Raspberry pi ( Retropi OS ) with I-pac keyboard emulator problems

[ArcticCowboy]

So, I'm working on my arcade cabinet, and I'm finally getting to the point where I need to worry about the software aspect of the project.

I'm using a raspberry pi and a I-Pac keyboard emulator and the raspberry pi is running the retropi OS. All of the buttons on my control panel are wired up and I've tested them and they do work, corresponding to different keys on the keyboard.

I've been able to get some sNES roms to work with a wired xbox 360 controller, but I cannot seem to get the buttons on the control panel to work with the roms. This may be a simple problem to fix, but seeing as I don't know much at all about linux, I'm completely lost. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

[General_Faliure]

I think for an i-pac your emulator should be set up to use the keyboard as controller as the i-pac is a keyboard encoder.
I use a minipac which works fine in linux.
Maybe you should use a faster X86 mainboard for your cab, because the R-pi may be a bit underpowered for newer games.
I want to use mine in a mini cabinet, if i ever find the time.

[nitrogen_widget]

Hi,
I've got a PI also and plan on doing the same thing if I can get the software sorted out.

The General is correct.
Need to set up the ipac as a keyboard on the PI.

I don't have one but it's what i've read on the many forums.
i'm probably going the hacked gamepad route for my controls.

The PI with mame4all works pretty good on the classics i've loaded up on it.
Even have one of those 2 3/4 lighted up PS-2 trackballs working for those games.

[ArcticCowboy]

Right now I'm not too worried about getting the right games to work on the pi. I'm trying to figure out how to get my control panel to work with the retropi emulator

[jimmy2x2x]

OT (sorry) is the pi capable of running most 2 and 4 way MAME classics to a good standard without dropped frames etc (thinking galaga, frogger, galaxian, pacman etc)

Thanks

[nitrogen_widget]

OT (sorry) is the pi capable of running most 2 and 4 way MAME classics to a good standard without dropped frames etc (thinking galaga, frogger, galaxian, pacman etc)

Thanks

Yes.
these are the games i'm looking to put into my cab so i've played them just fine on the PI.
I've only used mame4all pi which is 37b version I believe.

I've also used one of those lit-up ps2 trackballs to play centipede.
With just 4-way classics you can wire your controls directly onto the GPIO pins and mimic a keyboard for input that way.

[pbj]

I like the artwork.  Where'd you get it from?

[ArcticCowboy]

Its based off a print by Scott Johnson, cartoonist/podcaster who I've listened to for years. I spray painted it all on my self, mostly freehand, and then outlined in a big fat sharpie. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

http://www.myextralife.com/sitenews/arcade-anatomy-complete-and-on-the-store/

Still struggling with getting the button configuration worked out. Has anyone out there worked with synchronising an I-Pac with a pi?

[lordnacho]

Still struggling with getting the button configuration worked out. Has anyone out there worked with synchronising an I-Pac with a pi?

Yeah I did at one point as a test.  Seemed like everything was working ok.  The I-Pac just acts as a keyboard, so open up the command prompt and start clicking away, you should see the keys show up on screen.  Then you'll need to map all the keys in the front end and the emulators, although I sort of thought that would be done already if you are using the right spots on the I-Pac. 

[ArcticCowboy]

yeah, I figured it'd be easy to do too. The OS is just the whole emulator, Retropi. When I go to set the controls, I get a "Script Error" when I hit save. No idea what that is. Went into a directory file and messed with it in there. I got a few buttons to work, but not all of them.
I'm pretty sure it has to do with what keys the i-pac is assigning to certain buttons. I have a joystick, and 8 buttons, plus a coin slot. The bottom row of four correspond to Z, X, C, and V, the top row of four use the Ctrl, Alt, Space and Shift keys. I have a feeling that's part of the problem.

The joystick just uses the up down left right arrow keys, and hasn't ever been a problem