Arcade Cabinet Upgrade - Looking for input

[M0rph]

I'm looking for some information to help get me started. I've been using a couple Rasberry Pi4 devices for a few tasks. But recently I purchased a Raspberry Pi5 with the idea of using Retropie. I'm looking for some help or suggestions in the hope that someone might have gone down this path before.

Some background: About 15 years ago, I was gifted the remnants of an original arcade cabinet. It had the marquee, controls and coin slot intact. I pulled out all the original wiring\speakers\lights and replaced it with a basic desktop computer running DOS+ MAME w/17" monitor. Wired in some LED lights and computer speakers and used an IPAC Ultimarc board to connect the arcade controls to the computer.
It works great, and fun to play. We've moved twice since building it and it is large and weights a ton. I'm looking at rebuilding everything and starting with the computer components.

![IMG_4843.jpg]

Looking at the Raspberry Pi5 - I've installed RetroPie to the device. I boot it up to the main screen…. And that's about it so far.
Already I've realized I could potentially increase my game cabinet to do more. Play the arcade games, but potentially add in N64 or Gameboy, etc. Controllers could be pulled out for certain games, but hopefully most could still use the arcade controls.
But let's start small. I'm curious about getting Mame on Retropie. And with my setup will I be able to swap out my old computer with the Pi5? It appears I'll need to upgrade the I-PAC device to an I-PAC2 since I'll need USB (and not old PS2)
https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac2/

But will the Pi5 or RetroPie acknowledge my equipment? Most of it is all keyboard commands, so I think so, but not sure. It has been a "very" long time since I build this, so I'm starting all over again

Thoughts?

[Lolonois]

Welcome to the forum :)

Wow, this hardware is also already retro. However, it can be refurbished for the 2020s.

For the Pi 4 or 5 there has been recently a thread https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/36439

If smooth N64 emulation is a must then it is a Pi5.

The current IPAC won't work. But if you are satisfied (also in terms of inputlag) you can use a IPAC for USB. You can also wire the GPIO directly as you have 12 buttons per player. I recently released a project which is compatible with the Pi5 (and earlier).

You will also need some adapters between the Pi's micro HDMI and the monitor connection (VGA, DVI, regular HDMI). Driving a CRT is a different story.
For the Pi 5 you will also need an USB audio device (any C-Media compliant stick will do).

Have fun!