Raspberry Pi Micro Arcade Cabinet

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Socoder -> Off Topic -> Raspberry Pi Micro Arcade Cabinet
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Fri, 18 Mar 2016, 03:55
Krakatomato	I've been wanting to build a full arcade cabinet at home that runs lots of retro goodness. Unfortunately, due to living in a small house that's never going to happen. The wife just won't agree to it However, I was planning to build a much smaller, micro sized, cabinet - but getting the right sized joystick has always been a pain in the rear. Then a friend showed me some iPad arcade cabinets on Amazon. 10 quid gets you a nice sized cabinet with joystick and buttons - amazing. So, I've grabbed one of those along with a smaller version for iPhones. Absolutely no intention of using an iPad or iPhone in these - instead, I've got a 4.3" LCD that I can wire up to a Raspberry Pi 3 for the larger case, and am waiting delivery of a little display for the smaller cabinet. The small cab will have a Rpi Zero inside as the full Rpi 3 just won't fit. I could put a Zero in the larger case too, but I'd rather have the ability to run much more processor intensive stuff on that one. Of course, both cabinets only have two buttons, so if this works then a later mod will be to add more buttons and possibly custom print artwork. So, all being well, this weekend's project will be connecting all of this up - better than doing bloody DIY! //Andy
Fri, 18 Mar 2016, 04:22
Dabz	Excellent... Just blooming excellent! Dabz
Fri, 18 Mar 2016, 05:18
Jayenkai	Awesome!! I have an original iCade sitting around doing nothing.. It never quite got the attention it deserved. :/ -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Fri, 18 Mar 2016, 06:15
rockford	iPi? Cool
Sun, 20 Mar 2016, 03:40
Krakatomato	You know, there's something to be said about cheap displays from China... they're utter crap! I figured I'd try powering this TFT up before connecting it to anything. Reading the documentation, it defaults to 5V power, so I connect up the bench power supply and feed the TFT with 5V. And then watch the supply start reporting that this thing needs lots of amps - way more than it should be using. I'd limited the max current to 1.5A, but that didn't stop it wanting more - and then the smoke started to appear! Yep, a piece of crap voltage regulator was on the board and started to fizzle - and smell. Ugh. Replaced it with a better quality one and no more high current and no more smell. But also, there doesn't seem to be much life in this display - just a very hot processor. Hmm. I really don't fancy connecting it up to an RPi just yet, so dug out a small Arduino ProMicro clone - these tiny things are great and if I can get something out of the display then I'll be happier. Now thinking I might just be better off getting a 4.3" 640x480 TFT "car reversing" display from Amazon. They're about 15 quid and work quite well. The only offer composite input, but for such a small display that's generally more than enough. Let's see what this TFT does with an AVR first though - bets are on for more smoke //Andy
Sun, 20 Mar 2016, 04:37
Jayenkai	I really do admire people with Electronic skills. My Musical talents are only achievable through coded melodies.. Give me a keyboard, guitar, drums or any other instrument, and I'll manage to render a single keypress/strum/beat before my fingers and thumbs start going immediately in the wrong direction! My Electronics are just as bad. My head knows what should be happening, but my fingers don't seem to want to do that!! Good luck finding a fully working TFT!! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Sat, 02 Apr 2016, 13:00
Hotshot	would Raspberry pi 3 be able to emulator PS 2, dreamcast and oringal XBOX?
Sat, 02 Apr 2016, 13:08
rockford	Nope. Even a top-range beefy pc can't perfectly emulate PS2 without slowdown. A Pi3 would struggle with even the most basic PS2 games, let alone one with lots of onscreen action and/or transparency effects - these really are killers for PS2 emus. Dreamcast could be playable if you can stand sub 60FPS games and glitches. XBox not a chance. So nope.
