Multisystem2 Arcade system - (JAMMA)

tronads

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The waiting is killing me, but my order number is in Level 2, so should be any day now......I have just remembered I need to order a microSD card, so best do that now !
 

multisystem

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The waiting is killing me, but my order number is in Level 2, so should be any day now......I have just remembered I need to order a microSD card, so best do that now !
We are ramping up fast now. Lots are prepared and being testing, packed and shipped this week. I have been in production this morning helping get as many as possible ready for testing.

Also it uses a full size SD card, so make sure you get a microSD with an adapter or a full size card.
We did not want to be trying to find a tiny microSD card in the bottom of an Arcade machine. Full size cards are so much nicer to use.
 

multisystem

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Update on shipping for Multisystem2 Arcade - https://shop.heber.co.uk/blog-news/multisystem-2-arcade-shipping-update-for-september/

TLDR - We are already well into level 2 and speeding up very quickly with test and shipping.

First batch order numbers for Level 1 shipping. From Order Number 20020 to 20390 - Completed

Level 2 Shipping: Order Number 20390 - 21000 - In Progress - orders already shipping (from 8th September)

Level 3 Shipments: Order Number 21001 - 23000 - Preparing & Testing

Level 4 Shipments: Order Number 23001 - 25000 - Preparing

Level 5+ Shipments: Order Number 25001 - 26000+ - Preparing

Please note, not all orders within these levels are for Multisystem2 Arcades. All other orders are being shipped out as usual.

Thank you all so much for the ongoing support.

Richard.
 

multisystem

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If anyone is setting up their Multisystem2 Arcade and would like to use our already configured mister.INI file we have put a copy here.

The info for player bindings is in our user manual, but it may be easier if you just want to see the entire Mister.INI file for reference.

This adds player bindings to the JAMMA I/O inputs so they stay mapped to the same controls.
If you don't add these bindings, standard MiSTer will just use the first button action to assign to player 1. So you can end up with swapped controls on a cabinet.

Use the bindings to make sure that does not happen.

Hope that all makes sense, any questions, do let me know.
 

eliotcole

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Heya ... cheeky question ... will much of this be transferrable to the dock + portable, do you think?

Asking for a friend, who will wish to utilise something that strongly resembles ... or is ... that situation.

If anyone is setting up their Multisystem2 Arcade and would like to use our already configured mister.INI file we have put a copy here.

The info for player bindings is in our user manual, but it may be easier if you just want to see the entire Mister.INI file for reference.

This adds player bindings to the JAMMA I/O inputs so they stay mapped to the same controls.
If you don't add these bindings, standard MiSTer will just use the first button action to assign to player 1. So you can end up with swapped controls on a cabinet.

Use the bindings to make sure that does not happen.

Hope that all makes sense, any questions, do let me know.
 

RygarR

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Afternoon Guys.,

I've been using Mister on a CRT TV for a couple of years and have been impressed with the results. So, I'm looking forward to receiving my Multisystem2 and getting it stuck in my Goliath. Something I'm not looking forward to, however, is the Mister UI - which strikes me as an unnecessary exercise in masochism. I get that it's bare bones, and that it's very clever. But the truth is, I don't have the skills or the energy to bone up on the coding, and I really, really, really don't like the aesthetic. I just want to play the games.

Has anyone tried out the Zaparoo Frontend, or Taki Udon's new 'Console Mode' core for Mister? From what I've read, 'Console Mode' at least should work on the Multisystem2. Can anyone confirm? Or are there any other GUIs worth considering? Anything like Attract Mode, for example? I basically just want to choose the games via images of the marquees or maybe a screenshot...
 

tronads

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Mine has arrived today. It really is a top quality product. I have spent a little time following the guide and doing the basic setup, also created and pasted in the text provided above on here for the mister.ini file.
I copied a bunch of roms over to give it a quick try, and I used Gyruss to start with.

First observation is that I (of course) need to rotate my monitor....though I mostly play Robotron, so I think I will probably look to try and figure out how to get the vertical game cores to rotate 90 degrees rather than do the physical rotate. My other original mister does that from what I can remember.

Next observation was that I got a great picture straight off, and everything it seems to be working fine, no messing with refresh rate etc was required. This definitely made me smile as its exactly what I wanted. I also find the "load last game unless button pressed before timer expires" to be brilliant as that is what I will mostly do. I also like how I can select a game with my joystick and don't require a keyboard to do it.

First issue I have is that Coin input is not working. I had to go plug in a keyboard and press 5 to get a game started on Gyruss. Once I did that, the joystick and fire button worked fine. Its definitely not a wiring issue as I have a multi Jamma board with a JROK plugged in, and the coin signal is working on that.

