Author Topic: RPi2 NES Frankenstein. (Pi-tendo) (Read 20323 times)

DaOld Man · « **Reply #40 on:** August 21, 2015, 02:12:21 pm »

As far as software, I just more or less followed the guide here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Installing-RetroPieEmulationStation-onto-Raspberry/step1/Setting-Up-the-Raspbian-OS-and-your-Pi/

This is for Pi2, I think Pi B or earlier models use a different image download. The image I downloaded was Retropie-V3.0-rpi2.img.
Links are in the writeup I linked to above

I used winrar to unzip it on my desktop PC (win 10 64 bit).
I plugged the 16 GB micro SD card into a usb reader that came with the card, I suppose any reader will work.
Plugged it into my PC and ignored the message box asking what I wanted to do with it.
I used SDFormatter to format the card. (Double check to make sure you are formatting the right drive!)

I then used wim32diskimager.exe to write the unzipped retropie-V3.0 image to the SD card.
After that was done, I removed the SD card from PC and put it in the Pi.
Powered up the Pi and it booted up pretty quick.
I had to set up the buttons on my keyboard and my usb gamepad so I can navigate through the emulation station menus.
This is a manual thing that you have to do before continuing but it only asks the first time. I think it may repeat if you plug in a new controller, but not 100% sure about that yet.
The emulation station has a lot of emulators built in. Most I will not use. (I think you can remove them by deleting the folders on the card, but havent tried it yet.)
What is missing is Mame, NES, SNES, etc.
I attached a net cable to the pi, and using my windows network connections, I move a couple of games from my pc to a folder on the pi called ROMS/Mame.
Once there was at least one game in the mame folder, the Mame emulator showed up on the emulation station menu.
When I hooked up the ethernet cable to my network, i dont remember it asking for the password for my net, that is strange. Maybe it did and I forgot?
To use my mausberry switch, I had to exit emul station by pressing F4, then I had 5 seconds to hit any key.
In the console mode, I typed these in (with pi still connected to my network).
sudo wget http://files.mausberrycircuits.com/setup.sh
Hit enter and it downloaded the script it needs pretty fast.
Then:
sudo bash setup.sh
sudo reboot

The switch did great after that, but make sure the power button is in or on before rebooting, it gets a little confused if the switch is off, I had to reboot again to straighten it out.
I have not tried NES and other emuls yet.
Will update as I go.
Note: all the programs I mentioned above are free downloads. The doom and Quake games included with Emulation Station are demos and I guess are not copyrighted.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #41 on:** August 21, 2015, 05:23:37 pm »

Doom and Quake were both released into Public Domain by Id years ago.

jdbailey1206 · « **Reply #42 on:** August 21, 2015, 06:27:41 pm »

Quote from: pbj on August 21, 2015, 09:49:03 am

I've got a dusty Pi...

Thats whats she said.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #43 on:** August 21, 2015, 08:16:38 pm »

Quote from: Slippyblade on August 21, 2015, 05:23:37 pm

Doom and Quake were both released into Public Domain by Id years ago.

Thanks! I did not know that. The games on the retro pie (doom, Duke Nukem, and Quake) all say they are demos. Know where I can get the full blown editions for pi? I especially like Quake iii Arena.

Jd: LOL (No offense PBJ).

Im have a time with the scraper. Is there anyway to automatically go through all my roms without having to hit "skip" on the ones not found?
Also, how do I get the ones that dont work off the list?
I copied Castlevania over to pi Rom/NES, and now NES emulator is showing up in the list and castlevania works good, but after I played it, it shows up twice in the NES list.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #44 on:** August 21, 2015, 08:30:31 pm »

The scraper that comes with EmulationStation SUCKS. I had much better luck using this one (https://github.com/sselph/scraper). It is MUCH more reliable and doesn't give a rat's ass about your file names. It hashes the ROM and compares against an internal database. I used the windows version and then just copied over the images and gamelist.xml files. I did have to update the paths in the gamelist.xml files when I did that though, but this way I had all the files on my windows box for future usage.

jdbailey1206 · « **Reply #45 on:** August 21, 2015, 09:05:32 pm »

Love Quake III Arena. Me and my buddies had many a night we stayed up and had countless frag fests with that game.

darthpaul · « **Reply #46 on:** August 21, 2015, 10:59:32 pm »

Great job Ken as usual

, I need me to find a non-working nes console, what a great gift this would make for someone for Christmas. Since the Pi is mounted in an NES console, I would stick to just nes and maybe super nes games but that's just me.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #47 on:** August 21, 2015, 11:38:05 pm »

