Mar 01

Friday Post: PiMAME 0.6 Beta

Beta2 is now up!

You guys rock!  I know about the slowness.  Working on a Beta2 right now!

Sorry for the late post, I have been waiting on the new image to upload to my web host.

Hey All!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of the Raspberry Pi’s launch. I’m really proud of the community and environment that has sprung up surrounding this wonderful device.

I am very happy to be releasing a beta for PiMAME 0.6.

Screen Shot 2013-03-01 at 9.28.02 PM

Release Notes:

  1. Support for the XArcade Tankstick.
  2. New menu at start to choose options before launching emulation.
  3. PIP (the Pi IP service) is available to install (but off by default).
  4. New admin options in the web frontend to Reboot and Shutdown your Pi.
  5. Smaller image should now install on most 2GB cards (with some room to spare).

I realize this isn’t a monumental release, but it’s a leap forward on the foundation. I have a lot of ideas and a lot of improvements I want to include. As I make these improvements, I’m going to release more and more. You all have been awesome at pointing me in the direction you wish PiMAME to go. Thank you! I’m eager to hear your feedback on this version.

Get PiMAME 0.6 Beta2 now!

-Shea

Feb 21

3Doodler and Raspberry Pi On-Off Switch

Hey All,

You all know I’m a huge Kickstarter fan.  This week has proved to be an awesome time for projects (and a sad day for my wallet).  Two projects caught my eye, the first one is the 3Doodler.

The 3Doodler is a hot-glue-gun like device that uses a plastic extruder to create 3D shapes in air.  The plastic extruder is one that you would normally see in a 3D printer like the Makerbot, but has been adapted to be handheld.  Because the plastic cools rapidly, it can create sturdy shapes that can be drawn anywhere.

It already surpassed the million dollar mark, so I have high hopes for this project.  I backed it at the $75 October level, so I hope to get mine then and be able to do a review of it.  If you are into 3D Printing and artwork, you may want to consider backing this project!

Another Kickstarter I backed this week is a project for the Raspberry Pi.  It’s an on/off switch that talks to the Pi via GPIO and activates a safe software shutdown before cutting power.

I’ve talked to the creator, he’s a member of the Raspberry Pi forums, and is quite excited about this project.  It’s $22 for this batch of boards.  If you are looking for a power switch for your Pi, this may be it.

I have a cool piece of hardware to show tomorrow.  Looking forward to sharing it with you all!

-Shea

Jan 23

PiMAME 0.5 Beta Release

Hey all,

This is just for testing purposes, but if you like to live on the cutting edge, I’m making available the beta/pre-release/testing release of PiMAME 0.5!

It’s based off the PiMAME 0.3 image, with the Uploader file size limit set to 200MB, and the Snapshot artwork in AdvMENU.

Let me know if you have any issues with it!

-Shea

Jan 14

PiMAME 0.4

Update:  I have received numerous reports that this version is much slower than the previous one.  I am reverting back to the previous Raspbian for PiMAME 0.5.  That should fix the speed issues.  The new release will be up this week.  Thank you for all the feedback.

Hey All,

I am pleased to announce PiMAME 0.4 is now available for download.

PiMAME is now built around the 2012-12-16 version of Raspbian.
AdvanceMAME 1.2 and AdvanceMENU 2.6  are installed.
PulseAudio has been removed.
Snapshots of supported games are loaded and will appear in AdvanceMENU.
The ROM uploader file size limit has been increased from 2MB to 200MB.

I recommend users exit out of AdvanceMENU at some point and run:

sudo raspi-config

Overclocking the Pi from raspi-config greatly increases the performance of AdvanceMAME.  You are also able to expand the filesystem to fill up the rest of your SD Card.

I am looking forward to all questions, comments, and suggestions!  Have a great week.

-Shea

Download PiMAME

 

Jan 06

Pleasant Surprise, New version of AdvanceMAME was released

Hey All,

I received a pleasant surprise this weekend.  A new version of AdvanceMAME and AdvanceMENU was released by the author.  I am currently compiling it and testing it out.  It is still based on MAME 0.106.

This is going to push back the PiMAME 0.4 release as I want to incorporate these new binaries into it.

You can find the sources here: http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/index.html

Jan 04

Friday Post: First post of 2013!

Hey all,

Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2013 🙂

On Monday Element14 will have more Raspberry Pi’s in stock.  Get your credit cards ready.  I will also be taking my first graduate course that same day.  I am very happy and looking forward to working on my masters degree.

I now have a USB gamepad and I’m going to work on getting that setup.  I’m currently working on PiMAME 0.4 and hope to have it released this weekend.  I am incorporating as many fixes and improvements as I can.  I really appreciate your feedback.

In other Pi news, teh_orph has posted new information about his XWindows accelerated drivers for the Pi.  I am looking forward to trying them out.  They are FAR from finished, but this is a great step forward.

Have a great weekend!

-Shea

Dec 31

Raspberry Pi Powered SNES

Hey All,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  This is what I assume to be the last post of 2012.  Might as well end it with a bang 🙂

A fellow member of FamiLAB (Orlando’s Hackerspace) has made a great write-up of his Raspberry Pi powered SNES.

I have been watching Ted (Waterbury) work on this project for the past few months, and the work is nothing short of incredible.

I hope everyone has a great new year.  May 2013 bring you joy, happiness, and success.

-Shea

 

Dec 21

Friday Post: PiMAME bandwidth and DeskCade photoshoot!

Happy Friday All!!!!

I am off work until the New Year!!  I think I’m going to sleep until Sunday 🙂

First things first.  Happy Holidays and an early Happy New Year to all my readers.  All of you have been awesome.  Thank you for all the comments.

PiMAME Updates

I have used up over 100GB of bandwidth in a week.  That’s AWESOME.  I have never used so much bandwidth ever, yet alone in a week.  Luckily I have generous bandwidth allotments between my two hosts, so hopefully I won’t have to scramble for mirrors again.

Expect PiMAME updates over the weekend.  I am doing a lot to it.  The next update should be great.

Photoshoot

We had a secret santa in my department, and my co-worker was given a really cool light box since he is a freelance photographer.  He did a little photo shoot of my DeskCade units.

-Shea

Dec 14

Friday Post: PiMAME Image and other neat things

Hey All,

Hope you all like this:

PiMAME

Download Here

This is a fully configured Raspberry Pi image that auto boots into AdvanceMENU and runs your MAME games for you.  It includes a copy of a Free MAME ROM so you can see it working right from the start.  SSH is already enabled, memory split is setup, and everything is updated.

Once you have it flashed to your SD Card, I recommend running “sudo raspi-config” and expanding the file system, otherwise you will only have a few megs of space left to use.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions!

Raspberry Pi Radio

http://www.icrobotics.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Turning_the_Raspberry_Pi_Into_an_FM_Transmitter

With one wire and a simple program, you can turn your Raspberry Pi into an FM Transmitter that plays on FM 100.0MHz.