Alternatives to RetroPie? [mame]
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Hi all,
Really sorry to say, but I just can't get on with RetroPie - I'm not sure it's suited to my needs.
I have a "bar-top" arcade machine that I've made and am using the iPac (https://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html) to convert the button presses to USB.The issue I have is the interface keys - I want to simply use the joystick to select, say MAME, then press a button to go into MAME, where I would have pre-configured the buttons for each game.
I tried to do this for around 5-6 hours yesterday, at one point deleting everything and starting again, but my girlfriend, my brother-in-law and I were all absolutely baffled as to how this was possible.
So, sadly, I've given up.
Is there a way to simply run MAME on its own? Would I install say Raspbian and put MAME in a startup script?
...or are there other front-ends I could try out?
TIA.
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The issue I have is the interface keys - I want to simply use the joystick to select, say MAME, then press a button to go into MAME, where I would have pre-configured the buttons for each game.
i mean, that's pretty much the typical use case for retropie. the ipac makes it slightly more complicated, but with the right initial binding and right arcade core, you should have sensible bindings for almost all MAME games by default.
there are alternatives but obviously everyone here will recommend retropie ;) i don't think they will be any better for you, in any case.
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Fair enough :p
Shame though, I just can't get on with it at all. After going through the "configure keys(? - going from memory)", it seems that it's half-ignored. At one point, the NUMLOCK key on the USB keyboard I had plugged in as well, had become the [SELECT] button, and yet, we hadn't touched it!
It seems that it's geared up for use with a game-pad of some kind.
I'm thinking of just installing a minimal OS for the Pi, then writing a front-end for MAME (unless one already exists), in Python or .Net to select the games.
My needs are simple :). I think RetroPie is probably overkill.
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i don't use an ipac but there's specific documentation out there: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Keyboard-Controllers - they have specific quirks.
i hardly think creating your own MAME front end is the quickest solution here - probably 100,000s of users are using IPACs with retropie.
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While using an iPac does sometimes make RetroPie a bit trickier to setup ... I do have one suggestion.
You can update the firmware in your iPac to make it show as a gamepad instead of a keyboard. Their iPac Windows app is really simple to use.
Doing that, I believe, makes using an iPac a lot easier to setup and get it all working.
As @dankcushions said above, an arcade cab is pretty much exactly what RetroPie is made for.
Update the iPac firmware, obtain the proper Mame/FBA romset for the emulator you choose (I'd highly suggest getting the MAME2003 romset which is 0.78) ... copy them over to the proper roms/xxx folder ... and you should be good to go.
You can easily swap your iPac back to keyboard mode using the Windows app if you want to later.
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At one point, the NUMLOCK key on the USB keyboard I had plugged in as well, had become the [SELECT] button, and yet, we hadn't touched it!
That's probably because the IPAC acts as a keyboard, so if you mapped the NUMLOCK as
Select, it would be have like this. If you'd like more assistance, please offer more info about your setup - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.I'm thinking of just installing a minimal OS for the Pi, then writing a front-end for MAME (unless one already exists), in Python or .Net to select the games.
Try AdvanceMENU, it's included in RetroPie as part of the
advmamepackage. Though from your description, it's not the frontend (Emulationstation) that's the problem. -
Hi! Wow. Thanks for the replies!
I was unaware I could update the iPac (it is an old version, VERY old!), and I'll try that tonight.
It seems to be that actual RetroPie interface that seems to be the problem; like when setting the keys (presumably these are the config for the RetroPie interface itself?), I have to set a key for every button on some kind of gamepad - which is fine, but then I click a button on my iPac and it's the wrong one, I think "I'll go and change that to...[whatever function it might be], but the RetroPie interface doesn't allow you to see what was mapped before etc...
I think I'll give AdvanceMENU a go - I seem to remember that from years ago when I first built this thing :p
Thank you all.
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Just an aside, it would be possible to run AdvanceMAME stand-alone on say, Raspbian, right?
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@dchurch24 said in Alternatives to RetroPie? [mame]:
Just an aside, it would be possible to run AdvanceMAME stand-alone on say, Raspbian, right?
Sure, RetroPie is just Raspbian underneath. There is a Debian package on the AdvanceMAME Github releases page.
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Thank you all. I'll have another stab at RetroPie tonight (after flashing the iPac - I'll have to install Windows somewhere first, or borrow a Windows PC from somewhere - I only ever use Linux!).
If not, I'll have a go with UbuntuMate and maybe knock up a quick front-end in Python or similar.
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@mitu Excellent. I'll have a google! I only found the Windows and MacOS ones earlier, but I wasn't specifically searching for a Linux version so probably missed it.
Cheers :)
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Oops. Just seen that you linked to it! Thanks again :)
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@dankcushions said in Alternatives to RetroPie? [mame]:
i don't use an ipac but there's specific documentation out there: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Keyboard-Controllers - they have specific quirks.
@dankcushions I noticed this page isn't included in the generated Docs, is there a trick to get it included so it's part of the Controllers section, in the left ToC ?
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