[BUILD] PiMAME Arcade Coffee Table

GGuyZ

Hi,

I'll repost this here - after all, this rig is powered by PiMAME :).

I've been planning to do this for a couple of years now, ever since my wife dared me to build one.

After a couple of intense weekends, here's the result:

http://i.imgur.com/JCeP4Cg.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jYALgwd.jpg

It's running PiMAME, with a custom driver I put together to allow for a full 6 button/2 players setup.

Guy

berzerking

Good job !!!

berzerking

could you talk a little more about the driver for 2 players ?

GGuyZ

Thanks :).

I essence, I used Adafruit's retrogame for all 'native' GPIOs on the PI. For the rest of the inputs, I used an MCP23017 chip, and I wrote a module similar to retrogame that can read its inputs and transform that to key presses.

The code is here:
https://github.com/guyz/piarcade
https://github.com/guyz/Adafruit-Retrogame

Both binaries were added to rc.local and now it works perfectly with PiMAME.

johnnygal

Cool. I love these coffee table builds. Good job.

GGuyZ

Thanks!

bjo88

Great build GGuyZ..!
Tks for the MCP23017 tip, I will definitely try it. :)

bjo88

One question pls... How do you map Credit P1 and Credit P2 buttons? I only see Start P1 and Start P2. Tks.

KingScooty

This is really interesting! Great work GGuyZ!
I'm curious to know how much support for 2 players via joysticks is available with PiMAME right out of the box, as i've just recently ordered the parts (buttons and joysticks).

GGuyZ

Thanks guys! Glad people like it :).

@bjo88 - Aesthetically speaking, I didn't want to have too many buttons, so I'm using free to play mode. You can easily add mappings for the coin1/2 buttons, just add two additional lines and assign them to two of the free GPIOs on the MCP23017.

KingScooty - AFAIK, there isn't one currently out of the box. You can use my code and just change the mappings, but you will also need to get an MCP23017, as the RPi doesn't have enough GPIOs for 2 players equipped with 6 buttons each. If you can settle for less, you can forgo the extra chip.

KingScooty

A-ha! Nice one! I'll have to grab a MCP23017 then, or one of these bad boys:

http://www.austinamusements.com.au/keyboard-encoders/2-player-usb-encoder-interface-suit-mame-pc-ps3/prod_165.html

husar

Looks nice and clean. Great build.

bjo88

@GGuyZ Issue is some of my fav 0.37b5 MAME4All ROM does not support "free to play", neither is PiFBA ROMS :) but tks for confirmation.

GGuyZ

@bjo88 Sure :). Feel free to map additional buttons!

@KingScooty @husar - Thanks!

bjo88

@GGuyZ sorry.. one more question.. for the MCP23017 IO pins, is it correct assumption, just like Adafruit GPIO setup, that I just need to pull down to GND for the joystick/button switch? Do I need additional external resistor to pull up when switch is open? Tks.

jr82

I cannot seem to get piarcade to work. My programming knowledge is minimal so I would appreciate if you could dumb this down. I assume the address for the 12c chip in the program is 0x20. I also realize that I need wiringpi installed and i2c enabled.. program installs fine but none of the keys work.. what am I missing?

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