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Author Topic: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance  (Read 4628 times)

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Arcadenewbie

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I've been following the forum for a while and done a ton of research but not really sure where to begin.  I want to build an upright machine that will let my sons (11 and 13) and I play retro games.  I can handle the woodworking and assembly of the cabinet, but the more research I do on software/ hardware, the more confused I get. I am planning to have my sons help build and setup the unit.   In a perfect world, I would like a 2 player unit with a trac ball and 2 light guns but I know that might not be a smart way to go for a first build.   I'd like the unit to be capable of playing as many games as reasonably possible but I am especially interested in the following: Centipede, SuperMario games, Dungeons & Dragons, Frogger, Dragons lair titles, Gauntlet, Space Ace, Area 51 (or other 2 player shooter) Donkey Kong, Pac man, among others.    The problem I am having is I am being given all kinds of conflicting advice.    examples are  - need Mame, don't need Mame, need to use Pi, dont need pi, front end- no front end, need Daphne for laser games, dont need Daphne for them, we should buy a pre-loaded console like X arcade, we shouldnt do that, roms and emulators are easy to use, roms and emulators are a nightmare to use . . .     Everytime I do reasearch and find what I think is an answer, it creates more questions.     Ideally, I'd like to start off with something that will let me get up and running without massive amounts of headaches.    If all goes well and we can learn a few things, I could see us building 2 or 3 units with different (or perhaps increasingly more involved systems).       I know there will be a learning curve with whatever system we go with, but at this point, I don't even know were I should start based upon what we want. 

Can anyone give us a little guidance on what software and hardware we should be considering and any pointers you think we should know? 
We are open to any advice or suggestions you are willing to provide. 

 so to summarixe, we want to build
-2 player game
-with trac ball and joysticks
-as many games as possible but would especially like as many of above as possible
-not a nightmare to code or program. some is ok as long as at a beginner / intermediate level or sufficient help resources can be found
-light guns if possible

Thanks

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2018, 11:59:43 pm »
Welcome aboard, Arcadenewbie.   ;D

Consider building a cab that plays a relatively small list of games (200-300?) very well instead of trying to build "one cab to play them all".

Read through the FAQ, especially the, "What type of build meets my needs?" entry.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160809113045/http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=FAQ#What_type_of_build_meets_my_needs.3F

- In step 2, the All Killer, No Filler gamelists are a great way to refine your game list
- If the list is too long, it can be hard to find the the good titles

Before you start building a cab, you may want to play around with different front end and emulator software to see what you like and what admin buttons you prefer/need.

Since you mention making more than one cab, you might want to consider two builds like this:

- Vertical screen, 4-way joystick plus a few player buttons
-- Less buttons to wire, fewer games to mess with
-- A Vigolix-style build is an inexpensive way to learn and practice the wide range of build-related skills

- Horizontal screen, 8-way joysticks plus 6 or 7 player buttons per player, maybe a trackball, and maybe a spinner depending on your "can't live without it" games
-- This setup will cover the most titles
-- Apply the experience from building/configuring the 4-way cab


Scott

jennifer

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2018, 03:22:02 am »
It is curious your name, Arcadenewbie, seems at some point you will have to change that to something else, (For now I shall just call you a Brick) **Laugh and laugh** Jut kidding welcome friends....Jennifer is not a fan of Mame, for the reasons you listed, IT IS HARD, to understand , confusing to play, some games less than awesome replications after being butchered at the code level, add some Hyperspin into the mix and your in for a ride. I did manage to make it work however, in my test, set it all up on a laptop, used an xbox controller to use it. and it took me like FOREVER, and I still dislike it, so much I don't ever even play it and never did waste my time building a cab for it, Most around here think its the cats meow however, and make it sound really easy to do, to the point you may just feel stupid for not understanding, That's just my opinion of it , So just be prepared, your answers will NOT come easy, in fact will lead to even more questions.... As for the light guns, you will need a CRT monitor.

