin:

 

raspberry_pi___dk_playing_dk_by_stardust

 

http://stardust4ever.deviantart.com/art/Raspberry-Pi-DK-playing-DK-535882030

 

Enhancements from Groovy Game Gear: A fake illuminated "Insert Coin" button, and a 4- / 8-way switchable joystick with a Hard Candy ball top (lift up control panel to rotate the actuator). I also installed "Micro Leaf" subminiature switches (whisper quiet feather light actuation force) because the stock Happ E-Switches are loud and obnoxious.

 

The console emulators work near flawless, but MAME is unfortunately hit or miss. To get MAME working you need a keyboard to hit tab in order to access the configuration menu. From there reassign the configuration hotkey to F1 and you can put the keyboard away. P1 Start and Insert Credit both need to be reassigned or you're stuck watching demos. Took me a few minutes to figure it out. I haven't yet found a working ROM for Pacman / Ms, and Donkey Kong /Jr both have missing sound effects. I downloaded the required WAV samples in a zip archive but can't figure out how to use them. The arcade sound effects that do play lag by about a second or so and I can't find a setting to fix the severe audio latency. I will report that spinner and trackball games like Centipede or Tempest work well enough with the joystick although it makes for very twitchy gameplay. The Pi MAME requires older 0.37b ROM sets but the usual online repositories only supply the newest versions for PC MAME. I know I shouldn't have, but last night I ordered a MAME DVD off the internet with 2200 arcade ROMs on it, which specifically contains the older ROM sets necessary for Android or mobile builds. :ahoy:

 

I figured out how to exit the emulator and boot into Raspbian Linux front end, but I can't mount the silly USB drive. Retro Pie / Emulation Station automatically syncs the ROMs off the thumb stick when inserted, but if you upload a bad ROM file on the thumb drive and later replace it with a good one, you'll need to hook up a mouse and keyboard to boot into the OS to browse for and delete the offending ROM before it will resync the new one. Overall the Porta Pi is a very nice piece of kit and what it lacks in compatibility it makes up in boot time and simple interface (once properly configured).

Edited by stardust4ever
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Overdue update. The weather did not cooperate for me as it has been raining nonstop here in Louisiana since forever. I had to wait for sunshine to go outside and stain/finish the wood before I could assemble it. I used Minwax Ebony for a nice black finish that still shows off the beautiful wood grain. I did a little photo op of Donkey Kong playing Donkey Kong, inspired by a scene from Dk 64. :grin:

 

raspberry_pi___dk_playing_dk_by_stardust

 

http://stardust4ever.deviantart.com/art/Raspberry-Pi-DK-playing-DK-535882030

 

Enhancements from Groovy Game Gear: A fake illuminated "Insert Coin" button, and a 4- / 8-way switchable joystick with a Hard Candy ball top (lift up control panel to rotate the actuator). I also installed "Micro Leaf" subminiature switches (whisper quiet feather light actuation force) because the stock Happ E-Switches are loud and obnoxious.

 

The console emulators work near flawless, but MAME is unfortunately hit or miss. To get MAME working you need a keyboard to hit tab in order to access the configuration menu. From there reassign the configuration hotkey to F1 and you can put the keyboard away. P1 Start and Insert Credit both need to be reassigned or you're stuck watching demos. Took me a few minutes to figure it out. I haven't yet found a working ROM for Pacman / Ms, and Donkey Kong /Jr both have missing sound effects. I downloaded the required WAV samples in a zip archive but can't figure out how to use them. The arcade sound effects that do play lag by about a second or so and I can't find a setting to fix the severe audio latency. I will report that spinner and trackball games like Centipede or Tempest work well enough with the joystick although it makes for very twitchy gameplay. The Pi MAME requires older 0.37b ROM sets but the usual online repositories only supply the newest versions for PC MAME. I know I shouldn't have, but last night I ordered a MAME DVD off the internet with 2200 arcade ROMs on it, which specifically contains the older ROM sets necessary for Android or mobile builds. :ahoy:

