Question about ease of use

[Haloman800]

I have a dual screen cocktail cab I made, my goal with this project is to make it so simple to use that a child could figure it out. Such as flipping 1 switch to power on the entire system, an easy interface, etc.

Is this possible with the Raspberry Pi? Do you guys ever have freeze ups or errors when playing on your machines? I am torn between setting up a Pi or just getting a 60-in-1 JAMMA which I know will be simple enough. Your feedback is appreciated!

[vwalbridge]

I have a dual screen cocktail cab I made

I want to know more about this. Got any pictures?

[Haloman800]

Headed home, I'll post pics when I get there.

I started with the cocktail cab from RecRoomMasters & I had my contractor build a new top that fits 2 monitors. I have zero woodworking skills

[vwalbridge]

Cool. Didn't want to hijack your question. Just curious what your machine looks like.

There are no shortage of Pi guys on this forum that could help you I'm sure...if you go that route.

I'm partial to running a windows-based machine myself. I find it much easier.

[Titchgamer]

I used to have a dual screen cocktail cab but I run mine on windows.

But yes its perfectly possible with windows.
Never tried a Pi or Jamma board in it.

[Slippyblade]

The biggest problem with the Pi is the power issue.  Simply cutting power without a proper shutdown can corrupt the file system.  There are various way to fix that, but they require add-ons.  Eventually, the add-ons end up costing you more than if you'd just gone with a normal PC.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pi.  But if you are looking for simple ease of use...  the Pi is not the answer.

[Titchgamer]

Also just to add, make sure you have real good ventilation in the cab.
2 monitors generate lots of heat so you may need to install extra fans etc

[Haloman800]

For those who use windows, which version do you prefer? XP/7/10? Also, what method do you use for powering on/off the computer?

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[Slippyblade]

If you are going with windows, stick with 7.  XP is getting old enough that a LOT of newer hardware won't work with it due to lack of drivers.  7 is stable, well supported/documented and most companies still provide drivers and updates for it.

[Titchgamer]

Yeah use 7.
Xp is basicly dead but I have a stripped down speed loading version for certain machines that just run basics like MAME.

As for powering up just cut the 2 wires that go to the PC on switch and extend them to a external switch somewhere.

[nitrogen_widget]

The biggest problem with the Pi is the power issue.  Simply cutting power without a proper shutdown can corrupt the file system.  There are various way to fix that, but they require add-ons.  Eventually, the add-ons end up costing you more than if you'd just gone with a normal PC.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pi.  But if you are looking for simple ease of use...  the Pi is not the answer.

Windows isn't the answer either if you want to cut the power.
You will corrupt the hard drive also.

I think a live linux distro might be the way to go.
The OS is a read only file on a thumb drive.
Hard to corrupt.

[Titchgamer]

The biggest problem with the Pi is the power issue.  Simply cutting power without a proper shutdown can corrupt the file system.  There are various way to fix that, but they require add-ons.  Eventually, the add-ons end up costing you more than if you'd just gone with a normal PC.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pi.  But if you are looking for simple ease of use...  the Pi is not the answer.

Windows isn't the answer either if you want to cut the power.
You will corrupt the hard drive also.

I think a live linux distro might be the way to go.
The OS is a read only file on a thumb drive.
Hard to corrupt.

Windows is easy to shut down.
You just set the machine to shut itself down after pressing the power button.

Sorted

[philby95]

I have found the pi 3 to be awesome to use. I bought my first one 3-4 weeks ago. I loaded retropie, a rom and I have a dedicated galaxian machine. I had to do some reading on how to make it boot silently, that is no boot up text graphics etc. That's the part that has always annoyed me about using a pc, getting rid of the bios bootscreen is difficult and then hiding windows can be a pain depending on the version.

I have a pi image backed up, so to make a new game I just change the rom and a line of text and good to go. It boots straight into the rom in about 20 secs.
The on off issue hasn't been a problem for me. I just switch it on and off at the power switch at the wall.

[nitrogen_widget]

The biggest problem with the Pi is the power issue.  Simply cutting power without a proper shutdown can corrupt the file system.  There are various way to fix that, but they require add-ons.  Eventually, the add-ons end up costing you more than if you'd just gone with a normal PC.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pi.  But if you are looking for simple ease of use...  the Pi is not the answer.

Windows isn't the answer either if you want to cut the power.
You will corrupt the hard drive also.

I think a live linux distro might be the way to go.
The OS is a read only file on a thumb drive.
Hard to corrupt.

Windows is easy to shut down.
You just set the machine to shut itself down after pressing the power button.

Sorted

you can do the same thing with the RPI.
There are GPIO apps or scripts you can install then just put a switch on the GPIO and it will shut down the pi for you.

[Titchgamer]

The biggest problem with the Pi is the power issue.  Simply cutting power without a proper shutdown can corrupt the file system.  There are various way to fix that, but they require add-ons.  Eventually, the add-ons end up costing you more than if you'd just gone with a normal PC.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pi.  But if you are looking for simple ease of use...  the Pi is not the answer.

Windows isn't the answer either if you want to cut the power.
You will corrupt the hard drive also.

I think a live linux distro might be the way to go.
The OS is a read only file on a thumb drive.
Hard to corrupt.

Windows is easy to shut down.
You just set the machine to shut itself down after pressing the power button.

Sorted

you can do the same thing with the RPI.
Install the GPIO script and button to the GPIO and it will run the shutdown command.

You need to buy a add on board for that though dont you?

[Slippyblade]

The biggest problem with the Pi is the power issue.  Simply cutting power without a proper shutdown can corrupt the file system.  There are various way to fix that, but they require add-ons.  Eventually, the add-ons end up costing you more than if you'd just gone with a normal PC.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pi.  But if you are looking for simple ease of use...  the Pi is not the answer.

Windows isn't the answer either if you want to cut the power.
You will corrupt the hard drive also.

I think a live linux distro might be the way to go.
The OS is a read only file on a thumb drive.
Hard to corrupt.

Windows is easy to shut down.
You just set the machine to shut itself down after pressing the power button.

Sorted

you can do the same thing with the RPI.
Install the GPIO script and button to the GPIO and it will run the shutdown command.

You need to buy a add on board for that though dont you?

No.  The add on boards simply cut the power after the shutdown command has processed.  Otherwise, the board still has power until pull the plug.

[Titchgamer]

Ahh ok cheers

[elvis]

The biggest problem with the Pi is the power issue.  Simply cutting power without a proper shutdown can corrupt the file system.  There are various way to fix that, but they require add-ons.  Eventually, the add-ons end up costing you more than if you'd just gone with a normal PC.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pi.  But if you are looking for simple ease of use...  the Pi is not the answer.

I made a Pi-powered arcade for a friend 2 years back.  His kids play it every day, and power down by turning the whole cab off at the wall.

Zero file system corruptions.  The disk IO is minimal, and the risk of file system corruption is bugger all.

If you're technically minded, switch the root filesystem over to a COW based filesystem (NILFS, F2FS, BtrFS, etc) and the risk is near zero.