TMNT 4 player Raspi based game console for Retropie

[raptamburi]

Hey all, this is my first post, and is about my first arcade project. It is now almost complete, and it would not have been possible without all I learnt here and at other sites like this one, so the least I can do is to share my project as a small contribution.

The idea: 4 players, only joysticks+buttons, no trackball, raspberry inside, HDMI output so I can move it as if it was a game console.

What shape? I started by looking around on the byoac and found this amazing project:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=39025.0


I immediately thought "that is exactly what I want!!". But before chopping wood I decided to draw the control surface on Inkscape. This was probably the best decision I took during the whole project. Once I had my own design (based on the space paranoids idea) everything else was easy.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16895057185/

So the idea is basically a box made of wood, with a control panel on top and a raspberry inside. I started cutting wood.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16893663262/

The bottom and the control panel are made out of 1cm MDF, also the rear panel is MDF, the rest of the sides is 1.9 cm pine wood.

I printed out the control panel on paper, actually needed 6 A4 sheets to print it in real size, and then put all of them together with tape. I used the paper panel to draw the shape of the panel on a piece of thin wood panel, in order to create a template. I actually did only the left half of the panel, as it is simmetric. Then I used the template with a router to cut the final piece on MDF.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16707235268/

Here you can see how small the raspi looks when put in place inside the console:
 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16894878165/

Then it was time to drill holes for the buttons and route the inlays for the joystick plates.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16687533707/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16274874473/

Routing on MDF is always messy. I mainly used a power router, but then a dremel with a router plunge attachment for the finishing bits and more delicate parts.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16272483134/

I ordered all of the gaming parts from arcadeworlduk. I got 4 sanwa joysticks, and lots of happ competition buttons for the playing buttons, and some cheaper buttons for menu options, credits, etc. Also ordered some cables, t-molding and other stuff, and I have to say they were amazing, all came correct and perfectly packed in one box.

My raspi came from the pi hut, together with a USB hub, a wireless usb, and some other stuff and they were also great, all correct and in time.

Now I used the ideas of the Kade encoder project for connecting my joysticks and buttons to the Raspberry:

http://kadevice.com/2012/11/kade-encoder-and-kick-starter-project/

But instead of buying the Kade encoders from them I decided to make my own. I bought a pile of ridiculously cheap AVR Minimus from here:

http://www.ck3.co.uk/minimus-32-avr-atmel-atmega32u2-usb-dev-board.html

Then I got a prototipying board from a local shop, with some headers and soldered the headers in a simmilar way as in the Kade board. I did not make the HWB accessible as I am not using it, and only wired 1 ground. That was convenient as my headers came in groups of 3, so I could wire 21 bins using 7 headers, 3 on each side of the minimus and 1 at the bottom. I will upload a picture later on.

This is how the inside of the console looks when half finished:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16707507740/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16687588237/

For the software on the ATMEGA32U2 devices I downloaded Degenatrons code. I used Atmel Studio 6.2 to compile it and slightly modified a few things, mainly to create my own key mappings. I am using 3 encoders, each has a different mapping. Check Degenatrons site, he has done an amazing work so credit to him:

https://sites.google.com/site/degenatrons/controller-interfaces/usb-keyboard-encoder/resources

For the Raspberry I simply flashed the latest Retropie image, with the usual tweaks. I added code for the shutdown button which you can see at the right corner.

Finally for the art design I again used Inkscape. This is why it is important to have your deign from the begining, your art design has to match your joistick and button positions. I basically did used a mix of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle images from the internet, with some simple editing. I sent it to an online printer, pixartprinting. They did a great work and were very quick.

I then cut my plexi using the same template I used for the control panel. For drilling the holes I used a small drill, then opened the hole with the router, to avoid cracks. This is how the console looks in the end:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16707479430/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16868977886/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131285019@N05/16687570037/

My plan now is to upgrade to a Raspberry 2, so I can get more games working. I will keep you posted on updates, and I promise to upload better pictures, I know they are very poor, taken with my cheap monĦbile phone so apologies for that. If anyone has specific questions about any step of the project I will be happy to provide more info so just ask at the comments area.

[raptamburi]

Some more pictures. Here you can see a detailed view of the AVR microcontrollers and the Raspberry. By the way, Ifor the shutdown button I followed the instructions for the safe shutdown switch from this page:

http://www.raspberry-pi-geek.com/Archive/2013/01/Adding-an-On-Off-switch-to-your-Raspberry-Pi

[DeLuSioNal29]

Nice project.  But you're gonna get crap for those angled joysticks for players 3 & 4.  You can fix it by re-routing them to be straight and remounting the joysticks from underneath.  Not too hard to do...  And it should not affect the overlay design.

Read more here.

Green = good.  Red = bad.



DeLuSioNaL29

[wol-nz]

forgive me if i'm wrong - didn't the original have offset joys..?
4 players shoulder to shoulder would benefit from offset?
anyway love the design looks sweet.

[raptamburi]

Yes the original design has offset joysticks, that gives considerable extra shoulder room with 4 players, I have already tested it with TNMT, the simpsons and gauntlet and got no complaints from players 3 & 4, still to be tested with overized players though, time will tell

[nitrogen_widget]

A few questions.
RPI 1 or 2?
For 4 player games which version of Mame?

