I have a MAME4ALL setup using a B+, and am about to start working on one for the Pi2. Polling the GPIO pins constantly will eat CPU cycles needed by the emulator (even on the ramped up Pi2), so using something like the 2 Player Xin Mo USB joystick encoder is more favorable. My question is, is there a better option than using the usb encoder with wires soldered to a JB-3 JAMMA fingerboard for a clean connection to a FULL JAMMA harness (like the Game Elf aka buttons 1-6 on the JAMMA harness)?
That's one of those kinda-sorta-myths about the RPI.
Everything uses cpu cycles but i've yet to see where using the GPIO vs USB for controls is better or worse and considering the multi-page threads concerning using a GPIO for control on the RPI forums I have hard time believing this will affect game play at all.
That's possible. OK, going the GPIO route... GPIO header pins --> 40 pin IDE cable (with other end cut/stripped) --> JB-3 Fingerboard --> JAMMA harness. Is there a better way? (PiJAMMA is not an option)
"better" depends on what's easier for you.
I was just pointing out the GPIO route won't cause performance issues over the USB route.
The one thing about mame4all_pi is you can't have a USB joystick and a mouse (trackball) plugged in at the same time so I opted for the GPIO route.
I picked up a header extender & a soldered everything on.
Basically followed the guide on Adafruits website along with the app they had.
Now i'm switching to the RPI2 and probably going with a Kade and using my rpi1 for something else.