Main > Raspberry Pi & Dev Board
Raspberry Pi
2084:
I personally don't use my pi cabinets play arcade games using a keyboard and mouse nor have I ever had the need for a 500 gig hard disk as most of the games I am interested in are <100K. The last several monitors I bought (19" 4:3 LCD) were $50 shipped on eBay. I would agree it is possible to get a nice android tablet for $50 + a 2 year monthly service contract, but it would difficult to add your own arcade controls with no USB port. The Pi doesn't do everything a PC or modern tablet can do but if you want to play early 80s games it is all that is needed. For playing games like Robotron, Defender, Tempest, etc with the appropriate arcade controls I think it would be difficult to find new capable hardware in the same price range.
--- Quote from: SavannahLion on September 04, 2014, 04:42:03 pm ---
Sigh... Let me explain.
A Pi costs $25 & $35
Let's look at the $35 model and toss in some ball park figures for the accessories
$9 for an 8GB SD card
$5 for a power supply of some sort
Bare minimum. B+ gives you extra GPIO and 2 extra USB ports.
Keyboard and mouse adds another $25 or so. Monitor adds another $100 perhaps. $50 for a 500GB HDD.
An Android tablet can be had for about $50, comes with touch screen, WiFi, Bluetooth. DUAL CPU's. You loose those extra USB ports and the HDMI out though.
That's my point. There is more capable hardware is the same price range.
Pi is long in the tooth and the price hasn't dropped one iota. The modules are also insanely expensive.
If you already have a Pi, have fun But if you're starting from scratch, consider your options carefully.
Oops... Fixed bad edit
--- End quote ---
2084:
There is a version of MAME for the pi that has been modified to use the GPIO. I would agree that if you have a lot of controls the USB based options are more practical. For the machines I have build I use the GPIO for buttons that help select the game, and provide output (e.g. for the knocker in Q*bert). The output required me to make some changes to the MAME code and recompile it and I realize not everyone is up to that.
--- Quote from: screamingtiger on September 04, 2014, 10:25:39 am ---When you use the GPIO pins, how do you get the information to the game? Is there some sort of driver already built that allows you to do that? oitherwise you would have to build a driver. I originally wanted to use an arduino for my control setup instead of a XIN MO. But I realized either I will have to overwrite the USB header on the arduino to be be recognized as a HID, or write a driver that can use the seral communications from the arduino and translate those into joystick messages for the game.
I went with a XIN MO. Wihle it would be a cool project, it would double my project time. I am one week into this and plan to be done this weekend. If I had used Linux or any other nerdy things I would be 2-3 weeks away from completion still!
--- Quote from: 2084 on September 04, 2014, 09:14:57 am ---I'd have to disagree with the sentiment that many have shared here that the Raspberry Pi is not an appropriate platform for arcade emulation. I have now built several MAME cabs using the PI. All of these have full sized controls but hang on the wall: One that runs Robotron 2084, one Rampage, Stargate, and a Tempest. Some of them run multiple games (e.g. the Stargate will also run Defender, Tempest will do multiple Tempest versions as well as Arkanoid and a few others). I am currently almost completed with a Q*Bert that also has a knocker controlled by the PI. All of these games run full speed. Advantages over the PC are lower cost, no cooling fan, no need to download frequent 'critical updates' to the windows software, faster startup. Although it can be used with a USB interface, it is also possible to use the GPIO interface with arcade controls, an option not available on the PC. The PC has its place and I have one cabinet that uses a Windows PC (It runs Fix it Felix which is not available for the PI or MAME).
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
SavannahLion:
--- Quote from: 2084 on September 04, 2014, 08:39:08 pm --- I would agree it is possible to get a nice android tablet for $50 + a 2 year monthly service contract, but it would difficult to add your own arcade controls with no USB port.
--- End quote ---
Errr..? Hmm... I'm not looking at an Android that requires a 2 year contract. No 3G. If you want a Nexus then yeah, you'll have to do that I guess.
Having a USB port is central to the Android. I don't know of any that doesn't have at least one. There isn't too many with more than one though. In this sense, it would be like the Pi A model.
Cynicaster:
I agree that the Pi seems like a poor choice, UNLESS there is a very specific need filled by the Pi (such as size for a very small project).
My local classifieds are filled with dual-core 64-bit PC's for about $50-$60. Sounds more expensive than a $35 Pi, but is it really, when you consider the sheer horsepower advantage?
As for power consumption, let's say the figure somebody provided earlier of 700W for a PC is correct (sounds high to me). Let's further assume one plays their cabinet an hour a night, 5 nights a week... call it 20 hours per month.
700W = 0.7kW
x 20hours = 14kWh
national average price of electricty = $0.12 per kWh (source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/10/27/141766341/the-price-of-electricity-in-your-state)
monthly MAME cab electrical bill = 14kWh x $0.12 per kWh = $1.68
Or, less than a Starbucks coffee.
If you're the least bit curious/adventurous in discovering new games to play from the pool of thousands available in MAME, don't box yourself in with a low-powered solution targeted at a strict list of well-known titles--the extra few bucks for an old PC is so worth it.
dkersten:
My psu in my gaming rig is 600 watt, and even on a 3d intensive game I would be surprised if it is using more than 450 watts. Assuming 80% efficiency you still aren't hitting a half kilowatt, and even adding speakers and LCD maybe, MAYBE 1000 watts total while playing a resource intensive game. The rest of the time it sleeps, and uses maybe 30 watts total while sleeping, if even that (and half that is the monitor and speakers which the Pi would still need).
I would be surprised if my mame cabinet costs me more than $.50 per month in electricity. I couldn't drive down the street to an arcade let alone play much on $.50. Well worth it to me.
The only things about power draw that come into consideration as far as I am concerned would be if heat were an issue, if portability (and hence battery drain) were a concern, or if I was talking about density (ie running 50 processors in one rack). The $.10-.15 per month I would save with a Pi would be the very least of the reasons to use one.
And if you can get a decent PC for $50, that IS cheaper than a Pi once you factor in all the xtras you will need to get the Pi to work, like hdmi cables and adapters, sd card, etc.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version