hansolo77

+1 for keeping original stock. I'd hate to gut a perfectly working system and lose all it's charming frontend capabilities.

I don't know if we'll allow this tactic. Not everybody has 2 controllers, and this might be giving you an unfair advantage. Are you saying your left joystick isn't working as well as it used to, or are you saying the right joystick is just easier to play with?

Thank rtkiii. I know it's all overrated. But when you suffer from depression for 24 years, and realize a large portion of it stems from being single your whole life, things just look kinda gloomy for you. I mean, my brother is 3 years younger than me, has had 3 fiances, married 2 of them (not at the same time lol), and is now about to have his first child. I'm the oldest, I should be the first one to have a family like that. But whatever. It doesn't do any good to compare my life to others. I take my drugs and live life how it comes to me. Looking at that last picture I posted, I'm definitely going to revisit the USB Hub. I don't like the way it looks. I didn't want to drill more screw holes into the case, but I also don't like the look of the CommandN strips under the hub. Maybe it'll look better if I mount it from the top of the case a little further back. Then at least the strips will be hidden better behind the door. I'm a little bummed the guy who was helping me with my controller problem hasn't come up with a solution. He has 2 different controllers in his own setup, and is trying to make his controllers do what I need to (although he doesn't NEED them to). When I said it didn't work, he said he had some other ideas but wasn't near his Pi to troubleshoot it. I got home from work today to see if he had any good news, and he had actually replied that he thought he was on the right path but it ended up not working for him either, so the problem is still unsolved. Fingers crossed that a solution will come soon.

I like the OS menu system. And the reset button to go back to the menu is what I do with my NintendoPi. I like the fact that when you exit mid-game, it gives you the option to incorporate a save state. HOWEVER.. I have no use for one now, the short controller cable is definitely a deal breaker, and the limit of 30 games with no room to add more sucks. What I would do is get the case, then tear out the guts and put a Pi inside instead. I'm sure somebody will crack the OS and port it to a 3rd party open source. But honestly... I'm not buying it. Maybe in a few years when it's in bargin bins like the Atari and Sega consoles are now ($19.99).

Is it possible to join multiple clubs? My old Canadian buddies I used to play Halo with have been wondering if I'm ever coming back. I bet they're all in a club too. I'd hate to get a One and join your club and not be able to join theirs.

Holy Shit dude... ok you're banned from my competition! LOL just kidding. What'd you do, find a nice fat bonus? Updated OP, DB, RSS

Yeah, but you tripled your previous score. That's gotta make you happy! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Yeah, we need proof buddy!

Day 20 Yeah, I did a lot of of fiddling yesterday, and have a working BLUE LED now. Also, I don't know what I did, but SMB1 now works in RetroPie. Might have been something to do with my rebuild of the system from my above checklist. Something like updating RetroArch or FCEUmm from source, or maybe just the whole thing being so cluttered from all kinds of "experimenting". In any case, I tested it yesterday and it booted right up. Now all I have to do is figure out why my Xbox controller isn't working in the "extra" parts of RetroPie. It works for games, and navigating the main menus. But if I try to enter anything "setup"-wise, it doesn't work. I posted about it in the RetroPie forums, and reported it back on Day 19's post. I'm still waiting for a solution. They thought it would be a simple fix, but their fix didn't fix it. So in the meanwhile, I'm just keeping the Raphnet NES-USB adapter unplugged. Oh, and yesterday I added an old computer fan inside the case too, though I think I want to get a Noctua one. This one rattles a little. I did it by just stripping the black and red wires leading to the fan, attached some jumper wires to them, and plugged the red into pin 2 (+5v) and the black into pin 6 (GND). I didn't know if it would work, since this is a 12v DC fan. But I remembered that a lot of fan controllers you get for your computer just have voltage adjusting knobs. So I had hoped by using the 5v header, it would just run slower than it would at 12v. I was right, and I even tested the 3v which worked too, just even slower. I want to get a Noctua fan though that will be even quieter. My next project after I get this all working is to see if I can maybe come up with a script to control the fan. If I can find an alternate pin that runs at 5v, but is controllable via GPIO, I can in theory have a script that checks the temp of the Pi, then turn the pin ON if it's at a certain level, and turn the pin OFF at another. I've already played around with that with the LED, making it turn on and off with a script. So I think it's doable. What I really was trying to do with the LED was figure out a way to make the it blink when the system was shutting down. But I don't know enough about programming in Python (or BASH, or whatever it is I'd need) to make that work. Looks like I'd need some kind of WHILE statement, to say "while shutting down, blink". I'll bet somebody around here could figure it out (Adultery, Tom, HK, etc perhaps). But I don't want to bother them with it. It's my project, and I'll figure it out, or just live with it not doing it.

