Category Archives: programming

May 09

Friday Post: FUNDED!

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Hey All,

Thank you so much for your backings and support.  Over 400% funded!  What did I do to celebrate?

Icee

 I got a delicious post-Kickstarter celebratory Icee 🙂

Updates

To keep you all updated on my progress, I created this:

PiPlay Update Board

As I finish tasks (or add new ones) I will be updating this board (notice the green filled in dots at the bottom) and letting everyone know.

PiPlay Case

I got the PiPlay case in my hands last night.  It looks and feels great.  There is only a minor alteration that needs to be done.

Everyone who backed a tier with the case will receive this version that has Kickstarter Edition branding.

PiPlay Case Kickstarter Edition

 PiPlay

Lots of cool work is being done on PiPlay.  Theme support is now built in, but it does have some quirks.  We are fixing that, and it should be part of the PiPlay 0.8 beta 4 release.

Bartop

I got in a Bartop Arcade Kit from Rich’s Arcade today.  I am going to take pictures as I build it, and put that up as it’s own post.

IMG_3865

Enjoy!

-Shea Silverman

May 02

Friday Post: It’s Over 9000!

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The PiPlay Kickstarter has gone over $9000!!!!

So far, we are working on theme support, joystick support, joystick configs, auto grabbing of game screen images, screen image previews, and more emulators.

I’ve also started a joystick build so that I can test out different encoders easily.

IMG_3838 IMG_3839 IMG_3840 IMG_3841

  • $30 for the encoder, joystick, and buttons from eBay.
  • $15 for the case and $5 for the drill hole bits from Harbor Freight.
  • Ability to carry around all my stuff in a joystick case: Priceless!

 

Custom menu from the PiPlay forums:

I’m going to go celebrate!

 

-Shea

 

Apr 18

Friday Post: PiPlay 0.8 Beta 3

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Update: PiPlay 0.8 Beta 3 is uploaded!

Lo all,

It’s been two weeks and my Kickstarter is at 242% funded!!  This is incredible.  I’m so excited and humbled at the community support.  Thank you!

PiPlay 0.8 Beta 3

I am uploading the latest SD Card image of PiPlay.  0.8 Beta 3 includes:

  • Recompiled kernel with Xin-Mo encoder support.
  • Better GBA support.
  • Better Neo Geo support.
  • Fixed issues with Genesis and Final Burn Alpha emulators not running.
  • Genesis emulator can now use Zip files.
  • Updated PiPlay to have a better updater system.
  • 2 player keyboard support in SNES emulator.

What I’m currently working on:

  • Snapshot/screenshot support in ROM list.
  • Documentation.
  • Looking for MSX, Atari, and TG16 emulators to add.

Look for this SD Card image to be available tonight or tomorrow.  My laptop is locking up / freezing randomly and I’m trying to generate a more recent backup, so I have to hurry up and wait while that happens.

I will update this post when it’s uploaded!

-Shea

Apr 11

Friday Post: PyCon 2014 – Hello Montreal!

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Hey All! I’m in Montreal right now for the annual PyCon conference.  I will be presenting PiMAME PiPLAY on Sunday during the poster presentations.  I’m excited to be showing off the software and getting feedback from fellow Pythonistas.

My flight in was horrible.  Finding my way around Montreal was horrible.  But now that I’m here and settled, it’s awesome!  The first day of PyCon has been interesting.  It feels a little disconnected since we are in a new conference building with multiple floors and the hotels are seperated.  The previous ones in California were all connected and on one main floor.  Either way, I’m having fun and the talks are good.

PiMAME PiPlay Kickstarter

So, 2 pieces of big news.  My Kickstarter has been 100%+ funded.  Within 18 hours you all helped to fund my project to 100%.  It is increasing every day.  I’m overwhelmed and humbled.  Thank you all!

I have had to change the name from PiMAME to PiPlay.  As I stated in the Kickstarter update, it has come to my attention that I am possibly violating the trademark(s) of the MAMEDev team.  This is something that I never meant to do, as I have nothing but the utmost respect and awe for the team that develops MAME.

PiMAME has evolved past just MAME, and it is a perfect time and opportunity to update it.

I will be updating all the names once I get back from this conference.

Thank you all for the all the support and help.

