ARpiCADE 4.3 (for RPi4)

[dee2eR]

You will want to check the home folder /home/pi/ there are folders for each dedicated MAME version. The AdvMAME folder is hidden (has a dot in front of the name), .advance

It probably varies from there based on the version. There will be cfg folders for some, possibly ini too. AdvMAME keeps everything in the rc file, but that can't be copied between versions without things going awry - best to copy the settings from one rc file to the other and not just overwrite the rc file entirely.

If most of your games are in AdvMAME using 3.X you won't get the most out of upgrading to Pi4 without moving them to either MAME 0.172 or newer MAME whenever possible. AdvMAME isn't as good on Pi4 as it is on earlier Pis (and 3.X). Also 172 is great on Pi4, it's great on Pi3 too but Pi4 is powerful enough to run a lot more stuff in it...

I hope that helps.

[jmac]

Thanks for the quick info. My games so far are all arcade with a mixture of emulators/versions being used. I am going to try to add some Consoles/games to this articular system and assumed i might as well get on the Pi 4 for what it is worth with the latest Arpicade. Thanks for the info and advice!

[jmac]

Sorry i have another question with this latest Pi 4 image. In this particular situation i am needing to use an LCD 4:3 monitor. When i select the video mode that is stated as "640x480p@60 (high res)" with the following custom timing settings: "hdmi_timings=640 1 56 66 70 480 1 6 9 30 0 0 0 60 0 26208000 1" (in config.txt) things work though the aspect ration and screen fill/location seems odd to me. I attached an image to show the result. What i am seeing is a square display size on the screen (not a 4:3 ratio) and the centering is off a bit. When i push an info button on this arcade LCD monitor it says the signal is "720x480x60hz". When i experiment in config.txt and set it to Mode 1 640x480 the monitor fills and looks as expected in attract mode. Launching a game is a mess though under those circumstances i think expected. Does anyone have any suggestions for me on this. All of my other Arpicade systems are CRT, this is my first go with trying to use hi res VGA with an LCD display. Thank for any info folks have on this topic.

[Cjoli]

This is great, looking forward to setting this up, I have had a Pi4 sitting in a box for a year.

Its been a while since I built an image so I need to refresh my memory how everything works. I am going to put this in my SF2 cab that I currently have an old Pi3 build I did a couple of years ago, that I run mainly 90s games in and a lot of them don't run great, so I am looking forward to seeing how this improves.

I just read through this thread, and I have few questions while I prepare to do this...

I spent a tone of time a couple of years on my current image testing games in each version of MAME trying to find the best option for each. Do you recommend I just move those games over to the equivalent version on this build, or would I be better off using newer roms in later versions of MAME?

1. Sounds like 172 should be where you start with most roms?

2. Is it still best the run NEO GEO games in FBA or should I use 172?

3. Is there a preferred MAME version for CPS1 and CPS2 game?

4. I have a 2gig Pi4 is it worth going to the 4gig?

Thanks again dee2eR for all your hard work on this!

[dee2eR]

Sorry i have another question with this latest Pi 4 image. In this particular situation i am needing to use an LCD 4:3 monitor. When i select the video mode that is stated as "640x480p@60 (high res)" with the following custom timing settings: "hdmi_timings=640 1 56 66 70 480 1 6 9 30 0 0 0 60 0 26208000 1" (in config.txt) things work though the aspect ration and screen fill/location seems odd to me. I attached an image to show the result. What i am seeing is a square display size on the screen (not a 4:3 ratio) and the centering is off a bit. When i push an info button on this arcade LCD monitor it says the signal is "720x480x60hz". When i experiment in config.txt and set it to Mode 1 640x480 the monitor fills and looks as expected in attract mode. Launching a game is a mess though under those circumstances i think expected. Does anyone have any suggestions for me on this. All of my other Arpicade systems are CRT, this is my first go with trying to use hi res VGA with an LCD display. Thank for any info folks have on this topic.

Interesting, my LCDs identify the signal as 640x480... no matter though. Your monitor should have height and width adjustments that will fix up the picture size/shape. Both my 4:3 LCDs have an auto adjust button that works great (as long as you wait for a picture to be on screen, hitting it while it's loading doesn't achieve much at all).

[dee2eR]

This is great, looking forward to setting this up, I have had a Pi4 sitting in a box for a year.

Its been a while since I built an image so I need to refresh my memory how everything works. I am going to put this in my SF2 cab that I currently have an old Pi3 build I did a couple of years ago, that I run mainly 90s games in and a lot of them don't run great, so I am looking forward to seeing how this improves.

