The Raspberry Pi and Retropie discussion thread

[mthompson]

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?

 

The controller reads as joystick y+ and y- in the AdvanceMame 1.4 input settings (other emulators like mame2010 don't even recognize it). It's a bit twitchy, but more natural for driving than using the joystick or L/R buttons. Interestingly, I'm not able to enter high score initials, as the letters cycle continuously as though the dial is being quickly turned.

 

No amount of adjusting for sensitivity will work for Night Driver or Speed Freak. The car just quickly veers off the road. Seems odd, since I'm using the same emulator, but I've seen that same behavior when trying to configure other racing games.

[+DrVenkman]

 

The controller reads as joystick y+ and y- in the AdvanceMame 1.4 input settings (other emulators like mame2010 don't even recognize it). It's a bit twitchy, but more natural for driving than using the joystick or L/R buttons. Interestingly, I'm not able to enter high score initials, as the letters cycle continuously as though the dial is being quickly turned.

 

No amount of adjusting for sensitivity will work for Night Driver or Speed Freak. The car just quickly veers off the road. Seems odd, since I'm using the same emulator, but I've seen that same behavior when trying to configure other racing games.

 

I don't know about Speed Freak, but Night Driver uses paddles, not the Driving Controller, which was used only for Indy 500.

[mr_me]

These are the arcade game versions. All three of them have steering wheels built on digital spinners. Typically a spinner controller is mapped to a mouse axis on a PC. Mame maps the mouse axis to an analog axis. In Mame, trackballs and spinner inputs are defined as analog axis. Therefore mice, trackballs, spinners, analog sticks and paddles should all work to steer Night Driver and Pole Position.

[mthompson]

These are the arcade game versions. All three of them have steering wheels built on digital spinners. Typically a spinner controller is mapped to a mouse axis on a PC. Mame maps the mouse axis to an analog axis. In Mame, trackballs and spinner inputs are defined as analog axis. Therefore mice, trackballs, spinners, analog sticks and paddles should all work to steer Night Driver and Pole Position.

 

Not only that, but I'm finding that a trackball seems to work as an effective substitute for a spinner in every game I try it with.* As long as the sensitivity is set correctly, it's a great input device for many games. I'm now thinking I could do without a spinner altogether.

 

* Except Speed Freak. Unless I just can't find the right settings, it's the one game that seems to need a good spinner.

[mr_me]

That's how I play pole position; actually I use a mouse but it's similar. I am using a PC and current mame, however, not a raspberry pi. With current mame, Speed Freak steers correctly with any controller. The Speed Freak emulator might have been incomplete in older mame.

 

I also got a pair of Atari 2600 paddles. While they do work for steering in these games, I can't recommend it. Paddles are a direct position controller so you have to constantly move it back to center. They work peerfectly for analog paddle games like super breakout.

[ClassicGMR]

These are some nice looking cases. I already have a 3B inside a Super Kuma 9000 but my 3B+ is sitting in a generic case. I may have to splurge on one.

 

[Flojomojo]

That looks really nice, well worth the forty bucks they're asking IMHO.

[RodLightning]

I have the original NESPi case from RetroFlag and love it. These new models have a couple of improvements that I wish were present in the original. They appear to have changed the USB configuration somewhat in the super fam and snes versions. In the original NESPi, only one internal USB plug goes into the Pi and powers both controller ports and two additional ports under the lid. It's basically a four port powered hub running off just one of the Pi's USB ports. Many including myself have made use of the three remaining internal ports to add additional flash storage and a mouse/keyboard radio dongle. Having multiple devices+fan drawing power will cause the lightning bolt to appear, especially during sdcard read/write operations.

 

I like that they now use a side door to access two of the on-board USB ports and LAN jack directly. The original case offers zero outside access to the Pi and LAN port is passed through to the front panel by a short cable.

 

I was planning to upgrade from a 2.5 amp power supply to a 3 amp, but now I'm wondering if replacing the power lines with a higher gauge wire will solve that problem.

One more thing to note is that the original NES style case has the fan mounted directly over the RAM and CPU system-on-chip. This is infinitely preferable to having the fan pulling or pushing air on the case bottom.

[+Spriggy]

For those looking into "scraping" your roms for Retropie/Emulation Station, I started to use Universal XML Scraper V2 the other day. Initial opinion ... awesome!. The program runs on your PC/Lappy and you can directly link to you raspberry pi via the network. Hence, your PC scrapes the game data online, then can send it directly to the pi over your network. So easy. The 3 pic image scrapes look gr8 as well (ie screenshot, boxart, title marquee). Some good tutorials on lubetube.

https://github.com/Universal-Rom-Tools/Universal-XML-Scraper/releases

[S1500]

What's everyone doing for a Player 2 start button? Yesterday I got the controls wired up(it was more hassle than it should have been), and that's one thing that's missing. I'm primarily using Final Burn Alpha(as it's an arcadeish box). Can I just dive into the menus in RetroArch and assign a button that way? Coin & 1 Player start work just fine. Hit 'em both at the same time and you exit out of the game.

