Hello, i recently bought a cabinet that had, what appears to be, a very old i-pac ps/2 controller in it. This particular version does not look like the one on the website here:
https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac-2-classic-ps-2-version

The page above doesn't exist - the site shows an error for a missing page.

It does not look like that. The model in my cabinet has two ps/2 ports on opposite ends. They are labeled PC and KBD.

Question is will retropie support this old ipac controller via a ps/2 to usb controller? And if so would I follow the programming instructions here?

I'm not sure, but if the IPAC identifies as a keyboard and it works without additional drivers, then it should be ok - RetroPie (or Linux rather) can use the keyboard.

@zen1th said in Cocktail table games machine build:

@zen1th said in Cocktail table games machine build:

Hi, I have seen a few companies selling cocktail table style games machines.

I know these often use Jamma boards, but wonder if anyone has built one of these tables using a Pi?

It looks to be possible, and I know I’ll need an IPAC controller board to connect Pi to buttons and joystick etc.

Has anyone done this already? Any obvious reason why it can’t be done?

Thanks for any help.

Any thoughts on this?

Lots of people have viewed the post.

😳

1st I want to recomment you, if you haven't already, to take a look into theinks IPac2 Guide

@joshrdunstan said in IPAC-2 causes Dual Button Press:

My IPAC-2 is an early version, pre 2015. I note that there is a firmware that allows an IPAC-2 to come up on the pi as 2 peripherals - however I can't figure out how - or if - I can update the firmware. When I hit the update firmware button on WINIPAC (V1) it just says "Download started" but doesn't appear to do anything.

citing Ultimarc

Latest firmware files (ver 1.55) for all 2015-onwards I-PAC, Mini-PAC and J-PAC boards plus all Ultimate I/O boards regardless of date. NOTE: Attempting to upgrade a pre-2015 board which this firmware will render it inoperable.

Link for Pre2015 Boards (from linked side above) [edit: No Firmware, just utils as it seem]

Hi, I seem to have the issue that's somewhat documented, where the IPAC-2 I have configured in ES on initial startup, is now causing some double button presses where there's a conflict on what is configured in ES and what's configured in retroarch.cfg. It makes most of the games on MAME unplayable. Both the configured joypad input plus the raw keyboard press are being sent to the emulator.

That's because Mame is recieving the "Keys" from the IPac-2 "Keyboard" together with the "Gamepad-Buttons" from the virtual RetroArch-"Retropad". Depending on the mame core you are using, there is either the possibility from within the retroarch-ui to configure the input mame will recieve, or for cores where that is not possible, the only way I am aware of is to configure the Input via the mame menu using either a real keyboard/gamepad and assigning only real kbd keys or gamepad keys to the functions (or by editing the corresponding .ini (edit: <default>.cfg) by hand (via editor of choice).

@jollster101 Nope, ever was what I meant - as on my Raspberry 3B with 2 connected gamepads, each of them can navigate ES and launch items, but only the gamepad for player one can use the configured "hotkey"-features (exit emulator, open libretro-menu, save/load state, etc.).

If that's not possible with your IPac configured as 2 Gamepads, more Info is needed: What IPac (pre or post 2015) and which Firmware/Mode??

How are the controlls detected by ES? What does "configure input" states if you opt for it in the "?? Devices detected... press a button on the one to be configured" window?

Some older (Pre 1.5) Firmware with Gamepad enabled Mode where not "usable" on retropie as such (I think those may have been the old one currently called Mixed-Mode Firmware (which nowadays needs a seperate version of the Winipac tool for configuration)) ... Between the old Firmwares (the times with different firmwares for gamepad and keyboard only setups), may have been in the time around 2019/2020, there where some changes in the naming of firmware-/&modes on Ultimarcs behalve and sadly I haven't archived the "inbetweens" and properly named my old-archive of the tools/firmwares to use the terms in a correct/everyone knows whats meant way :/

Should be possible, why not ?
Use the GPIO inputs for simulating keyboard keys input and map them to the emulator's controls. For this bit you may need some additional configuration or scripts to interpret the GPIO pins state, but other than that there's just configuring the emulators' input for the actions you need.

@rasp_renegade Hello, it happened to me too. But after loading a new firmware ( IPAC2_155c.ufw ) under the WinIPAC, I also loaded the Default Ipac2.ipc ( you can find it under C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC V2\Defaults\ folder. Somehow before this there was no keys are mapped. The default Ipac2.ipc solving such a problem easily.
Kind Regards
Niyazi

@mitu You're totally right, the ROMs I have just aren't the two control set versions, I just tried Gauntlet and everything worked fine. Thanks for your help!!!

@seannyboy08 Can't know without finding the cause of the issue.

@bram279b What mitu said plus... you should just be able to swap joystick ports with the controller. It's built into the base mapping if you're using a SNES style controller.

If not, it should be your "A" button, whatever that is. That should toggle.

Try it with an easier game like Bruce Lee. Use the virtual keyboard as well as the controller to make sure you have it setup correctly.

The Virtual Keyboard in lr-vice64 also has a button to press to toggle joysticks,

@mitu Thank you...
it works like a charm!!

@bascoumans said in Having problems configuring ipac2 with retropie:

in keyboard mode and followed the extended guide on this forum. In this mode ES wont recognise it as a gamepad so I cant configure it in the menu.

That is strange! Because, even if ES configure Input Menu is telling you it hasn't detected a gamepad, pressing a "keyboard" key should get you through the configuration of the controls for player 1 (same as with only a real keyboard connected)! Have you tried pressing a button (mapped as keyboard key), or does the message that no gamepad was found had mislead you to assume that a keyboard cannot be configured via the UI? Going through that should give you a valid retroarch.cfg (as said for player 1), to add player 2 controls you still have to edit the file.

Ok, thank you

@spanishsnowman 1.5.0 is the retroarch version and was released in 2017. I wouldn't waste my time troubleshooting that.

Then the exit shortcut would be Tab + Key1.

@andrewsi

Ah, I see. Thank you for the info. I will give it a try!

Thank. God. That was so much easier (though I still confused myself.) At least doing it that way I can test it in the game and change it on the fly if it wasn't right. Megadrive/Genesis is mapped correctly, so now I just need to work on the MAME games themselves (which I can save per game config instread of per core.)

Thank you so much!

This guy here had the same problem and he found a way of making it work.
Apparently the way to go is to configure retroarch to use a standard keyboard then swapping the real keyboard to the ipac.

Over here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/1722/if-you-have-purchased-an-ipac2-and-want-to-save-time

I have managed to get it operating correctly. I just need to configure the buttons now. Thank you.

Thanks for the help guys! Much appreciated.