ARpiCADE Forums

Hi all, just got the Arpicade and raspberry pi with the 2700 horizontal games. Plugged it in and it works great. I feel like I may be missing some basic info though, is there a manual that goes over the basics? For instance, how to access the basic menus, keyboard commands, button/joystick commands, etc? Sorry if it's posted somewhere, I couldn't seem to find it.

Being a total newbie with this stuff, I'm wondering if there is a fairly easy way to remove games from the menu. also, since Im doing a seperate vertical cabinet is there a simple way to remove all vertical games from this horizontal card? Final question for now, is there any way to have categories at the main menu? Meaning like "SNES" "Arcade" "Neo Geo" etc.

Please keep in mind Im a total newbie, this is like a foreign language to me. Thanks in advance.

Carl

Hi Carl,
there should be a user guide folder on the SD card ( /boot/USER_GUIDE/ ). Hopefully the information in there helps as I don't know what version of the software you would have to give any specific instructions.

To remove games just remove the relevant roms from the folders they're in and re-scan the games. I'm assuming the auto rom scanning at startup is currently disabled if you have that many games on board. One off scans can be done from the service menu when you have the auto scanning disabled. A complete romscan consists of 3 parts; 1 scan arcade games, 2 scan console games, 3 combine the lists for the All Games list.

There's no built in option to remove all vertical games automatically. You could modify the rom scanner to remove vertical games but if you're not comfortable with some scripting it may not be the answer for you.

You can set up different lists in Attract-Mode (the menu), just needs to be done in the built in menus. I was considering making the next release set up with different lists available by default but I haven't received any feedback from the people I sent samples to so I don't know if it's wanted as a default option... There should be individual lists (text files not menu entries) already for most systems made by the rom scanning scripts, although there is not a unique NEOGEO list it's just part of the Arcade list.

Hope that helps.

I would like that to be default if that helps! I would like to be able to sort by platform.

dee2eR wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:28 am

Hi Carl,
there should be a user guide folder on the SD card ( /boot/USER_GUIDE/ ). Hopefully the information in there helps as I don't know what version of the software you would have to give any specific instructions.

To remove games just remove the relevant roms from the folders they're in and re-scan the games. I'm assuming the auto rom scanning at startup is currently disabled if you have that many games on board. One off scans can be done from the service menu when you have the auto scanning disabled. A complete romscan consists of 3 parts; 1 scan arcade games, 2 scan console games, 3 combine the lists for the All Games list.

There's no built in option to remove all vertical games automatically. You could modify the rom scanner to remove vertical games but if you're not comfortable with some scripting it may not be the answer for you.

You can set up different lists in Attract-Mode (the menu), just needs to be done in the built in menus. I was considering making the next release set up with different lists available by default but I haven't received any feedback from the people I sent samples to so I don't know if it's wanted as a default option... There should be individual lists (text files not menu entries) already for most systems made by the rom scanning scripts, although there is not a unique NEOGEO list it's just part of the Arcade list.

Hope that helps.

Thank you very much for your reply. This is all foreign to me so let me see if I understand what you're saying. If I open the sd card on my pc I should find a folder of game roms? From there delete games I dont want? As far as "re-scanning" games (completely foreign to me), from the menu accessible from the cabinet using a keyboard, there should be an automatic scan setting I can activate to update the card When I turn on the cabinet? Is this correct? I'll tackle this before I start trying to understand editing the menu. Thanks again for your help.

Yes, you can delete games but be careful and create a back-up first since you paid for that card. I, for example, copied all the SD card files to a “backup” folder on my pc and then edited the games on the sd card.

