ARpiCADE_5 - for Pi4 or Pi5

[FrizzleFried]

FWIW... I just checked both of my .251 and .269 mame.ini files and both had SKIP_GAMEINFO set for 1...

[FrizzleFried]

I just applied the update on page 3 you mentioned Dee2er and yes, it seemed to fix my control issue (at least with Zaxxon... the only game I've played thus far...)

Question: The update obviously adds 4 seconds between MAME power-down and front-end load. Is that 4 seconds optimized or just the initial attempt to fix ... which worked. >grin<

If the latter I'll spend some time optimizing the time and can report back (who knows... maybe just 1 second will work?)... if the prior I wouldn't want to waste my time.

Question: When you do update ... will you provide an upgrade path if possible (manually or via the update)? I've already put some time in to getting the front end setup the way I like and would like to avoid having to do it again ... if possible.

Thanks!

[mappy24]

Happy to see all this work being done, can't wait for the next release!

[dee2eR]

Question: The update obviously adds 4 seconds between MAME power-down and front-end load. Is that 4 seconds optimized or just the initial attempt to fix ... which worked. >grin<

If the latter I'll spend some time optimizing the time and can report back (who knows... maybe just 1 second will work?)... if the prior I wouldn't want to waste my time.

Question: When you do update ... will you provide an upgrade path if possible (manually or via the update)? I've already put some time in to getting the front end setup the way I like and would like to avoid having to do it again ... if possible.

The 4 seconds is compensating for the delay starting up the hotkeys (to have them start just after MAME), so if MAME crashes they don't stop before they start (yeah, that sounds weird...). It is not necesarily optimized but is probably pretty close unless the startup delay is reduced too. I did have a quick go yesterday of having the hotkeys stop in the background without the user noticing the delay but it made it possible to select a new game before the hotkeys system had turned off, which then causes input order issues.

Was planning to try reducing the noticible delay returning to the menu by half and having the other half in the background (the ol' split the difference approach) today but one of my kids is sick. I may get to trying it later on.

On the update front. I was planning to do the full image because of the issues you Windows guys have been having... I thought extra update scripts would just be a pain in the butt for you. I'm happy to do little update patches rather than images, as long as there hasn't been a mojor change that needs a full image.

[FrizzleFried]

Since Paragon 7... I've had ZERO issues on that front.

[cool_factor]

Also confirmed: ZERO issues with Paragon 7 since testing it out. Just glad I found that other forum regarding the issues they experienced.

[FrizzleFried]

...and to be clear, a full package would be best for "everyone" (newbs, etc)... for me, I'd prefer to simply add the new emulators, and make the edits ... if possible ... myself because I've been dumb enough to put a bit of time in to my BETA build.

[cool_factor]

OK... bad news...

I've finally had a little time to actually PLAY the system a bit.

Unfortunately, I AM encountering the same issues that others have reported with games taking multiple attempts to load.

On top of that, I've noticed that I'll load up a game... the controls will be screwy... Down is P1... P1 Start doesn't work, etc... etc... I'll exit, I'll attempt to go in to the same game and it will not work a couple times but then eventually it will let me back in... but the controls will work!

Thus far I've only tested this on .269 ...

Once it seems to get messed up... it SEEMS to get worse. More and more games won't load immediately... sometimes taking 3 ... sometimes 4 attempts.

Controls will be all messed up... but then fixed from time to time with the very same game.

Was playing Galaga this A.M. exited out using hotkeys back to Attract Mode. Tried GORF, loaded and controls wouldn't respond. Exited back out and in again, no change. Exited and went back to Galaga again, no controls. Doubled check everything and I do have the"fix" implemented. Only restarting cab got games working again.

[dee2eR]

A brief update.

Attempting MAME patching now... figured I may as well try the current version while I'm compiling stuff... so possible 0.274 (arcade only) soon.

Currently fighting compiling issues unrelated to the source code... fun fun fun. For a while it was easy to compile MAME on RPi, maybe I should try a newer (or older) build.

Once that compiles I have source for 251 and 264 (I had patched and tried to compile it a while back but hit some issue and moved on...). I still have to grab and edit the 269 source, but if 274 works out it may not be worth it... Will compile each for arcade games only as we really don't need multiple 400meg binaries that support a bunch of stuff we wont use.

I have a couple of ideas to try on the controller order issue too, it was bugging me that it doesn't happen on older ARpiCADE versions which got me thinking...

[dee2eR]

Only restarting cab got games working again.

Unfortuntely that seems to be the fix at the moment. I suspect it may be less likely to go wrong if you wait a second before selecting a new game, but I'm not currently sure what the root cause actually is (I think it is caused by MAME crashing but no idea why as it's intermitant).