Pixelcade, an RGB LED Matrix Marquee that Changes to Match the Game

[alinke]

Announcing an LED Matrix Marquee hardware add-on for RetroPie called Pixelcade http://pixelcade.org that changes based on the selected game or emulator. Pixelcade uses runcommand hooks from RetroPie to send the selected game and emulator to an LED controller board that is USB connected to your Pi. If the selected game has a corresponding LED marquee design (I've created around 60 so far), then that is displayed and if no designs exists for the selected game, an emulator specific default LED marquee is displayed. To add your own LED marquees for your favorite games, simply create an animated GIF (still image or animation) in 64x32 or 128x32 resolution naming it the same as the rom name with the .gif extension. Disclaimer: I am the creator for Pixelcade and sell them as kits.

The LED matrix panels are off the shelf HUB75 panels and come in different sizes fitting marquee sizes from bartop to full size (P2.5, P3, P4, P5, P6). However HUB75 turns out to be a loose standard and not all panels are compatible, these panels have been tested.

Mini Bartop Build
Two Player Bartop Build
Pixelcade Guide for RetroPie
Link to the code on GitHub
LED Matrix Mounting Templates

Hardware
PIXEL controller board and panels

Full Size 2 Player Cab

Examples of Marquee GIFs

[Davelusa]

Will P4 64x32 panels work as well? I only have a space 23x5.5 and the P4's would be a better fit. This looks like a great application!

[alinke]

@Davelusa yes P4 should be fine, I'm actually doing a Street Fighter cab conversion to an LED marquee and P4 is the best fit for that. Hit me up and I can send you some pics on how it turned out. Here also is a recent Bartop project I did https://www.instructables.com/id/Arcade-Machine-With-Changing-LED-Marquee/ . That one is PC based and has a nice feature unfortunately only available on the PC where the marquee will change also when scrolling through games and emulators on the front end.

[Rens]

Hi, I came across this when, thinking of doing something similar.

now I Already have 2 P4 32*64 Led hub75 panels and came to the forum, to ask about the best controller to use and whether integration is possible.

your post definitely answered the later part. As I already have the panels... does this need s propriety specific controller? Or will it work with any hub75 contoller compatible with pi?