Darth, you could do NES and Sega Master System. Maybe Gameboy and Gameboy Color as well. Those all just used an A/B button setup that would work find on an NES controller.

darthpaul · « **Reply #48 on:** August 22, 2015, 09:56:46 pm »

For once I would like to keep something I build simple but it's good idea Slippyblade and worth looking into if I find the time to build this. I have to confess, I spent a great deal more time sitting in front of my TV playing NES and super SNES games than I ever did in an Arcade, so this is very nostalgic for me.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #49 on:** August 22, 2015, 10:01:10 pm »

Darth, if you use the same image we are discussing (RetroPie) which uses RetroArch as the emulator, then it is literally a matter of copying over ROMS. Retroarch uses the same controller setup for all cores, so you wouldn't even need to remap controls. It's a situation where if you get one console working, they all work, no extra effort.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #50 on:** August 22, 2015, 11:16:57 pm »

Darth, you know what would be cool? Put a RPi in a R2D2 model.

SlippyBlade, you think retroarch is better than emulation station? Should I switch?
I googled retroarch and one write up had some bad comments about the latest update.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #51 on:** August 23, 2015, 02:06:55 am »

EmulationStation is just the front end. It uses Retroarch as the emulation backend.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #52 on:** August 23, 2015, 02:28:55 am »

Quote from: Slippyblade on August 23, 2015, 02:06:55 am

EmulationStation is just the front end. It uses Retroarch as the emulation backend.

So I already have retroarch? I told you I would be needing help on this. LOL

Slippyblade · « **Reply #53 on:** August 23, 2015, 02:41:34 am »

Yep - If you use the RetroPie image, then what you are actually getting is a Raspian distro that already has RetroArch and EmulationStation pre-installed.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #54 on:** August 25, 2015, 02:33:32 am »

A little update.
I got my panel mount USB plugs today. Mounted them in the cart door panel.
Here they are mounted in the panel, along with the network plug. Rear view:

And here they are plugged into the Pi. Kinda sloppy looking, I will probably clean up the wiring a bit later.

And here is front view.

Now I am waiting on a 3 RCA jack panel (V L R), to mount in the space where the original A/V jacks were.
I ordered them off ebay, from china. I sure hope they left the country before the stock market crash.
Hopefully I will get them soon but I wont be holding my breath.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #55 on:** August 29, 2015, 11:51:23 am »

My AV panel arrived yesterday! Super fast shipping considering it came from China!
I was really getting worried when the seller un-registered from ebay. (Was thinking "kiss another 4 bucks goodbye".)
But it is here and ready to become a part of my Frankenstein monster.
Here is a pic:

And here is the plate I cut out earlier (more of the black plastic project box).

You can see in the last pic, I got the center mark slightly off, but I wont know it in a hundred years.
The plate I cut is 52.88 mm X 22.95 mm. You can see my state of the art diagram on the paper.
The AV pins are 15 mm apart, center to center.
I used black electrical tape on the shiny side of the plastic to protect from scratches.
Used a thumb tack (push pin) as a center punch, now it's off to the shed to do some drilling.

As for the software, I have several mame games that wont run, but it looks like all my NES games are.
I have a question for you Pi guys, I have several games that the scraper did not find a snapshot or image for, how do I get these, and where on the Pi do I put them?

Slippyblade · « **Reply #56 on:** August 29, 2015, 12:33:23 pm »

I've had no problems with the consoles I am using on the Pi. NES, SNES, GB, GBC, GBA, Sega Master, and Genesis all run fine on the B+; I am running a slight overclock though to help smooth out the wonky sound.

As far as scraper missed games goes, just google image search the name of the game. You will need to add the info to the gamelist.xml though. I like to re-save whatever images I grab in a consistent size and format though. I think the path for images is:

Code: [Select]

~/.emulationstation/download_images/[console]
But I might be wrong, I'm at work and can't check right now.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #57 on:** August 29, 2015, 01:49:24 pm »

Thanks slippy. I will look into that.

Blame it on wrong measured dimensions, drill bit not lining up correctly on my marks, or my p-poor skills, (if you are a betting person, I suggest you put your money on the latter), the holes came out about a couple mm too close.
I had to "wallow" out the holes a bit.
Im not sure I like this. I have already overlooked the crappy jobs I did on the power and HDMI cutouts and I dont want to keep going in that direction.
So I guess I will have to cut out another plate for the AV connector, just hope I got enough of that black plastic left.
Back to the graveyard to dig up more parts for the Frankenstein.

