Bartop Arcade - Issues with controls
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Skip to the "***********" line for the main problem and to skip the backstory.
Hello forum! So I just recently purchased a mame bartop arcade running a raspberry pi 3 from Craigslist (I know, dun dun dunnnn). It seems to be running emulationstation but with a "skin" over it that makes it look more like a multicade with a vertical scrolling list of consoles (and a list of games within those consoles) and a graphic of an arcade machine to the left with a preview of the game on the screen of it. (Maybe someone could point me into what this software is called so i can try to troubleshoot further?)
Anyhow, the setup of it is a raspberry pi 3, hooked up to 2 sets of arcade buttons (one for player one and one for player 2). It also has 2 usb ports on the front that you can use to plug in usb controllers or a usb keyboard.
So, when I went to check out the arcade, everything worked perfect. Was able to scroll through menus, load up games, play them. 2 Player mode worked fine with the second joypad having no problems. I bought it. Good deal, right?
Anyhow, I get home, give it to my wife as a birthday gift a week and a half later (didn't play it since I purchase it as I had to hide it), and of course begin running into problems.
The main issue seems to be that I can use the player 1 joypad to scroll through menus and pick games just fine. All buttons seem to work, no issues. BUT, when I load into a game, all the controls for player 1 stop working. Actually, player 2 wouldn't work either. It was extremely strange. I would have to hard restart the Pi to get back to the main menu, where the controls would work again. Going back into a game, the controls would all die again (the game loads fine, I just couldn't interact with it).
Anyhow, after some sleuthing, I found that if I started the game and then plugged a usb controller into the bottom usb port on the front of the machine (the usb ports that are there for extra controllers so you can play 4 people), that I could control things, in-game. The controller wasn't really set up so I had to guess around on the buttons, but still, it was interacting.
If I restarted the console with this controller plugged into the usb port (we'll call it port 4, since it was the bottom usb port), the menu system would be controlled by that controller, with the player 1 joypad not responding. If I chose a game, the port 4 usb controller stopped working, but now the player 2 joypad would be fully responsive. Unplugging the controller from port 4 and restarting the Pi resulted back to the same experience as originally, with the player 1 joypad navigating menus and no interaction once a game was loaded.
There are about 15 different consoles on it with approximately 50 games on each one. And a few games from most all of the consoles responded this same way, making me think it's something off at a fundamentally higher level, and not a "configure per game" or "configure per emulator" issue.
Other than the details I gave you, I don't really have a lot more info. I'm not a tech master nor a raspberry pi guru. I wasn't able to successfully get the mini usb keyboard he supplied me with to work, but that could be because I was sort of "stuck" in the emulation software.
I've tried contacting the seller, and of course, in typical craigslist fashion, he's not to be heard from, which is why I'm turning to this community. Has anyone seen this issue, or an issue like it before? Can anyone help shed light on how I can get this working? It worked once, at least for when I was testing it out, and I'm not sure why it decided not to work basically the second I bought it, but it's really frustrating, and I basically have a dud of a birthday gift right now until I can get it up and working.
Thanks anyone and everyone so much who takes the time out to read all of this and respond, it's MUCH appreciated. I'll try and answer any and all questions that I'm able to. At the moment, I don't know which raspberry pi it is, as I've not been able to navigate out to a command line or anything like that to see.
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@jblock22 Sorry but third party images are not supported on this forum, especially those stuffed with pirated ROMs bought from some sketch on CL, only the official image. No-one here has the first clue how this crap is set up. Is it even running RetroPie?
Get support from the seller or just accept you were ripped off and move on. -
Great, thanks for the help!
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@jblock22 You'll get the same reply from the admins, the moderators and the other regulars on this forum.
This forum does not exist to supply tech support for Craig's List.
Start with a fresh image downloaded from the official site and we'll be happy to help should you encounter any issues. Until then it looks like you will have to seek advice elsewhere.
Good luck. -
Bummer, but okay. Thanks for your time.
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@jblock22 On the bright side, you do have what sounds like a Pi3, which is a supported computer, you have a cabinet someone built with arcade controls, USB ports, a display, and a nice enough design that you were interested in buying it. A build project with just this hardware alone is a serious undertaking, and getting one that looks nice enough to sell is no small feat. Depending on how it was built, you might also have a controls interface of some kind.
Now, the software is the real questionable part of all of this, but you can easily re image the SD card with a known working image from this website and join the community. You will need to open up your system and do some investigating into what exactly you have which might entail some google searching as well, but once you know what you have and you are willing to work with it, you can probably turn this in to a great system. It will take work and interest, but it can be a fun hobby.
Maybe that is not why you bought it, but there could be a silver lining.
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