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Thinking Heavily About a Raspberry Pi.


madhatter667

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Plus they're so small they can fit anywhere. There's one inside this controller, admittedly I bought it as I don't have much free time any more to build one, but there's nothing stopping you doing so.

 

18012169_1883033488624309_89701140332061

 

It's sitting on top of the Arcade Table I built, back when I had free time. Since buying it i've found it very interesting learning how it all works etc.

Edited by Mulletino
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How many of you take the approach of setting up MAME for just your favorite back-in-the-day arcade games? Each one hand configured with its own cfg file. Each one hand "sorted" and manually put into the folder - not a mass download of a complete set.

 

How many of you run multiple versions of MAME?

I hand pick roms, only the ones I care about. I created my own front-end that is smart enough to run different versions of Mame for different games. Fortunately the latest versions of Mame work with most things and I don't need to run multiple versions anymore.

 

I also like to use filters that mimic the look of the CRTs we used to play them on, with scanlines and the like. Those aren't as easy to set up as they used to be.

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How many of you take the approach of setting up MAME for just your favorite back-in-the-day arcade games? Each one hand configured with its own cfg file. Each one hand "sorted" and manually put into the folder - not a mass download of a complete set.

 

How many of you run multiple versions of MAME?

 

I haven't really needed to hand configure, but my list is about 15-20 games. Only games that I really enjoyed in arcades, airports, and pizza joints. Most a bit newer as I existed on the very tail of arcade relevance.

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I don't see the point of having different versions of mame for different games. The new mames play the same games or more. I could see something breaking occasionally with a new version. So like any software don't delete the old version until bugs are fixed.

 

Hand picking the games you like makes sense. But its also nice hearing about an obscure game and being able to run it without any extra work.

Edited by mr_me
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The situation multiple versions addresses is this:

 

For the people that have individually configured a handful of games carefully and over time are likely very happy with what they achieved. It's all working fine and no one wants to mess around with it.

 

Now a new version of mame comes out that supports 1 or 2 specific new gotta-have games you've been waiting for for years. And the version number of the new release is far enough away from the older finely tuned version that you'd have to get all new roms and go through the whole setup and tweaking process again.

 

So instead you get the new version and the 1 or 2 new games you want. You're good to go! You keep your existing working setup. And you just added 2 uber-cool games you thought you'd never see again.

 

Eventually some years later when you've done this a couple of times you may want to set aside a month and do a roll-up into the latest version. Throw away your old ratbag PC and get something new that'll handle all the bloat too.

 

So that is why you want to keep older finely-tuned setups.

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The situation multiple versions addresses is this:

 

For the people that have individually configured a handful of games carefully and over time are likely very happy with what they achieved. It's all working fine and no one wants to mess around with it.

 

Now a new version of mame comes out that supports 1 or 2 specific new gotta-have games you've been waiting for for years. And the version number of the new release is far enough away from the older finely tuned version that you'd have to get all new roms and go through the whole setup and tweaking process again.

 

So instead you get the new version and the 1 or 2 new games you want. You're good to go! You keep your existing working setup. And you just added 2 uber-cool games you thought you'd never see again.

 

Eventually some years later when you've done this a couple of times you may want to set aside a month and do a roll-up into the latest version. Throw away your old ratbag PC and get something new that'll handle all the bloat too.

 

So that is why you want to keep older finely-tuned setups.

I copy the controller and game config files to new mames. I keep roms in folders seperate from mame and point each mame to those folders. Seems to work fine.
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I copy the controller and game config files to new mames. I keep roms in folders seperate from mame and point each mame to those folders. Seems to work fine.

 

yea I am thinking there's not a lot of configuration, even in the olden days, and I tend to have a controller shopping habit for PC (cause almost all them suck one way or another)

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Are you guys talking PC now? For mame ports on the RPi3, Mame4all is probably the usual one people choose and it's based upon 0.37b5. There are some like advancemame which are newer versions, but they apparently don't work as well. Until we get future iterations of the RPI with a little more processing power, it'll probably stick at those versions for a while.

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well pi is more or less pc so when I say I tend to go though a lot of pc controllers, its not to say I am now talking ONLY x86 intel compatible large tower blah blah blah pc, nor am I talking about wiring up a SNES port to the pi

 

I had a lot of problems back in the day with mame4all on the pi2, and advancemame is running spy hunter just fine, will it run tekken 5 I dunno

 

(I guess I have to clarify cause its like the 3rd time this week I said PC and it was automatically assumed to be like a windows core 2 or something other than a personal computer, I forget that PI is a special unicorn running totally written from the ground up software just for it, cause its not, its a general use PC running PC software, that appears on more PC platforms than intel / IBM / microsoft compatible ... unlike a console)

Edited by Osgeld
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I had x86 in mind. I currently feel it's the premier platform for all emulation. Right or wrong, it is what it is. And I'm sticking to it!

 

I agree personally, the Icade to mamecade conversion I am working on now is not powered by pi, its powered by x86, my stupid non mmx pentium 1 could run starfox, a pi2 chokes on it

 

BUT a dual core celeron notebook board does take quite a bit more space than a pi, I used a pi3 in my coleco chameleon and even with that its a bit of a tight fit with the board, cables and power supply all shoved into a jag case

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I had x86 in mind. I currently feel it's the premier platform for all emulation. Right or wrong, it is what it is. And I'm sticking to it!

