Arpicade boot fails. Newbie question

[jonboyretro]

Hello, although not new to emulators, I am new to the pi arcade scene. Honestly, it's been a revelation and enjoying both Retropie and Pinhp. I'm really looking forward to Arpicade but try as I might, it simply refuses to boot. So hope this is not a dumb question. I'm getting a flashing red light on my 3b+ which suggests a boot issue. I've pulled down the latest 3.7 release and tried several SD cards. No joy. I've not installed any subsequent updates - just the full 3.7 download. Any thoughts on possible issues? As mentioned, Pinhp is working just fine with the JAMMA unit. I'm using an old Philips CM8833 monitor which can handle 320 x 240 but no more. Many thanks, Gary

[dee2eR]

I suspect the problem lies in the older version you have, 3.7 won't support Pi3B+ as it predates it.

ARpiCADE 3.84 can be found here: https://arpicade.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1062

[jonboyretro]

Hi dee2eR and many thanks for your reply. I wasn't aware of that version so many thanks for that.

Okay, I now get the green boot light on the Pi so some progress. However, I still get a blank screen.

I did add a couple of entries right at the end of config.txt from the PinHP config.txt (to do with resolution) but still no joy. It looks as though I'm not meant to run Arpicade

If you have any final suggestions that would be great otherwise the God's have spoken ....

A mentioned, I am running a CRT (320 x 240 ) so not sure if that affects the boot in any way.

Thanks again.
Gary

[dee2eR]

It's setup for low res use, but if you're trying to use the GPIO for video (? I'm guessing...) the GPIO joystick driver is probably getting in the way. If that is the case I'm not entirely sure how many changes you may have to make to use ARpiCADE, probably at least the res switching script too.

What is your setup? The monitor probably isn't the issue.

[jonboyretro]

Hello dee2eR.

No, not set up for video use - I only want to play arcade games!!!! So, I've done a standard installation (3.84) and that at least boots (flashing green light on the Pi). However, I still get a black screen. In desperation, I added a few lines from PinHp (which works just fine) to the bottom of config.txt to 'persuade' it to boot with a fixed res. Still no joy. I don't want to play video at all!!!

I don't want to take any more of your time up so thanks for all your efforts. It would have been nice to try arpicade but guess it's just not to be.

All the best,

Gary

[dee2eR]

I was using video as a blanket term for picture-to-screen output, as in, arcade boards generally use an RGBs video signal, not referring to watching a video. 'It sounds like you're getting your monitor image raster lines out of the GPIO...' sounds awkward and harder to understand.

ARpiCADE is setup for low resolution CRT-monitor-equiped-arcade-machine use by default, however it is not set up to put RGB output on the GPIO. I'm guessing your hardware is using the GPIO for its rasters...