Picade

harney

Hi all

This popped up on my Google+ feed and I remembered that there was an Arcade forum here so I thought ye might be interested (if not, my bad )

Some guys have decided to use the Raspberry Pi to create an mini arcade machine kit (from what I understand). They are doing a kickstarter project, and it looks like they might be nearly there.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2303

Steve X2

harney wrote: »

Hi all

This popped up on my Google+ feed and I remembered that there was an Arcade forum here so I thought ye might be interested (if not, my bad )

Some guys have decided to use the Raspberry Pi to create an mini arcade machine kit (from what I understand). They are doing a kickstarter project, and it looks like they might be nearly there.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2303

Yeah, its the same guys who make the Pibow case, which is very nice.

Wait...what? :eek:

You can get a teeny computer on one board now? That's phenomenal. I have so many questions that would apply to using it as a brain for a mame cab or an emulator, not least regarding the linux distro it runs.

It looks like early pentium 2/celeron era specs, 512mb ram, etc which would be enough for emulation. What's the current situation with running mame or any of the recognised emulators in it? Is it feasible to use this thing as the guts for an arcade cab? What's the situation with USB frontends, encoders, etc, are their any that work with linux? Would it actually be possible to get this thing working as the brain for a seamless experience on a cabinet???

*mind explodes due to too many awesome ideas*

The Last Bandit

All those XX in 1 Jamma boards are basically the same thing but more cheapass.. Cheap ARM soc running Linux and hacked up emulators.
Would be nice to have a more open source one, even if its low powered so you could choose your own games and possibly have a less crap front end on it.

Steve X2

The Raspberry Pi is a great little device and I've been playing around with them since they came out. It makes a nice XBMC computer and it's getting better on the emulators side of things as well.
I think it'll be a nice simple desktop arcade machine but I wouldn't want to use something as weak as it for a full size cab.

Here's one of my Rasp Pi's sitting inside a Pibow case that the guys making the Picade also manufacture themselves in the UK.

CiDeRmAn

May pick up a Raspberry Pi now, just for the Picade.
Tbh I have been underwhelmed by the iCade device, the buttons and stick are awful.
Might shift it once the Picade is out and get that instead.

CiDeRmAn

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

May pick up a Raspberry Pi now, just for the Picade...

Steve SI wrote: »

The Raspberry Pi is a great little device and I've been playing around with them since they came out....I think it'll be a nice simple desktop arcade machine but I wouldn't want to use something as weak as it for a full size cab...

I'm most interested in it for the tiny size and low cost of the machine, i can think of loads of cool retro-related uses for it. RS electronics seem to be the only online supplier that sell it for shipping to ireland to consumers (premier farnell aren't shipping to private buyers here anymore) but i priced a model B board, power adaptor, preloaded 4GB card and a case earlier and it came to under £50 sterling before delivery. Maplin here are doing full kits for 75 quid too (bundling the board with a load of high margin accessories crap) so probably about the same.

I saw some cool cases online too. Wood, lego, cigarrette boxes, all sorts.

There seems to be a fair bit of work going on on a stripped down distro that auto boots into mame with a frontend (mala i think) over on their foundation forums.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=12188

Steve X2

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm most interested in it for the tiny size and low cost of the machine, i can think of loads of cool retro-related uses for it. RS electronics seem to be the only online supplier that sell it for shipping to ireland to consumers (premier farnell aren't shipping to private buyers here anymore) but i priced a model B board, power adaptor, preloaded 4GB card and a case earlier and it came to under £50 sterling before delivery. Maplin here are doing full kits for 75 quid too (bundling the board with a load of high margin accessories crap) so probably about the same.

I saw some cool cases online too. Wood, lego, cigarrette boxes, all sorts.

There seems to be a fair bit of work going on on a stripped down distro that auto boots into mame with a frontend (mala i think) over on their foundation forums.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=12188

Yeah, lots happening on the pi front. If you download the raspian or other raspberry pi distros you'll even have a few drivers I wrote/compiled for the foundation.
I did a lot of driver work at the start for wireless cards and stuff for my Game Boy PC that I still have to polish off to call it complete.

Steve X2

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

May pick up a Raspberry Pi now, just for the Picade.
Tbh I have been underwhelmed by the iCade device, the buttons and stick are awful.
Might shift it once the Picade is out and get that instead.

Replace the joystick with Sanwa or Seimitsu parts depending on your preference. As for the buttons, you can use Sanwa or Seimitsu again but you'll need to modify the case for that. Or just get proper Happ buttons to replace the crappy generic Happ style ones that come with the iCade itself. They should just slot in easily.

Few pics I took here for reference on how to open the iCade and what's inside it.
http://www.retrovia.ie/showthread.php/6177-What-s-inside-an-Ion-iCade

iCade:

o1s1n

That looks like awful rubbish alright! Cheapo abs plastic too. Sure cut out a wooden control panel and mount some Seimitsu parts

Steve X2

o1s1n wrote: »

That looks like awful rubbish alright! Cheapo abs plastic too. Sure cut out a wooden control panel and mount some Seimitsu parts

Yeah, check out more of the pics in the link.
In fairness it's a cheap device so you cant expect a whole lot from it apart from the novelty factor and a bit of fun for 10 mins at a time.

imitation

Looks like an awesome little project, tempted to try and do something myself !

imitation

imitation wrote: »

Looks like an awesome little project, tempted to try and do something myself !

I'll be keeping an eye on the mame distro and seeing how that goes. As soon as its viable I'll be on it like a fat kid on a smartie!