Ouya MAME Machine?

[Boingo]

Ouya is inexpensive, small, and compact, and it currently has a version of MAME for it.  To me that makes Ouya an ideal platform for building a MAME arcade machine, and I am considering doing that myself.

Has anyone built a MAME machine using Ouya yet?

What kind of controler needs to be used?

Are there any problems that need to be considered?

[Generic Eric]

You are not going to have any particular building challenges.  Just software challenges of making it look less like a console running an emulator and more like an arcade machine.

I just finished 2 coinops cabs.  Between the x box splash and the unleash splash, there is no hiding the fact there is an X box running.   I think the prime challenge is hiding the fact there is something other than a single pcb.

I'm kinda over having to explain why I have so many buttons. 

Anywho.

No one is going to talk you in or out of using an ouya.  You'll be a trailblazer most likely.   

Good luck.  I have a ouya too, so I'll be watching to learn how it is done. 

[Boingo]

I built a couple of small mini cabinets before, and I still have the template, so I am certain it would not be hard to build another.

It is just the controls I am concerned about, and whether I can find a small monitor that will fit into the cabinet.

Is there a 4:3 monitor out there  that is compatible with Ouya, or do I have to squeeze a widescreen monitor into the cabinet?

Will a keyboard controler work with Ouya?

[Generic Eric]

I built a couple of small mini cabinets before, and I still have the template, so I am certain it would not be hard to build another.

It is just the controls I am concerned about, and whether I can find a small monitor that will fit into the cabinet.

Is there a 4:3 monitor out there  that is compatible with Ouya, or do I have to squeeze a widescreen monitor into the cabinet?

Will a keyboard controler work with Ouya?

I think that monitor would be rare.  An hdmi to dvi adapter would be far cheaper.

A keyboard encoder should work.  I can't say for more than one though.

Do you have an ouya?  Which keyboard encoder do you prefer?   I've wired a key wiz and 2 kades.  Both were easy to use.

Which made emulator do you prefer?

edit
typo on phone is a bad idea.

[FNwoz]

I am interested in doing this as well primarily to make a low cost low power bartop mame cabinet. The issue with going to anything other then HDMI is audio. How would we get audio out of the ouya board. I already have a 17" lcd vga monitor so for me I don't think it would work.

EDIT: Looks like this could do the trick.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812699001

[Generic Eric]

Check this thread out
http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?7002-Discover-MAME4Droid-David-Valdeita-Loureiro

One of the minor drawbacks is having different platforms out of sync from the version available at mame.net.  At any rate we do what we can, with what we have, but keep that in mind.

I haven't looked at compiling, but compiling for my PC wasn't hard, just close your door and go to it.  I don't know the obstacles for compiling for OUYA.  I hadn't all of the thread I linked, but I think that might be covered in there.    

[Boingo]

 I bought a Zero Delay USB encoder for a PC I wanted to put into a minicab. The PC turned out to be too large for the cabinet.

I am wondering if the encoder will work with Ouya, but I lost the instructions. I will experiment today and see if it work with Ouya.

{EDIT: Not good.  The device does not appear to be recognized by the Ouya, and does not seem to even work on the PC as of yet.

I sure wish I still had the instructions.}

[Generic Eric]

I bought a Zero Delay USB encoder for a PC I wanted to put into a minicab. The PC turned out to be too large for the cabinet.

I am wondering if the encoder will work with Ouya, but I lost the instructions. I will experiment today and see if it work with Ouya.

Not sure the level of instructions you had, but does this look familiar?

[Boingo]

Yeah.  That's the one.

I have the thing hooked up to my PC and a joystick, but I do not appear to be getting any signal that I recognize.

My old controler appears as a keyboard to the computer, but it does not seem to recognize this.

{{EDIT: Resetting the computer got it working, so I know it works on a PC. Now if I can only figure out how to get it to work with the Ouya.}}

[Cynicaster]

I can never understand why anybody would use anything other than a PC for a MAME cabinet. 

-   Best platform for general MAME development support
-   Absolutely unrivaled in power, dollar for dollar
-   Great selection of front ends
-   Enormous community of other folks using PC’s who can help you get up and running because they’re using the same platform
-   Easy plug-and-play for peripherals like iPac, speakers, etc. 
-   Easy to connect to any type of display
-   Highly customizable (hiding splash screens, etc.)