Titchgamer

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2018, 03:58:39 am »
I've been following the forum for a while and done a ton of research but not really sure where to begin.  I want to build an upright machine that will let my sons (11 and 13) and I play retro games.  I can handle the woodworking and assembly of the cabinet, but the more research I do on software/ hardware, the more confused I get. I am planning to have my sons help build and setup the unit.   In a perfect world, I would like a 2 player unit with a trac ball and 2 light guns but I know that might not be a smart way to go for a first build.   I'd like the unit to be capable of playing as many games as reasonably possible but I am especially interested in the following: Centipede, SuperMario games, Dungeons & Dragons, Frogger, Dragons lair titles, Gauntlet, Space Ace, Area 51 (or other 2 player shooter) Donkey Kong, Pac man, among others.    The problem I am having is I am being given all kinds of conflicting advice.    examples are  - need Mame, don't need Mame, need to use Pi, dont need pi, front end- no front end, need Daphne for laser games, dont need Daphne for them, we should buy a pre-loaded console like X arcade, we shouldnt do that, roms and emulators are easy to use, roms and emulators are a nightmare to use . . .     Everytime I do reasearch and find what I think is an answer, it creates more questions.     Ideally, I'd like to start off with something that will let me get up and running without massive amounts of headaches.    If all goes well and we can learn a few things, I could see us building 2 or 3 units with different (or perhaps increasingly more involved systems).       I know there will be a learning curve with whatever system we go with, but at this point, I don't even know were I should start based upon what we want. 

Can anyone give us a little guidance on what software and hardware we should be considering and any pointers you think we should know? 
We are open to any advice or suggestions you are willing to provide. 

 so to summarixe, we want to build
-2 player game
-with trac ball and joysticks
-as many games as possible but would especially like as many of above as possible
-not a nightmare to code or program. some is ok as long as at a beginner / intermediate level or sufficient help resources can be found
-light guns if possible

Thanks

Welcome aboard.

As Scott said above you may want to reel your plans in a bit for a first build, Especially since you are unsure about the software side of things.

Most emulators are pretty easy to set up and play on their own, However if you have not used them before and you try to get several together to work at once it will quickly become tedious.
Add lightguns into the mix and you will be pulling your hair out and heading for the tallest roof you can find in no time.

That being said I will offer some pointers to you based on my experiences building a similar cab for myself (Allbeit over the course of several years).

Firstly hardware wise:
If you ultimately want to have lightguns and other devices do not go the pi route, Stick to a PC.
Pi's are great for console emulation but for arcade games they are not the best and if you want to add extra hardware you are in for a real rough ride.
Not sure if you already have a decent PC setup for this purpose if not get the highest single core clock speed processor you can muster in it which will help with 3D games like time crisis which are total resource hogs!

For your joysticks & buttons use a quality encoder or interface board otherwise you will regret it later, Dont buy cheap make life easy on yourself.
I use the MiniPac from ultimarc in my builds but the Ipacs are equally as good.

If you want extra hardware I recommend Ultimarcs Aim Trak Lightguns and spinner/trackball. They are not the cheapest but they do what they are suposed to do. The AT's will work on a LCD so you do not need a CRT, But obviously CRT is better if you can get one :)


Software wise well thats a big open area and everyone has differing views.

MAME is fine, But the main thing to remember about it is that you need a matching rom set to the version of MAME you are using, Otherwise things wont work correctly.
I.e. if you get a 1.34 rom set you need MAME 1.34, Its generally recommended to use the most up to date version at the time you are doing it.
Dont fall into the trap of having every game on your cabinet that MAME has to offer, Its a MASSIVE list and most of them are junk or unplayable.
Either nit pick with games you want or use the no filler list Scott suggested.
Some games (Area 51 may be one cant remember) Require CHD files to go with the roms, These are basically the files that used to be contained on CD's or HDD's and are required for some games which you need to download seperate.
Again nit pick them as the whole set is over 1TB if I recall.

If you want it to look "nice" you will need a front end, Theres loads out there with varying complexity.
I use hyperspin these days which is a steep learning curve if ime honest but there are some good video tutorials on youtube (Look up simply austin he does some great ones also gigapig).
But others are available just do your research and try them out for yourself, They can be as simple or complicated as you want them to be.
Dont fall into the trap of using maximus arcade though, That FE is as dead as fried chicken!

Ultimately this hobby is all about trial and error and seeing what works.
Download some emulators and roms, have a play see how they work and interface then go from there. If you have specific questions ask and someone will be able to help.

But that should get you started.

Good luck.

ivwshane

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2018, 07:09:40 am »
Software is by far the most complicated part of the build.

