Arpicade Help Thread

Ok i tried both methods, I attached pictures to show what I'm doing.

1) First pic shows what I currently see, the default horizontal image.
2) Second pic shows where I choose the layout, I tried with both Verticools and AttractmanVert
3) Third pic shows one method I tried to reboot, pressing left->left then selecting the reboot and force save changes option.
4) Fourth pic shows the other method I tried to reboot, hitting esc, exiting attract mode, hitting esc again, getting to a command prompt them typing sudo reboot.

Neither of the above methods works for me on 3.7, it still shows the default horizontal layout. I'm sure I've skipped a step someplace, not sure what just yet. Maybe 3.7 now needs changes to a config file someplace? The behavior has clearly changed from 3.6 so perhaps now text file mods are necessary?

EDIT: In case it matters, I'm using the 3.7 image that High Score Saves emailed out. Figured I'd mention that in case that 3.7 is slightly different than the 3.7 y'all are using.

I'm using Dee2er's Image. It could matter. I'll send some pictures up after work.
 
Ok i tried both methods, I attached pictures to show what I'm doing.

1) First pic shows what I currently see, the default horizontal image.
2) Second pic shows where I choose the layout, I tried with both Verticools and AttractmanVert
3) Third pic shows one method I tried to reboot, pressing left->left then selecting the reboot and force save changes option.
4) Fourth pic shows the other method I tried to reboot, hitting esc, exiting attract mode, hitting esc again, getting to a command prompt them typing sudo reboot.

Neither of the above methods works for me on 3.7, it still shows the default horizontal layout. I'm sure I've skipped a step someplace, not sure what just yet. Maybe 3.7 now needs changes to a config file someplace? The behavior has clearly changed from 3.6 so perhaps now text file mods are necessary?

EDIT: In case it matters, I'm using the 3.7 image that High Score Saves emailed out. Figured I'd mention that in case that 3.7 is slightly different than the 3.7 y'all are using.

try changing the layout for the All Games menu as well as the Arcade one. That's all I can think to suggest why it isn't working. You should see the change without a reboot.
 
try changing the layout for the All Games menu as well as the Arcade one. That's all I can think to suggest why it isn't working. You should see the change without a reboot.

Ok will try that tonight.


can be disabled in /boot/run.sh (this is the file that controls what happens after the pi boots).

I took a look last night and I apologize again for all the questions, none of this seems documented anywhere so I'm trying to figure it all out as best I can. In the run.sh file there isn't very much, but it does show the "NOW LOADING" text in there. I know that text comes after the long running rom checker, hence I figure the line I would have to comment out must be before the command that displays the "NOW LOADING" message. But there's only two commands run before that:


# Setup dispmanx for clean advmame & daphne video output this version of SDL is modified to output for
# correct scanline output at 240p
export SDL_DISPMANX_IGNORE_RATIO=1
clear

# Load leanstick to control long hold p1start as hotkey
~/leanstick-master/leanstick.pl >/dev/null 2>&1 &
clear

None of those seem like they are responsible for the rom checker operation as the first one seems to do display related configuration and the second one does something related to the p1 key.

So I assume to stop that long running rom checker from happening every time at boot means I have to add a command somewhere. Anyone know what that would be? Again sorry for all the questions but man I wish there was more documentation for this thing lol. I'm making my own doc for it that I'll keep inside the coin area of each machine so that I can remember how to resize partions, setup layouts, make sure settings get saved, how to disable the rom checker, etc, so eventually I'll be good to go, just not quite there yet.
 
I took a look last night and I apologize again for all the questions, none of this seems documented anywhere so I'm trying to figure it all out as best I can. In the run.sh file there isn't very much, but it does show the "NOW LOADING" text in there. I know that text comes after the long running rom checker, hence I figure the line I would have to comment out must be before the command that displays the "NOW LOADING" message. But there's only two commands run before that:


# Setup dispmanx for clean advmame & daphne video output this version of SDL is modified to output for
# correct scanline output at 240p
export SDL_DISPMANX_IGNORE_RATIO=1
clear

# Load leanstick to control long hold p1start as hotkey
~/leanstick-master/leanstick.pl >/dev/null 2>&1 &
clear

None of those seem like they are responsible for the rom checker operation as the first one seems to do display related configuration and the second one does something related to the p1 key.

So I assume to stop that long running rom checker from happening every time at boot means I have to add a command somewhere. Anyone know what that would be? Again sorry for all the questions but man I wish there was more documentation for this thing lol. I'm making my own doc for it that I'll keep inside the coin area of each machine so that I can remember how to resize partions, setup layouts, make sure settings get saved, how to disable the rom checker, etc, so eventually I'll be good to go, just not quite there yet.

