ARpiCADE_5 - for Pi4 or Pi5

[FrizzleFried]

Just loaded up Strikers 1945 on a vert setup in both MAME 0.251 and 0.269 and it was fine. 100% speed & picture looking right. @Ccie38296 which emulator were you using for Strikers 1945? EDIT: tried s1945ii and s1945iii and they were slow at 90%ish in 251 and 269 but the picture was good - prob better speed in an earlier MAME, maybe 172.

May I ask how you are determining what speed you are at and is it something I can do with my Pi3 build (I suspect it's something built in to MAME perhaps?)

[FrizzleFried]

Agree with alot youve mentioned. Ive decided to do the same, reinstalled my ArPiCade 4, love this product but V5 has been very challenging to say the least... It will end up being as great if not better than V4 I feel. Hopefully frizzlefried will also be able to update some of his themes as well. Not digging the Opacity theme at all. The modded sdarcadev2 Dee2er sent me is nice but the fonts become unreadable/hard to read. Opacity fonts and main menu fonts are nice and legible at least. Ive spent over a week messing with it and at this time its not worth the hassle and V4 still works great. Was mainly wanting for the performance boost of the pi5. Been an active member and user since 2017 and love this product so hoping to one day play around again with v5

Welp... I am on the precipice of updating my vertical Pi3 build... and was also hoping to go to Pi5... however... after reading this thread thoroughly I think i might hold off a bit as well. When one person has issues it's one thing... when multiple people report the same issue, it's time to dig a little deeper.

I'm a little bummed though as I don't think I want to go with a Pi4 as I am guessing there isn't enough of a performance increase going from Pi3 to Pi4 to warrant the investment both money and (especially) time-wise.

Also, it's apparent that going to Pi5 is going to require me to update my library of front-ends... is this something that is NECESSARY or perhaps the next update of the Pi5 software could... un-break them? I ask as updating them all and re-uploading (and maintaining two versions of) them all is going to be a pain in the ass (to be frank).

Will I do it (if I have to)... probably... eventually... but that would require a Pi5 rig to work with.

I guess it's not the best time to be making these decisions (on my end)... or I should just plunge in knowing what I am getting in to with the idea of beta testing and what not... half of my reason to update is boredom and wanting something to do (to be honest).

[dee2eR]

May I ask how you are determining what speed you are at and is it something I can do with my Pi3 build (I suspect it's something built in to MAME perhaps?)

F10 on keyboard while a game is running, only works in most MAME versions.

[dee2eR]

Hopefully frizzlefried will also be able to update some of his themes as well. Not digging the Opacity theme at all. The modded sdarcadev2 Dee2er sent me is nice but the fonts become unreadable/hard to read. Opacity fonts and main menu fonts are nice and legible at least.

Also, it's apparent that going to Pi5 is going to require me to update my library of front-ends... is this something that is NECESSARY or perhaps the next update of the Pi5 software could... un-break them? I ask as updating them all and re-uploading (and maintaining two versions of) them all is going to be a pain in the ass (to be frank).

Will I do it (if I have to)... probably... eventually... but that would require a Pi5 rig to work with.

I don't know if it's necesary to update themes (yet, only had the one report of that but I don't know why it would be needed). The recent mods I've made to themes were to suit the Pi5 directory structure changes and wouldn't apply to most themes, it's just to do with the auto hori/vert rotation themes. The ARpiCADE_5 Opacity version also had font size changes to make 240p more readable though.

I can check a few of your newest themes if you like. I am a bit curious as to what happen on cool_factors build when trying sdarcade_v3 but I haven't grabed the theme to check it yet (seems like the whole build borked though so may not actually be the theme).

[cool_factor]

Slowly going through the game list to make sure everything is working, still on the letter A!

I've got another strange control issue in 0.251.

Normally, the input devices are:
1. RaspberryJAMMA_P1
2. RaspberryJAMMA_P2

When it's like this, everything works fine.

Occasionally, when loading up a ROM I'll have an extra input device:

1. Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)
2. RaspberryJAMMA_P1
3. RaspberryJAMMA_P2

And the controls are all messed up, Joy1 becomes Joy 2 and Joy2 becomes Joy 3.

I just loaded another game and now I have:
1. Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)
2. Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)
3. RaspberryJAMMA_P1
4. RaspberryJAMMA_P2

And, just loaded Andro Dunos and now I have:
1. Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)
2. RaspberryJAMMA_P1
3. RaspberryJAMMA_P2
4. Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)

Rebooting fixes this and restored the normal 2 RaspberryJAMMA input devices, any ideas?!

Also, more worryingly, if I restart my cab, the Pi5 seems to frequently not boot, I'm wondering if this is a voltage tweak needed?

I also experienced the reboot issue. Id start with about 10 ROMs, test a few then add more... Everytime Id reboot it wouldnt start. I figured bad burn, I'll try again with a fresh build. Did the same thing, OK maybe bad SD card so tried new one, nope, worked great on first try, shut down and add ROMs and wouldnt start. Power levels all good, thats when I just gave up and went back to the original Pi, gave up on the Pi5. Ive been using since 2017 and have had challenges in the beginning and learned ALOT. I just IMO dont feel the V5 is ready for prime time, still has some issues that I know will be worked out eventually. I can wait..

[FrizzleFried]

A few questions RE: Romsets, etc...