EDIT: Out of shame, I was not going to post this pic, but I figured what the hey, maybe someone besides me can benefit from my screwup:

Looks like total crap. I just hate loosing the work I put on this. That plastic is not as easy to cut out as one would think, although the dremmel tool does a good job, it is very hard to keep it straight.
Oh well...

DaOld Man · « **Reply #58 on:** August 29, 2015, 11:28:16 pm »

Cut out another one. This is somewhat better, guess I will go with it, even though it is scratched up a little, but I dont have much of the plastic project box carcass left.

solar · « **Reply #59 on:** August 30, 2015, 09:45:48 am »

Quote from: DaOld Man on August 29, 2015, 01:49:24 pm

the holes came out about a couple mm too close.

I hate it when that happens...it seems somewhat more acceptable if you really screw up the measurements but when it's a mm it can sometimes feel like somethings taking the *&!£.

Liking this conversion though

DaOld Man · « **Reply #60 on:** August 30, 2015, 09:40:00 pm »

Thanks solar, yeah, it aggravates me when I get it wrong.

The Frankenstein has a name! Is it alive yet? Soon, very soon...

DaOld Man · « **Reply #61 on:** August 31, 2015, 11:08:34 am »

Well I found enough plastic to hack out one more. This one turned out fairly good.

Need to square up the top a little with sandpaper.

I temp mounted it into the NES case.

It looks ok, but I think the jacks stick too far out.
Im thinking of cutting the holes in the plate big enough to allow the male RCA plugs to go in.
Then recessing the female jacks back into the case, so they look more flush on the outside when not being used.
Am I overthinking this?

jdbailey1206 · « **Reply #62 on:** August 31, 2015, 12:05:21 pm »

Quote from: DaOld Man on August 29, 2015, 11:28:16 pm

Cut out another one. This is somewhat better, guess I will go with it, even though it is scratched up a little, but I dont have much of the plastic project box carcass left.

That looks nice and clean! Good redo.

Quote from: DaOld Man on August 30, 2015, 09:40:00 pm

Thanks solar, yeah, it aggravates me when I get it wrong.

The Frankenstein has a name! Is it alive yet? Soon, very soon...

How did you reapply the name to the door?

DaOld Man · « **Reply #63 on:** August 31, 2015, 12:29:40 pm »

Quote from: jdbailey1206 on August 31, 2015, 12:05:21 pm

That looks nice and clean! Good redo.

How did you reapply the name to the door?

Thanks JD!
I have a friend whose wife makes labels and signs. She made me the new label.
I removed the old logo with finger nail polish remover and applied the new one.

She has a facebook website. If you cant get to it let me know I will try to get alternate contact info.
https://www.facebook.com/keygraphics1

Peabo · « **Reply #64 on:** August 31, 2015, 05:29:05 pm »

It looks great!

yotsuya · « **Reply #65 on:** August 31, 2015, 06:35:08 pm »

I was hoping you weren't going to follow the typical convention of putting Pi in the name. C'est la vie!

Project is still pretty cool!

DaOld Man · « **Reply #66 on:** August 31, 2015, 09:39:54 pm »

Thanks Yots!
My first choice was "Pi-Mame-gameboy-snes-coleco-tendo", but I didnt have enough room for the label.

Vidiot · « **Reply #67 on:** August 31, 2015, 10:09:08 pm »

Quote from: DaOld Man on August 31, 2015, 09:39:54 pm

Thanks Yots!
My first choice was "Pi-Mame-gameboy-snes-coleco-tendo", but I didnt have enough room for the label.

If you get a Coleco emulator running on the Pi I'm gonna need to know about that.

Project is coming along nicely by the way. Keep up the good work!

DaOld Man · « **Reply #68 on:** August 31, 2015, 10:14:57 pm »

Ok, I got a new plate cut out, holes oversized to allow the male plugs to be inserted.
I used the original plate on the inside, sandwiched it all together with 2 4-40 bolts.
I didnt have anymore of the black plastic left, so I used clear plexi.
I painted the inside of the plexi black, it didnt turn out very well, but its livable.
Anyway, here is a shot of the inside, I used hotglue to hold the outside plate.
I also cut a thin piece of plexi (painted black), and glued it to the top.

And here is the inside plate and the AV panel attached:

I attached the AV panel to the inside plate, then attached the outside plate to the inside plate with two 4-40 bolts. What is left of the original NES case in that section is sandwiched between teh two plates.