There should be a folder on the SD card called USER_GUIDE with some instructions in it, hopefully it hasn't gotten lost in the shuffle somewhere...

As for run.sh the line you want is:


# Hash out to speed up booting when you don't need to scan roms
bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRoms.sh


it's just above where the menu is lauched near the bottom of the file. Put a hash '#' in front of the line to disable it. Depending on the build you have it may also be called noPornRoms.sh rather than sortRoms.sh as I added a modified version for auto adult rom removal at some point.
 
There should be a folder on the SD card called USER_GUIDE with some instructions in it, hopefully it hasn't gotten lost in the shuffle somewhere...

As for run.sh the line you want is:


# Hash out to speed up booting when you don't need to scan roms
bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRoms.sh


it's just above where the menu is lauched near the bottom of the file. Put a hash '#' in front of the line to disable it. Depending on the build you have it may also be called noPornRoms.sh rather than sortRoms.sh as I added a modified version for auto adult rom removal at some point.

Mine has that line later in the file but it's already commented it out:

# Experimental auto rom sorting for attract-mode
# Hash out to speed up booting when you don't need to scan roms
# Only works with arcade roms, console roms must be scanned manually using Attract-Mode
#bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRoms.sh
bash /home/pi/.attract/noPornRoms.sh
bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRomsConsoles.sh
bash /boot/launchers/servMenu.sh carccons

So the sortRoms.sh is already commented out on mine. Lemme hunt for that user guide and see if it's there.

EDIT: Found the user guide, but it doesn't mention the above *.sh files and what they do. I'll experiment commenting out each of them and see if one of those is the culprit.
 
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comment all 3 of them out. The build I opened quickly to reply was older than 3.7 so it didn't have all of then in it. One does the arcade list, one the consoles and the last one joins them into an all games list.

EDIT:
I guess I need to update the user guide for 3.7
 
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Ok yeah I think i figured it out. This is the offending line:

bash /home/pi/.attract/noPornRoms.sh

That's the one that runs the long sort games process. The other line:

bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRomsConsoles.sh

...that one will just show a few lines on screen quickly and then go away. So yeah I just commented them both out. One thing I noticed though is that I think the sort games list process must be run at least once correct? Because at first I commented out both of these lines:

bash /home/pi/.attract/noPornRoms.sh
bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRomsConsoles.sh

...let it boot and it started quickly. Then I commented out only the second one like this:

bash /home/pi/.attract/noPornRoms.sh
#bash /home/pi/.attract/sortRomsConsoles.sh

...and it started the long sort process again so I just powered off during that and commented both lines out once more. On reboot after that though it would never find any games at all no matter what. So then I re-enabled both of the above lines to let it do the sort process once, let it fully boot, then powered off, commented out both of the above lines once again and it booted quick with all games.

So I'm guessing that you need to let the sort process happen at least once fully, then you can power off and comment out those lines?
 
Just took a look and the splash instructions are indeed out of date. For 3.6 or 3.7 put the splash.png image you want to use in the folder /boot/config-updater/ it has to be called splash.png, then use your cabs service button or USB keyboard arrows to navigate to the service menu and run the option update bootsplash. Reboot for new splash.
 
Just took a look and the splash instructions are indeed out of date. For 3.6 or 3.7 put the splash.png image you want to use in the folder /boot/config-updater/ it has to be called splash.png, then use your cabs service button or USB keyboard arrows to navigate to the service menu and run the option update bootsplash. Reboot for new splash.

Yes that worked! Cool one more thing sorted, maybe I should make a Youtube video documenting all this to help others out as well.

I got the vertical/horizontal layout issue fixed as well but not in a way I expected. Normally it boots in the wrong horizontal layout on my vertical cab and you press left on the keyboard twice to get to the service menu. Instead this time I pressed right and it toggled the layout to vertical mode! So pressing left brought it back to horizontal mode, pressing right brought it to vertical mode. No idea why but it works. So when in vertical mode I exited attract mode, exited to command prompt, did a reboot and it saved that vertical setting now.

So it's like it has both horizontal and vertical settings there and picks horizontal layout as default, and pressing right takes you to the vertical one. So now when the unit boots I see the correct vertical layout, if I press left on the keyboard it will switch to the horizontal layout, and pressing left twice more will take me to the service menu.

I saw the option for "high res layout", which it will only let you enable by modding a text file on the image. My vertical cabinet has a tri-sync cga/ega/vga crt in it, would it work on that?
 
Yes that worked! Cool one more thing sorted, maybe I should make a Youtube video documenting all this to help others out as well.