 

I figured out how to exit the emulator and boot into Raspbian Linux front end, but I can't mount the silly USB drive. Retro Pie / Emulation Station automatically syncs the ROMs off the thumb stick when inserted, but if you upload a bad ROM file on the thumb drive and later replace it with a good one, you'll need to hook up a mouse and keyboard to boot into the OS to browse for and delete the offending ROM before it will resync the new one. Overall the Porta Pi is a very nice piece of kit and what it lacks in compatibility it makes up in boot time and simple interface (once properly configured).

Wow!! That looks awesome!!

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Really missing the sound effects in Donkey Kong and DK Jr. The walking SFX are totally absent. I have a zip file with the missing WAV files. Could someone explain how to get MAME to recognize them? Just inserting the WAV files into the MAME ZIP folder does not work.

 

I had a shitty day. I went to refill my Straterra (ADHD meds) at CVS and the drugstore said my insurance wouldn't cover them. I don't have $800 to pay for my meds, especially since it won't even go towards my deductable. Long story. Regardless, I bought a bottle of Kraken Rum at Brookshires liquor store to drown my sorrows with Donkey Kong.

 

I put 5 credits in the machine (I could argue they were quarters but I'm really just pushing a button) and hit START. Take a shot from my NA shotglass.

http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=78

 

Every time I hit START, I take another shot. By the time I spent my 5th credit, I've earned my high score of 11,000. I enter my initials (I'm out of practice, can't you tell?). At least MAME saves my top scores.

 

I quit and put the bottle away. 5 shots from a 2oz shotglass is enough. I blacked out twice in my life, never again. I listen to the A side of my totally bootleg "NES Greatest Hits" vinyl from Moonshake Records. I blow a .39 on my breath tester. Good thing I stopped when I did, LOL.

 

But yeah. If anyone has suggestions for how to add in the missing sound effects in MAME, I'll be eternally grateful.

 

TL;DR: I played a drinking game with Donkey Kong and got hammered. Apparently I'm not that wasted because my spelling and grammer are good.

Edited by stardust4ever
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Well I booted the Raspberry Pi into the OS the other night and found the ROMs directory, with subfolders for each of the available emulated systems. From there I can do housecleaning to remove unwanted or broken ROMs.

 

The ROMs are synced from the USB drive whenever the system boots up.

 

Do I just create a subfolder "samples" in the default MAME folder and put the samples there?

 

.Example: X:\roms\mame\samples\ where "X" is the drive letter in Windows. It would be nice if I can add the files on the Windows side of things and sync from USB rather than move files around in Raspbian Linux. RetroPie syncs files automatically from the USB but I can't for the life of me figure out how to mount the flash drive (FAT32 file system) directly. In Windows, I just plug it in and it automatically assigns a drive letter. I'm a total newb at Linux when it comes to inputting anything via the command line, although I can follow explicit instructions with a bit of hand-holding. I trashed my install the first night I played with it while trying to edit the boot config and had to reload the OS image on the micro SD... :P

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Okay. So I loaded the Raspbian GUI frontend and created a "samples" folder in /roms/mame/samples/

 

The files did not sync off the SD card so I renamed them from "dkong.zip" to "dkong_samples.zip", etc, and manually dragged the ZIP files from roms/mame/ into roms/mame/samples/ and removed the "_samples" from the file name. I booted MAME and it still did not load the missing sound effects. I know the ZIPs contained WAV files.

 

So /roms/mame/dkong.zip is the file with the game data and /roms/mame/samples/dkong.zip contains the WAV files. I play the game and the missing sound effects are still not there. Is there something else I'm supposed to do here?

 

FTR I'm using the "old" 0.37b5 ROM sets which are a b*tch to find. I can't wait for that MAME DVD to arrive. :ahoy:

 

I still have no clue how to mount a FAT32 USB drive either, so I have to rely on Emulation Station to sync the files. Sometimes it does a half-ass job of it as there's no setting to tell it when to scan for files.

