Restoring an old Arcade Machine

Details: Category: In Progress; Published on Sunday, 28 June 2015 08:27

Computer and Software

Considerations

As mentioned, I wanted a to use a Raspberry Pi as the computer. I did, however, read reports that the Pi version B+ is only just fast enough to run late 90's games as Street Fighter, in fact it should be a little slow.
It might seem a little odd that the old games takes so much computer power, but remember that mame does not just play the game. It emulates the entire system, chips and all and therefore needs lots of power.

Therefore, I tested a few other options. I had a few thin clients lying around that should fit the bill. Among other options, I tried an VIA AMOS-3001, 2GB/1Ghz VIA Eden and a Nexceed 256Mb/1.6GHz Atom Nexterminal. Both does a pretty nice job, but neither has svhs or composite out, which my tv needs.

Though I could just get a converter, i ended up opting for at Quad core 900MHz/512Mb Arm 7 Raspberry Pi 2. Now, as of present, mame does not really lend itself well to multicore processing, but it does give a little - and more in some games - and I get the analog video out.

The current system only has 3 buttons, and most intensive fighting games has 4. Therefore I find that the Pi2 is a fair match. It does also seem to do well.

create a new user:

useradd -m mameuser

passwd mameuser

sudo usermod -a -G adm,dialout,cdrom,sudo,audio,video,plugdev,games,users,netdev,gpio,i2c,spi,input mameuser

make a mount directory

mkdir ~/usbdrv

sudo blkid

/dev/sda1: LABEL="KINGSTON" UUID="BB52-2651" TYPE="vfat"

edit /etc/fstab

add on one line:

/dev/sda1 /home/mameuser/usbdrv vfat uid=mameuser,gid=mameuser,umask=0022,sync,auto,nosuid,rw,nouser 0 0

http://www.ducky-pond.com/posts/2013/Aug/install-an-ftp-server-on-rpi/

sudo apt-get install vsftpd

sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf

anonymous_enable=NO

local_enable=YES

write_enable=YES

local_umask=022

wget http://sheasilverman.com/rpi/raspbian/debs/advancemame-raspberrypi_1-1_armhf.deb
wget http://sheasilverman.com/rpi/raspbian/debs/advancemenu_2.6-1_armhf.deb

sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i advancemame-raspberrypi_1-1_armhf.deb

sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i advancemenu_2.6-1_armhf.deb

rm advancemame-raspberrypi_1-1_armhf.deb
rm advancemenu_2.6-1_armhf.deb

advmame

advmenu

remember to install and run mame first, as setupscripts for advmenu othervise may not fint correct paths.
your advmame.rc for your display:

For HDMI try:
1. device_video_clock 5 – 50 / 15.62 / 50 ; 5 – 50 / 15.73 / 60
For NTSC TVs try:
1. device_video_clock 5 – 50 / 15.73 / 60

finding mameversion:
http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/history.html

clrmamepro finds roms.

Set sound

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

options snd-usb-audio index=0
options snd_bcm2835 index=1

aplay /usr/share/scratch/Media/Sounds/Vocals/Singer2.wav

you will get segmentation fault in some emulators

sudo nano /etc/asound.conf

ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
}
pcm.usb
{
type hw
card "U012529205"
format S16_LE
}

pcm.!default {
type asym
playback.pcm
{
type plug
slave {
pcm "hw:0"
format S16_LE
}
}
capture.pcm
{
type plug
slave.pcm "usb"
}
}

check with

copy es_systems to local, which is checked before global settings

cp /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg ~/.emulationstation/

http://computers.tutsplus.com/articles/using-a-usb-audio-device-with-a-raspberry-pi--mac-55876

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=108523&p=747147

http://plugable.com/2014/11/06/how-to-switch-to-usb-audio-on-raspberry-pi