All of these benefits, and a totally capable machine (for the purpose at hand) can usually be had from your local classifieds for $20-$40 or so… heck, you may even have a friend or relative willing to give you an old PC for free. 

I can see how really small projects may require a physically compact hardware platform such as a Raspberry Pi or Ouya, but even there I’m guessing a bit of up front planning and cost/benefit analysis would go a long way. 

I can also understand the temptation to re-purpose some type of hardware for other nerdy uses, but ultimately you need to ask yourself what you’d rather have: a neat DIY science project (“hey, look what I made out of my old crappy Mac laptop!”) or a versatile, kick---I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- MAME cabinet? 

[Generic Eric]

I can never understand why anybody would use anything other than a PC for a MAME cabinet. 

-   Best platform for general MAME development support
-   Absolutely unrivaled in power, dollar for dollar
-   Great selection of front ends
-   Enormous community of other folks using PC’s who can help you get up and running because they’re using the same platform
-   Easy plug-and-play for peripherals like iPac, speakers, etc. 
-   Easy to connect to any type of display
-   Highly customizable (hiding splash screens, etc.)

All of these benefits, and a totally capable machine (for the purpose at hand) can usually be had from your local classifieds for $20-$40 or so… heck, you may even have a friend or relative willing to give you an old PC for free. 

I can see how really small projects may require a physically compact hardware platform such as a Raspberry Pi or Ouya, but even there I’m guessing a bit of up front planning and cost/benefit analysis would go a long way. 

I can also understand the temptation to re-purpose some type of hardware for other nerdy uses, but ultimately you need to ask yourself what you’d rather have: a neat DIY science project (“hey, look what I made out of my old crappy Mac laptop!”) or a versatile, kick---I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- MAME cabinet?

Many of your points are valid everywhere. Just consider that not everyone lives in a place where people are selling old computers in the classifieds section or putting them on the curb.

I have an ouya and I generally don't carry on about it because I haven't spent much time on it myself to formulate an opinion.

I think there is enough internet that we should be able to talk about this without being interrupted someone that isn't interested in using an OUYA as a platform.  Clearly the OUYA has its limitations but it sounds like OP already has one, so there shouldn't be any harm and figuring out how to get MAME running on it.

Also this should be in the console forum.

[Boingo]

I can never understand why anybody would use anything other than a PC for a MAME cabinet. 

-   Best platform for general MAME development support
-   Absolutely unrivaled in power, dollar for dollar
-   Great selection of front ends
-   Enormous community of other folks using PC’s who can help you get up and running because they’re using the same platform
-   Easy plug-and-play for peripherals like iPac, speakers, etc. 
-   Easy to connect to any type of display
-   Highly customizable (hiding splash screens, etc.)

All of these benefits, and a totally capable machine (for the purpose at hand) can usually be had from your local classifieds for $20-$40 or so… heck, you may even have a friend or relative willing to give you an old PC for free. 

I can see how really small projects may require a physically compact hardware platform such as a Raspberry Pi or Ouya, but even there I’m guessing a bit of up front planning and cost/benefit analysis would go a long way. 

I can also understand the temptation to re-purpose some type of hardware for other nerdy uses, but ultimately you need to ask yourself what you’d rather have: a neat DIY science project (“hey, look what I made out of my old crappy Mac laptop!”) or a versatile, kick---I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- MAME cabinet?

I already have a computer I bought for a MAME machine, but it is a tower and is simply too large to put in a minicab, especially once the monitor is in there. Ouya is only the size of a Rubik's Cube, and will fit in easily. It is also cheap, about the same price as buying a used PC.  Ouya is a viable option worth considering for a cabinet, especially a small one.

[BobA]

My ouya runs MAME fairly well on the regular ouya controller.  Only mod that I have heard is a problem is the X-arcade interface not being recognized.   Any other usb game pad or keyboard interface should be useable. 

Someone will always jump in and ask why you not use a free computer.  I guess the answer is try fitting a big old clunker where a ouya will fit.  Itty bitty single board mame machines are useful where boat anchors are not.   If you unbox the ouya it is really small.

An ouya makes a very nice replacement for a 60 in 1 or 100 in 1 board if you choose your games correctly and lock down MAME with only the roms you want.  Needs some sort of front end thou.

[Generic Eric]

  Needs some sort of front end thou.