To break it down to the most basic terms you have two options:

Compatibility vs ease of setup

The more compatible the software is, usually requires more setup. By compatibility I'm taking about being able to use different roms, emulators, front ends, and hardware.

Usually the easier the software is to use, the more restricted it is. By restricted I mean having to use a particular rom set, limited hardware, and particular emulators.

For the most compatible system you are typically looking at using Windows as your OS. The type of hardware you can use is completely dependant on how old or how new a game or game system you want to play is.

For ease of use, it typically means you are using a raspberry pi and a preconfigured front end like retropi or recalbox and many others that are plug and play (as in copy a preconfigured image to a memory card and plug it into the raspberry pi).

If you are using an emulator now then I'd start with that and go from there. If you have never used an emulator then I recommend using a raspberry pi and playing around with that until you have a better idea of what you want.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rules so take the advice as a generalization to point you in the right direction.

Once you have a good idea of what you want (besides what games you want to play), you can post back and we can help narrow your choices to find a better fit.

As far as building an actual arcade goes; I highly recommend building something based off of an existing plan. There are so many things to consider when designing an arcade cabinet and its better to go with something somebody has already done all the hard work on, else you will end up with a pos cabinet.
If you are a decent woodworker, building a cabinet only utilizes moderate skills and common tools such as, circular saw or table saw, a jig saw, router, and a miter saw (unless you use your table saw), a drill and a decent amount of space (half car garage).
If you don't have those things then I recommend just buying a pre made kit. It will be cheaper in the long run (once you account for your time and tool purchases).
However, if your long term plans are to build more then invest in the tools a build your own in order to gain experience.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2018, 07:13:35 am by ivwshane »

Arcadenewbie

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2018, 11:54:30 am »
Thank you for the replies.   Greatly appreciated. 
I'll be looking into all of the suggestions and will let you know how I proceed and if I encounter any problems.
I know that everything I am looking for is a bit much for 1 cabinet, especially a first build so I won't be trying to accomplish everything at once.  I figure that I have room for more than one so I'm ok with splitting my wants up into more than 1 unit. 

Do you have any suggestions for reputable / quality component vendors?

Jennifer, once I have more than "newbie" status, maybe I'll change my name to ArcadeBrick. 


Mike A

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2018, 12:38:04 pm »
First we should establish which games are most important to you.

You could make a great cab that accurately plays games like Frogger, Pac Man and Donkey Kong.

basically all you need is:
a good 4 way joystick
a vertically oriented 4:3 monitor (preferably CRT)
two action buttons
p1 and p2 start buttons
a coin door
a good keyboard encoder
a cheap PC
some plywood
a crap ton of free time

My MAME cab plays these games. I think my game list is under a dozen games now. My trackball almost never gets used. I will leave it out once time travel is perfected.


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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2018, 12:42:32 pm »
Capcom Street Fighter layout with a trackball in the middle is the most functional panel you can get without going overboard.

Pro tip, you can play console versions of those 4-way classics as the console versions are coded to handle the diagonals.
Acceptance of Zen philosophy is marred slightly by the nagging thought that if all things are interconnected, then all things must be in some way involved with Pauly Shore.

Arcadenewbie

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2018, 03:09:00 pm »
The games that I would most like in the 1st cabinet (if reasonable) are:
Centipede, SuperMario games, Dungeons & Dragons, Frogger, Dragons lair titles, Gauntlet, Donkey Kong, Pac man
I'd be very happy if I could manage to get those in.

This is a project to do with my sons, so time isn’t an issue.

Plywood,  cheap PC, Coin door aren’t problems either.
----
I’ve seen tons of joysticks, monitors, buttons, and trac balls that are available, but still figuring out which are quality and which aren’t.     Any suggestions on which vendors are worth using?


Thanks to everyone for the help. 

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2018, 03:16:17 pm »
Forget buying the stick & button kits from ebay etc they are trash.

I use ultimarc for all of my stuff, But Groovy game gear are good to :)

Rarely use GGG though due to the shipping costs to the UK.

Stick wise depends what you like, ball/bat/jap or American style.

But have a look at HAPP and Sanwa both make good sticks.

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #10 on: July 18, 2018, 03:40:13 pm »
Forget buying the stick & button kits from ebay etc they are trash.

I use ultimarc for all of my stuff, But Groovy game gear are good to :)

Rarely use GGG though due to the shipping costs to the UK.

