Tag Archives: arcade

Jan 22

X-Arcade Tankstick Unboxing

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Hey all,

My new Tankstick arrived today, courtesy of XGaming.com. They have asked me to test it and get it running on the Raspberry Pi. I only had a couple minutes to play with it, but I made a little unboxing video for everyone:

Size comparison of the Pi versus a Tankstick:

tankstick
This thing has some heft to it!  With the few minutes I got to use it, I notice why some users of the Raspberry Pi are having difficulties making it work right.  It’s nothing wrong with the device, but with the way some of the software interprets the inputs.  I have a couple of hunches and ideas on how to fix it, which I hope to get to within the next week.

PiMAME 0.5 is also coming along nicely.  I’m reverting back to the 0.3 stack and just adding some minor modifications.  That should be released on Friday.

-Shea

Jan 18

Friday Post: Advance .debs

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Hey all,

New Debs!

I have the latest AdvanceMENU, AdvanceMESS, and AdvanceMAME versions compiled and turned into .debs for your installing pleasure.

  1. Files:
    1. AdvanceMAME 1.2
    2. AdvanceMENU 2.6
    3. AdvanceMESS 0.102
  2. To install, run these commands:
    1. sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i advancemame_1.2-1_armhf.deb
    2. sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i advancemenu_2.6-1_armhf.deb
    3. sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i advancemess_0.102.0.1-1_armhf.deb

The reason dpkg requires force install is because the Advance* projects compile a lot of the same helper binaries, like advj and advc.  When dpkg tries to install the next package, it sees it has already installed something with the same name, and freaks out.

Doing a force install tells it to overwrite and continue, making everything work.  I don’t recommend using force install for everyday installs, but I know it works for these.

X Gaming X-Arcade Stick

I was very surprised when I was contacted by X Gaming this week.  They are sending me one of their really cool looking X Arcade tank sticks to test out with the Raspberry Pi and various emulators.  A couple people have posted on the Raspberry Pi forums and on my blog asking if this stick works, so hopefully I will have an answer for everyone very soon.

I’m looking forward to everyone’s feedback on the new .deb files.  Let me know if something is messed up, doesn’t install for you, or is just wonky.  Also let me know if it does work, because that’s good to hear as well 🙂

Have a great weekend!

-Shea

Nov 02

Friday Post: Wreck It Ralph!

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Happy Friday everyone!

I just got back from seeing Wreck-It Ralph and here’s my verdict:  Go see it right now. Not only was it a great story, it was a great homage to the entire gaming industry.

Today I also got an iPad Mini. I have an iPhone 4S and love it. At work I use an iPad 3 and have found it to be too big and bulky. This iPad Mini is amazing. It’s light, has a great screen, and fits my hand(s) perfectly. I’m even typing this whole post on the mini right now.   So far it’s totally worth it.

I got AdvanceMESS compiled with sound but I have yet to test it. I have an issue where check install doesn’t like installing both mame and mess because they have some of the same executables (advcfg, etc.). If anyone knows much about Debian package creation I would love some help and advice.

Have a great weekend!

Oct 03

Preview: Raspberry Pi Arcade Cabinet

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EDIT:  Now with Video!

Been working on this for a bit.  I now have limited access to a Laser Cutter.  This mini Raspberry Pi Arcade Machine I made is so cool.  The initial SVG came from here: http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/products/arcade-cabinet-enclosure-7231.  I had to modify the holes for the slab of wood I was using and the screen size for my 2″ adafruit display.

Enjoy!

Sep 01

Friday Post: Arduino Keyboard Joystick

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Hey all,

It’s been a long week, and I am really glad I have a long weekend to sleep in.

When the Arduino Leonardo was announced I was really excited to see it have built in USB HID support and could act as a keyboard, mouse, or joystick.  I was even more excited to find out that my year old Teensy++ (Arduino compatible board) was based on the same chipset that the Leonardo now uses, and is able to act as a keyboard as well!

This is a new feature that was introduced in the Arduino 1.0 IDE.  You can now send keyboard presses with this simple line of code: Keyboard.write(‘a’);  If I wanted the Up joystick to be the up arrow on the keyboard, I would just use: Keyboard.write(0x0E); .

.

My goal is to use my Neo Geo AES controllers as an input for MAME.  The Neo Geo pads don’t have any control boards built into the unit.  The console itself interprets each pin individually, just like an actual arcade board.  The pad uses a standard midi gameport (DA-15) connector, with each pin representing one button.

My idea is to make a Neo Geo pad to usb adapter using the Teensy++ as go-between.  The Neo Geo pins will be wired up to the digital pins on the Teensy, and the Teensy Arduino sketch will interpret each button press as a keyboard press.

I’m looking forward to working on this project.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and a restful Labor Day.

Aug 16

Made the frontpage!

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I was very excited when I found out that on Monday, I made the frontpage of the Raspberry Pi website.  A big shout out to Liz for mentioning me and linking back here.  It made my day!

I really love working on this little computer.  I’m learning so much and using skills that I took for granted.  It’s really pushing some of the boundaries I had setup against myself.  I’m glad to be getting past them.

I’m also thinking of getting one of these and building a RaspberryPi bartop machine:

Jul 30

GameWarp 2012 Photos

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This past weekend was Game Warp! A Central Florida event dedicated to Arcade Video Games and Pinball Machines.  I had a lot of fun, saw a lot of internet friends, and watched people way better than compete in awesome tournaments.

Enjoy the pictures!

http://www.gamewarp.org

http://www.villagebbs.com/forum/