I concur

Also, this is what we are dealing with here:

and here without the fan.


I don't have a bananna for scale, but suffice to say it is small.

I've started to work on mine now that I more free time. 

[sharpfork]

have you thought about Nostalgia

+
AutoPilot
http://www.ouyalytics.com/app/124-AutoPilot - I'm sure there is a better link

if you feel like side loading or getting the play store working, I've been talking to the guy that makes this and it looks promising:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vektor.gamesome

[sharpfork]

I just finished 2 coinops cabs.  Between the x box splash and the unleash splash, there is no hiding the fact there is an X box running.   I think the prime challenge is hiding the fact there is something other than a single pcb.

I hide the flubber with a custom bios.  Soft modders can set a pin on the Kade to fire a relay at a time that fires up your display and audio post flubber.  I still think the xBox + coinops or hypervision are the best non PC solution for a configurable multicab.

I have an OUYA and have tested a few HDMI to VGA converters and the OUYA is less forgiving than generic android devices when it comes to video config.  I would love if OUYA unlocked the boot loader so we could have custom firmware.

[yotsuya]

  Needs some sort of front end thou.

I concur

Also, this is what we are dealing with here:

and here without the fan.


I don't have a bananna for scale, but suffice to say it is small.

I've started to work on mine now that I more free time.

Damn, that's some tiny ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, bro!

[Boingo]

Obviously you have never played on an Ouya.

It's a great little console.

My brother sent me an XBox 360 for Christmas, but what do I find myself playing on all the time?

Ouya.

I honestly don't get whay there are so many trolls dissing the system.

[Generic Eric]

Obviously you have never played on an Ouya.

It's a great little console.

My brother sent me an XBox 360 for Christmas, but what do I find myself playing on all the time?

Ouya.

I honestly don't get whay there are so many trolls dissing the system.

Not sure who this is directed towards?

[kiwasabi]

I would recommend this Android box over the Ouya for several reasons. The biggest one being that the OS and firmware isn't locked down the same way Ouya is. Also it has separate audio output via 3.5mm audio jack. It's also slightly cheaper and has better specs (it's a quadcore 1.6GHZ processor with 2GB of RAM). Just my two cents. By the way, I've definitely had issues getting spinners working on Android. Luckily the KADE device guys are helping on a solution to this issue which they will incorporate into their software moving forward.

http://www.amazon.com/K-R42-Cortex-A9-External-Ethernet-Controller/dp/B00EAGUXA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394792818&sr=8-1&keywords=k-r42

[Boingo]

This makes me think there should be an entire series of pinned threads about using different systems for MAME, not just for Ouya (although that is what interests me right now), but for other systems, such as Raspberry Pi, Xbox, Play Station, the system mentioned in the previous post, et cetera.

[Generic Eric]

This makes me think there should be an entire series of pinned threads about using different systems for MAME, not just for Ouya (although that is what interests me right now), but for other systems, such as Raspberry Pi, Xbox, Play Station, the system mentioned in the previous post, et cetera.

Caveat: This is not my board and I'm not a mod

If/when there is a sufficient volume of topics in the past especially, there is eventually a child board opened up for the related topic.  For the driving board as an example, there has been many driving cabs, but someone volunteered there time in an extensive database project.  Eventually a board was made.

It could happen if there was momentum behind it. 

With the xbox, there are a few more exploits involved that don't make it plug and play.  In the past that has made people whisper about it in the corners.

Keep on keeping on with your OUYA project and who knows what happened.  Emulation on this is much more direct.

I can say for me personally, I already had an OUYA and never spent enough time on it.  Your threadsq prompted me to try to get a monitor working with the adapters I had on hand.  Over time, I hope to illustrate a clear path on how to get things running. 

[Warborg]

Obviously you have never played on an Ouya.

It's a great little console.

My brother sent me an XBox 360 for Christmas, but what do I find myself playing on all the time?

Ouya.

I honestly don't get whay there are so many trolls dissing the system.

Do you actually know what a troll is?  Just because someone says something unflattering about something you like doesn't make them a troll...

Personally, I have no opinion about the Ouya, never been near one...