[+Spriggy]

For those looking into "scraping" your roms for Retropie/Emulation Station, I started to use Universal XML Scraper V2 the other day. Initial opinion ... awesome!. The program runs on your PC/Lappy and you can directly link to you raspberry pi via the network. Hence, your PC scrapes the game data online, then can send it directly to the pi over your network. So easy. The 3 pic image scrapes look gr8 as well (ie screenshot, boxart, title marquee). Some good tutorials on lubetube.

https://github.com/Universal-Rom-Tools/Universal-XML-Scraper/releases

 

For anyone who has lost sleep, sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting for feedback on this scraper .. I've scraped my 2600, 7800, Genesis, Master System, Sega 32x and NES roms without any issues. Just the SNES to do. All done through my PC, wifi networked directly to the Pi. Game select menu systems look fricken gr8. Tried a few of the preloaded ES Themes. The standard Carbon theme looks fine with the 3 picture artwork. (Screenshot, Box Art, Title marquee). ComicBook layout was rather good. I ended up going with the mint Retrorama theme.

 

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/themes

 

The End.

[S1500]

Things I have learned this week:

 

1.mame4all will randomly speed up games if you hit left on the joystick, despite digging in the config to stop it.

2. switching to mame2000 fixed it, because that just makes so much sense

3. Trying to add features like game speedup, load & save state & 200 other things, and binding them to already bound controls(by holding down buttons) is not a good idea.

4. a RPiZero W just doesn't have the horsepower

5. A RPI 3 B does, and you can pick it up at Target at 9:30pm.

6. Win32DiskImage won't format a 64 gig card right when you image it

7. A separate utility that you can format it right, then disk imaging WILL work, and you're cookin' on a RPI3.

8. There seems to be absolutely no easy way to get a 2 player start button to be bound in Final Burn Alpha. Solution: Switch to MAME

9. archive.org saved the day with a torrent link to an older MAME romset which I needed for mame4all.

10. in the Android MAME, you can lock yourself out of the menu if you bind the wrong keys

11. There has to be a much better term than "Cancel UI" which means "Exit MAME". No, really. In theory I can now exit MAME out of the Wii-ported emulator.

 

 

If there's a degree in MAME emulation, I've earned it.

[+SpiceWare]

Haven't messed with my Retropie setup in a while. Going to a family gathering next week for my nephew's graduation from Basic Training, decided to get a couple of the SF30 Pro controllers and bring it along to see how my nephews take to it in order to decide if Retropie setups would make good Xmas gifts or not.

 

I've charged the controllers up, and updated them to the latest firmware. Will pair them with the RetroPie setup this evening. One thing I'm wondering about is the instructions show 4 different ways to initiate the pairing process:

• Switch - START + Y
• Android - START + B
• Windows - START + X
• macOS - START + A

Any input on which I should use? Thanks!

 

 

The upcoming tank driver!

[+Spriggy]

Haven't messed with my Retropie setup in a while. Going to a family gathering next week for my nephew's graduation from Basic Training, decided to get a couple of the SF30 Pro controllers and bring it along to see how my nephews take to it in order to decide if Retropie setups would make good Xmas gifts or not.

 

I've charged the controllers up, and updated them to the latest firmware. Will pair them with the RetroPie setup this evening. One thing I'm wondering about is the instructions show 4 different ways to initiate the pairing process:

• Switch - START + Y
• Android - START + B
• Windows - START + X
• macOS - START + A

Any input on which I should use? Thanks!

 

 

With the latest firmware, you should just have to hold START only, to turn on the controller. That should set it to default mode, which is SWITCH.

When mapping your controller buttons, the Left and Right TRIGGER buttons may not register initially. I found I just skipped them and mapped the rest. When I completed the mapping and got to the bottom, I went back up to the TRIGGER buttons and was able to map them without issues. A mate had the same problem, but rectified the same way.

[+SpiceWare]

That worked, thanks! No rumble support though, will look into that after I get back.

[+Spriggy]

That worked, thanks! No rumble support though, will look into that after I get back.

 

Sweet. I have the 8bitdo NS30 pro, which does not have a rumble pack, hence no idea on that feature. Gr8 quality gamepads.

[Mark Shepherd]

Is Sunflower compatible with rasberry? Or whatever happened to blueberry? I thought those were cool. Now they are out of shiek?

