@herb_fargus said in Don't try this at home, kids:

what we really need is a sqlite filter with tags rather than having to edit the emulators config but that's more of a new frontend thing or a large update to ES. one can hope anyways

This is what @fieldofcows suggested in this thread: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6985/metadata-improvements-in-emulationstation

While he's been busy with the WSOD fix, I put together a fairly comprehensive design doc that will allow a lot more power to users and theme designers. I'm hoping he and/or I can get it implemented sometime over the next few months. Fingers crossed...

@MWGemini
For my Pi Zero's I have a couple of the Anker 2-4-port USB wall chargers around the house. They output up to 2.1 amps (might be 2.4) per channel, and I've switched everything over to Amazon Basics micro USB cables which seem very nice. The power supply/cables hopefully aren't the problem as they power all the other working Zero's I have just fine.

@BuZz
I have another topic open about getting my ethernet adapter working since my 2.4ghz wireless has been flaky. Will RetroPie (like version 4.0.2. or maybe 4.1.0) give me a warning if it fails to compile or update something like EmulationStation for example? I know you mentioned RetroPie was JUST updated to NOT clear error messages for better troubleshooting.

I'm wondering because I'm now actually watching my other Pi (not this one I'm having problems with) run all the updates and I don't think I've ever seen that much code flash across the terminal window on the ones which have had issues (it's up to like 15+ pages of code, and it's been doing the update for maybe an hour so far and I don't know how much longer it has to go). I can never remember the problematic ones taking longer than maybe 20-30 minutes to update something which has me wondering if they're really failing to update, and I missed any error message which flashed up, and that's been why I could never fix them.

--once I'm done updating this working Pi Zero I'll see if the malfunctioning one can use the Ethernet adapter (but I'm pretty sure only newer versions of RetroPie can use that ethernet adapter since I could never get it working before - so I might be stuck without internet access to test anything out on the malfunctioning Pi Zero).

@domodan Although not as big as your 60" screen plan, my cabinet is a functioning 4-player design that plays all of the classic arcade games plus some consoles that interested me from when I was a kid (Atari 2600, NES, SNES). Check the link in my signature for details about my project.

As you are probably concluding, you can get away with playing most of the older consoles using arcade controls, provided you have enough buttons. For me, that was six action buttons for players 1 and 2, and four buttons for players 3 and 4, not counting coin and start which double as select and start for consoles.

I am looking forward to seeing more details about your project, as we seem closely aligned in terms of what you want to play--the only difference being maybe that I wanted some portability and the ability to play vertical games from the short sides of my cabinet so the image can fill the display.

@qbert bad sdcard or bad image. that doesn't sound like an official image, so I would seek help from the source.

@dankcushions I tried a different random rom (1080 snowboarding) and it was fine. if those settings aren't 1s I should look at can you suggest others that may help better? I've read about overclocking the pi3 but that seems a bit drastic this early on.

I've changed to hi res emulator and 1280x720 50hz and conquers ran alright at the beggining but starting to get laggy again just before the menu. lots more playing will come i'm sure now I'm getting far more familiar with things.

Yeah, ppsspp is a good bit faster and more accurate than lr-ppsspp. Some games you can run well at 1080p, some will run certain sections well, some will just choke. Depends on the game.

Pi2 I have played:
Hotshots Tennis at 1080p full speed except when the camera zooms in on the tennis court.
Gurumin at 1080p, parts of town are very slow. Inside the house is full speed, as are most gameplay levels.

I can test more later. Will have to figure out how to use the USB rom location. Games are big. :D

Definitely use ppsspp instead of lr-ppsspp. But keep a keyboard handy. You can't exit to the menu with the joystick.

@herb_fargus Same. I just always ran and slid underneath it or jumped over haha.

Np.

@flop I'll attempt to wire the pi with a fan and a transistor going to pin 12 (GPIO 18) and I'll report back with findings.

@backstander My kid can't get the B-class license on the original PlayStation Gran Turismo.

@omiez It's not a must, but it will help with some games.

Here's a guide: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Overclocking

@MWGemini Cheers. Might try it out on my MAME ROMs. Maybe group into years or genre.

The PS1 had somewhate "simplified" 3d capabilities compared to the Nintendo 64. For instance, PSX didn't have any sort of camera perspective correction, so moving the camera would stretch/warp shapes. Of course you probably wouldn't notice this since SONY did textures better than Nintendo. The biggest downfall of the N64 (well graphics-wise at least) was the 4K texture size. I resulted on blurry, ugly, stretch out textures. Combine that with Hardware AA, and the result was pretty much always blurry.

It was weird playing N64 on Retropie The first time with smoothing off, because it looked so much better than the actual N64 hardware.

In the end, SONY probably made the smarter choice to go with less advance hardware and No AA. It didn't hurt that they had great marketing and went after an older audience that was probably a better fit for the system.

Cheers mate, got it working

@optimuschrisss Which consoles are you to planning to spend your social life on :D Yeah I know RetroPie is very awesome. I don't even touch my PS4 anymore since I got the Pi.