[clok]

Love my Ouya, but do question its as an Arcade box. I agree size is very nice, but several problems have been mentioned. Audio for one, faster android devices for cheaper also. I truly think the Ouya is a sweet machine, and will work for what you plan with some work but again, better options for the price i think.  Now if you asked me if it was a great choice for a XBMC machine     i cant get enough of mine.. XBMCHUB addons.. goodbye cable tv, I wont miss ya.  I think if you are building a small bar top I would go the extra $100-200 and hit someplace like Anadtech and pick a miniATX board  used that will play pretty much anything (emu wise).

again OUYA= awesome.. Im sure it would work just fine, but you do have a few hoops to jump through that other options would eliminate with less cost or same cost.

[nitrogen_widget]

Love my Ouya, but do question its as an Arcade box. I agree size is very nice, but several problems have been mentioned. Audio for one, faster android devices for cheaper also. I truly think the Ouya is a sweet machine, and will work for what you plan with some work but again, better options for the price i think.  Now if you asked me if it was a great choice for a XBMC machine     i cant get enough of mine.. XBMCHUB addons.. goodbye cable tv, I wont miss ya.  I think if you are building a small bar top I would go the extra $100-200 and hit someplace like Anadtech and pick a miniATX board  used that will play pretty much anything (emu wise).

again OUYA= awesome.. Im sure it would work just fine, but you do have a few hoops to jump through that other options would eliminate with less cost or same cost.

Just out of curiosity what cheaper faster android devices are you referring to?
One of the TRON's or android sticks?

[clok]

Love my Ouya, but do question its as an Arcade box. I agree size is very nice, but several problems have been mentioned. Audio for one, faster android devices for cheaper also. I truly think the Ouya is a sweet machine, and will work for what you plan with some work but again, better options for the price i think.  Now if you asked me if it was a great choice for a XBMC machine     i cant get enough of mine.. XBMCHUB addons.. goodbye cable tv, I wont miss ya.  I think if you are building a small bar top I would go the extra $100-200 and hit someplace like Anadtech and pick a miniATX board  used that will play pretty much anything (emu wise).

again OUYA= awesome.. Im sure it would work just fine, but you do have a few hoops to jump through that other options would eliminate with less cost or same cost.

Just out of curiosity what cheaper faster android devices are you referring to?
One of the TRON's or android sticks?

Ok i may have overstated, When the Ouya was coming out i was looking at other Android boxes, some came out, some haven't yet ( and may never). I see the Ouya was $70 on Amazon yesterday.. that is close to impossible to beat i have to agree. There where supposed to beat least 2 other tegra machines with DUel USB and VGA out for about $80, but i cant seem to find any now.. (amazon has several, but none that i see cheaper and better then Ouya)..

I guess I look at the extra $100 or so and think it would be nicer to run a few more emu's full speed.

[pbj]

Woulda been nice if someone mentioned that sale here.  I'd have bought @ $70

 

[nitrogen_widget]

Love my Ouya, but do question its as an Arcade box. I agree size is very nice, but several problems have been mentioned. Audio for one, faster android devices for cheaper also. I truly think the Ouya is a sweet machine, and will work for what you plan with some work but again, better options for the price i think.  Now if you asked me if it was a great choice for a XBMC machine     i cant get enough of mine.. XBMCHUB addons.. goodbye cable tv, I wont miss ya.  I think if you are building a small bar top I would go the extra $100-200 and hit someplace like Anadtech and pick a miniATX board  used that will play pretty much anything (emu wise).

again OUYA= awesome.. Im sure it would work just fine, but you do have a few hoops to jump through that other options would eliminate with less cost or same cost.

Just out of curiosity what cheaper faster android devices are you referring to?
One of the TRON's or android sticks?

Ok i may have overstated, When the Ouya was coming out i was looking at other Android boxes, some came out, some haven't yet ( and may never). I see the Ouya was $70 on Amazon yesterday.. that is close to impossible to beat i have to agree. There where supposed to beat least 2 other tegra machines with DUel USB and VGA out for about $80, but i cant seem to find any now.. (amazon has several, but none that i see cheaper and better then Ouya)..

I guess I look at the extra $100 or so and think it would be nicer to run a few more emu's full speed.

There are so many devices out there with so many chip-sets it's just too difficult to keep track of their power.
Just like today's video cards for PC's.
If OUYA puts a T4 for their 2nd console i'd seriously consider getting it then using the first OUYA for something else.

[sharpfork]

This is super cool and relevant:


http://www.reddit.com/r/ouya/comments/22bz5x/ouya_arcade_stick_mod/