I got the vertical/horizontal layout issue fixed as well but not in a way I expected. Normally it boots in the wrong horizontal layout on my vertical cab and you press left on the keyboard twice to get to the service menu. Instead this time I pressed right and it toggled the layout to vertical mode! So pressing left brought it back to horizontal mode, pressing right brought it to vertical mode. No idea why but it works. So when in vertical mode I exited attract mode, exited to command prompt, did a reboot and it saved that vertical setting now.

So it's like it has both horizontal and vertical settings there and picks horizontal layout as default, and pressing right takes you to the vertical one. So now when the unit boots I see the correct vertical layout, if I press left on the keyboard it will switch to the horizontal layout, and pressing left twice more will take me to the service menu.

I saw the option for "high res layout", which it will only let you enable by modding a text file on the image. My vertical cabinet has a tri-sync cga/ega/vga crt in it, would it work on that?

I've got a growing note file on this project as well. Wondering if we shouldn't document this on a fan wiki of sorts to help out dee2er?
 
Yes that worked! Cool one more thing sorted, maybe I should make a Youtube video documenting all this to help others out as well.

I got the vertical/horizontal layout issue fixed as well but not in a way I expected. Normally it boots in the wrong horizontal layout on my vertical cab and you press left on the keyboard twice to get to the service menu. Instead this time I pressed right and it toggled the layout to vertical mode! So pressing left brought it back to horizontal mode, pressing right brought it to vertical mode. No idea why but it works. So when in vertical mode I exited attract mode, exited to command prompt, did a reboot and it saved that vertical setting now.

So it's like it has both horizontal and vertical settings there and picks horizontal layout as default, and pressing right takes you to the vertical one. So now when the unit boots I see the correct vertical layout, if I press left on the keyboard it will switch to the horizontal layout, and pressing left twice more will take me to the service menu.

I saw the option for "high res layout", which it will only let you enable by modding a text file on the image. My vertical cabinet has a tri-sync cga/ega/vga crt in it, would it work on that?

Sounds like the multiple game lists are confusing... including the Service Menu there's 4 lists by default: Console, Arcade, All Games and Service. My guess is you have either Arcade or All Games set to vertical and the other still running a horizontal theme (left/right on keyboard or the service button in your cab should swap lists). - no matter seems like you have that sorted now.

You're probably better off using lowres than highres with your tri-sync, highres would probably work fine for it but you would loose the scanline perfect output of running low res games in low res. It would be possible to create a setup for tri-res monitors that swapped between low and high (and maybe even medium) resolutions to get the best possible results for the most games but you would need to customise all of the launchers to do so. Given how few games would look better in high res I wouldn't bother personaly.
 
Sounds like the multiple game lists are confusing... including the Service Menu there's 4 lists by default: Console, Arcade, All Games and Service. My guess is you have either Arcade or All Games set to vertical and the other still running a horizontal theme (left/right on keyboard or the service button in your cab should swap lists). - no matter seems like you have that sorted now.

Aaaaahhhh I had no idea that's how it worked lol, ok that makes sense.


You're probably better off using lowres than highres with your tri-sync, highres would probably work fine for it but you would loose the scanline perfect output of running low res games in low res. It would be possible to create a setup for tri-res monitors that swapped between low and high (and maybe even medium) resolutions to get the best possible results for the most games but you would need to customise all of the launchers to do so. Given how few games would look better in high res I wouldn't bother personaly.

Ok cool. I did try it just out of curiosity and yeah the splash screen and layout look better, but the games themselves then ran in a tiny window, they weren't upscaled. I'm sure there's a setting for that but like you said better to just leave the games pixel perfect since most are cga anyways, so I'll leave it at stock low res. Thanks so much for all the help!
 
Had no idea that new menu existed when pressing right arrow on keyboard. I chose low res vertical though and after a reboot it's vertical but still 480i. Should I just edit config as we did with 3.6?

Also, on my first cab I can no longer get back to the menu while in a game. On my second cab it seems most button presses take me back to the menu right in the middle of a game. Possibly related to the fact that the Pi seems to think my second cab is pressing player 2 button continuously, which causes other issues (like p2 starting on coining up, and the screensaver from working) -- this only happens with the Pi, no game pcb ever shows a problem, and I've looked it over several times.

While I'm waiting on a fix for that, new question. Has anyone got wifi working on their image? I have the 3.6 build on one SD card and modified it weeks back to allow for wifi, using tutorials online. As that SD card seemed to have issues, I've set it aside and have a new SD card with the 3.7 build. I wanted to set it up for wifi as well, but despite following what seemed like the same tutorials, I cannot get it on wifi.

Typically it seems you modify "etc network interfaces" and "etc wpa_supplicant wpa_supplicant.conf".

