I-PAC configuration help

goestohollywood

So I'm building my first cabinet and looking into wiring up a control board from scratch. I was hoping I could lay out my plan and see if there's any obstacles that might arise.

Firstly, I'm using a PC that's running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For emulation, I'm running RetroPie with EmulationStation, outputting HDMI to composite to a CRT TV.
I'm emulating everything from Atari 2600 up to the PS1 (using USB controllers for the later consoles.)
I was looking into buying this I-PAC 4 interface.
I'm hoping to have 2 players with 4 buttons each (A, B, X, Y), 2 joysticks, and menu buttons like Power (for the PC), Escape (to return to EmulationStation after starting a ROM), Volume Up, Volume Down, Start, and Select. So 14 buttons total plus the 2 joysticks.
For the player buttons, I was looking into using these GoldLeaf pushbuttons. For the joysticks, I wanted to use these Mag-Stik joysticks. And for the menu buttons, I wanted to use these GoldLeaf RGB Illumination Buttons.

Is there anything I need to be aware of before setting things up? Is everything compatible?

TonyXL

Should be fine. The quality of HDMI converters vary wildly so if you're picky on image quality you should certainly read reviews specifically from retro gamers. Also if you are using a CRT you may want to jump down the 240p rabbit hole....I did with my Pi4+CRT and I'm glad I put in the extra effort.
If you have only have 2 players then the IPAC 2 should be sufficient.

4a. Are you sure you don't want 6 buttons per player for SF2 / MK arcade games?
4b. Here's an alternative that can cut down on having a bunch of extra buttons for those other functions. You can have a one extra button and use the hotkey functionality to implement shift behavior. The way mine is setup, pressing the button pauses/unpauses. Holding the button and pressing 1P start exits the game. Holding the button and pressing some of the 1P/2P buttons could take care of volume up/down etc. This can be done using RetroPie/RetroArch or via IPAC. If the controls are also for consoles then you probably DO want dedicated Select/Start per player. If you are playing arcade games you'll need a pause button though.

5a. Looks like the joystick uses microswitches but you want leaf buttons. That means the joystick will have clicks but the buttons won't. Most leaf users want all-leaf so there's no clicking.
5b. If you get that joystick, please report back on your experience. I was considering adding a separate dedicated 4-way stick to my controls but if that stick works well I might try that instead.

Good luck with your build!

goestohollywood

@TonyXL said in I-PAC configuration help:

Should be fine. The quality of HDMI converters vary wildly so if you're picky on image quality you should certainly read reviews specifically from retro gamers. Also if you are using a CRT you may want to jump down the 240p rabbit hole....I did with my Pi4+CRT and I'm glad I put in the extra effort.

The one I've got so far is pretty durable, but using the RetroCRT 240P theme for EmulationStation makes some text unreadable. I'll look into 240p resolution.

4a. Are you sure you don't want 6 buttons per player for SF2 / MK arcade games?

I was unaware I would need 6 buttons for MK arcade games. I just assumed I would follow most controller setups and implement the A,B,X,Y control scheme. Maybe I'll go with 6 just to be safe.

4b. Here's an alternative that can cut down on having a bunch of extra buttons for those other functions. You can have a one extra button and use the hotkey functionality to implement shift behavior. The way mine is setup, pressing the button pauses/unpauses. Holding the button and pressing 1P start exits the game. Holding the button and pressing some of the 1P/2P buttons could take care of volume up/down etc. This can be done using RetroPie/RetroArch or via IPAC. If the controls are also for consoles then you probably DO want dedicated Select/Start per player. If you are playing arcade games you'll need a pause button though.

Is this all configurable through RetroPie's config files? It certainly would be helpful. I guess there's not many console games that really utilize the Select button, right? I just thought it would be nice to have individual buttons for these functions as it's not really that expensive to add another button or two.

5a. Looks like the joystick uses microswitches but you want leaf buttons. That means the joystick will have clicks but the buttons won't. Most leaf users want all-leaf so there's no clicking

Do you have any recommendations on a joystick that doesn't use microswitches?

TonyXL

The hotkey is defined in the RetroPie controller config. You can then customize the hotkeys in RetroArch.

Or I believe you can set up "shift key" behavior in the I-PAC config to do the same thing.

If you still want separate buttons that's fine, was just a personal preference to have my controls be minimal.

I haven't installed any leaf buttons/sticks myself, I guess you can check the other forums here or google around for more info.