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Advice for emulator Bartop Arcade


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Hey everyone. So quick rundown. Recently I purchased off a private owner this Bartop Arcade cabinet. Full disclosure when I purchased it, the owner had no real understanding of what was actually inside it. Just figured that it would be a cool thing to have his mates over, smash a few beers, and play some Street Fighter with. Im fairly new to this too, so I had to do some digging around. It runs off the Pandora's Box 5s software/hardware. I am aware that it is a knock off of what some may already consider a dubious piece of equipment especially when it comes to graphical fidelity purists. I have my problems with it as well. Performance issues, a deluge of worthless romhacks and unplayable games, and the inability to access the debug menus for games like Metal Slug or Windjammers annoy the absolute shit out of me, especially when I want matches longer than 30 seconds or soldiers that I kill to bleed instead of chuck up some kind of gray fluid. The speakers are afixed with some kind of adhesive tape that doesnt look great and leads to them falling off when I open up the back, but Im happy to replace them and find a way to more permanently get them to sit still. That aside, Im happy with the monitor even though its not a CRT and the sticks and buttons themselves feel fine and play well.

 

But that performance from the Pandora's 5s is complete shit and I refuse to leave it in there.

 

Now I have dabbled with raspberry Pi before. I purchased one that came pre loaded with Retropi software/Retroarch architecture on it and really enjoyed it. It ran plenty of the games that I wanted to play perfectly as far as I am concerned. Metal slug, Windjammers, Magical Drop. I have been really happy with the overall performance, and its ability to play virtually anything thats every showed up on an arcade floor.

 

So I guess, this is a roundabout way of saying that I wanna replace this cheap knockoff with something actually worth running games off of. Preferably a raspberry pi. My question is where do I start? Should I just purchase another pi with Retropi/Retroarch hardware pre installed? Should I start from scratch with a beginners kit? How do I hook up the sticks and buttons to it? I will post pictures of the actual cabinet and the insides to show you what is actually inside. Thanks for any of the advice! My apologies for the sideways or upside down photos.

 

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Ive got another question regarding this cab if anyone can help me. There is a small fan, some LED color changing lights, and an On/Off Power switch included that came with the knock off Pandoras box. All 3 are joined together in a 6 pin connector. Because this is something that was included with the PB, would it still be possible to connect this to a raspberry pi with the use of a breakout board?

 

 

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Sorry for the extra attachment!

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