Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Installing ARpiCADE for the first time? Having issues? Check here first for solutions and tips on installing.

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adams_arcade
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Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by adams_arcade » Tue Aug 27, 2019 3:58 am

Greetings,

Is anyone using or has a build for a single game use. I’m missing the pcb on a project game and would like to use my Arpicade with Mame .203 and the rom.

Basically I want a stealth startup directly to the game.

If a tutorial is available please let me know.

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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by dee2eR » Tue Aug 27, 2019 4:34 am

You can set a game to run at startup in /boot/run.sh. There's an example in the file.

If you want to make it 'dedicated' I recommend also disabling some or all of the hotkeys, if you don't at least disable the exit command. You may also want to disable the loading screens and change the boot splash to either all black or something that is similar to the dedicated game style (or maybe even that winners don't use drugs screen if the game is about the right age). Adding a 'sudo reboot' to the line after the game launch in run.sh will make the whole system reboot if the game happens to crash or something (not that you should expect it to), can save having a machine sitting on the command line if it's only one game you're using.

Otherwise you can also make it so it loads to your dedicated game and if you exit the game then the game menu loads.

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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by adams_arcade » Tue Aug 27, 2019 5:31 am

I did see it load the dedicated game although the resolution was totally wrong. How do I control the resolution?

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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by dee2eR » Tue Aug 27, 2019 5:41 am

Depends on what emulator you're using, along with the game, Pi settings etc. Probably it's a logic issue in the launcher script (/boot/launchers/[emulator].sh).

You mentioned MAME 0.203, what game are you trying? I'm happy to take a look.

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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by adams_arcade » Tue Aug 27, 2019 5:49 am

Timber

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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by dee2eR » Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:20 am

What resolution are you running in? Once I found a working rom Timber was fine in 203 for me (@default settings, ie 480i).

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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by adams_arcade » Wed Aug 28, 2019 3:45 am

Pics attached using the tapper rom at this time for testing
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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by adams_arcade » Wed Aug 28, 2019 4:25 am

Good News!
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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by adams_arcade » Wed Aug 28, 2019 4:30 am

In the file run.sh - What else do I need to do to prevent leaving the dedicated game?
Is there any other files to edit?

#! /bin/bash

## Setup dispmanx for SDL1.2
export SDL_DISPMANX_IGNORE_RATIO=1
clear

## Now loading message
/boot/nowloadn.sh

## Start hotkeys
hotkeys start

## If you want to auto load a game put it here
/boot/launchers/mame203.sh timber >/dev/null 2>&1

## Scan roms for Attract-Mode list
## accepts 1 command 'all' 'arcade' 'console' 'acnoporn' or 'allnoporn'
#bash /boot/launchers/ScanRoms_V007.sh allnoporn >/dev/null 2>&1

## Bugfix for SDL2.0 keyboard input to terminal bug for a cleaner Attract-Mode
stty -echo

## Launch Attact-Mode (games list)
attract >/dev/null 2>&1

## Launch Attact-Mode again (service menu)
attract -c /home/pi/.attractsm/ >/dev/null 2>&1

## Restore terminal keyboard output for a usable terminal
stty sane

## AdvanceMenu frontend
## NOTE: AdvMenu is now considered depreciated so the config file is out of date, some config will be required to use AdvMenu
## If you want to use AdvanceMenu disable all romscanning scripts as they are not used by AdvanceMenu
#/home/pi/.advance/advmenu >/dev/null 2>&1

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Re: Using Arpicade as a dedicated game?

Post by dee2eR » Wed Aug 28, 2019 6:25 am

You can completely disable the hotkeys in run.sh by commenting out (or removing) the line:
hotkeys start

If you use the other hotkeys you may want to disable the exit hotkey only. This can be done in either the emulator or the hotkeys.ini config file, emulator is probably the easiest to modify at the cab. MAME uses the UI_Cancel input for exiting so if you change that you won't be able to exit accidentally.

You may also want to add a reboot line after the emulator launch line in run.sh, that way if the emulator crashes or you accidentally exit the game somehow the system will reboot and reload the game. To do so, on the line immediately after the line the game is launched on add:
sudo reboot

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