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1st stage Multi Board research


RaoulJuke

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Hey chaps - been a member for a while but always been on the pinball side. Got an old table-top which had a unreliable PC-multi game set up happening which i want to replace. It was this thing running about 1200 games, never was much of a fan of the menu screen, the overload on game selection and a lot of the games felt like the ran pretty unreliable.

 

Looking at getting a replacement for it now and was trying to figure out where the sweet spot lays for game selection vs quality of auhentcity of the game, The tabletop i have is using a horizontal set screen - not vertical.

 

any advice would be great - mainly interested in it running the older classics ( Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger etc ) & them running and feeling right - with a menu that is easy ant not ugly AF.

 

There are some other titles that would be great to get on it too - Tokio-scramble formation, Airwolf, TMNT, NBA JAM, X-Men, SF & MK - although that would be secondary

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I just purchased one of these for a upcoming project, I have only played around with the menu and loaded some games to a 32" LCD, not played a game on it yet, but I would say value for money they are ok

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1299-In-1-Jamma-Arcade-Classic-Game-Board-8G-RAM-VGA-Out-For-Pandoras-Box-5S/282881200977?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

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I just purchased one of these for a upcoming project, I have only played around with the menu and loaded some games to a 32" LCD, not played a game on it yet, but I would say value for money they are ok

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1299-In-1-Jamma-Arcade-Classic-Game-Board-8G-RAM-VGA-Out-For-Pandoras-Box-5S/282881200977?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

 

 

I have seen these and a little weary as i think they tend to be too much.

 

Been reading some research and have came across one called an SDArcade - seems to get strong reviews as having the most faithful of the older games -anyone have experience of these ?

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Yeah I know what you mean, I know that 70% of the games I will not use, but for the people that will be using this project it will be ok.

 

You can get the same type with less games, but I think you get most of the games you wont play with a few you will with those.

 

SD arcade seems to be good for configuring it with the games you want, but I seem to have problems with roms that don't work in mame, so I can see one of these also being a problem with roms.

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The problem with a 60-1 is the emulation is not great on some, especially the sounds. Also they're all vertical games. I would NOT get one at all.

 

Pandora's box is a horizontal setup and not too bad actually. However I'm toying around with one now and whilst the menu isn't bad the games are out of order and it includes almost only fighters with shooters thrown in. If you're after classic games, give this is a miss. Mine had Ms Pacman enabled and since its a vertical game the Pandora's box stretched the game to fill a horizontal screen fully. This is not adjustable. It also ran way way too fast again not adjustable.

 

I was going to hack mine as they just a use an auto boot linux with xmame etc on a TF card. Problem is many are encrypted. I couldn't change mine but there ARE versions that are not.

 

Since you want classic AND have horizontal you need a system that has the classics AND will window the aspect on your horizontal aspect monitor. Personally I'd mame it but that's a bit of work. The SDArcade is fantastic but holy hell they're expensive so your call.

 

Brad

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I bought a 1299 in 1 recently

 

A few things I noticed - games on the menu with wrong names, audio issues e.g. Donkey kong, turtles in time

 

That being said, it only cost me $65 shipped - You get what you pay for and I think the value is incredible for the money spent. Plus I was looking for a quick plug and play solution without having to configure anything. So many titles ive played on it which I would never have thought of playing before.

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pi2Jamma is hands down the best option here, if you can take the time to set it up.

 

Hey Pat, - when you say "set up" what do you actually mean? i.e. configuring games etc? I was originally hoping for a good plug n play solution as my pat attempts at making a reliable mame have been about as successful as Leisure Suit Larrys attempts at getting laid.

 

will you be @ the house-ball this weekend?

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You need to get a Raspberry Pi, then order a Pi2Jamma board. You plug the pi2Jamma board into the Raspberry pi, download the latest pi2jamma image and then configure it through a config file. You put the ROMS onto an SD card and need to do some small scale config to ensure the ROMS run correctly. It's not plug and play by a fairly big stretch, but it's easier than configuring a MAME machine.

