PC based cabinet -> Retropie based machine...help please!

matamualomia

Here's the situation. My brother in law has a Dream Arcades 4 player cabinet (like this: http://www.dreamarcades.com/v40.html) that has been limping along on XP and has a pretty garbage frontend and rom selection. He wanted to try out HyperSpin, so I gave that a shot. That experience took years off my life and was not successful. The best I got was being able to use Nestopia. I tried for way to long to get MAME working (multiple versions, all with appropriate matching roms, verified to work on an another machine) and every time I opened it from HyperSpin it crashed the computer and sent it into a boot loop. I was pulling my hair out and cussing creatively. RetroArch would not run.

My experience with RetroPie on the other had has been nothing short of a breeze. So I would like to repurpose the existing cabinet with hardware and sub in the RPi.

It is a four player cabinet and the layout is as follows:

Each player has an 8 axis controller, 7 game play buttons, a start button, and a coin button. In addition, there is a 4 axis joy with 5 associated buttons, a spinner, a trackball, and two "pause buttons". There is also a push button on the back of the cabinet that is being used for an on/off switch.

I don't know what is being used to map the keys (i.e. ultimarc, ipac, a cannibalized keyboard, or something else) because it's tucked way up there and in some sort of box. Through trial and error, I have determined that the joysticks and buttons are getting back to the PC via a USB cable. Additionally, there is a physical keyboard and mouse which are connected to a ps/2 port and usb. All told, there are two ps/2 ports and two usb ports connected--basically leaving a combination of a two cords that control the joys/buttons/spinner/trackball.

I used a keystroke checker to determine what each button/joy position is coded as. I think that the two devices being used to control the joys/buttons/trackball/spinner. The trackball and two of the first player buttons are set up as a mouse. The remainder are set up as keys.

The biggest use for this will be for MAME games, but I will also be setting it up for a handful of NES, SNES, SEGA, N64 and PS games. I would be using two usb ports for the hard wired controls: one for the trackball/buttons as a mouse and the other for the remainder of the joys/buttons and spinner. I would also plan to use either a wireless or bluetooth keyboard/mouse.

The biggest challenge is that we are located in different states and I am not able to physically be there to set it up. So...I have a few questions:

Does that configuration sound do-able on a pi3? From all I've read, it should.
Will there be conflicts having the wireless keyboard and the other inputs being perceived as a keyboard?
Because I have the info for all the keys, I am going to try and set it all up including keymapping in retroarch before I send it out. Is it possible for me to remote in and adjust things/change configs?
I would like to like to repurpose the button on the back of the cabinet to shutdown/boot up the pi. Would it work with something like this

?

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Capeman

It probably doesnt matter what type of encoder the cabinet uses as long as a pc or a pi read it as an HID compatible keyboard. You can plug that usb cable into any laptop and test that out. Setting up keyboard controls in retropie is very easy.

Trackballs read as a mouse, some are standalone, but most connect to iPac style controls.

The real question is what kind of monitor is being used and what kind of connection is it? HDMI or DVI is best, but retropie also works with VGA via an adapter or composite in the case of a crt.

All of this is possible, lots of people, including myself, build arcades based on retropie now. There are lots of builds on this forum and lots of people who can answer questions.

matamualomia

@capeman, thanks for the encouragement. It's currently hooked up via VGA to an flat panel monitor. Given the age, I'd say maybe it has DVI, but unlikely to have HDMI. My plan was to use the existing cable with VGA to HDMI adapter.

Any thoughts regarding the remote access part?