PiMame Menu is fullscreen, but emulators are 1/2 screen size (RPi -> GBS-8100 -> WG Tube)
  • Summary:
    I took the plunge to PiPlay and have the PiPlay menu system working at fullscreen, but all the emulators (AdvMAME, MAME4All, etc) run at about 1/2 the screen size. They are centered, but half size.


    Specific Question:
    Has anyone else that is using a portrait mode WG tube and is running through the GBS-8100, successfully managed the rotations and scales so that MAME (and the other supported PiPLAY emulators) run at fullscreen res too??

    If yes, PLEASE share your config details, because I am coming up empty on all the config tweaks that I've attempted thus far.



    Config:
    Raspberry PI (B) -> to an HDMI/VGA converter -> GBS-8100 VGA/arcade video -> Original Konami/WG tube.

    *NOTE* This is a portrait mode cabinet - so the tube is mounted vertically. I have the rotate option set in the boot config, so LINUX boots rotated.


    Key Symptom:
    PiPlay menu is at full screen, looks great, works great. Games run at 1/2 the screen size.

    I have tried everything that I can think of, from all the various advmame.rc display tweaks, to advv and trying to use advcfg (which always bombs as "incompatible with the monitor settings").



    Backstory:
    I have been doing MAME for a long time, I built my first MAME cabinet in 1999, and it's still alive - in a Rev 1 Konami Contra cabinet (pre JAMMA).

    The original incarnation of this cab was a skeletal PC running Windows95 and a serial keyboard emulator that took the controls from the cabinet and sent keyboard input for each arcade switch (including coins, etc). I had the foresight at the time to leave all of the cabinet hardware intact and not cut or mod the harness, and went about building my own interface card with the card edge connector that connects the whole rig to the cabinet's harness. I since had to add a couple external switches for ESC and Return in order to navigate menus, and that required the harvesting of a couple more RPi GPIO pins, but it's all working to my satisfaction at this point - with the one exception of the screen res.

    When PiMAME came out, I decided to take the plunge and gutted the cabinet and rebuilt the interface card using AdaFruit's PiCobbler board and a couple more GPIO pins thrown in because I needed more, etc. Great - everything is technically functioning, even though the RPi is not as capable as the old PC at rendering the more complex games and sound, it's working and it 1/20th the size internally, of the old set up -- I like that.

    At this point I have updated to the latest release - ran the updaters this weekend - and am churning on this video issue - it's driving me bonkers.

    Many thanks to all the community on whose shoulders we all stand ... and especially Shea Silverman for his blood, sweat, tears and gold - as the wealth of information out here is spectacular!

    --
    Brian ("bsb")
    bsbrum@gmail.com
  • After dinking around with 'advv' for a while more, I did just improve my situation, but it's still not "fullscreen" - but about 80% now. The other settings in demo mode are compressed vertically into a "letterbox" style orientation horizontally. This setting, as I mentioned, uses about 80% of the screen.

    Changed the setting in advv to 256 x 240 (5.41 15.72 60.00) standard

    The HDMI->VGA->Arcade hardware voodoo is making my head hurt.

    *EDIT* Spoke too soon. It's chopping the bottom 1/3 of the display off. ;-(
  • That sounds really cool. I have no hardware to do such fun stuff. It's funny how we buy cards to "downgrade" the VGA signal to CGA? Arcade machines truly have gone full circle! :)
  • This is the most screen real estate that I've been able to occupy... this is not the arcade monitor (obviously) but it shows exactly what's on the HG tube, thanks to the GBS-8100.

    advv photo here:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/7827692@N05/sets/72157645066823130/

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