 

I will be at Hoiuseball on the weekend @Andyj965 has a Pi2Jamma, could maybe ask him to bring it. There's a whole thread about it on here that is very detailed, the original boards were made by a guy on the forums whose username has escaped me at the moment.

 

They are also not cheap, probably around $250-$300 for the whole shebang? Maybe less? You need a Raspberry Pi, a pi2jamma board and a sizeable microSD card. Much more expensive than a multiboard, but far, far superior emulation of games.

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Here's the forum for the Pi2Jamma.

 

https://www.aussiearcade.com/forumdisplay.php/238-RaspberryJAMMA

 

Personally I'd dispute that a Mame PC setup is harder than the above but I've done so many Mame setups maybe its just obvious to me. Whilst I've used Linux on and off for years, dicking around in it for emulation to me is a pain the arse. The Pi2Jamma is a lovely bit of kit but I have several PC's in storage that are more powerful than a Pi and can be installed real quick for Mame.

 

If you struggle setting up a Mame Machine you're gonna have a worse time setting up a Pi2Jamma.

 

Brad

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You need to get a Raspberry Pi, then order a Pi2Jamma board. You plug the pi2Jamma board into the Raspberry pi, download the latest pi2jamma image and then configure it through a config file. You put the ROMS onto an SD card and need to do some small scale config to ensure the ROMS run correctly. It's not plug and play by a fairly big stretch, but it's easier than configuring a MAME machine.

 

I will be at Hoiuseball on the weekend @Andyj965 has a Pi2Jamma, could maybe ask him to bring it. There's a whole thread about it on here that is very detailed, the original boards were made by a guy on the forums whose username has escaped me at the moment.

 

They are also not cheap, probably around $250-$300 for the whole shebang? Maybe less? You need a Raspberry Pi, a pi2jamma board and a sizeable microSD card. Much more expensive than a multiboard, but far, far superior emulation of games.

 

 

 

Cool as, i might pick your brain about it on Saturday then.

 

So basically i need to get one of these

 

http://arcadeforge.net/Pi2Jamma-Pi2SCART/Raspberry-Pi-3-Model-B::108.html?MODsid=f7f0e3f9c8c4e89166c2afa00fa9d5f1

 

& plug it into 1 of these

 

http://strike-devices.net/index.php/pi2jamma/

 

 

 

And then i can put the games i want on it it - and I can add/subtract to it as time goes by?

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Here's the forum for the Pi2Jamma.

 

https://www.aussiearcade.com/forumdisplay.php/238-RaspberryJAMMA

 

Personally I'd dispute that a Mame PC setup is harder than the above but I've done so many Mame setups maybe its just obvious to me. Whilst I've used Linux on and off for years, dicking around in it for emulation to me is a pain the arse. The Pi2Jamma is a lovely bit of kit but I have several PC's in storage that are more powerful than a Pi and can be installed real quick for Mame.

 

If you struggle setting up a Mame Machine you're gonna have a worse time setting up a Pi2Jamma.

 

Brad

 

From what I've seen of Andy setting up his, it seems piss easy, certainly a damn sight easier than setting up a GroovyMAME rig. Also, if you setup a MAME PC on a CRT, you're still going to need interface hardware like a J-PAC etc.

@RaoulJuke, is this a CRT or LCD setup?

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Here's the forum for the Pi2Jamma.

 

https://www.aussiearcade.com/forumdisplay.php/238-RaspberryJAMMA

 

Personally I'd dispute that a Mame PC setup is harder than the above but I've done so many Mame setups maybe its just obvious to me. Whilst I've used Linux on and off for years, dicking around in it for emulation to me is a pain the arse. The Pi2Jamma is a lovely bit of kit but I have several PC's in storage that are more powerful than a Pi and can be installed real quick for Mame.

 

If you struggle setting up a Mame Machine you're gonna have a worse time setting up a Pi2Jamma.