 

I agree 100%, at least for the time being. The emergence of the Raspberry Pi as a retro emulation platform is exciting in principle, and I'm certain I will get one someday, but for me the hardware isn't quite there yet on horsepower. IMO, going the Pi route only makes sense if you have a specific need for the small size and/or low power consumption (e.g., portability). If the idea is to have a versatile retro gaming rig in your game room that pretty much stays put, then you don't need the thing to be a tiny box the size of a deck of cards that runs on a phone charger, and for about the same amount of money (maybe even less) you can get an old PC that will run a lot more games a lot more smoothly. It's kind of akin to using a spare tablet as a TV for watching football in the man cave (I loathe that term, btw) -- a solution geared toward portability being used in a situation that calls for size and power.

 

 

 

 

The situation multiple versions addresses is this:

 

That scenario is my MAME cabinet to a tee. I have v122 up and running swimmingly, and it plays 99% of the games I ask it to, at full speed with high score save capability. Somewhere around v143 or so, a bunch of later Cave shooters became playable, and since I really enjoy those games, I set up a short list in my front end that launches only those games using a later MAME version. Perhaps not the cleanest approach, but the ball ache was minimal; it was up and running in about 10 minutes and it works.

 

As for "hand picking" roms for a MAME setup, I guess I can understand the desire to keep things "all killer, no filler" but the fallacy there is, I don't know how anybody can be so sure they know what all of the fun games are. Personally, I'd never give up my full rom collections. I've been using my MAME cabinet heavily for over 6 years, and to this day I still discover new games that I enjoy. And, as somebody mentioned, it's nice to be able to just walk up to your rig and look up a game that you heard somebody talking about, without having to go hunt down the ROM for it--especially with MAME and its version-number-matching headaches. If brevity is what you want, simply make game lists containing your hand picked titles. Best of both worlds.

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If the idea is to have a versatile retro gaming rig in your game room that pretty much stays put, then you don't need the thing to be a tiny box the size of a deck of cards that runs on a phone charger, and for about the same amount of money (maybe even less) you can get an old PC that will run a lot more games a lot more smoothly.

 

aye I am running a dual core 1.6 ghz atom system for my mini icade arcade mame machine, sure it wont fit in a ciggerette box, sure it draws more than 5 watts, but it cost me 10 bucks and will whip the shit out of a pi2 .... maybe 3 even with its bare bones intel graphics

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  • 2 weeks later...

What is there to think about? It's cheap. :P

 

OK so the external stuff like Power supply, SD card, case of choice, controller, or whatever the heck else you want will add to it, not to mention the banging your head against the wall when hit some random wall when configuring it add to the cost :lol: It's still well worth it for any gamer. It wont replace the real deal but is still great

 

Cheap? Ha. That's what I thought, :) :-D

 

Let's add this up:

~$40 for the Pi and the case

~$35 for the 128 GB micro SD card

$189 for the 50" flat panel TV (Wal Mart, I don't know why it was so cheap, but it works and I didn't ask.)

$80 for the rollling TV stand for the TV

$199 for the X-Arcade Tank Stick

$100 for controllers and adapters I tried before I broke down and bought the tank stick

$50 for the keyboard stand I put the tank stick on

$20 for the giant clamp I bought to keep the tank stick from moving on the keyboard stand.

$20 for a PS2 keyboard to program the tankstick

$30 for a wireless tiny keyboard and mouse

 

But, look at it!!! IT WAS SO WORTH IT!!!!

post-50483-0-35140000-1495903438_thumb.png

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OMG that's bananas! Congrats on making that.

 

Mine is just hooked up to a TV or computer monitor, with USB controllers attached. Yours is a new Cadillac (or maybe a helicopter) while in just riding the city bus.

 

CAN'T. STOP. STARING. AT. YOUR. AVATAR. :o

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OMG that's bananas! Congrats on making that.

 

Mine is just hooked up to a TV or computer monitor, with USB controllers attached. Yours is a new Cadillac (or maybe a helicopter) while i am just riding the city bus.

That is not mine but it is pretty amazing. I'm looking at doing a bigger controller with integrated CPU and I liked that as a possible example.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm thinking about it as well. Several folks at work have them and rave about them. I've always been a bit persnickitty about the emulation experience not looking or feeling quite right but you can't argue with the space savings of a little Raspberry Pi box connected to a mounted HDTV vs. a bunch of old consoles plugged into a CRT tv.

 

Trying to figure out if Retro Pi actually supports CoCo 3 emulation or just the 1/2 models.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Just recently decided to bite the bullet and for fun, got a Pi Zero W with an 8G card and case for like $20.

(I didn't have a spare uSD card, so went for the kit.. I know I could have saved a bit, but I like adafruit..)

 

I already have an RF mini keyboard and OTG cables; power was easy...

 

I also picked up a miniHDMI to HDMI cable cheap..

 

Threw RetroPie on it, loaded a few ROMs (less than 20 TG16, less then 20 SNES, and less than 30 NES) and went for the Comic theme..

 

WOW....

That is impressive...

 

Yeah, StarFox is noticeably laggy on the Pi Zero.

But everything else seems fine....

(note: "seems"! I didn't/don't have an SNES and some people have said that some games can drop a few frames.. Not something I notice..)

 

I also found an 8bitdo NES30 (not the pro) for $17 that's on it's way, so that will round it out..

 

I can print a case for it, but I have a Tardis USB hub that died (static), so I am going to try to fit it in that case.. Should look nice sitting next to the TV.. ;-)

 

I'm not looking to emulate anything semi-modern and don't want thousands (or even hundreds) of games, so this should be just about right..

 

At the very least, it's already been $40 or so worth of fun.. ;-)

 

desiv

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