• Is there anything significant that came out between MAME .251 and .269? I ask as I HAVE a .251 full set... but am having difficulty finding a .269 full set. I realize that represents about a year +/- between versions ... and I am sure a few games became supported in that time ... just wondering if people are choosing .269 because of some 'killer game' that .251 doesn't do properly?

• Is it still (generally) typical that the newer the version of MAME ... the slower it is? Is .269 noticeably slower than .251?

• Is FBA still being used? I've always been impressed by FBA's speed in many games (Neo-Geo, PGM, etc) ... but I am sure it's at a cost of accuracy. Also, at this point, I am guessing the speed of the processor allows MAME to run these games without issue, no? I noticed my P4 still struggles with most/all PGM titles (for example) using MAME .172.

• If I can't find a .269 full set specifically... I 'assume' I can run the next closest ROM set (.272 I think I can get) that I can find... the only differences should be additional ROMS ... right? The older roms should all be the same as .269. Is this a correct assumption?

• Does ARpiCADE prefer Merged or Non-Merged sets or does it make any difference what so ever?

[dee2eR]

There was a Mr Driller game added that I think was the inspiration for someone wanting 269. Not sure of much else.

As a general rule, yes older MAME versions are still often faster (unless the game is already fullspeed in newer MAME). It's not a set in stone rule though, I have come accross the odd game that works best in newer MAME (not example jumps to mind though).

FBA isn't very useful anymore, maybe something will still run better in it but again I don't know offhand.

A lot of roms from your 251 set will work in 269, not all though. May as well start with what you have in 251. 172 is still useful for some harder to run things too.

Either way should work as long as all the needed parts are in the romzip or an available parent rom has the extra bits.

[FrizzleFried]

I know how to create LISTS that are vertical and horizontal only... is there an easy way I can take a full set and separate the roms by orientation? Would give much more space to play with in each cab...

EDIT: To answer my own question above...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoK7SBuxSEw

I've followed this procedure... it worked.

[FrizzleFried]

OK... Pi5 system obtained and ready to rock.

Before it arrived I added .251 ROMS ... a bunch of my AttractMode Layouts ... a bunch of custom romlists ... full suite of vids / snaps ... full suite of marquees images... I am also running stock speeds for right now.

Initial impression: I was ready for somewhat of a s***-show to be 100% honest. What greeted me upon power up was Opacity theme in horizontal mode with a bunch of games already showing up... and the few I checked worked minus one notable exception. It seems IGS's PGM system isn't working. I tried a few of them (horizontal and vertical) without success. I'll dive in to that as I'm guessing it's just a bios missing or something. The other games worked as advertised... I then switched to vertical mode (as i am testing on a vertical cabinet). Same situation... the few games I tried worked minus the PGM game I tried...

What I've come across thus far:

• There are most assuredly some font issues. Opacity is not using the font it's supposed to and it's defaulting to a really crappy "pixel" type font. Where are the fonts located? Can I easily pull them from a Pi3 or Pi4 to add to the Pi5?

• The power-on "Arpicade" screen runs the horizontal version regardless if you run in horizontal or vertical mode.

• There are various MAME screens that show up when you load. Some requiring input. Some not. All should be hidden IMHO.

That's all I've come across in my short time playing around with it. I primarily wanted to confirm the suspicion there is a font issue. There is. The MAME intro screen isn't a big deal... I'm going to see what i can do about the PGM games... and do more testing. I did run A few Cave games... each loaded as it's supposed to (except for the one that I suspect is a PGM game as it's also from IGS...

What is the most strenuous (to the Pi) vertically oriented game out there?

EDIT: OK... been playing a bit more with it. Thus far I've encountered ONE TIME (other than with PGM games) that a game that should load didn't. I tried a 2nd time and it loaded (Cave game). I did notice that PGM2 games are working. I am ... THRILLED ... with the performance thus far.

I did notice than when I attempted to use one of my themes (Vertical Sphere) it was upside down and made everything (menus etc) upside down. It's been a long time since I played with the layouts... shouldn't be a big deal though. Fonts were missing still though.

EDIT #2: Welp... I'm making a new image... I came back to put .172 romlist on the card and every time I go in to the linux side it's like throwing dice as to whether the damn thing will load or not afterward. That's how it is with the Pi3... Pi4... and now Pi5 with me for some reason. HAS to be this linux/windows software. I've just gotten good at getting it all done in one shot thereby minimizing the chance of corruption. ANYWAY... I corrupted the first image (it loads the intro image quickly then the fan goes full on and it sits at black screen). SO... it's a long process to copy everything over... but I think this time I'll just go with snaps for now ... I can always add the vids later. That'll speed things up a bit.

• One thing of note Dee2er... I noticed that the font for my layouts are all in the folder. I'll go in to take a look when the image is done but I suspect there may be a hard path in the code for that font... and being these layouts used to all be on the linux side I think... right?

• Oddly... while 251 rocks Cave games with no issue... later Psikyo shooters (Strikers II, Strikers III, Gunbird II, etc) struggle bigtime. That is why I was looking for the 172 ROMlist...

EDIT #3: Dee2er... nope! Prior...in the layout.nut file there is this line:

fe.layout.font = "captain"

Of course captain.ttf is located in the layouts root file. That doesn't seem to be working any more...

[cool_factor]

Your EDIT#2 is why I quit messing around with v5/Pi5. It's like you better put everything you want on the sd card on the first build because you're rolling the dice on if it'll reboot if you've got to add/change something. My vertical cab v3.x and my horizontal cable v4.3 I can mess with all day and they'll both start every time.