 

Brad

 

This made me sad...... :(

 

I hate reality

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

From what I've seen of Andy setting up his, it seems piss easy, certainly a damn sight easier than setting up a GroovyMAME rig. Also, if you setup a MAME PC on a CRT, you're still going to need interface hardware like a J-PAC etc.

@RaoulJuke, is this a CRT or LCD setup?

 

 

CRT

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Ok, if it's CRT, and you dislike bloated menus and games running shitty, then I reckon it's gotta be MAME or pi2jamma. However, if you want a plug and play setup, the latest Pandora's Box 5 (the legit one with the chip upgrade, not one of the many clones) would be the best of the plug and play option for price/performance.
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Pi2Jamma and RaspberryJAMMA are different products made by different people. RaspberryJAMMA is the one from AA which Brad linked in post #11

 

Oh cool, I didn't know that. I would definitely buy the RaspberryJAMMA that dee2eR makes, as he is always active on the forums to help people out.

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Ok, if it's CRT, and you dislike bloated menus and games running shitty, then I reckon it's gotta be MAME or pi2jamma. However, if you want a plug and play setup, the latest Pandora's Box 5 (the legit one with the chip upgrade, not one of the many clones) would be the best of the plug and play option for price/performance.

 

The problem with the Pandoras is that they're really built for horizontal setups and almost all of the games are not what we'd consider classic from the late 70's early 80's. Most are Fighters, NeoGeo and Cave shooters etc.

 

Definitely Plug & Play, but mods/tweaks aren't possible unless you buy a particular model AND know what you're doing. If you struggle with Mame you'll struggle with modding this.

 

A Raspberry2Jamma or Mame setup will give you total control and you can tweak to your hearts content or just auto-build a list with a small "Classic" set etc. Even set up multiple games lists and change between then to suit your mood.

 

If you go Raspberry to Jamma the guys here and deezer will help you out. If you go with Mame myself and many others can also help you out.

 

Brad

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Thanks heaps @namastepat & @Brad -i think i will settle RaspberryJAMMA that the chap here developed - do i just contact him directly to get one?

 

I actually have a lil Raspberry Pintendo i bought a year ago which is loaded with all sorts of MAME, Atari, Sega, Nintendo stuff that is plug n play into the HDMI of my telly. Pulled it out last night and played a bunch of different games on it - thought the emulation quality even that was very good & acceptable ( played an hour of Tokio- formation scramble - still the most underrated arcades out there IMO, love it! ). Once its set up correctly i really want it to be extremely user friendly to play and not cluttered with too many games and more so - not multiple versions of the same game.

 

I like the idea of being able tailor my own specific arcade collection to the table top & add/subtract later on if i want to. The setting up of it concerns me a little - but i probably feel more comfortable sitting in front of a computer for hours on end than i do getting my head under the play field of a pinny - & that hasn't stopped me getting 10 of those so probably need to apply the same naive logic to this :lol

 

Pat - Will definitely pick your brain on this on Saturday if thats ok. Wanted to get your opinion on a few other things as well - whats your opinion on baby boomers :cool:

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I can't help you much with the Pi 2 Jamma. From memory is uses Advance Mame (could be wrong) Not sure how easy/hard it is to switch game lists on the fly. With my Mame setups I generally use Mala. I build the appropriate lists using automation software to filter games according to what I'm after eg: Vertical Only or Only list games that need 3 buttons or less etc. In Mala you can then select your default Game List and switch between them whenever you want. I assume that the PiCade has a similiar function.

 

Cheers,

 

Brad

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This is the info from the latest version of ARpiCADE from Dee2er to go on the RaspberryJAMMA. This is the link to the AA thread for the RaspbeeryJAMMA https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/67986-JAMMA-board-from-Raspberry-PI

 

Definitely worth a look

 

ARpiCADE 3.82 is here!!!!!

There's a lot of changes to stuff in the system side of things, added support for new hardware, bugs squashed, more emulators for consoles. I realised after I started uploading I had forgotten to update the instructions files, these release notes are the only new instructions for now.