And here is an outside shot. This is the part I was talking about being livable. The paint is on the inside of the plexi, but it looks sloppy, however the camera pic looks worse than real life, I think the plexi reflected the flash and showed more of the defaults in the paint side.

Here it is with AV cables plugged in.

Not to bad I guess.
If I ever do this again, I will know to make all the parts out of the black plastic.
It looks a lot better than the painted plexi.
OK, I have AV cables ordered, since I didnt want to cut the AV cable for my camcorder that I had been using.
I will need to solder the cable wires to the AV jacks, then this baby should be ready to close up.
Im thinking about straightening that HDMI plug though.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #69 on:** August 31, 2015, 10:17:08 pm »

Thanks vidiot. I do not have a coleco emulator on the pi, for some reason that just came to mind when I was poking at yots.

wp34 · « **Reply #70 on:** September 01, 2015, 03:42:54 pm »

Well done.

I want one now.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #71 on:** September 03, 2015, 07:39:30 pm »

Thanks wp34.
Will be looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

Got the AV cables today. Now I got to solder them into the AV panel and hardware work should be done.
Pictures follow soon, so stayed tuned.

severdhed · « **Reply #72 on:** September 03, 2015, 10:00:55 pm »

looking good. i just finished up a snes pi system, but i have another pi to use...i'm trying to decide between a NES or a genesis

DaOld Man · « **Reply #73 on:** September 05, 2015, 02:13:37 pm »

Thanks severdhed. I like the way your SNES turned out, I may tackle that next.

I really dont want to go out on a limb and say this project is finished since I am still twiddling with the software. I have a lot of roms that wont run.
But the hardware is finished (even though I still have humming in my speakers, but its not really noticeable unless you turn the speaker volume real loud.)

But for now I can say It's Alive!!!!!!!

Case put together and here is finished outside shot:

Here it is with cartridge door open, exposing 2 more USB ports and the lan connector:

And here are the guts, before closing it up:

This was a fun project, but the fun is not over yet, got to finish up the software.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #74 on:** September 05, 2015, 03:14:30 pm »

Love the way the ports look under the door flap. Great job!

DaOld Man · « **Reply #75 on:** September 05, 2015, 03:34:05 pm »

Thanks slippyblade. I owe a lot to your work.

Locke141 · « **Reply #76 on:** September 05, 2015, 05:02:07 pm »

I like it.

My only question is why not use the higher quality HDMI?

One thing I like about the pi is that its essay to try differed images.
You may want to try one of the following:
Much better front end: http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=223.0
A faster vertions of the under line OS your using: http://fuzon.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8

Quote from: severdhed on September 03, 2015, 10:00:55 pm

looking good. i just finished up a snes pi system, but i have another pi to use...i'm trying to decide between a NES or a genesis

If your going to use a original controller to USB joystick adapter like you did with your SNES, I would go with the Genesis. The 6 + L/R button second generations Genesis controller will give you more options for games. Playing SNES games on a Genesis controller is much better then playing Genesis games on a NES or even a SNES controller. If you go USB you could just have moltible sets of controller.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #77 on:** September 05, 2015, 11:32:08 pm »

Quote from: Locke141 on September 05, 2015, 05:02:07 pm

I like it.

My only question is why not use the higher quality HDMI?

One thing I like about the pi is that its essay to try differed images.
You may want to try one of the following:
Much better front end: http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=223.0
A faster vertions of the under line OS your using: http://fuzon.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8

Thanks Locke.
I will probably be using the HDMI, but the original NES had RCA audio/video jacks on the side. I thought it would be neat to duplicate that, and also put something in that space. It stuck with me and I guess I got a little hard headed, even though it was more expense (around 10 bucks), and a lot more work, it became my obsession.
Looking back now, I probably should have put the HDMI jack there and the power plug where I put the HDMI.
But of course if I decide to go old school and use an old TV, I will need those RCA jacks. (And probably a vcr to plug them into, probably will just stay with HDMI).
Thanks for the other software suggestion, I am going to pick up a couple more SD cards and play around with those versions.

DaOld Man · « **Reply #78 on:** September 06, 2015, 10:29:41 am »

I took it over to my sons house last night and it was put through the final test.
This is my grand daughter playing Super Mario Brothers on it.
I think it passed the test.
My son is dropping hints about me building him one. Hmmm, Christmas is coming up so.....

Slippyblade · « **Reply #79 on:** September 06, 2015, 12:31:22 pm »

Woohoo! Nothing says "Good Job" better than having to pry the controller out of someone's hands!


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