[raptamburi]

Hi, RPI 1, I used retropie with mame4all. I'm planning to upgrade soon to a RPI 2.

I had TNMT, Simpsons and others working with no probs. I couldn't get other games to work on the RPI1, such as Captain America and the Avengers, or Dungeons & Dragons. That's why I want to upgrade.

On the other hand, I use the console in two ways. As you can see in one of the pics, I have a USB HUB inside, so I connect all controllers to it and instead of using the PI I connect the USB output to my home PC, an intel Core 7 running Ubuntu, there of course I have no problems playing any games and other emulators.

This was also the idea of my design from the start, I can take the box to other friend's houses and plug it on their PC's front USB and their HDMI TV if we want to play their favourite games. The box is bulky but it is very light, I'll have a custom made bag to carry it soon, it should be more or less like carrying a guitar (the surface is 100x40 cm).

[severdhed]

looks awesome

[nitrogen_widget]

I didn't know mame4all-pi support 4 joystick input.

FBA RPI might let you play those games on your current RPI.

[pbj]

Not so sure about that row of buttons at the top, but you did a lot better on the stick placement than I did.  Fix the orientation, though.

[raptamburi]

Thanks severdhed!

nitrogen_widget: I tried FBA last night and it works great so many thanks for your suggestion! Got D&D and other games working, 2 players only though, not sure yet if it supports 4 players, and no pause button unfortunately.

pbj: the top row of buttons has proven quite a good idea so far, when I have 4 kids playing at the same time they very often have to press their credit and start buttons to continue in the game, and with 6 year olds its good to have them separate and clearly identifiable. The 4 center buttons are form mame configuration. I'm not planning to "fix" the orientation of the joysticks since it's working great.

[nitrogen_widget]

I think Advmame is your last hope for those particular 4-player games.

[opt2not]

Looks pretty good!
As time goes on in this hobby, the more and more I start thinking to reduce my footprint of space, get rid of the CRT's and cabinets, and make up something like this. This is one of those projects that's getting me thinking!

Questions:  Does X-men run well on the Pi?  4p, or 6p? (obviously you don't have the set-up for 6 players, but I was just wondering if it's running properly for a project I was thinking about).

Is Pi really there yet for being a good solution for arcade projects? I've read mixed opinions of this, but am interested in it as an option.

I'm not planning to "fix" the orientation of the joysticks since it's working great.

Though I have to agree with the rest, the angled orientation of P3 and P4 joysticks is a classic rookie mistake. And while your kids might not care, or notice, adults that are especially gamers will find the orientation tough to play on.  It's not a matter of shoulder/elbow space, it's a matter of what gamers perceive as cardinal Up/Down/Left/Right.
People tend to think of towards the screen, as Up and angled positioning is involuntarily taken into account when playing. So our minds are thinking that the joysticks should move the way it does for P1/P2.
I would assume that you haven't got any feedback on this from your friends/family because perhaps they're not serious gamers, or that they're being too nice to give you any constructive criticism. Whatever the case, folks here who have built 4 player panels (myself included) are giving you some solid advice, angled P3 and P4 joysticks is not the most ergonomic set-up for proper gameplay, and handicaps those players.

[Slippyblade]

KADE Loader will let you customize the key set used as well.  No compiling or code fiddling needed.

[raptamburi]

Nitrogen_widget yes from what I've read AdvMAME v0.94 works quite well on RPi 1, I'll give it a try when I have some time, I think I'll have to download the sources and compile it on my Pi. Another thing to consider is that so far I'm only trying out the latest version of roms, whereas mame4all seems to work better with 0.37b5 roms aka mame4droid roms. Will try that as well and post.

[raptamburi]

opt2not I guess the attached picture should answer your question about x-men, it's working great on mame4all, 4 players, I haven't tried 6p yet, will let u know.

About the joysticks I must say while testing x-men I tried players 3 and 4 for a little while and guess what... you guys where absolutely right, rookie mistake, even after a long research period before taking on the project I absolutely missed on that one. It's not a complete disaster as the angle is only 30 degrees, so P3&4 are playable, 6 year olds will never notice, but as pointed out by DeLuSioNal29 I'll eventually have to re-route and rotate those 2 joysticks.

About the Pi, what can I say, I'm still on RPi1 and have lots of games working flawlessly, no video or sound problems, can be used as a media center as well... could go on long, and now there's RPi2 for the same price, I would definitely recommend it. I'd say the main advantages for cabinet builders are small size, no fan required, low power, price, and software install is as easy as flashing an SD card with an image of your choice.

About the controls, as Slippyblade said KADE loader is an easy solution, its freeware and allows you to customize your key mappings. Then you can buy kade controllers (or make them yourself as I did), and plug the USB output to the RPi with a standard USB extender cable. Your joystick and button switches are seen as a USB keyboard. I am using 3 controllers at the same time for the whole console, all going smooth. Anyway hope that helps, and thanks for the advice on my joystick orientation.

[rhzucal]

Going on 2 years later....what's the simplest way to get 4 player working with a raspberry pie?  I've got 2 player easy with xin mo...but I don't see any easy documentation on how to do 4 player. I also have a ipac4...does anyone know of a step by step doc that goes through 4 player setups?  I'd like to use xin mo but I don't know how to edit the script in retropie. Please help.