Might be interesting.. if I had an Xbox One.

Make yourself up some Retr0Brite and get that yellow fixed up. Crazy the cost on those keyboards (Microsoft's). Heh, you could probably deep clean that thing and sell it as "slightly used" and nobody would know. When I was looking to buy an NES case for my NintendoPi project, I came across this link in case I needed to de-yellow it. http://www.retr0bright.com/

I don't know what it is. Maybe I need to buy a NEW keyboard that is NAMEBRAND. I keep buying these cheap, barely used things from a used computer consignment store. They're $1. They have a large bin just full of them with different kinds of connectors (the old fat 5-pin, the tiny PS2, and USB). I typically pull out the whitest looking ones. The first thing I do when I get it home though is take it apart and clean the $#!t out of it. They work great for a few years then stop working. My latest one was from HP. If I remember right the guy said it was bought brand new at his store as part of a prebuilt system that the guy had, completely unopened. But the purchaser needed to reduce cost so he removed the keyboard/mouse/printer/monitor from the box (yea, they were all included in this particular "kit") and just sold him the computer. Somebody had already bought the other bits afterwards, but the keyboard was still inside it's plastic bag in his spare keyboard parts bin. I remember because I had to ask the guy if it was included in the $1 sales since it looked brand new. It was an awesome deal. It had worked for YEARS, even post-fire, so that's going on 8 years ago now, and I know I had it at least 2-3 years before that. It just died 2-3 days ago. It had been acting weird though, like the cable was getting unplugged or something. The LEDs would go out, or I'd be pressing keys and nothing would happen, or keys like the SHIFT and CTRL were sticking even if I hadn't even pressed them. Then suddenly the whole thing went dark, no keypresses worked. I'd typically jiggle the wire in the back of the keyboard to get a better connection, but no good. I'm going to take it apart and see if I can fix it, I suspect it's maybe a loose wire inside. But now I'm on another cheap previously used keyboard. This one is a Dell Smart Card Reader keyboard. It looks like the picture, only it doesn't have the attached wrist pad. It's a hand-me-down from my stepmom's computer. I don't know where she got it from, though I suspect it was given to her when she got her job as a CSR. They gave her a headset and mouse of her own as well, probably to help prevent cross contamination of germs from multiple users. She just brought it home when she lost her job. Not a bad idea, I just wish more places did that sort of thing, because they CSR job I had only had a crappy plastic film like overlay on the keyboard, which SUCKED. The computer recognizes the keyboard and has to install special drivers before it works because of the Smart Card reader. I have know idea what good that's for, but the keyboard doesn't work unless the drivers are completely installed. It doesn't register as a standard keyboard input device, but as removable hardware like a drive. Who cares, at least it works right?

Neato!

I did a bit more research last night after posting this. Apparently, you pretty much DO have to put a resistor in line with LEDs. Not necessarily for the reason I was asking (getting too hot), but because if you don't you'll burn out the LED. It'll burn SUPER-DUPER BRIGHT for a short time, then stop working. I saw somebody else's build while Googling, and the guy actually just harvested a couple from his non-working NES motherboard. I'll probably do the same. My only problem is not knowing which way they go. Obviously I'll want to have it on the +3v line prior to connecting to the LED, but which way does it go, or does it even matter? As for the pin header plugs, that was simple. MicroCenter sells these bags of pre-attched header wires, designed specifically for the electrician project hobbyist in mind. It even comes with some header pins. They come in different styles, different colors. The kind I got has female connectors on both ends, but they make them with male on both ends, and male on one and female on the other. What I envisioned doing, was just cutting off the plug from the NES switches that attaches to the motherboard, strip and twist the wires, then just poke them into the header plug. That didn't work, because I discovered those plug holes are TINY.. so I ended up just cutting off one side of the wire and soldering the 2 ends together, then heat shrink them. It works, which is all that matters. You might be able to order them online... http://www.microcenter.com/product/419360/Female_Jumpers_and_40_Headers_-_Blue

Grr.. I don't recognize that game. Looks like a shot from Abobo's Big Adventure though, the NES remake game.

