Main > Raspberry Pi & Dev Board
Raspberry Pi
2084:
Although I would agree it is absurd to choose a platform based on electricity bills, I do think there is a major advantage to the low power requirement of the Pi. More power means more heat and every PC I've seen needs a fan and often multiple fans which means noise. Of the two PC based builds I have done on is made for shooting games so the computer is far enough away it doesn't matter. For the other (a wall mount Fix-it-Felix Jr), even though it is a "ultra small form factor" PC it still has a fan that runs constantly. I'm sure most would get used to it if that was the only cabinet they had, but it is very noticeable after playing on the Pi based builds where the only noise is the sound effects from the game.
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http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=141265
fwiler:
Just buy a used laptop with 4:3 screen. You can disconnect the screen and there's usually enough cable so you can put the laptop behind the screen.
If money isn't a problem and you want really small, a 10" tablet PC with full windows (not rt) is $300 new with quad core baytrail. You can find these used for $220-$240. Get one with 16:10 aspect ratio, put a small bezel around it and change resolution to 1024x768 so you have a pixel perfect screen. These new screens look so much nicer than old lcd's.
Yes that may seem like a lot, but if you consider the cost of a really good 10" screen (try finding one with pc input), a Windows license, memory, power supply, etc all under 1 lb. then it doesn't seem so bad. It has USB and you can add a USB hub if needed. There's no noise, barely any heat, it's quick because no mechanical drive, and graphics capability is actually better than an old laptop.
The time spend using pi is just not worth it imho. It's just too limited
dkersten:
Bigger, lower rpm fans are virtually silent. Perhaps not silent enough for an ideal HTPC, but nevertheless, I have yet to hear a fan running in any of my cabs. Granted though, if you don't maintain them and replace them after a couple years of running non-stop (more often for homes with smokers), they will start to get unbalanced and make noise. The fan in my cable box is far louder than any in the PC's in my home, and the mini fridge next to my mame cab is all I ever hear in my game room (except of course for the music and the video game sounds).
I do get what you are saying though. Going 100% silent (aka passively cooled) is certainly possible with a PC, but seldom the cheapest option because it requires using parts with lower thermal characteristics. It brings me back to my original comment: it just depends completely on application. There is nothing wrong in my mind with using a Pi, as long as you understand that it is not going to give you the same flexibility as a PC. I have considered using a 19" 4:3 monitor I have lying around to make a super small bar top, and a Pi would work for that because I would ONLY be running vertical games, and most vertical games are the older ones that you can run with a Pi. Then again I have 4 used laptops sitting on a shelf 3 feet from my desk at work that I will never sell because batteries are dead and the laptops aren't worth enough to replace batteries, so any one of them could be used to make a small form factor cab..
screamingtiger:
Raspberry pi is cool but after some research there are numerous SBC that can be used. They may not have GPIO but not really needed for an arcade unless you want to do something unique.
One thing I think would be neat is a volume normalizer. Its seems some games are much much louder than others than can barely be heard at the saem volume settting. Having a mic or something similar to detect the average DB of the game the last 5 seconds or so and adjust the volume would be nice.
This may be able to be done completely in software on a PC not sure. But there are ideas for GPIO or sure!!
Jamesbeat:
I am building a Raspberry Pi based full size cabinet.
It's all a matter of perspective.
Instead of thinking of the Pi as an inferior PC, try looking at it as a superior xxx-in-1 board.
The only xxx-in-1 board that uses memory cards is the ArcadeSD, which costs $325 and does less than the Raspberry Pi.
If someone started selling a 2270-in-1 board with customizable software, usb ports and HDMI out for $35, people would be snapping them up.
I have mine set up to boot directly into advancemenu, and uses Mame4all with the 0.37b5 rom set.
Navigation is by joystick and buttons, and no keyboard or mouse is necessary.
Shutdown is accomplished by pressing the single (hidden) admin button when in the main menu. Pressing the same button when in a game brings up the options menu.
I'm using a modified version of the PiPlay operating system.
This is distributed as an SD card image, so no knowledge of Linux is needed.
You simply write the image to the SD card, plug it into the Pi, and it will boot into a nice friendly menu of emulators.
http://pimame.org/
The reason I modified mine was to remove everything except Mame, as I simply do not understand the desire to play console games with a joystick while standing up.
If there are problems with the emulation in this older version of Mame, they are too subtle for me to notice.
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