 

On the more lighthearted side, I still haven't beaten my "drunken" Donkey Kong high score of 28800. My highest sober playthrough is in the 17000 ballpark. Not quite the King of Kong yet... :P

Edited by stardust4ever
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Overdue update. The weather did not cooperate for me as it has been raining nonstop here in Louisiana since forever. I had to wait for sunshine to go outside and stain/finish the wood before I could assemble it. I used Minwax Ebony for a nice black finish that still shows off the beautiful wood grain. I did a little photo op of Donkey Kong playing Donkey Kong, inspired by a scene from Dk 64. :grin:

 

raspberry_pi___dk_playing_dk_by_stardust

 

http://stardust4ever.deviantart.com/art/Raspberry-Pi-DK-playing-DK-535882030

 

Enhancements from Groovy Game Gear: A fake illuminated "Insert Coin" button, and a 4- / 8-way switchable joystick with a Hard Candy ball top (lift up control panel to rotate the actuator). I also installed "Micro Leaf" subminiature switches (whisper quiet feather light actuation force) because the stock Happ E-Switches are loud and obnoxious.

 

The console emulators work near flawless, but MAME is unfortunately hit or miss. To get MAME working you need a keyboard to hit tab in order to access the configuration menu. From there reassign the configuration hotkey to F1 and you can put the keyboard away. P1 Start and Insert Credit both need to be reassigned or you're stuck watching demos. Took me a few minutes to figure it out. I haven't yet found a working ROM for Pacman / Ms, and Donkey Kong /Jr both have missing sound effects. I downloaded the required WAV samples in a zip archive but can't figure out how to use them. The arcade sound effects that do play lag by about a second or so and I can't find a setting to fix the severe audio latency. I will report that spinner and trackball games like Centipede or Tempest work well enough with the joystick although it makes for very twitchy gameplay. The Pi MAME requires older 0.37b ROM sets but the usual online repositories only supply the newest versions for PC MAME. I know I shouldn't have, but last night I ordered a MAME DVD off the internet with 2200 arcade ROMs on it, which specifically contains the older ROM sets necessary for Android or mobile builds. :ahoy:

 

I figured out how to exit the emulator and boot into Raspbian Linux front end, but I can't mount the silly USB drive. Retro Pie / Emulation Station automatically syncs the ROMs off the thumb stick when inserted, but if you upload a bad ROM file on the thumb drive and later replace it with a good one, you'll need to hook up a mouse and keyboard to boot into the OS to browse for and delete the offending ROM before it will resync the new one. Overall the Porta Pi is a very nice piece of kit and what it lacks in compatibility it makes up in boot time and simple interface (once properly configured).

Just saw this for the first time! Looks sweet. Thanks for the update. As for the Samples, I am not sure. Maybe you have the wrong set of samples. If it's still not working, PM me. I THINK that is the same version I have on my Gp2x (I have two versions). I bet one of those versions are the samples you need. I am at work right now though, so I do not have access.

Edited by darryl1970
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey little update. I've been enjoying my arcade very much. I solved the samples issue with MAME not playing sound effects. The MAME config file

/opt/retropie/emulators/mame4all-pi/mame.cfg

has an incorrectly formatted line of code to specify the directory path for samples

rompath=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame
samplepath=samples

needs to be changed to

rompath=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame
samplepath=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mame-samples

http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/topic/mame-samples-2/

 

Eureka! Missing sound effects fixed in Donkey Kong! :grin:

 

I also got the MAME4ALL DVD in the mail and mass copied all the zips from Samples and ROMs. Raspbi Pi took an hour and a half to sync the data but I now have access to 2271 arcade games and nearly everything works flawlessly... :ahoy:

 

Still need to fix the audio lag issue though... :roll:

Edited by stardust4ever
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