You know, she wasn't that bad to look at back in the day.

I'd say you like it. Sheesh! No way I'm that good. Thanks for the score Exed! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Wow, I didn't even hear a drum roll, and here comes EE out of the games with a killer score! Awesome buddy! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Day 19 Updates So I've been playing around with my setup again. I've followed through my previous outline, and have made backups accordingly. I'm on step 16 now. One thing I haven't done yet is configure the controller mapping scripts. I've installed it though. Basically what this is, is an addon that allows you to configure via some nice menus what controllers you want to use for various consoles. So for instance, right now I have an Xbox 360 wireless dongle, and the Raphnet NES-USB adapter to give me NES pads. I can configure RetroPie to make the NES pads the controller #1 and controller #2 for JUST the NES system, and then use the Xbox 360 controller for everything else. In the future, I'll also have some Sega Genesis controllers, and will be able to use those scripts to configure the system to use ONLY those controllers on that system. That way I don't have to worry about doing some fancy command line/SSH editing. It'll just be set already. The other nice thing is I don't have to keep it that way. With the menu system, it's a very simple task to go in and tell it "nah, use the Xbox 360 controller for NES for now". So now that I've got everything cleanly installed without a bunch of crap all over the place, I've hit a snag. It probably existed before but I just never noticed it till last night. When I'm inside EmulationStation I can navigate around with either the Xbox controller or the NES pads. Once you launch a game, there is a screen that pops up prior to launching the game, that says something to the effect of "press any key to configure advanced options". You can go in and tell it to run a different emulator for that particular game, or run at a different resolution, etc. It's a nice handy feature. The problem is, once a game has started to load, I can't press ANY KEY on my Xbox controller. It acts like the controller completely dies. It accepts no input. Everything works great for the NES pads though. This isn't limited to just that screen (called run-command) either. It happens inside any setup menus as well. Navigation and everything just ceases to function with the Xbox controller. While the controller works great inside games, I can't use it anywhere else. This wasn't an issue until I had the NES adapter connected on the system together with the Xbox dongle. Through talking with the guys over at RetroPie, I learned of a Linux utility called jstest which I assume means "joystick test". By running that in the terminal screen along with a device (such as /dev/input/js0) you can see the actual input from the controller, and it's identification as discovered by the OS. Changing the # to js1 or js2 etc. gives you a different controller connected. When I ran that this morning, I discovered that the NES pads are actually being identified by the OS before the Xbox controller. This is a problem, as the way RetroPie's programming works, it configures "joy2key" (I'm sure ya'll have heard of that) with the navigational mappings to js0 only. So if the NES adapter is connected, RetroPie will configure the left port of the NES as the primary navigational input. If the NES adapter is disconnected, then the only controller the OS detects is the Xbox controller, and configures THAT to be the primary input (because it becomes connected in /dev/input/js0). This was a complete revelation to me, as I figured the OS would simply identify the inputs based on which USB plug they were connected to. It was my understanding the the top-left USB plug on the Raspberry Pi was USB0, the one below that was USB1, the top-right plug was USB2, and the bottom-right plug was USB3. And so, by having the Xbox adapter plugged into USB0, and the NES adapter plugged into USB3, I figured that would make the Xbox adapter be detected first. Apparently that's not the case. So the solution I was given is to override the controller mapping that "joy2key" is looking to configure. Rather than have it assign to js0, I just need to assign it to js2. So this is my next task to work on tomorrow. As for the rest of the night tonight... I got my replacement Mausberry power circuit in. It has the newly soldered on pin headers like I asked. So that's awesome. I plugged it in and tested everything, and it worked. Then I took it a step further and changed some things. Rather than having the RESET and LED wires running to the circuit, I instead ran them directly to the Pi. I discovered that the LED would be switched off pretty much the moment I hit the POWER button. The system would still be ON though, running through it's shutdown routine before finally cutting the power. By moving the ORANGE wire to PIN1 on the GPIO (for +3v) and the WHITE wire to PIN6 (for GND), I've essentially wired up the LED to run off the Pi's power, and when the Pi loses power, the LED goes out. That way I have a better idea of when it's safe to remove the SD card, or the power cable in the back, etc. I also have the RESET wire connected to the Pi rather than the power circuit. By connecting the YELLOW wire to PIN11 (GPIO17) I am now able to run a script that watches for a signal on the pin, and sends the ESCAPE command to the currently running game to exit back to the ES system. I just checked something though.. with the LED connected to PIN1 for +3v, it gets EXTREMELY hot. Connected to the header on the power circuit though is ok. So I might have to add something somewhere to the wire to make it not run as hot. Would that be a resistor? I don't want it to burn red hot and cause a fire.. So here's some pictures for Stigzler: This shows the re-wire I had, before noticed the power LED was getting way too hot. I've moved it back to the power circuit for now... I also have the NES adapter currently unplugged from the USB on the PI for testing of those joystick things I mentioned above. Lastly, I managed to tuck the power adapter for the USB in between the cord channel cutout on the bottom of the NES and the internal HDMI plug. Fit perfectly! I still need to get some electrical tape to seal that up for safety, and I want to get some more hot glue to make sure the wire connectors don't come loose where I have it attached to the extension cord. This is the diagram of the PIN layout on the Raspberry Pi for reference. The way I have the Pi mounted, PIN1 is in the top-right, PIN2 is the bottom-right, PIN39 is top-left and PIN40 is bottom-left. Essentially rotated 90 degrees to the right. So yeah, I'd really like to have the LED wired to the Pi because it just makes more sense. Anybody know how I can get in there an modify something to make the LED run cooler? Just for shits-n-giggles, I plugged it into the +5v (PIN2) and it felt even HOTTER (I knew it would) but interestingly not as bright. Need some smart electrician people to help me. What would be really cool (though I have no idea how to do it) would be to have the LED blink while the system is shutting down before going completely dark. Maybe sometime in the future I can figure out how to do that. - Later!

