ARpiCADE_5 - for Pi4 or Pi5

[FrizzleFried]

One thing i am doing is modifying all my 172/251 romlists to load Psikyo games like Strikers II and III with advmame. It works great... except one thing... I lost my artwork. No marquees, snaps or movies show for those game. Why is that? Any way I can fix that on my end?

Also, the error screens for MAME 251... something I can tinker with on my end by chance? If so... send me in the right direction.



Same with high scores... I'm willing to play as necessary to test things...

[cool_factor]

I know its a Hyperspin forum but maybe something like this, its a modified version of 0.251:

https://hyperspin-fe.com/files/file/240 ... 51-no-nag/

[FrizzleFried]

Bummer. That tells me Dee2er is going to likely have to compile it.

[dee2eR]

One thing i am doing is modifying all my 172/251 romlists to load Psikyo games like Strikers II and III with advmame. It works great... except one thing... I lost my artwork. No marquees, snaps or movies show for those game. Why is that? Any way I can fix that on my end?

Not sure why that happened, I'll look into it and get back to you.

EDIT: it's a paths issue in Attract-Mode... somehow when I added /firmware/ to the paths I've added it twice for AdvMAME. This can be fixed form within Attract-Mode by editing the previews paths for AdvMAME in the emulators section.

[dee2eR]

Bummer. That tells me Dee2er is going to likely have to compile it.

Unfortunately you're right. The versions of 251 and 265 are both just vanilla MAME and will require editing and recompiling to remove the nag screens.

[dee2eR]

From a look at the image FrizzleFried sent me the reason the SD card is not booting is the second partition... I can't even mount it on my Linux box, it is complaining the partition 'structure needs cleaning'. Not sure how this happens, maybe it's something to do with Paragon as I don't think Windows can do much with the second partition without it but really I'm guessing.

A filesystem check and repair on the second partition using GParted got it working again, both on my desktop and in the RPi5. If you have GParted it is a much faster fix than reimaging the whole card.

Again, I'm not sure why it happened, especially if you didn't mount the second partition.

[FrizzleFried]

No idea what GParted is... and yeah, that image simply was created... it worked... then removed it... moved it to the PC... I didn't even MOUNT the linux side... so it remained UNMOUNTED... and... corrupt.

EDIT: OK... GParted is a linux disk management program...

I am guessing something I don't run on my arcade monitor. I am guessing this would require I setup a a space to run the Pi5 from natively? Probably would have to create a Pi OS mem card... no?

If it's relatively straight forward it may be something for me to toy with. That said... I'm down to a 4 minute 21 second re-image... and I've found I can play with everything... windows side or linux side... without issue of corruption... the FIRST (and only) time through. So... each time I make a modification... test if... if it works and I like the result, I re-image... make the change... then create a new image with that update in it. That new image will then load with the change(s) in place and I can move forward... I'm at a place now where I can match the usability of my Pi3 ... ALMOST.

The only remaining issues are:

• High Score saves in .251 ... but .251 is only used for a handful of games... .172 is my primary 'go to' and it's saving high scores. AdvMAME runs the Striker II & II and other of the same system...

• Error Screens in MAME .251

• Vertical ARpiCADE intro screen (which is an easy fix for even me... as all I have to do is modify the actual image being used to make it a vertical image... no big deal what so ever).

That's it thus far. I am sure I'll come across more as I test more (i've not done a bunch of game testing... just system testing)... but this version as it stands is actually pretty close to being good to go. The SD card corruption thing is a pain in the ass for sure ... but to be 100% honest, it's nothing new. Pi3 and Pi4 versions did the same thing... to an extent. They wouldn't BLACK SCREEN me... but they sure as heck would corrupt. I'd end up with text lines and error codes popping up during the intro/loading screen sequences... (and in the case of the 4P Pi4 system I have it would screw with my controls)... it it wouldn't completely corrupt the image so it wouldn't even load.... so I am using to having to perfect/modify and re-image for a nice final image.

The Pi5 has too many upsides for me not to use it. It's soooo much faster than the Pi3 and Pi4. I'd love to see what it compares to on the PC side of things. I find the fact that such a powerful little device can be had on such a small platform with so little heat amazing.

BTW... I'm running mine overclocked to 2880 / 960 (20% overclock) without so much as a hiccup. The fan barely even comes on (I've seen it come on during gameplay for 2 games and even then only once in a while). I will say though, my garagecade is rocking about 50 degrees so it's nice and cool in there. I've run it 3000/1000 without so much as an issue but when you have to re-image every time you make a change, I figured it would be safer to go back to 2880/960 ... though I would like to see how far this will go (though I've read that any gains over 3000mhz show very little actual benefit).

[FrizzleFried]

Also... I've noticed a few oddities with my layouts. First off, I wonder why, in Opacity (my version not the modified version Dee2er did) my shadows in text mode are all of a sudden justified RIGHT while the gamelist itself is justified LEFT. I'm going to have to either fix that or eliminate the shadow completely. I'll probably make a separate image of just the bare system without anything extra to play around with my layout designs ... it would make for a quicker imaging, etc.

I suspect we're never going to figure out WHY the images are corrupting in Windows/Paragon ... but I am hoping we figure out a little more efficient way to work around it. THAT SAID... realizing just how much of a dummy I am using this old old old card reader (it's gotta be a USB 1.1 version)... and going from it to a modern card reader (USB 3 FTW!)... has increased my speed of the process by 5x (My current image was taking over 21 minutes before... it took about 4 and a half minutes with the new card reader.).

EDIT: I just looked at the Opacity code and I can't see WHY the 'shadow' breaks. I simply removed it. Is V5 running a newer version of Attract Mode? Should I bother going to the AM website to determine why it breaks the shadow and if it can be fixed?

[cool_factor]

I can say I'm using windows 10 and the Paragon software and not once have I had a corruption problem between older versions and their folders, ever. Any problems I've come across has been something I've done some how. As Frizzlefried has stated I've experienced the same, never touched/loaded the Linux side, just added ROMs and then it black screens. I've also got a VM on same PC with Linux running on it. So I can see the Linux side if needed. I will admit I have very little experience with Linux and I hope that if Friz/Deeter get this worked out that a download will be made available for us dummies.. LoL

[FrizzleFried]

Small issue/oddity...

I can not delete the stock displays. I'd like to remove all non-arcade displays but the stock ones are stuck. I can turn them off which works, but they still show up in the settings displays section.