ArPiCade?

Ok.
The monitor is actually fine as it works with real pcbs and the bitkit I have been testing, and arpicade. But I will avoid further debate on that unless you are offering to come over and fix the monitor for me. :)

If i only lived closer :)

I don't think anyone is suggesting pi plays games better than a good pc with mame. The pi is fun and easy.

this again goes back to what i said. The Pi is not easy alone. The periphs make it easier. The cost of these IMO far outweighs the pros when you compare a similar setup for a PC.

There are plenty of free OS tools both linux and windows based that come complete with arcade tools and frontends. Hell, there are multiple hacked builds of windows that come with everything you need preinstalled. Years before the pi.


Pi is also a social phenomena which is fun like the older apple Ii or c64 era. Big group to share and learn from. Perfect community engagement for us techno nerds.

agree with you 100%
 
I have two ArPiCades, bought them when they first came out. One is in a vertical cabinet, one in a horizontal cabinet. I bought the full meal deal package which came with the pre configured sd card.

They are "sort of" plug and play. Yes you plug the board in, power up and you can play some games out of the box. The key thing here is "some". There are quite a few games, at least on mine, that don't work. You run the game and it will just exit right away for example. Or on some games the screen is completely messed up. I kinda don't have the time or patience to fix them so I just live with many non working games. But quite a few games work of course right out of the box box including some of my favorites like Ghosts N Goblins, Rygar, Time Pilot, Mr Do, etc. So is it plug and play? Yeah, sort of. But it's not as plug and play as a 60 in 1 or a Pandora's box.

There are some games that work, but only sort of. Like Shinobi is a favorite of mine and it loads and plays, but the sound is wrong which makes it unplayable for me. Kind of unfortunate.

There are some other irritations, like on some games to exit you press P1+P2. That doesn't work on all games, on some games you have to hold P1 for a few seconds then press P2. On other games you hold P1 + one of the game buttons to exit. You get used to it, but be aware the interface is not consistent.

Overall I do like them though, they seem about 80% of the way there. I'm guessing they just released it before configuration was complete, I'm hoping one day the games will all actually work and the interface cleaned up some more and made consistent. For comparison I had a 60 in 1 briefly and thought personally that it was junk, emulation was poor on some of the games on that one and the game selection was just too limited. I had a Pandora's Box 4 for a while and also didn't like it but that's because I just can't tolerate screen tearing which it had in abundance. The ArPiCade, when I pick a game that works, is actually great. In those cases its actually plug and play and the games play well with no screen tear. It's still my favorite type board for a multi game setup, but I just wish it was more fully baked. That's my honest opinion of the board as it stands today.
 
The ArpiCade is just another generic pi to jamma peripheral with a third party hdmi to cga converter bolted onto the top. highscoresaves isnt the first to do this.

Not sure where you are getting your info from but ARpiCADE (aka RaspberryJAMMA) isn't a generic anything. And it was the first of it's type.

Also the ARpiCADE software is not just a modified copy of *some other pi gaming image*.

FUD doesn't help anyone.
 
.... but I just wish it was more fully baked. That's my honest opinion of the board as it stands today.


I'm with you all the way on this assessment. I purchased one direct just before HighScoreSaves started selling them.

It's well built, great product and it's almost there. The problem is that the images that exist today for the public consumption are typical. It's a giant rom dump with a zillion games and with nobody checking for functionality, which of course there are lots of issues and problem games on both vertical and horizontal builds.

I took a stab at trying to put together my own custom vertical build with a much smaller game list of titles I wanted to play. The frustrating part was having to whittle down that game list and take so many titles off that I could just not get to work properly, most being sound issue related.

I also feel like all of the front-ends and menu systems just plain suck. I don't have a deep skill set in this regard, hence the purchase of this thing to begin with...was hoping for more plug/play. But all the front-end options are not very appealing. And the general functionality of the using the "menu" is not very good. Some of the emulators don't want to exit to the menu the same. The button combination currently is wonky.

I kinda look at these and think...could I put this in a cab and let a non-arcade person use it or could my kids navigate through the menu, choose games, exit back, etc.

Absolutely No way! you would have to babysit and help people along the whole time IMO. Even more so when you have games that don't work properly. It all just leads to a poor frustrating experience I think.

Is this a neat "gadget" for us arcade guys to mess with and try new games, sure. Can we suffer through the clumsy front end - of course!

The thing is though it's so close to being really good. Someone needs to take a look at the menu of an ArcadeSD board, or even better IMO look at the one prior - the Arcadeshop/Programmable Jamma. That has one of the best menu systems and interfaces to launching and exiting games ever. Anyone can use it, figure it out and it works 100%

And if I could give Joe @ highscores any advice....pay someone to develop a build like this and focus on a core of 50-100 classic games that all work properly. You would have a gold mine on your hands then. Because then you could sell this as an option to an arcadeSD with the ability to expand at your own risk.

So many cool ways this thing could go too. Obviously you could have a classic build or a 4way and 8 way game build. But you could also do something like a horizontal neo Geo MVS one. Right now you got a bunch of neo geo guys clammoring over a neo geo multi on original hardware. I'd honestly be thrilled with a horizontal build with a nice proper menu that was just all MVS games. It would be sweet and almost half the price!