I just read through this thread, and I have few questions while I prepare to do this...

I spent a tone of time a couple of years on my current image testing games in each version of MAME trying to find the best option for each. Do you recommend I just move those games over to the equivalent version on this build, or would I be better off using newer roms in later versions of MAME?

1. Sounds like 172 should be where you start with most roms?

2. Is it still best the run NEO GEO games in FBA or should I use 172?

3. Is there a preferred MAME version for CPS1 and CPS2 game?

4. I have a 2gig Pi4 is it worth going to the 4gig?

Thanks again dee2eR for all your hard work on this!

Don't just copy your roms accross from Pi3, while there may be a little improvement you would get more improvements using newer MAME versions. Also AdvMAME is a bit different on Pi4 comparred to Pi3, I think of it more as a last resort on Pi4.

1. Yeah, pretty much. 172 is great on Pi3 but lots of stuff could use some more power, on Pi4 172 runs most stuff great. One of the advantages of newer dedicated MAME versions (172, 203 and 230) is they have true next frame response, AdvMAME and RA core MAMEs have 1 extra frame of input processing. I recommend always starting with one of these newer MAMEs and trying other emulators when they don't work out. Of the new MAMEs 172 generally (but not always) has the best performance so it's a safe place to start.

2. Definately use 172 for NEO-GEO. If you're overclocking the Pi4 you can use MAME 230. Not sure if there's actually any difference in NEO-GEO emulation from 172 to 230 though.

3. CPS1 and 2 are a similar story, they should be full speed in either - not sure if anything has changed from 172 to 230. I have them in 172 at the moment. (CPS 1&2 were already great in 172 on Pi3 too)

4. Your 2 gig Pi4 should be fine. In gaming use I haven't (yet) found a difference between 1, 2 and 4 gig models. If you develop or compile software you may want the 4gig as you won't need a swapfile... FYI my 2gig was defective out of the box (very unstable) but a firmware update fixed it.

By the way if you haven't updated your Pi3 build in years it's worth updating it too, 3.X stomps on anything before it - especially on a low res CRT...

[Cjoli]

I just ordered a fan hat for the Pi4 so I might try overclocking at some point. Thanks for the firmware suggestion I will do that just to make sure, also you recommend starting with 172 over 174 or higher?

Yes, I am going to update the Pi3 ones as well soon, I have 2 Pi3 versions also, one has not been updated in a few years, I think the other one I redid maybe a year or so ago, there might be 2 newer version that you have released since, that one is a vertical build of only early 80s games, I have in my Ms Pac cab.

[dee2eR]

Use 172, 203 and 230 first, it's easiest to start with 172 as it runs the most at full speed. 230 is obviosly the newest so may have some emulation improvements. If you wanted to be sure you had the best possible emulation start testing with 230, then 203, then 172 - in practice 172 is the most likely of the 3 to run any particular game at fullspeed so it's not unsensible (if that is a word...lol) to start with 172.

174 and 215 are both Retroarch based. I may remove 215 in a future release as it's not very useful now we have 230. 174 can run a couple of things not supported in 172 but 174 isn't useful for much really.

To give you some idea my testing build currently has the following numbers (these numbers are subject to change as I test):
FBA: 17 roms
MAME 078: 1 roms (+ 1 CHD)
MAME 106 (AdvMAME): 50 roms (+ 1 CHD)
MAME 172: 1606 roms
MAME 203: 7 roms
MAME 230: 58 roms
Naomi/Atomiswave: 54 roms (+11 CHDs)

139 & 174 I only use as last resort (zero games at stock speeds), and at the moment don't have anything in there outside of overclocking... 139 runs Playstation based arcade boards pretty well when OC'd, it's possible some of them also run well at stock speed but I need to look into that. 215 I no longer see a point in having.

[Cjoli]

Ok thanks dee2eR, I am going to work on this tomorrow.

Where would you suggest I put Street Fighter 3 roms and CHD files?

Also I don't know much about Naomi stuff are those MAME roms or something entirely different?

[dee2eR]

CPS3 stuff is still best in FBA. You won't need the CHDs just the parent roms and nocd roms. For reasons I have yet to figure out CPS3 doesn't work in newer MAME versions on Pi4.

Flycast (Naomi & Atomiswave) uses MAME roms and CHDs (for the GD Rom games, no CHDs for carts). Not sure which set it's supposed to use but I've had good luck with later MAME roms. Not all games work but most seem to.