 

NEW FEATURES:

support for new hardware revision Raspberry Pi 3b+, Raspbian base updated from Jessie to Stretch, new Linux Kernel etc. (*NOTE: currently WiFi on Pi3b+ is not working, works on Pi3 though*). This version of ARpiCADE works with RPi2, RPi3 and RPi3b+.

 

removed MAME4all, it's old and the old compiled binarys are no longer compatible with the rest of the system (segfaults running games). If people want MAME4all back I can add the Retroarch version in future, personally I think it's too out of date to be useful at this point - newer Pis can run newer & better versions of MAME

 

additional console emulator cores for retroarch:

stella (Atari 2600 / Video Computer System)

prosystem (Atari 7800 Prosystem) (bios optional if you want the Atari logo at game startup)

vecx (Vectrex) (has overlay support with overlays for the official games included, buggy sound)

bluemsx (ColicoVision) (requires bios file colico.rom)(bluemsx is capable of MSX computers too but I don't have any knowledge of the system or even a game to test/setup with so nothing is tried or setup for MSX but its there if you want to try doing it yourself...)

 

lr-FBA updated to xxx.40 - now has limited high score save support - more games supported too but I'm not sure if it adds or improves any games compared to the MAME versions already available

 

fixed hotkeys keyboard bug + new hotkey start+B6 to access Retroarch menus (during a game in Retroarch)

 

all Retroarch config files overhauled, now only one unique config file for each emulated system and a set of resolution specific config files shared by all Retroarch cores - any changes to resolutions should be made in the resolution files and will work for all cores (that use that res). This should simplfy config changes for Retroarch + if you make changes in low res mode then change to run high res your changes should still be working

 

all launchers overhauled, no setup specific launchers anymore just one per emulator that check your resolution and rotation and should act accordingly - won't lie the logic in some of them has gotten confusing but I've tried to comment everything for those who like to dig around in a launcher script. Adding Retroarch cores should be simple now as the launchers are pretty similar for all Retroarch stuff (the arcade ones are more complex than the console ones because they use more resolutions).

 

resolution switching is now all handled by a script that is called by the emulator launchers - it checks the boot resolution and will not change to low res if in 480p, if you boot in 240p it won't use 480i. Arcade games using the MAME naming convention are checked against mameinfo.txt for resolution and refresh rate to find the optimal resolution to use automatically. /boot/launchers/resSwitch.sh

 

improved sync performance for non 60Hz games in most MAME versions (more refresh rates in use)

 

AdvMAME (106 romset) audio lag fixed - still not sure when/why it started... I assume with a system update...

 

service menu moved to its own unique (config file) instance of Attract-Mode rather than accessed in the same menu as the games, now launches automatically when you exit the game list instance of Attract-Mode. So now you can set up multiple game lists without having a service menu pop up in the rotation

 

system config (monitor setup) can now be done through editing /boot/config.txt (be careful) or the service menu - uncommenting the service menu script to unlock high res is now at the top of the file and far fewer lines to uncomment as well

 

default mounting for vertical low res monitors flipped from previous (if using the service menu auto setup options) - if you need to swap it back do so in /boot/config.txt

 

Attract-Mode exit command changed to F4 instead of esc (due to moving the hotkeys start to run.sh instead of from each launcher in an attempt to improve reliability - they're now running in Attract-Mode too but shouldn't effect anything there)

 

console rom folders and launchers renamed after the console rather than the emulator, hopefully less confusing to people unaware of the names of emulators. Extra folders added for SEGA Genesis, Master System, 32x, SEGA CD, PC Engine CD and TurboGrafx that use the same emulators & launchers as Megadrive and PCEngine but allows for more complex organisation of game lists in Attract-Mode. (and remember keep your console roms unzipped and without spaces in the file names)

 

console rom scanner updated to change underscores in filenames to spaces in the Attract-Mode lists. ie Mario_Bros.nes will be displayed as Mario Bros in the menu.

