Hello all! It's been awhile since I have posted here, but I wanted to let anyone who is looking for information about Ultimarc's J-PAC working with a RPi how my project is coming along. The J-PAC works perfectly with the current (0.8.0 Beta 7) version of PiPlay on the RaspberryPi B+. I am using Untimarc's PS2 to USB cable to connect it all up. I tried a generic PS2 to USB converter and had mixed results, so if you are going to use the the J-PAC I recommend spending the extra $4 for their cable. The RPi recognizes it as a USB keyboard just like it should. No configuring needed so far.

I have a On/Off module on the way from Mausberry Circuits. It's been on order for awhile (two weeks) so I went ahead and ordered the ATXRasPi module from Low Power Labs as well. The costs for both are under $20 each so I figured I would evaluate both and see witch one works the best for my set up. Right now I'm using the shut down button in PiPlay and have a reset switch going to the RUN header on the Pi. So I can soft shut down the Pi but easily turn it back on just by bumping the reset button, but I want to be able to just shut it all down by holding a hardware button.

For my monitor I picked up a used 22" Samsung at a local second hand store. I was going to hack into it and put an on/off switch somewhere on the outside of the cabinet, but dumb luck, the thing stays on all the time and turns on by itself when I power up the main switch on the cabinet. So if it isn't broke (or in this case if it is) don't fix it.

My next hurdle is to figure out how to select different characters in games like The Simpsons and TMNT, games that have 4 playable characters. I have a two player cabinet and I know there is a way to do it, I just can't figure it out yet. I've tried looking at the dip switch settings without any luck, and the modded ROMS that are set up for two player cabinets aren't working with MAME4ALL yet.

As I make more progress I'll add to this thread. I plan on setting up the Genesis, SNES, NES, and TG16 emulators along with MAME4ALL. I've tried ADVMAME but it runs so slow it's unplayable.