Cheat sheet for buttons/menus?

[dodgeboy]

I recently purchased and installed an ARpiCADE in a Ms Pacman cocktail cabinet (upgraded from a 60-in-1 that didn't save scores). I absolutely love it! However, I am struggling to figure out the button/control combinations to navigate around the settings/service/test menus. I've occasionally been able to bring them up, but I'm not sure which menu is intended to do what, and I couldn't back out of some of the menus. The documentation I've found on the board doesn't seem to cover this (or at least I couldn't find it). I'm assuming someone has gone through this and documented it, and I'd love to be able to read through it to better understand how to tweak the setup. Thanks!

[dee2eR]

There's this button guide: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aTaPB ... ajySikhlts not sure if that's what you're after. It could use an update to include in the Attract-Mode frontend as well as the newest emulators added at 3.9.

When you say documents found on this board do you mean on this forum (message board) or the stuff in the USER_GUIDE folder of the SD card (game board)? If you haven't seen the USER_GUIDE folder of the SD card it has basic instructions. As it's mainly just me working on this stuff the instructions are not completely comprehensive but I'm more than happy to add to them based on suggestions or answer any questions.
As basically everything can be changed to suit your wants/needs it can be hard for me to know what to write in the instructions without making it all seem more confusing.

If you haven't already done so I recommend making a full backup image of the SD card. That way if you do make something unexpected happens while learning the system and getting it how you want it you have a restore point.

[dodgeboy]

I didn't even know there was a USER_GUIDE folder on the SD card. I will definitely check that out, thanks! The menu/button combos that I'm struggling with are the ones that bring up the settings/service/display menus and such. I'm also struggling with how to start a game in 2 player mode. Holding P1Start+Fire adds 1 credit. When I try to add the second credit with the same method, it starts the game in 1Player mode (because I pressed P1 start). I managed to stumble my way into the MAME key mapping menu, where I was able to map Coin1 to a different button. That seems to work for most games, but Ms. Pacman doesn't work with that mapping.

While I've done some work with MAME in the past on PCs, this is the first time I've integrated it into a cabinet. So using combinations like P1Start+Joy1right to enter the settings menu is new to me. Those are the shortcuts I'd like to see a cheat sheet for.

Thanks for the recommendation; I did take an image backup of the SD Card before I even powered on the unit.

[dee2eR]

There's a couple of possibilities for Ms Pacman not taking that setting change. Either it's in a different version of MAME than you changed or it has a dedicated control file for whatever reason (I think at least one MAME doesn't change the active game when you change the settings too, which can be fixed with the dedicated file fix. If it has a dedicated file changing the controls in MAME using the for this game only option should fix it. Otherwise, if it's a different MAME make the change again in that MAME and it should be fixed.

The default shortcuts/hotkeys are covered in the instructions in the USER_GUIDE folder. If you want to change all the shortcuts they can be changed in the file hotkeys.ini rather than in each emulator. If you haven't already got it and you use Windows download Notepad++ to edit these Linux files, some files will be borked by the built in Windows text editors.

By default there are 5 shortcuts/hotkeys setup:
Start+ joystick right = tab (opens MAME menus and also the Attract-Mode menu but you may struggle to use shortcuts in the frontend as start launches games)
start+ button 1 = 5 (coin input 1)
Start + Joystick down = p (pause)
start + b6 = f1 (opens Retroarch menus for the Retroarch emulators in use)
hold start for 5 seconds = esc (exit game)

Not shortcuts but also useful in Attract-Mode (game selection menu):
button 2 backs out of the current list to the list of lists
button 6 jumps to a random game in the active list
test (cabside) to open attract-modes config menus
service (cabside) or f4 (on keyboard) to exit the first instance of Attract-Mode which then opens another that acts as the system service menu, f4 again will exit to the command line after that. Use the reboot option from the service menu to easily get back to the game list.

Another trick for 2 players is to put in credits before the game is ready to play, in many games you can insert credits before the game is ready to be played. Otherwise if your cab has a coin button or coin mech(s) you can also use them (they should work on the default setup.

[dodgeboy]

Thank you! This is very helpful. I'll verify which emulator Ms Pacman is using and make the changes in the .ini file if necessary to make them consistent across all games. I appreciate the help!

[gt7766c]

Since Arpicade is Jamma I’m assuming you’re using a wiring adapter. I have a Ms pac using Arpicade as well and am using MikesArcade adapter and have it set that Player1Start is also Player1Button 1. Similar Player2Starts is Player1Button1. Keep that in mind that the buttons are doing double duty when you’re navigating the menus.

What I did was eliminate the shortcuts (right and button1 go to menu) because it would pull up all the time in a game. I also increased the “return to game select menu by holding Player1Start” to 10 seconds versus the default.

To get into the game menus I have a usb keyboard attached inside the cabinet and pull it out when I need it.

Good luck! It’s an awesome product.