I know.. I thought I had that one. Maybe it's one of those Marvel vs Capcom games. I don't know those well enough to be sure it's a quote from that though. I'm trying to think of some other games that might have featured Blade. But for all I know, I'm completely way off, and it's a totally different character altogether lol.

Well, that's clearly Marvel's Blade talking. But I don't know of any games that feature him, except for the Blade table in Pinball Fx2.

Sorry guys, I was at work when this was answered. Good job @Draco1962!!! I know that was an easy one. Especially for guys like us who grew up playing those kinds of games. These new kids just don't get it. LOL You're up Drac!

It seems pretty popular as a bonus game. And popular enough to have an Atari "port". I'm going to have to play this some day soon.

Yay! RedDog joined the fray. Good to see you again buddy! Nice improvement Cyn! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Head is feeling a little better after eating some dinner. Back to troubleshooting. So I think I'm going to start completely from square one again. Burn a new copy of the SD card image from the download page, and go through the whole process all over. I've got temporary files all over the place from various testings I had done, leftover files/folders from multiple tries at recompiling various emulator cores and systems for updated RetroAchievment compatibilities, countless driver changes, etc. There's just so much junk. I think starting fresh will clear the system as well as my head. At least I kept a fairly well documented procedure here in the thread, so it shouldn't be that hard. I've just been thinking that all the problems I seem to be having can't be happening to everybody. I've asked on the RetroPie forums, and a lot of the time the solution was simple because of an error I had made. So I think starting over is the best course of action. For my own record keeping, these are the steps I have to make: Reburn the RetroPie Image Disconnect Hard Drive (important!) Fix the Overscan Change the Memory Settings Turn off USBROM Service Connect Hard Drive Upgrade the Kernel - To patch in the Raphnet NES-USB adapter fixes Backup the SD card before updating Cores Compile from source the updated GIT version of RetroArch - To patch in new RetroAchievement fixes Compile from source the updated GIT version of FCEUmm - To patch in new RetroAchievement fixes Compile from source the updated GIT version of QuickNES - To patch in new RetroAchievement fixes Compile from source the updated GIT version of Gambatte - To patch in new RetroAchievement fixes Backup the SD card before installing updated controller mapping scripts Remap the Roms to run from the Hard Drive Make a Clean Backup of the System before... TEST TEST TEST