If you have purchased an Ipac2 and want to save time......

BigLarry

My IPAC2 is a recent purchase so, while not guaranteed - I'm guessing it's a new(ish) model.

Now, all I've ever done is plug it into the Pi after a standard Retropie install and it worked - I believe it's in keyboard mode as if I drop to a shell, I can type in standard keys with it (for both player 1 and player 2).

Player one didn't work initially but as mentioned above, I edited the default retroarch.cfg ti

input_player1_a = alt
input_player1_b = ctrl
input_player1_y = shift
input_player1_x = space
input_player1_start = num1
input_player1_select = num5
input_player1_l = z
input_player1_r = x
input_player1_left = left
input_player1_right = right
input_player1_up = up
input_player1_down = down
input_player2_a = s
input_player2_b = a
input_player2_y = w
input_player2_x = q
input_player2_start = num2
input_player2_select = num6
input_player2_l = i
input_player2_r = k
input_player2_left = d
input_player2_right = g
input_player2_up = r
input_player2_down = f

in folder (/opt/retropie/configs/all) and then player 2 works (this I'm sure confirms I'm in keyboard mode too).

As mentioned above, I also get a yellow "warning" when I start games saying something along the lines of:

"Ultimarc ipac not configured"

rbaker

@BigLarry Can you clarify that you did not use auto configure at anytime? That is where I had the issues. If not, you have done what I did to get it working.

caver01

@rbaker My older iPAC4 (with PS2 interface, and adapter to USB) does not show any errors when I launch games. I did, however, have an additional USB keyboard connected during the initial setup. The first few boots require some editing of configs, setting up localization, etc. and I usually do this with an additional USB keyboard, but the first boot into emulation station has me working through first-time controls setup sequence using my joystick and buttons, after which exit out of ES because my screen is upside down etc.. Once I have my Pi configuration setup, I start copying over roms and CFG files and eventually, I unplug the external USB keyboard and run solely using the iPAC.

I suppose I could do a test with a new RetroPie image and no other USB keyboard connected to see if ES prompts that it has detected a gamepad or not. I think it detects NONE and I have to hold a button down for the setup sequence to decide it's using a keyboard.

BigLarry

@rbaker I just plugged it in and went from there to be honest - I wouldn't know how to "auto configure".

rbaker

@BigLarry When you boot up retropie for the first time, Emulationstation detects the Ipac and you have no choice but to autoconfigure it if it is plugged in. Did you not see this screen? If you didn't I am definitely missing something.

BigLarry

Sorry,

I think I know what you mean now! My excitement at getting playing games probably made me forget that step.

I first turned it on and I got a white screen where I had to tell it what lots of different commands where ie DPad left etc etc?

I basically moved the joystick and pressed buttons to get to the bottom and then got stuck at pressing "OK"

In the end player one and "left" on Player 1 joystick got me passed that bit.

After that everything seemed to fall into place and be OK as default (ie apart from enabling Player 2 in retroarch.cfg as above it just "worked")

rbaker

@BigLarry Now that is an interesting thing. For me, no adjustment of the 2 player setting in retroarch worked after that autoconfigure. But...I was on 3.8, so maybe there is something "new" that doesn't cause my issue. Next time I rebuild the software, I shall investigate and report back my findings.

battlecat

Hello:

I sat down last night and thought about what I did to get my iPac2 (vintage version) to work with the Retropie setup on my Raspberry Pie 3.

I started by hooking an old gamepad up to the RP3 via USB. It was old and didn't have a ton of buttons but that is fine with me.

On the first boot of RetroPie I walked through the white screen keypress process.

Once this was completed I was able to navigate around the menus and get into and out of NES, SNES, Genesis menus. I was also able to get into and out of MAME. I was able to load a MAME rom and start the game. I was also able to exit the game back to the RetroPie menu.

I attached the RP3 to my iPac2 and found that it wanted me to go through the whole White Screen keypress process again. I did this but the buttons the screen was asking me to press such as Right shoulder button or select button made no sense when using an arcade setup.

Sadly Retropie seems to be incapable of detecting the iPac as an iPac. It also offers no option to treat the controls as anything other than some form of a handheld controller.

After that edited the retroarch.cfg just for MAME and that seemed to work fine for MAME games. It of course did not seem to do anything for the console games as I did not play with them.

A difficulty comes in that console controllers and arcade setups are nothing alike physically.

I will be playing with the unit over the weekend. Anything anyone want me to try out if I can?

--BC

mrbone

Something in retropie keeps the iPac2 from being seen as a keyboard. You need to update the firmware of the iPac so that it can be recognized as a keyboard. I was able to update the firmware of the iPac 2 to get it working. I contacted support at ultimarc and they sent me the proper firmware. Instructions to update can be found here http://www.ultimarc.com/fwupgrade.html. I have a Mac with a virtual windows machine and was able to update the firmware that way. I was then able to configure my control panel for player 1. I then went into the retroarch.cfg and configured the controls for player 2 as shown earlier in the thread. I think the recent iPacs might come with the correct firmware but ones prior to that need to be flashed.

battlecat

@mrbone is flashing really necessary if you're going to edit the .cfg file for a P2 anyway?

rbaker

@battlecat No it isn't, if you configure a keyboard first, you can then edit .cfg. If you follow autoconfigure, those changes make no difference. See my very very first post in this thread.

battlecat

Think there is ever the chance that the devs might add in before configuring a console controller the option to configure a non-console encoder like iPacs are?