-Shea

Mar 28

Friday Post: Framebuffer Copy and new PiMAME 8 beta release

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Hey All,

Another week another PiMAME release 🙂

This is beta 2 of the new PiMAME 0.8.  I’m loving the feedback.  I know there are bugs and issues, but I’m able to iterate so much faster now.  This latest release includes:

  • Added NES support again.
  • Added C64 support again.
  • Put back in restart, shutdown, and updater tools.
  • Menu will now notify you if there are updates available.
  • PiMAME bootsplash video
  • Tankstick support

High priority features I’m working on:

  • Adding back in screenshot support
  • More joystick configuration options

Framebuffer copy

I’ve started playing with Notro’s FBTFT module again.  This allows you to use little inexpensive LCD screens for things like the console and X Windows.  The problem is that most programs expect output on framebuffer 0.  These screens operate on framebuffer 1, or /dev/fb1.  Tasanakorn has created a program called fbcp.  This mirrors the screen from the hdmi / rca port and onto the SPI based screens you see above.

It doesn’t work 100% yet for me.  I don’t know if its my screen or the program.  I’m going to purchase some more and test them out.

Little Arcade Machine

Steve Smith has created this awesome little MAME cabinet.  Plans and more images are below at the imgur link.

http://imgur.com/a/Pr4rG

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Shea

Mar 21

Friday Post: PiMAME Updater

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Hey All,

New week, new revisions to PiMAME 0.8.

The new version of the frontend now includes:

  • TankStick support.
  • Numpad support.
  • Shutdown, Restart, and Update commands.
  • A notice in the menu when a new update is available.

Please run the following on the command line:

wget -O - http://pimame.org/update.sh | bash

Have a great weekend all!

Mar 07

Friday Post: PiMAME 0.8 Update and some stats!

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Hey All!

First of all, HAPPY FRIDAY!  Spring break is over for us at UCF, which means that campus won’t be dead for us full time employees and the food court will finally be reopened.  Little things in life…

It’s been a week since PiMAME 0.8 Beta 1 has been released and there has been great feedback.

Updating PiMAME

A small update is available.  All you need to do is go to the command line and run:

wget -O - http://pimame.org/update.sh | bash

This update includes Commodore 64 support and fixed NES emulation.

PiMAME Stats

In one week, PiMAME 0.8 has been downloaded from SourceForge over 400 times.  My server (which hosts a mirror copy) has transferred 84GB in 5 days.  My usual monthly bandwidth is 30-40GB.

I’m excited about this release.  There are bugs, but they are getting fixed, and this version has a great new foundation to grow on.  Thank you all for the feedback, suggestions, complaints, issues, and support!

-Shea

Feb 28

Friday Post: PiMAME 0.8 coming this weekend!

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Update 3: PiMAME 0.8 Beta 1 now uploaded! Download Here!

Update 2: Apparently 4 other people have reported issues this weekend with SourceForge and uploaded files not appearing.  I’m starting a new upload to a different host now.

Update: PiMAME 0.8 has been uploaded, but I’m still waiting for SourceForge to finish mirroring it before they turn on the download link. 🙁

 

Hey All!

Very happy to announce that PiMAME 0.8 Beta is going to be released this weekend.  I’m building the SD card image now and will be uploading it.

I’m very happy with this release.  I know it still has some bugs and issues to work out, but I’m confident that this will be the best evolution of PiMAME yet.

On another note, the presentation I gave at the Information Fluency conference went well.  I have a lot of different colleges and universities interested in the applications I developed for UCF.  Hopefully I can open source them soon.

I’ve started to receive the parts for my SmartRap 3D Printer build.  This is the first time I’m building something this complex without any instructions, so hopefully it all goes well.

Have a good weekend, and I’ll update this post with the image file when it’s finished uploading.

-Shea

Feb 14

Friday Post: Dogecoin USB Miner

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Hey All,

This is the first Valentine’s day I am celebrating with K as husband and wife.  I am very lucky to have her, and knowing that she is reading this, I just want to say that you are my person and I love you very much!

PiMAME is coming together.  I am psyched to have a full weekend to just spend working on it.

The era of cpu/gpu mining scrypt based alt coins may be ending soon.  The first scrypt capable ASICs are hitting the market.  I recently purchased the DualMiner USB BTC/LTC miner.  Even though it says litecoin, it can mine any scrypt coin, which is what Dogecoin is based on.

2 - WiHvu3a 5 - jscGo4E

It was $113 shipped from California, and performs 70khs at around 3 watts.  My r9 270 produced 350khs at ~150 watts and cost $200, and my Core i5 Haswell produced 79khs, cost $199, and uses ~100 watts.

I’m excited and nervous about the next generation of ASIC miners.

Have a good weekend all!

-Shea