Simon,
Years ago, I paid for a lifetime subscription to Hyperspin
(http://www.hyperspin-fe.com). I would be happy to provide that platform if
there was interest in using that software. It is pretty damn impressive...
Otherwise, there has been much that has advanced with EmulationStation on both
the raspberry pi as well as Retrorangepi. The challenge with a pi option will
be the wiring harnesses via the GPIO as inputs. I have not seen much outside of
support via SNES or Xbox 360 controllers if you do not go the GPIO route for
wiring in the controller inputs.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: hackpgh-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:hackpgh-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Simon Heath
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2016 8:34 PM
To: hackpgh-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [hackpgh-discuss] Arcade machine thoughts
So I've figured out how to take the arcade machine apart enough to actually do
stuff to it, if we want. Turns out that the computer in it is *really* old,
like, Pentium 4 with 512 mb of ram. I'm kind of amazed it still works at all.
But I tried at least seeing if I could get Linux or something to boot on it,
and it's too old to boot off of a USB drive. And I don't really feel like
burning a CD just to see if that thing is salvagable. It's running an old
version of software called Maximus Arcade.
There's a pile of custom wiring to get all the inputs and outputs connected to
the computer, but it LOOKS like the joysticks end up plugging into a USB input,
the monitor is VGA and the sound is just a
3.5 mm jack.
So the question is, what do we want to actually do with it? Our options seem to
be:
* Just update the software to a new version of the same thing
* Keep the same computer but put Linux on it running MAME or something (maybe
http://www.lakka.tv/)
* Just replace the thing with a RPi
I'll play around with different programs and see if I can find one that works
significantly better than what we have.
On the more hardware-y side, I really want to cover the gaping holes next to
the coin acceptor with something... maybe plastic with cool laser-cut designs
and LED backlighting. The sides of the thing are also just aching for paint
and/or decals. Anyone have any good suggestions there?
Simon