Mon, 04 Apr 2016, 07:00
Krakatomato	Dreamcast works quite well on the RPi 3. There's some titles that are wonky, but on the whole it performs ok. The RetroPie project supports a number of emulators: github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Supported-Systems //Andy
Mon, 04 Apr 2016, 07:24
Dabz	PS1 struggles a little on the PiZero, same with megaCD, noticeable slow down... But I dont care about that... This little board is £4.25 and it does marvellous with the majority of emulators on RetroPie! I've just had a magic time playing star wars arcade... Pure vector pulsing fun! Just call me Luke from now on! Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Mon, 04 Apr 2016, 07:31
Dabz	Edit, just to note about PSX... Most ROMS usually have music ripped out of them before being converted, which is naff really. Imagine playing TombRaider with no music, it's as flat as a fart and, takes the atmosphere away, which totally spoils it! So if your planning PS1 (Probably the same with PS2), then you really should buy the proper hardware, or at least use a PC based emulator (e.g. ePSXe) that runs actual games from the CD-ROM drive... Games are really cheap enough now on Ebay. Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Mon, 04 Apr 2016, 07:35
Jayenkai	PS3 plays PS1 wonderfully. It was a pleasant surprise when I popped Parappa in "to see what it'd do"! I imagine PS4 also contains the ability, but I'm damned if I'm forking out £xxx's to find out! -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Mon, 04 Apr 2016, 07:47
Krakatomato	For this little arcade project, I'm just aiming for simple emulators and maybe Mame with games that require two buttons. Already got everything working nicely using an RPi 1 so now just moving it all over to an RPi 3. Then it's just a case of sticking it all in the cabinet and wiring up some small buttons for start/select/reset on the front. Will also expose a USB port at the rear to allow me to play games that need a fancier controller. I also opted for a 5" TFT (800x480) display which fits better than the 4.3" one. To help with those times when you really need a keyboard, I got one of these: www.amazon.co.uk/Rii-Wireless-Keyboard-TouchPad-Android/dp/B003UE52ME which works out of the box with the RPi, so adding a little holster for it at the back of the cabinet. Will post a few pics later - only just got back from a much needed holiday! //Andy
Mon, 04 Apr 2016, 08:19
Dabz	I couldnt use one of them dinky keyboards mind, lol, my fingers are like spuds! I like a keyboard there right in front of me... tippy tappy tippy tappy! Dabz -=-=- Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB), 8Gig DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Windows 10 64bit
Mon, 04 Apr 2016, 09:18
Krakatomato	Oh, I couldn't use it for anything other than emergencies. But in this case it's perfect as you need a keyboard to access some of the emulator menus - not something you do often
Wed, 06 Apr 2016, 03:17
Krakatomato	And the displays have turned up from China for the small arcade cabinet: The 1.8' is too small, but the 2.2' fits in there nicely - just need to make a thin bezel. However, I'll be wiring that up to an RPi Zero first to make sure it works as expected --- And sorry - no idea why the pics are rotated there =/
Wed, 06 Apr 2016, 03:24
Jayenkai	That looks so good! Hopefully it gets plenty of playtime. -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
Wed, 06 Apr 2016, 03:30
Krakatomato	We actually have one of these: www.mymemory.co.uk/Gadgets/Taikee/Taikee-Micro-Arcade-Machine-with-240-Built-in-Games---16-Bit but unfortunately, 90% of the games on there are utter pants. I was going to stick an RPi Zero in there, but then I happened across the el-cheapo Arcadie cabinets and figured it would be more fun to hack those Will post some more piccies as/when I get time to commence the hackathon //Andy
Wed, 06 Apr 2016, 13:51
Krakatomato	Well, after a shedload of screaming and cursing, I've finally managed to get the small 2.2" TFT working with the Pi Zero running retropie (sorry about the poor quality - also, the protective film is still over the display - but trust me, it looks proper nice!) I've not bothered putting any emulators or games on there yet - the pics above are only showing the standard doom/quake games that are provided. Next step is to start wiring the joystick and buttons up All in, this should cost less than 20 quid
Wed, 06 Apr 2016, 13:52
rockford	Tasty!
Wed, 06 Apr 2016, 14:13
Krakatomato	And just out of curiosity and a bit of fun, here's a couple of shots of it running Outrun on Mame emulator...
Wed, 06 Apr 2016, 14:45
Dabz	Oh la la larrr... Smokin' Dabz
Thu, 07 Apr 2016, 00:06
rockford	Anything that can run OutRun properly is officially awesome
Thu, 07 Apr 2016, 15:05
Krakatomato	Jeez - quickly losing the will to live here Came to wire up the joystick and buttons, but no joy - the joystick driver (to which the source code doesn't seem to be available) uses the same GPIO pins as the bloody TFT! So I can't swap the pins to something else! Why the bloody hell does somebody map simple input pins to an SPI interface I have no idea =/ The new Pi's have a 40 pin GPIO that sports a seconds SPI port, so I figured I'd re-wire the pins for the TFT to the second SPI port. But no, there's still conflicting pins. I'm now at a loss unless I can get the source code for the joystick driver =/ ARGH!
Fri, 08 Apr 2016, 01:08
Krakatomato	After a little look this morning, I find that the joystick driver source is hidden within a debian package. Extracted it in readiness for another infuriating evening no doubt!
Fri, 08 Apr 2016, 05:00
Dabz	You love it! Dabz
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