Edited October 22, 2018 by Mark Shepherd

[Gamemoose]

I'm building, or ATTEMPTING to build, something like a "mini tank" stick from scratch. I saw a video on an "easy DIY arcade cabinet" and I watched the assembly of the joystick. That's where the idea wormed into my thick skull. Not that I looked back at my past of not-so-hot construction projects from middle school on and thought "is this a good idea?"

 

First rule I learned- don't try to squeeze in a wood working project when time is a premium, ever. My first attempt I used wood from my wife's ex's wood pile in the basement. I don't have a access to a work shop (her ex left said wood PILED in a perfectly workable room) so I tried all this on the picnic table outside. Of course I don't have a good eye for dimensions so the wood I tried for the sides of the joystick box would not fit in my miter box. So I tried the circular saw-it hardly cut. I used a hand saw and I was reminded how much I suck at it. The box I made birds wouldn't have pooped on, much less use for a home. Tom Nook would condemn it.

 

Second attempt I bought the wood I wanted and that would fit in the miter box. With the help of one of my step daughters, we cut four pieces with 45 degree angles at the ends to form a box. Only had to cut another as one of the pieces was too long. My arms were killing me afterwards ftom the holding and sawing but the frame actually turned out.

 

For the top and bottom I decided to use hard handi-board. Now with the extra weight of my step daughter sitting on the board, I tried the circular saw again. Blade stopped spinning. I see why the ex left it behind. Thankfully I had a jig saw. The blade was probably too aggressive as the board tore up a bit on the cut edges, but I got my pieces. I'll need to clean it and trim the excess off.

 

Then yesterday I learned the second rule:

 

Second Rule: Gamemoose will suck at even the mundane task if gluing.

 

I wanted to glue the frame together and then put nails or screws in for a bit more strength. I've been trained from Kindergarten to glue. Turns out...not so much. I only glued two corners to start with. One corner glued right but not the other, even after holding it for a while and leaving it looking all nice and snug. This morning I saw the seperation on the two pieces. Ugh. I have to sand the edges now to get a flush fit. Maybe I'll drill some pilot holes and screw the thing together like my Dad did with everything.

 

I'm not looking forward to drilling the holes for the joystick and buttons....

 

Then one of my kids asks "Did you get the Raspberry Pi yet?". Thanks kid....

[mr_me]

You won't get anywhere with that attitude. Maybe some clamps would have helped with the glue.

Edited October 23, 2018 by mr_me

[Gamemoose]

You won't get anywhere with that attitude. Maybe some clamps would have helped with the glue.

I've hit enough road blocks in my life that the attitude formed. I try to shake it but I tend to get slapped back down. I know what Charlie Brown goes through.

 

If I had clamps, I would have tried them. I thought of books to edge up on each side but I didn't want any glue to accidentally get on them. Not that I put a ton on but it can happen. Plus I'm building this on a chest-style freezer with not a lot of room to move around it, so that ups frustration a bit as I don't have a lot of space to work with with my large family and what's been accumulated when I married into it.

 

I'll try my hand again at it tonight.

[Keatah]

Take time, have patience, and enjoy the hobby.

 

I'm still occasionally modding and tweaking my all-in-one emulation station I started in the pre-dotcom days! And it's fun!

[Gamemoose]

Take time, have patience, and enjoy the hobby.

 

I'm still occasionally modding and tweaking my all-in-one emulation station I started in the pre-dotcom days! And it's fun!

I've tried taking that approach with the mindset of "it's all learning. Any mistake is just a lesson to get better".

 

I got the frame together by just doing what I know: just screw the dang thing together! Came out flush except one side as the whatever company lumbered the plank didn't cut it evenly. So it's a good thing I didn't glue.

[JBerel]

First rule of gluing wood; you need a tight squeeze and an even layer of glue. If you don't have clamps, you'd need to drive some screws in the joints. You can counter sink them and cover with wood putty and sand. Early in my amateur carpentry career, I thought nailing glued joints would work. Turns out even nails won't hold it tight enough for a good bond. Once I figured it out, my glued joints have been as strong as the wood itself. What's nice about a controller box is it's just a box with a flat lid that can overlap the edges. The most fun part is laying out the buttons and using the hole saw to pop in the parts. Even if you have a proper hole saw, you want to cut on top of a piece of scrap plywood so you can dig through the top piece and into the bottom wood for a clean cut. Those splintered edges can be a problem.

[+5-11under]

Also, if you're just gluing end grain without anything backing it up, it'll probably fail.

[PacManPlus]

Question: If you just plan on using MAME on a Raspberry Pi, do you HAVE to use the RetroPie/Emulation Station as the front end? Is there a GUI just for MAME for the Raspberry Pi? I can't seem to find one.