Stick wise depends what you like, ball/bat/jap or American style.

But have a look at HAPP and Sanwa both make good sticks.
I just bought from  (get this. wait for it....) a Canadian vender , OMG, so very ashamed, first time in like a decade, and shipping was horrible.... Jenn can see now why you guys complain all the time.  :o

Titchgamer

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2018, 03:43:49 pm »
Forget buying the stick & button kits from ebay etc they are trash.

I use ultimarc for all of my stuff, But Groovy game gear are good to :)

Rarely use GGG though due to the shipping costs to the UK.

Stick wise depends what you like, ball/bat/jap or American style.

But have a look at HAPP and Sanwa both make good sticks.
I just bought from  (get this. wait for it....) a Canadian vender , OMG, so very ashamed, first time in like a decade, and shipping was horrible.... Jenn can see now why you guys complain all the time.  :o

Yeah the shipping costs for some stuff just make it to expensive to justify trying it.

Atleast ultimarc stuff is cheap to ship.

ivwshane

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2018, 03:56:04 pm »
There is a member here that was kind enough to create templates (dimensions) for common popular cabinets.

http://jakobud.com/cabinetPlans.php

Pick a cab that you like and at the most you will need to modify the width of the cabinet to fit your control panel layout and at minimum you would need to modify the control panel.

As has been mentioned, a two player six button setup with a trackball is probably the most universal.

Mike A

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #13 on: July 18, 2018, 04:51:52 pm »
More cabs than you can shake a stick at.

https://www.classicarcadecabinets.com/

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2018, 08:47:05 pm »
Just don't make the mistake of cheaping out on your controls. Buy real quality controls from a trusted vendor. Don't get confused by all the light up button options, most buttons that can be lit up are really low quality and have a bad feel (they are really made for the gambling industry where the feel of the button doesn't matter). Get either real Happ buttons or real leaf buttons if using American style controls.

A lot of guys who came here from the competitive fighting game scene will try to push you towards Japanese style controls. There is nothing wrong with those controls (at least not with the good ones), but they are not the controls you grew up using and have a very different feel to the relatively heavy duty American and European controls that you are likely used to. You have to be extra careful with these controls as the garbage ones and the high quality ones pretty much look exactly the same at first glance.

Happ makes the best trackballs, the only acceptable alternative is the Wico/Imperial style (not sure who actually makes that style these days, but I am sure it is still out there). If you can't find a Happ on sale it is better to just drop $20 on an old used one and rebuild it with new bearings and rollers.
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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #15 on: July 19, 2018, 12:21:23 am »
Atleast ultimarc stuff is cheap to ship.

HAHAHA! Shipping an IPAC to New Zealand costs almost as much as the unit itself! :P

I will say that courier services are amazing these days... things arrive so fast.
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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #16 on: July 19, 2018, 03:32:55 am »
Atleast ultimarc stuff is cheap to ship.

HAHAHA! Shipping an IPAC to New Zealand costs almost as much as the unit itself! :P

I will say that courier services are amazing these days... things arrive so fast.

Meant cheap to ship for me :p

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #17 on: July 19, 2018, 08:26:40 am »
I really appreciate all of the advice so far.   

We are looking at cabinet designs and are researching controls from the suggested vendors.
We've decided to try to focus on games that aren't usually readily available on other platforms.

After searching for games I loved to play and games they are interested in playing the list is:
  -Dragons Lair trilogy           -Bega's Battle
  -Cobra Command                -Time Gal
  -Badlands                          -Super Don Quix-ote
  -Time Traveler                     -1 son would like some Dungeons and Dragons games

Any advice on any of these games (bad idea, problematic, etc.) or suggestion on other games?
Do you have any advice on PI vs. pc?  Front ends, anything else?

Thanks for all of the information.  It's helping us focus our build plans.







 

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2018, 09:32:20 am »
What sort of info are you after for the pi?

I have no real experience of those games though so no help there :p

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2018, 10:19:02 am »
What sort of info are you after for the pi?

