Raspberry Pi 2 Multi emulation ( Gert's VGA + Cabinet) Update!

[grendelrt]

So a couple months ago Raspberry Pi 2 came out which has more oomph and is better for emulation. I was thinking of building a small emulation machine using one plus a JPac to use in my Blast City. Mainly to play some older console stuff and one off boards, like In the Hunt so i don't have to collect PCBs. Been doing some research and this is what I have found so far:

Pi 2 has composite and HDMI out stock. You can also buy Gert's VGA add on for like 9 bucks or build your own for VGA out. From what I have seen though the VGA doesnt go down to 240p. I am hoping that someone can confirm it can do 240p, if not I am thinking the following options:

1) Gert's VGA + CRT Shaders + 31khz Dsub on Blast
2) Gert's VGA + VGA to RGB stepdown + 15khz dsub on Blast
2a) HDMI out + HDMI to VGA box + VGA to RGB stepdown + 15khz dsub on Blast

Options 1 and 2 seem the best to limit conversions. I am not sure if the PI 2 has enough power for CRT shaders though and would prefer a natural 15khz signal.

The cost for this looks like

PI 2 :40 off amazon
WiFI : 9
Power: 9
SD Card: ranged
Gerts VGA: 9
Possibly Stepdown : 35
Ipac or Jpac: 39 to 59
So between 100 and 150 bucks or so, but an open system that can play everything 16 bit, PSX, and I am guessing lots of Mame stuff. Plus it would be portable if you wanted to hook it to a tv with HDMI. Anyone tried this or have any experience with this that can share some tips?

 

[grendelrt]

Updated on Gert's VGA adapter. I received it finally, you have to build it btw, 20 resistors, 2 connectors. Good news is, it works really well, bad news is I wasnt able to get it to run 240p through DSub to my cabinet. That could be something to do with my cabinet or just that the resolution isnt correct. I am running 640x480 to my Blast City now and may buy a scan converter to get down to 240P. So far running VGA res with hlsl shaders looks really nice, so not sure if I will bother getting a converter, if I did it would be to pick back up the performance loss from running shaders.

Next step is, I bought a Ipac and will wire that to a jamma fingerboard so I can use the cabinet controls. Need to figure out some better setting for Mame, its completely seperate from all the other configs which is annoying(Edit: update below). Also need to start looking into netplay and see what compatability there is with that, could really be awesome to play other people on cabinets across the country!

Video

NEO Cart shows you how small this is

 

[hyper]

very cool, tempted to order a pi2 and try out retropie

 

[mr_b]

What Pi OS are you running? Linux should be capable of outputting 240p.

 

[grendelrt]

I'm running retropie, I think it's the fact that it runs off the hdmi modes has something to do with it. I actually turned on 240p but it was scrambled on the Blast monitor.

 

[mr_b]

I doubt you're overlooking this but do you have the auto-sync blast or the manual sync blast? You didn't forget to turn it to 15k did you?

 

[grendelrt]

I doubt you're overlooking this but do you have the auto-sync blast or the manual sync blast? You didn't forget to turn it to 15k did you?

Haha yeah I have a manual sync, I set to 15khz and to use the dsub =)

 

[childsremix]

Do you know if the Mame on Pi supports Tetris the Grandmaster 2 by chance? If so how's the emulation of that particular game?

 

[Thamiel]

Use a miniSLG from CraftyMech on the vga output for scanlines? Easy way to get the performance back from hlsl and cheaper than downscaling.

 

[grendelrt]

Do you know if the Mame on Pi supports Tetris the Grandmaster 2 by chance? If so how's the emulation of that particular game?

Mame4All uses 037b5 roms and AdvanceMame uses 0.106 compatible roms. Ill try to run it in both with just a random rom and see what happens and update this post. EDIT: Doesnt look like it works.

Use a miniSLG from CraftyMech on the vga output for scanlines? Easy way to get the performance back from hlsl and cheaper than downscaling.

Thats a cool option as well, liking how many options there are to go with this.

Update on Mame4All, if you change the config to
default="lr-imame4all"
from the normal mame4all you can then use retroarch configs, which is allows shaders and controls.

 

[SmokeMonster]

Use a miniSLG from CraftyMech on the vga output for scanlines? Easy way to get the performance back from hlsl and cheaper than downscaling.

Grab one from godlikecontrols for $10 less.