Self contained cheap "computer" capable of doing basic MAME? (ala Raspberry pi)

[andrewe1]

Hello,

First of all I would like to say that you guys have a pretty neat forum here, really popular too... 

I'm no stranger to arcade emulation, I have built a couple of MAME cabinets before... However, I was wondering if there was any device that is self contained that is capable of doing basic MAME... Let's say Marvel vs Capcom and older.

I'm really tired of dealing with a computer... especially when having to use Windows, big power supplies, motherboards etc...

I was wondering if there is any device out there that is self contained and is capable of doing "basic" emulation with a simple frontend. Something that could be really made into a real "turn key" system.

When the raspberry was announced I was hoping it would be the perfect solution and got a couple of units myself, however... Even as it matures, it's just not powerful enough. NES emulation is barely there and it glitches.

So I was wondering if you guys knew about something that could work in this scenario. It obviously does not need to be as cheap as the rPI.


Thanks!


PS: If you are interested, here's a gallery of a unit I built a while ago: http://imgur.com/a/7zPWF

[paigeoliver]

Using a Pi is a lot more work than using a computer.

Your "turn key" phrase makes me think you just want to make bootleg multigames to sell to people. There are dozens of different bootleg multiboards available from china and they are turn key.

[andrewe1]

lol... I don't want to sell to people. I want something stable that doesn't crash that much and that won't make someone at a party go "hey dude, somethings wrong with your machine".

Even if I wanted to sell them, which would be hell answering support questions, I don't see anything wrong with it. Lots of people do it, they just provide you the arcade cabinet and you supply your games.

[paigeoliver]

Ok, I have been running my mame cabinet for about 8 years and it has never crashed once.

The PC based chinese 1xxx in one and 2xxx in one boards aren't that bad, but you can do better just setting up your own computer.

[andrewe1]

Well I think the real problem I've always had are unstable frontends and OS (windows). Not the emulators exactly... I didn't even know those things existed (all in ones) but they seam a little crappy as I read reviews about them. I'm guessing you can't swap out games on them? I'm actually interested in quite a few titles.... Not a fan of having the 10,000 games in a cabinet, most people will spend their time scrolling and "remembering" how cool the game was instead of playing it.

How do the jamma boards work though? Where do you "insert" them to.

[paigeoliver]

You are right, you can't swap out games on them.

For the Jamma boards you get a jamma harness (usually available same place you get the 2000 game PCB) and wire your cabinet with it and the board plugs into that.

The older simpler front ends are pretty stable, so is windows if it doesn't have anything installed but an emulator and a frontend.

[DaveMMR]

I'm definitely feeling you with the frustration with the PC. Though I think the problems I had with mine was that I had to have a dozen different programs running in the background for my cabinet to have its bells and whistles. I had a background program for my Ultrastick 360's, another for the RGB LEDs, then Joy2Key for certain functions, etc. By the way, the programs themselves are fine. But it does introduce additional failure points due to user - read: my - error such as incorrect configurations or missing items. These don't always make themselves evident right away - such as if I decided to play a particular game for the first time and never noticed there was something funky in the game's .ini or controls.dat entry.

Parroting what Paige said, the simpler it is - both the OS and the Frontend - the more stable it is.

I'm looking forward to when I can go straight JAMMA with my future arcade projects. I was going to recently but couldn't justify the price of boards and I hate the "limited selection" of those programmable ones I've seen. (And I'm not a fan of those xx-in-1 boards at all.) There was a thread about a member working on a fully programmable JAMMA board that's supposedly relatively inexpensive that I really hope comes to fruition (too lazy to search for it right now.)

Another thing is that the cool things you can do with a PC-based cabinet (game based LED buttons, auto-switching 4/8 ways restrictors, automatic rotating monitors, and so much more) keeps me from going full-on JAMMA. That's why I'm saving it for when I can have the time to build dedicated machines (like all verticals, all Neo-Geo, a specific game, etc.) and just have to put up with the PC quirks for now.

[andrewe1]

Thanks for your replies!


Guess its PC for now... do you guys know if there are any stable linux frontends? I've never tried emulators on linux but hopefully It won't have to deal with updates and stuff like windows does...

[DaveMMR]

Guess its PC for now... do you guys know if there are any stable linux frontends? I've never tried emulators on linux but hopefully It won't have to deal with updates and stuff like windows does...

Check out the Linux category above. Some good threads regarding custom distros, etc.

Re: windows updates: typically I don't do any updating to windows once it's a full-time arcade machine. Even cab software (MAME, front-ends, etc.) don't get updated unless there's a compelling reason to do so (e.g. new features, fixed glitches I encountered, etc.) This helps add some stability to the machine's software. It's not like I'm using it to browse the internet or anything.

[sharpfork]

I like the Xbox 1 and coinops.

SIII + Cyanogen + Tapatalk 2

[keilmillerjr]

Thanks for your replies!


Guess its PC for now... do you guys know if there are any stable linux frontends? I've never tried emulators on linux but hopefully It won't have to deal with updates and stuff like windows does...

---fudgesicle--- winblows. Check out this section: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/board,39.0.html