I have no real experience of those games though so no help there :p

I have to research whatever software systems we go with (PC, PI, Front ends, MAME, etc.) so I was hoping the more experienced here could provide some suggestions on some smart decisions for a newbie.   i.e:  whats the smart way to proceed?  should we be looking at PI, a PC or some other option?  I know there are ways to run multiple systems but I think we should keep the 1st build simple and learn as we go,  With the help of the forum, we've already made progress on game selections, cabinet choices and hardware options.    Once we get pointed in the right direction for software / operating systems, we can get to work researching how to make everything work.   

Thanks.

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #20 on: July 19, 2018, 11:16:38 am »
well you are typing on this forum so I assume that is from a PC, right?
First thing is to build hands-on knowledge, rather than shopping for arcade materials.

You don't need to spend a penny until you know how to do the basics.
1- install mame on your pc
2- find a romset for a game you like. one game, my friend, focus on one game at a time.  and not Dragon's Lair, save that complication for later experience.
3- can you get mame to fire up the game?
4- can you map some keyboard keys to the mame buttons.
Until you can do that...don't spend a penny.


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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #21 on: July 19, 2018, 11:27:20 am »
Well OS is easy.

I would recommend Win 7 or XP for the PC or Retro Pie for the Pi.

Thats all there is to it but if you plan to have any online functionality on the PC remember XP is no longer supported.

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #22 on: July 23, 2018, 02:39:33 am »
well you are typing on this forum so I assume that is from a PC, right?
First thing is to build hands-on knowledge, rather than shopping for arcade materials.

You don't need to spend a penny until you know how to do the basics.
1- install mame on your pc
2- find a romset for a game you like. one game, my friend, focus on one game at a time.  and not Dragon's Lair, save that complication for later experience.
3- can you get mame to fire up the game?
4- can you map some keyboard keys to the mame buttons.
Until you can do that...don't spend a penny.
^^^ exactly this.

And if you want it really easy, spend some "fun money" on a RPi, SD card, power supply and maybe a case. Installing RetroPie is soooo easy, so you can quite fast see if you like the Raspberry Pi to play your games. And if you don't, you can use the Pi for a lot of other fun projects you can do with your sons. I actually have about 5 Pi's, all with a different purpose (and yes, one runs RetroPie to emulate mainly SNES - and I might put it in my cabinet to be).

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #23 on: July 23, 2018, 04:59:36 am »
RetroPi is so easy that there are literally 100 threads dedicated to how to shut off a pi. :P

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #24 on: July 23, 2018, 07:23:10 am »
Basic retropie setup is easy i.e put rom games on and hook up a wired controller to play.

But anything more than that can become a real PITA such as multi file games, custom configs, safe shut downs etc etc.

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #25 on: July 23, 2018, 10:14:33 am »
     Retropie on a raspberry pi is very easy on many fronts.  Software wise you put your roms on it and then you have the frontend and emulation already set up and it asks you how you want to do your controls the first time and you pretty much can press a button on a cab and everything comes on and you can navigate with your controls, select a game, and get going. BUT
     For all that ease, you really are going to be able to emulate well the 80's arcade games and console stuff up to SNES well.  So for your first list of games it mostly works, forget area 51.  You're going to need a PC for that.  I'm not sure how easy trackballs and light guns on a pi, it might be a real pain.  Area 51, you're going to need, and this is estimation, a pc with probably a dual core processor and a graphics card.  You need that to play some 90's gmaes well, like the higher Tekkens.  You dont have to break the bank on components, but a pentium 4 isn't going to play newer games,  but a pentium 4 will be better in emulation "power" than the pi.
     So how bad do you want to play Area 51 would be a good question to ask yourself.  Let's say you do and you get a reasonably nice computer for the windows 7 era.  Now you will have the power to play any game BUT
     Now, in order to have a slick, nice cabinet that's going to fire up on the press of a button AND you're going to be able to navigate through the UI with only the controls on the cabinet, that is going to take some work.  Youre going to have to learn mame (Not too complicated, do what someone else suggested and try one game and map some keyboard controls, you're going to have to learn the front end and configure everything with it, and you're going to have to get windows to go straight into the front end from boot up and you'll need good ventilation.  IMO, it's pretty hard to do that.  I would suggest set that as your goal,  build the cabinet as well as you can and keep in mind that as long as you have a wireless keyboard and mouse, you can just fire up your build into windows and click mame and fire up your game and configure any controls on the fly.    I have three young kids and I love building and configuring, but in the end really just want to sneak down into my garage and play some robotron for 15 minutes. 
     

