Arcade controls working in PiPlay but not in AdvMame ROMS
  • Eggwhite
    Does anyone have any advice on how to get the joystick and buttons recognised in AdvMame? I can navigate the PiPlay menu and select things with joystick and button but even after I've configured the controls in the ROMs they aren't recognised. Details of how I set things up are below. Any advice appreciated.

    I'm using the Adafruit software. ROMs all work using just the keyboard.

    I've tested the controls with a little Python 3 program I wrote and the 4 joystick directions and 4 buttons all work as expected when the GPIO ports are pulled high.

    My Raspbian version is wheezy 7.8.

    I've run sudo apt-get upgrade and updated the software.

    I've installed the programs and libraries to recompile the Adafruit software using

    sudo apt-get install git libexpat1 libexpat1-dev libncurses5 libncurses5.dev.

    When I run this command again the OS reports I have the latest versions of all 5

    components.

    I've installed the Adafruit retrogame software and edited the retrogame.c to match the ports I've used and recompiled the software using the make command without errors.

    I've added the udev rule to ensure compatibility with the SDL2 library. I added a line to the following file

    etc/udev/rules.d/10-retrogame.rules

    The line I added was

    SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="retrogame", ENV{ID_INPUT_KEYBOARD}="1"

    I tried to make sure the retrogame program starts as soon as the OS boots by adding the following line just before the exit 0 line of /etc/rc.local

    /home/pi/Adafruit-Retrogame/retrogame &

    The retrogame software is running because I can navigate the PiPlay menu.
  • mholgatemmholgatem
    Don't worry, it's not retrogame. You just need to configure the controls using the controller config. In the piplay main menu, press 'Tab' then scroll down to "controller config". Select the emulator you want to configure (advmame and fba both get configured with 'Arcade').
  • Eggwhite
    Many thanks for your kind reply. I did try this (I have a Joystick and 5 buttons) but it still doesn't take effect when I start the ROMs up. Do I need to save the configuration somehow? I can't seem to see a save when I've been through the controller config...
  • mholgatemmholgatem
    When you get through all of the controls, it will ask if you want to configure player 2. If you select 'no', it will save the config, otherwise you need to get through all of the controls for player 2 and then it will auto save. If you run out of buttons, you can just assign some of them by pressing random buttons on your keyboard.
    - Or -
    Instead of retrogame, you can use my app called < a href="https://github.com/mholgatem/gpioneer">GPIOneer. It allows you to use combos of buttons to simulate extra buttons.
    - Or -
    You can use my modified version of retrogame that allows you to assign combos to simulate extra buttons.

    Gpioneer has a user interface that makes it really quick to set up.
  • Eggwhite
    Many thanks for this advice. I can configure the joystick and buttons in PiPlay by pressing and selecting "arcade" without any problems using both retrogame and your excellent GPioneer software. The problem is that neither of these result in the controls working when I start any of the ROMs up. I haven't made any changes in the ROM controls but do I need to change these here as well do you think?
  • Eggwhite
    Sorry that should have read pressing and selecting "arcade".
  • Eggwhite
    Sorry trying to type "tab" in angle brackets but it's edited out...
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