Both images have the same info in those files. But I think I did something on top of that for the working wifi image...possibly something to do with permissions, or installing some package...I can't recall. The not working wifi image also will not ping an address, while the working wifi one will.
 
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Adding Layouts

Hello all, Fast question and I am not at my cab right at the moment....so I apologize if this is a Captain Obvious question.

I want to add a few new Attract Mode layouts. I have found (what I think is correct) the folder and dropped the files into it. I see Robospin, Cools, etc... and my new files are there but when I go back to the Pi and reboot they are not available to select from the AM tab display menu.

I am on build 3.6 and in the Arcade display.

What step am I missing here? Presuming this is possible...

Thanks.

Man, I love this product!
 
Had no idea that new menu existed when pressing right arrow on keyboard. I chose low res vertical though and after a reboot it's vertical but still 480i. Should I just edit config as we did with 3.6?

Also, on my first cab I can no longer get back to the menu while in a game. On my second cab it seems most button presses take me back to the menu right in the middle of a game. Possibly related to the fact that the Pi seems to think my second cab is pressing player 2 button continuously, which causes other issues (like p2 starting on coining up, and the screensaver from working) -- this only happens with the Pi, no game pcb ever shows a problem, and I've looked it over several times.

While I'm waiting on a fix for that, new question. Has anyone got wifi working on their image? I have the 3.6 build on one SD card and modified it weeks back to allow for wifi, using tutorials online. As that SD card seemed to have issues, I've set it aside and have a new SD card with the 3.7 build. I wanted to set it up for wifi as well, but despite following what seemed like the same tutorials, I cannot get it on wifi.

Typically it seems you modify "etc network interfaces" and "etc wpa_supplicant wpa_supplicant.conf".

Both images have the same info in those files. But I think I did something on top of that for the working wifi image...possibly something to do with permissions, or installing some package...I can't recall. The not working wifi image also will not ping an address, while the working wifi one will.

Let me know what you find here. I cannot get wifi to work on mine no matter how many tutorials I go through. I feel like I need to activate wifi somehow because it does not show up as an available interface. I have set up the interface files and all that. Not sure what else to do.
 
Had no idea that new menu existed when pressing right arrow on keyboard. I chose low res vertical though and after a reboot it's vertical but still 480i. Should I just edit config as we did with 3.6?

Also, on my first cab I can no longer get back to the menu while in a game. On my second cab it seems most button presses take me back to the menu right in the middle of a game. Possibly related to the fact that the Pi seems to think my second cab is pressing player 2 button continuously, which causes other issues (like p2 starting on coining up, and the screensaver from working) -- this only happens with the Pi, no game pcb ever shows a problem, and I've looked it over several times.

While I'm waiting on a fix for that, new question. Has anyone got wifi working on their image? I have the 3.6 build on one SD card and modified it weeks back to allow for wifi, using tutorials online. As that SD card seemed to have issues, I've set it aside and have a new SD card with the 3.7 build. I wanted to set it up for wifi as well, but despite following what seemed like the same tutorials, I cannot get it on wifi.

Typically it seems you modify "etc network interfaces" and "etc wpa_supplicant wpa_supplicant.conf".

Both images have the same info in those files. But I think I did something on top of that for the working wifi image...possibly something to do with permissions, or installing some package...I can't recall. The not working wifi image also will not ping an address, while the working wifi one will.

for vertical, yes you will still need to edit it in. I only did a 240p only setup horizontal, not sure why I didn't also do vert one... guess I'll add one eventually.

For wifi try enabling it in the raspi-config script, I disabled it in there to speed up the boot time a release or 2 ago, that may be whats stopping it from working for you.

In the first cab is it all games you can't exit out of now or just one emulator? I assume you're already holding p1start for a few seconds then pressing p2start, but if not try that. On your second cab if P2 start is stuck down pressing or maybe holding p1 start would exit a game but not any button press at random. There's definately something wierd going on... It's very confusing as you have different results on each cab.
 
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Hello all, Fast question and I am not at my cab right at the moment....so I apologize if this is a Captain Obvious question.

I want to add a few new Attract Mode layouts. I have found (what I think is correct) the folder and dropped the files into it. I see Robospin, Cools, etc... and my new files are there but when I go back to the Pi and reboot they are not available to select from the AM tab display menu.

I am on build 3.6 and in the Arcade display.

What step am I missing here? Presuming this is possible...

Thanks.

Man, I love this product!

It should work, what folder did you use? Also if you can post links to the layouts more would be good.
 
Thanks Dylan... I just used themes from the Attract Mode forums. Slightly tweaked them by changind backgounds and the like.

I guess I should have asked which folder to use... Where the layouts are located...I can not seem to locate it now?

Prob right in front of my face :)
 
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