 

dedicated art folders for each console for game previews, wheel images and boxart (images not supplied); system images (loading screens etc.) moved to /boot/previews/system/

 

Attract-Mode keyboard output to terminal bug hidden more effectively (it's an SDL2.0 on Pi thing I really can't claim to have actually fixed the bug but it should no longer be noticable)

 

USB to optical analog controls (trackballs and spinners) should now work "out of the box" for MAME0.192, MAME 0.172 & AdvMAME (1.4 + 3.0) & AdvMAME0.94 - tested with Opti-Wiz + trackball, your hardware and need to tweak further may vary (USB trackball/spinner/whatever required, obviously)

 

more Attract-Mode themes (thanks FrizzleFried) + required extra Attract-Mode module installed

 

experimental RaspberryJAMMA DTBO hardware overlay GPIO controller keyboard "driver" included but not enabled by default (thanks ChucksinSpace), there's no way to do hotkeys with it currently but it works great otherwise and is setup using the default MAME keys. If you want to try it it can be enabled in /boot/config.txt you may also want to disable the mk_arcade joystick module although they both work together fine.

 

######

 

KNOWN BUGS

 

boot splash bug - If the network connection is set up but doesn't find the router the splash can be buggy (I think that's what caused it... maybe I'm wrong but it seemed to be fixed when I removed my old router info)

 

Pi2 only boot text bug - a little bit of Linux boot text is visible between splash and loading images on Pi2 (anyone still use a Pi2?)

 

WiFi not working on the new Pi3 B+ (works fine on Pi3, doesn't exist on Pi2)

 

######

 

Big thanks to everyone who has been giving suggestions/advice/setup-tips/testing/making Attract-Mode themes and trying new things and posting about it, publicly and privately. You guys are making the software better and it's lighting a fire under me lately.

 

To the person who asked for Atari 5200 emulation, sorry it didn't make it. I didn't find a Retroarch core for it and the standalone emulator for Atari 800 computers that can do 5200 is complex (adding Retorach cores is pretty quick and easy as the main setup stuff has already been done for the other Retroarch cores). To be honest 5200 didn't seem like it was worth the potential effort I was going to put into setting it up as the best of list for the 5200 I checked only had arcade ports anyway. Also analog controls... I may still do it in the future.

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Thanks heaps @namastepat & @Brad -i think i will settle RaspberryJAMMA that the chap here developed - do i just contact him directly to get one?

 

I actually have a lil Raspberry Pintendo i bought a year ago which is loaded with all sorts of MAME, Atari, Sega, Nintendo stuff that is plug n play into the HDMI of my telly. Pulled it out last night and played a bunch of different games on it - thought the emulation quality even that was very good & acceptable ( played an hour of Tokio- formation scramble - still the most underrated arcades out there IMO, love it! ). Once its set up correctly i really want it to be extremely user friendly to play and not cluttered with too many games and more so - not multiple versions of the same game.

 

I like the idea of being able tailor my own specific arcade collection to the table top & add/subtract later on if i want to. The setting up of it concerns me a little - but i probably feel more comfortable sitting in front of a computer for hours on end than i do getting my head under the play field of a pinny - & that hasn't stopped me getting 10 of those so probably need to apply the same naive logic to this :lol

 

Pat - Will definitely pick your brain on this on Saturday if thats ok. Wanted to get your opinion on a few other things as well - whats your opinion on baby boomers :cool:

 

Would be best to pick Andy's brain about the RaspberryPiJAMMA, he would know more about it then I would. I can give you a lot of advice on the MAME front though, as I have setup a bunch of CRT_EMU driver MAME machines in the past. As for my opinion on baby boomers, if I get drunk and belligerent enough, I'll start ranting about a lot of things :lol

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Would be best to pick Andy's brain about the RaspberryPiJAMMA, he would know more about it then I would.

 

Good luck with my brain. I find it's a bit hit and miss :blink:

 

if I get drunk and belligerent enough, I'll start ranting about a lot of things :lol

 

What do you mean if????? Really more of a when situation :D

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