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #26 on: July 23, 2018, 04:54:42 pm »
I'm not sure how easy trackballs and light guns on a pi, it might be a real pain. 

 and you're going to have to get windows to go straight into the front end from boot up and you'll need good ventilation.  IMO, it's pretty hard to do that. 

I have written up step by step on trackballs/spinners and pi, and getting windows to boot straight to front end.
neither of those are beginner steps, as you suggest.

PC is easy and cheap for learning, it will handle newer and more graphic intensive games.
Pi is fun...IF YOU ARE WILLING.....to engage a learning curve and interact with some linux commands but a PC is still going to be involved in the configuration processes.

Keep it simple to start.

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #27 on: July 30, 2018, 07:02:09 pm »
Thanks for all of the replies.  I haven't been ignoring everyone, I took my Boy Scout troop camping and just got back.
-
I'm planning to start off easy and take the advice I've been giver here.  I will be ordering an PI in the next few days and will just start off with figuring out how things work (front ends, enulatiors, etc as we progress) .  We are just about settled on the cabinet design and will start building that in the next week or so and will get to working on learning as much as we can about PI.    I don't see us planning to build anything that can play anything newer than games from the 80's but I often find myself doing things I hadn't planned so we'll keep an open mind. 
-
Any advice on what we should look to get with the PI,  like  heat sinks, fans, etc. ?
should we look to get NOOBS, Rapbian or retro pi preloaded on the SD card or advice on the card size?
finally, any advice on vendors for this stuff or just hit Ebay?

Thanks again

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #28 on: July 30, 2018, 10:40:42 pm »
No, don't get the pi. It is a toy with all the power of an 18 year old computer, except with worse software. Mame just isn't good on Pi, a lot of the pi console emulators and such are great, but not mame.

Use a PC. Even one pulled out of the trash is better than a brand new pi. You hear people talking up the pi because the guys who build bootleg cabinets to sell love it because it is the cheapest thing they can cram into it in a braiddead fashion.
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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #29 on: July 31, 2018, 12:45:41 am »
While, in my opinion, the PC offers a superior experience, its hard to go wrong with the pi if you just want to get your feet wet in emulation.

If you decide to get a pi just get a canakit version that has the pi (the pi3 not the pi3+ will give you the most compatibility at this point in time but I expect that to change in a couple of months), power supply (the quality and the output amps is very important), memory card (based on what you said you want to play, 32GB should be plenty), a case (not really needed but it gives you a way to mount the pi easily), and an HDMI cable (assuming you'll be using an LCD or tv for the display), I believe their kits come with a heat sink but it's not a deal killer imo.

For software you can use retropi which can be loaded via noobs and other methods but I'm a fan of recalbox because it's dead easy setup (burn am image to an SD card) because almost everything is pre setup for you.

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Re: How do I know what I don't know? Newbie needs advice +/or guidance
« Reply #30 on: August 01, 2018, 01:00:05 pm »
Thanks for all of the replies.  I haven't been ignoring everyone, I took my Boy Scout troop camping and just got back.
-
I'm planning to start off easy and take the advice I've been giver here.  I will be ordering an PI in the next few days and will just start off with figuring out how things work (front ends, enulatiors, etc as we progress) .  We are just about settled on the cabinet design and will start building that in the next week or so and will get to working on learning as much as we can about PI.    I don't see us planning to build anything that can play anything newer than games from the 80's but I often find myself doing things I hadn't planned so we'll keep an open mind. 
-
Any advice on what we should look to get with the PI,  like  heat sinks, fans, etc. ?
should we look to get NOOBS, Rapbian or retro pi preloaded on the SD card or advice on the card size?
finally, any advice on vendors for this stuff or just hit Ebay?

Thanks again
No need for pre-loaded SD cards (as long as you have a SD card reader/writer in you desktop or laptop). Writing the RetroPie or Recalbox image is very easy. I would get th RPi3+ and the official 2.5A power supply. For a SD card get a Sandisk or Samsung Evo. 16/32GB will be more than enough if you put your roms on a (fast) USB stick. I currently use a 64GB stick. You can get a cheap case, but that isn't necessary. Cooling isn't needed either in a full cabinet (unless you start overclocking). I bought some 5 dollar case with fan/heatsinks from China because I do overclock to play some N64 stuff.