It's sooo close to being prime time...but like Reality Studio says it's just not fully baked.
 
A J-PAC is probably around $80 shipped and really doesn't make it any easier to build and configure a DOS machine to run simple 80's style games.

The RaspberryJAMMA interface board is $150 shipped and you can literally just bolt an RPi to it, flash an image, and add ROMs. It includes a pretty decent front-end too.

I'm not an RPi fanboy, but I am a fan of this product, in that it makes it so much easier for the non technical person to build their own MAME based multi-game.

Both scenarios assume you already have the computer (a PC or an RPi) so when you look at the cost differential $70 doesn't seem that that big of a deal. And if/when the RPi blows up for $30 I can be back up and running in 2 days. I've built games for family and friends using PC's and multi-boards. Going forward any other games I build that I know I may get a phone call about will be the ArpiCade or a 60-in-1 due to the simplicity of it. It will just depend on how much they want to spend on the game PCB. E.g. $40 or $200.

That being said, you need to be able to live with the compromises of running games on the RPi in that it won't be perfect and some games just may not work.
 
the raspberry pi is literally a computer. the ArPiCade just another clone peripheral.

At this point I am quite sure everyone knows exactly what they are talking about here (as in that the ArPiCade is simply a different way to run emulation software)...

May I ask why you feel it necessary to piss all over this thread for no apparent reason? I mean, if that is your goal, consider it "achievement won". If not, can you please put in to words something NEW that you're trying to convey? Saying the same crap over and over isn't really adding to the conversation.
 
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the raspberry pi is literally a computer. the ArPiCade just another clone peripheral.

Semantics? You know exactly what I meant. No one here wants to shove a "personal computer" into a cab. That crap belongs over at BYOAC.
 
I have set up MAME with several different configurations, frontends and computers.

I have set up Retropie on a Raspberry Pi 3 using AttractMode as the front end. GGA monitor with a vga input. (HDMI to VGA converter worked easy enough)

I have used the Arpicade on two Jamma cabs. One for me, one for a friend of mine,

In my personal opinion the Arpicade is the best...hands down. The support from Dee2eer is great and Joe at High Score Saves is one of the best in the business in after the sale support.

One thing to note, I am a mid forties guy that wants to play the Pacmans, Donkey Kongs and Galagas of the world...as do my friends. I have no interest in the more modern fighter games or any consoles.

I enjoyed my time setting up MAME on the PC's but I was constantly running down issues and having to hold folks hands when they inadvertently messed something up. No matter how hard I tried to shield windows and certain keystrokes, hotkeys, whatever... from the game user...it was always popping up sooner or later...usually right in the middle of a party when the last thing I wanted to do was go mess with the cabinet.

My vote..Arpicade and High Score Saves.

This! Plus Dee2er's Customer Support is amazing and he has run regular software build updates over the course of the production for free.
 
At this point I am quite sure everyone knows exactly what they are talking about here (as in that the ArPiCade is simply a different way to run emulation software)...

May I ask why you feel it necessary to piss all over this thread for no apparent reason? I mean, if that is your goal, consider it "achievement won". If not, can you please put in to words something NEW that you're trying to convey? Saying the same crap over and over isn't really adding to the conversation.

Who knew giving an honest critique on the Pros and cons of the pi would get so many people do butt hurt.

Semantics? You know exactly what I meant. No one here wants to shove a "personal computer" into a cab. That crap belongs over at BYOAC.

You are literally tossing an underpowered Linux pc into an arcade and getting red hot because someone compared it to your average desktop but you want to take swipes at BYOACers?

I haven't been on that site in ages but at least most of them have enough ingenuity to build their own cabs.

I never stopped anyone from buying a pi or any add on board. It's probably time you guys put down the pitchforks and torches. ;)
 
Now you're just being a dick...

...carry on.

EDIT: (Emphasized for those with reading comprehension issues)
 
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Sorry, I'm with The Don on this. His points are all valid.

I am not arguing with his points... but do they need to be made over and over and over and over and over??? Again, those interested in this device are surely aware of the pros vs cons... especially after the multiple posts pointing said pros vs cons out... no?

At this point he's trolling.
 
I haven't been on that site in ages but at least most of them have enough ingenuity to build their own cabs.

I don't know... I'd call this pretty ingenious:

Not sure where you are getting your info from but ARpiCADE (aka RaspberryJAMMA) isn't a generic anything. And it was the first of it's type.

Also the ARpiCADE software is not just a modified copy of *some other pi gaming image*.

FUD doesn't help anyone.

I'd also call your post above an insult to dee2eR and his work.
 
Allow me to relegate this thread to petty memes!


Dammit Spock, Why can't you play games that require a CPU like a normal person!

 
I really like the board for what it is. You basically get the easiest MAME set up for a JAMMA wired cabinet. Now, I don't have any idea of the ease of programming it, I have people for that :D Here's my set up in a Cosmic Alien cabinet that I call "Cosmic Capers Space Shooter Multigame":



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I've got about 70 space shooters like Cosmic Alien, Galaxian, Galaga, Space Invaders, etc. to play around with. I designed the frontend and chose the games and behrmr programmed the SD card for me.



Such a rad set up. What's the game list? do you have a youtube video of it running, I would love to see it in action...
 
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