I’m intrigued by that Hitbox controller, never seen something like that before. It must be the ultimate controller for VIM users.
If I want to build my own what kind of PCB-board should I use? I read that early versions of the Hitbox blocked both sides when back and forward are pressed simultaneously giving it an unfair advantage against cross-ups. Newer versions seem to result in neutral when forward and back are pressed at the same time.
How is the stability of the RetroPie ecosystem as a whole? I guess my real question is the system seems to be running nicely at the moment and I’m typically an “update regularly kind of guy” and I see there are a TON of updates that have been released to both the raspbian os and retropie, and I’m kind of scared to do it.
So I’ve made peace with the state of the ROM world…it took giving myself the time to sit down and really read the links here and in the wiki to Grok it. It’s really it’s own special brand of versioning hell. But I’m good…I think.
One thing I have noticed though is inconsistent game speed. Which I imagine is attributable in part to how it the particular game was written: clock cycles vs ticks or whatever. Have any of you noticed this and have a strategy in place? There are some that go SOOOO fast…or I’m now SOOOO old…both are valid theories.
You’re referring to the concept of SOCD (Simultaneous Opposite Cardinal Directions) cleaning. Early on, you could buy either a PS3/PC HitBox (powered by a generic DirectInput PCB, I believe) or a HitBox Multi-Console (which used Akishop’s PS360+ PCB). Neither of them explicitly programmed SOCD cleaning because they were intended for use with arcade sticks that could only move in one direction at a time, so conceptually it just wasn’t necessary. Most games already do their own version of soft SOCD cleaning to prevent it (primarily for keyboard players), but the double-blocking bug became a prominent issue in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which allowed it to happen. The release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 a year later fixed the issue on the game side, and Akishop also rolled out a firmware update to PS360+ to perform SOCD cleaning on the raw inputs. There are officially two ways to handle this, with stickless players falling into camps based on personal preference:
No SOCD cleaning: Stock PCBs from MadCatz, Hori, etc. do not clean, so simply plugging in a JLF-to-4-button harness to convert a stock stick into a HitBox will always reflect the last button pressed. If you press and hold left, then tap right, it will show an input of left followed by an input of right.
SOCD cleaning: Holding left and right together cancels to neutral. This creates a slightly higher execution barrier from an input perspective, but also creates the opportunity for nifty shortcuts not previously possible. My favorite is holding forward and briefly tapping backwards to create a dash, since the input translates to forward-neutral-forward. This was absolutely magnificent for FADC into Ultra in Street Fighter IV.
To answer your question, the unequivocal recommendation for PCB these days is the Brook Universal Fighting Board. It serves PS3, 360, Xbox One, PS4 and PC all in one shot, and includes built-in SOCD cleaning.
(Side note: Because it’s a grey market board, Brook is engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Sony. Every major PS4 system update will usually see the Brook’s functionality limited to an 8-minute non-authenticated timer, then within 24-48 hours Brook will release a firmware update for their entire device line fixing the issue. If you plan on playing on PS4, make sure you keep your firmware updated. Access to the other platforms are just fine, however.)
I know nothing about monitors, but really want to build a retropie setup for playing the classic NES games I grew up with. I have a macbook air, ipad, large flatscreen tv (60", which I don’t watch and barely know how to use) and nothing else in terms of display at home, I’m not as concerned about cost as I am about size: I don’t want anything too big/bulky.
What would y’all recommend given this information?
Some tweaks to the control panel. I went with Neo-Geo style button colors: Red (button 1), Yellow (button 2), Green (button 3), Blue (button 4).
I used clear buttons along the top, clear red to evoke “insert coin”, and clear white for the two center buttons. These are technically backlit LED buttons but I need to figure out the wiring, and see if I can power them from USB safely.
I added two pinball buttons, and replaced the Xin Mo dual controller brain with a nearly identical Jinyao – both of which require a weird kernel USB hint to work in RetroPie.
The Jinyao supports 12 buttons per player, which I needed for the 2 extra pinball buttons on player 1.
I’d recommend a Raspberry Pi 3 kit, plus these great bluetooth controllers:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014QP2H1E
Update the firmware to latest ater you get them 
Simply install RetroPie, put the ROMs on, then boot it up via HDMI connected to your big screen, sync the bluetooth controllers and you’re done!
RetroPie 4.0 was just released so try that out for updates!
Is the issue with your juyao controller fixed in retropie 4.0? If not, is the fix explained in the link you posted before still valid?
Thanks
Yes it is the same fix for both; I updated the github wiki to specify that as well.
Wow. This post has made me subscribe, and renewed my faith in humanity.
Now, when a decent AMIGA emulator is on the Pi, my life will be complete.
The funny thing is, a Raspberry Pi 3 might have more power than the Pentium 4 “Northwood” that we put in the original Verticade in 2005!
https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/view/869079
https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/2596704
Yep 
Kinda awesome… and kinda sad at the same time.
What I would definitely recommend is buying a Skull Canyon NUC and using that as the internals for Verticade 2017. I say go for it!
That is awesome. I was chatting with Dave Bautista. (He was around in your time I do believe) and he thinks that is a pretty great idea too.
A side note, after I posted this we had a day where the internet was out in The Point, and the Verticade got a good bit of usage. We had an issue where the resolution of the video card was set too high, and we had to fix that, but once we did that all was good.