If you want to reactivate the auto rom scan at startup you will need to edit the file /boot/run.sh (if you use Windows use a good text editor like Notepad++ to edit files from a Linux build as the built in Windows text editors can mess up the file formatting). There are 3 lines that should have been "hashed out" to disable them, if you delete the hashes and leave the rest of the lines they will be active again and each time you start up the romlists will be created. These are the relevant lines:
## Scan arcade games for Attract-Mode list
# NOTE: noPornRoms is the same as sortRoms with an extra no porn games array, only use sortRoms OR noPornRoms, NOT BOTH.
#bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRoms.sh
#bash /home/pi/.attract/noPornRoms.sh

## Scan console games for Attract-Mode list
#bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRomsConsoles.sh

## Combine gamelists into all games list for Attract-Mode
#bash /boot/launchers/servMenu.sh carccons


@gt7766c s advice to back it all up first is a good idea too.

I am 100% lost, frustrated, and disappointed. I literally didn't understand a thing any of you wrote, it's a complete foreign language for me (thank you all for trying though, I appreciate your time). I think I'm going to have to give up on this. I'm in way, way over my head. No one plays the cabinet because people dont have the patience to scroll through 2700 games and I can't edit down the list to something manageable, or even remove the hundreds of vertical games that for some reason came on this horizontal game card. (It also freezes up at least once a night and I have to restart the cabinet).

Honestly I feel a little decieved with this purchase. I called and specifically asked if this is something someone with no experience can easily use, remove games, edit, etc. and I was told yes. I don't feel that's the case at all. Or maybe this is easy for the average person with zero experience and I'm just an idiot who deserves a game elf. Sorry for the frustrated rant, I'm just really disappointed. If something positive can come from this post maybe others with no experience will read this and be better informed than I was before they make the decision to buy one of these setups. Thanks again to all who tried to help me.

@Baadbeats
Hi Carl,
if you're serious about wanting to get it set up how you want it really isn't hard. All you need to do is delete the games you don't want using a file browser of some sort (probably easiest to do on your PC) and edit one text file. Assuming you have a Windows PC (I don't think you have said, sorry if you did) you will only be able to access one partition of the SD card but that is all you will need. I will write step by step instructions, I don't know which version of ARpiCADE you have so some details may be a little off.

It is a very good idea to back up the whole SD card before you do anything else. There's an article about it here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/back-up-raspberry-pi/ which has instructions for various OSs.

Assuming you are a Windows user I strongly recommend using Notepad++ to edit any files. Windows built in text editors can mess up the file formats and cause the RPi Linux system to break. Notepad++ is free and very good, it can be downloaded here: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.5.8.html

To start unplug the SD card from the Pi and plug it into your PC. Open the SD card with a file manager if it doesn't happen automatically (if you use a system that can see both parts of the SD card you want to open the one labeled BOOT). You should be able to see the roms folder here, there are folders for a number of different MAME versions inside it - most games are probably in mame-106 (advance MAME). Delete whatever files you do not need (this may help as a reference: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wMSNB ... -Z-27jIPlA I don't know what you have there).

When you are finished deleting games, or if you just want the automatic scanner back on, exit the rom folder and open the file run.sh using Notepad++. Find this bit:

## Scan arcade games for Attract-Mode list
# NOTE: noPornRoms is the same as sortRoms with an extra no porn games array, only use sortRoms OR noPornRoms, NOT BOTH.
#bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRoms.sh
#bash /home/pi/.attract/noPornRoms.sh

## Scan console games for Attract-Mode list
#bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRomsConsoles.sh

## Combine gamelists into all games list for Attract-Mode
#bash /boot/launchers/servMenu.sh carccons

and make it look like this by deleting 3 # symbols:

## Scan arcade games for Attract-Mode list
# NOTE: noPornRoms is the same as sortRoms with an extra no porn games array, only use sortRoms OR noPornRoms, NOT BOTH.
#bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRoms.sh
bash /home/pi/.attract/noPornRoms.sh

## Scan console games for Attract-Mode list
bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRomsConsoles.sh

## Combine gamelists into all games list for Attract-Mode
bash /boot/launchers/servMenu.sh carccons

and save the file and close Notepad++.

You have finished, make sure you DO NOT JUST PULL THE SD CARD OUT, but safely remove/eject/unmount (however your operating system refers to the proper way to remove a SD card) first. When the PC says it is safe to remove it you can remove it.

Put the SD card back in the Pi. When you power up it will take longer than previously to start up as it will scan the games at each start up. (If after doing all this you want to disable the scanning again put the 3 hashes you deleted back in the file in the same way you removed them.)

I really hope that helps you. I believe I have at least a decent track record of trying to help people along with this. Perhaps you are right and the RaspberryJAMMA & ARpiCADE system isn't for you due to your unique lack of technical nous but I'm happy to keep trying to help you if you want to try. I've made this as easy to use as I can but with virtually everything being able to be customized there is some complexity to it all so there is a learning curve if you want to get deeply into it. I really do think anyone should be able to use this.

Also I'm sorry you felt deceived, I don't know who you called but it definitely wasn't me. I didn't sell you anything directly, I do not know what version of ARpiCADE you are using. I do not really sell ARpiCADE at all I give it away as a free download for anyone who wants it (and I recommend making the setup you want from the vanilla no roms releases I give away - personally I think 1000s of games is too much too). I make the RaspberryJAMMA hardware and do make money selling it but with the exception of a few donations (thanks to anyone that has, I don't ask for donations but do appreciate it when it happens) I am not paid for the hundreds (probably thousands by now) of hours work I put into ARpiCADE. Unless you bought your setup from this website (ie. me), which you didn't, I feel your comments are misleading. Please understand I support your right to say whatever you like and will not censor you on this site unless you spam or harass people so I won't edit or delete the comment but after I had already tried to help previously and not heard anything back I figured my advice had helped and hadn't given it another thought.

That said, I promise if you spend a little time learning the basics of the system (if you haven't yet look at the USER_MANUAL folder on the SD card) you will end up with a much better system than a GameElf or Pandora. You may be an idiot, I don't know you, but no-one deserves a GameElf. lol

Thank you very much for your help and time. I didn't mean to imply that you, or anyone else here, steered me wrong with this. It's been a pretty frustrating process, and not what I expected. I really appreciate all the time you have taken to try amd help me. With that said I'm going to try this again. First problem/question - I normally use a mac. I dug out a really old pc/laptop I had to read the micro sd card. I think its running xp or vista. When I open the folders on the card in notepad or wordpad it's just a bunch of symbols and nonsense. Am I viewing the folders incorrectly? Or maybe I need a newer version of notepad. I tried downloading notepad ++ but Im having problems installing it, Im assuming my operating system is just too old. Thanks again, your time and help are much appreciated.

A Mac is actually fine to do this with, I had assumed Windows only because it is the most common OS. There's some Mac specific (but not specific to your problem) advice here: https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread ... dvice-help most of it is written by a guy who goes by g5k on Aussie Arcade & KLOV.

From that link:

OSX MOST IMPORTANT - DISABLE SMART QUOTES

If you don't install Linux this will save anyone using a MAC countless hours of WTF. When you get into tweaking config files you typically use textedit. For the files that use quotes in their syntax eg. resolution "320x240" if you edit that line textedit by default changes the quote marks to smart quotes...this causes grief as it doesn't mean the same and depending what you were tweaking you can stuff things and chew the config file so it has garbled mess. Switch of this before you edit anything in text edit on OS X. It took me weeks before I realised this was happening.

Except for the smart quotes thing it sounds like using textedit on Mac is what you want to edit run.sh with. Definately do not use Notepad on Windows, it will cause more headaches than it's worth.

Not sure what the file browser is called on Mac but it should be able to see the first partition without any problem.

Baadbeats wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:24 pm

I normally use a mac. I dug out a really old pc/laptop I had to read the micro sd card. I think its running xp or vista. When I open the folders on the card in notepad or wordpad it's just a bunch of symbols and nonsense. Am I viewing the folders incorrectly? Or maybe I need a newer version of notepad. I tried downloading notepad ++ but Im having problems installing it, Im assuming my operating system is just too old. Thanks again, your time and help are much appreciated.

If you were indeed trying to load folders in a text editor they will be full of nonsense (if readable at all). The file you want to edit, run.sh, is just a text file. On any OS use a file browser to easily look through folders.