Second issue is that I appear to also need to use a keyboard to exit the game and get back to the main menu to choose a different game. I will have to read up to see what others are doing here as that will prove to be a bit of a pain. Perhaps there's a way of holding 1p +2p start together to reboot or something.

Then I started 1942, and coin worked on that, so its presumably just a mapping issue.

Next I tried Robotron, and again Coin did not work. I couldnt figure out on the keyboard either how to get coin going so I attempted to try remapping via F12 menu. I started to do the inputs, but when it came to using the right joystick for firing, it would not recognise any of the inputs on the 2p side. No idea whats going on there !

Then I tried Berzerk, and again, coin issues, and could not figure out what key to press for it. Some overlay came up on screen indicating R for coin, but it did nothing.

Some tinkering required......but if anyone can suggest how to fix any of the above (especially my Robotron issue) that would be nice :)
 
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Tobes

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Second issue is that I appear to also need to use a keyboard to exit the game and get back to the main menu to choose a different game. I will have to read up to see what others are doing here as that will prove to be a bit of a pain. Perhaps there's a way of holding 1p +2p start together to reboot or something.
You can assign button combos for the MENU, but you can't use P1 and P2 together and I think it's because of the CTRLDock player bindings in the .ini. I just changed the button combo to Button 4 + P1 start which is good enough for me.
 

Retroman839

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If anyone is setting up their Multisystem2 Arcade and would like to use our already configured mister.INI file we have put a copy here.

The info for player bindings is in our user manual, but it may be easier if you just want to see the entire Mister.INI file for reference.

This adds player bindings to the JAMMA I/O inputs so they stay mapped to the same controls.
If you don't add these bindings, standard MiSTer will just use the first button action to assign to player 1. So you can end up with swapped controls on a cabinet.

Use the bindings to make sure that does not happen.

Hope that all makes sense, any questions, do let me know.
Thanks Richard ..
 

cools

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Afternoon Guys.,

I've been using Mister on a CRT TV for a couple of years and have been impressed with the results. So, I'm looking forward to receiving my Multisystem2 and getting it stuck in my Goliath. Something I'm not looking forward to, however, is the Mister UI - which strikes me as an unnecessary exercise in masochism. I get that it's bare bones, and that it's very clever. But the truth is, I don't have the skills or the energy to bone up on the coding, and I really, really, really don't like the aesthetic. I just want to play the games.

Has anyone tried out the Zaparoo Frontend, or Taki Udon's new 'Console Mode' core for Mister? From what I've read, 'Console Mode' at least should work on the Multisystem2. Can anyone confirm? Or are there any other GUIs worth considering? Anything like Attract Mode, for example? I basically just want to choose the games via images of the marquees or maybe a screenshot...
Console Mode is decent but you're still dealing with the mister UI for quitting games.
 

tronads

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Richard, please could you help me with an issue I am having with button mapping.

Initially I was having trouble with the coin button not working on some cores, and not being able to be re-mapped in the menu. I have made some progress on that and it would seem it was linked to the Electrocoin-Jamma converter board tying Coin1&2 together, and I have resolved this now.

However, I am having issues on any core where I need to map player 2 controls.

Robotron is the prime example. In its stock state I cannot fire with the right side. So Pressing F12 on a keyboard and going into remap controls, it lets me map all the left hand side of the panel, but when it gets to the inputs for firing (ie the right joystick), it does nothing. Similarly with the 2p fire and start buttons, they are just not recognised.
If I run the Input Testing utility, everything seems to be working ok

Playing Son Son is a weird one....a 2 player game plays perfectly on player 1 & player 2 controls . However even though I didn't need to, as an experiment I tried to go into the config and remap the controls. I intended to remap them to what they already were, but again it gets to the 2 player inputs and the buttons or joystick on the right hand side are again not recognised.

I am at a bit of a loss as to what is going on. It seems like the 2p player side is being locked out, or is not being classed by the core as the same method of input or something like that. I tried changing the line "player_2_controller=usb-1.7/input3/" in the ini file to be the same as player 1, but it made no difference.

If someone could have a go at mapping 1p + 2p sticks to Robotron and let me know how they get on, that would be helpful.

Thanks.
 
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multisystem

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Richard, please could you help me with an issue I am having with button mapping.

Initially I was having trouble with the coin button not working on some cores, and not being able to be re-mapped in the menu. I have made some progress on that and it would seem it was linked to the Electrocoin-Jamma converter board tying Coin1&2 together, and I have resolved this now.

However, I am having issues on any core where I need to map player 2 controls.

Robotron is the prime example. In its stock state I cannot fire with the right side. So Pressing F12 on a keyboard and going into remap controls, it lets me map all the left hand side of the panel, but when it gets to the inputs for firing (ie the right joystick), it does nothing. Similarly with the 2p fire and start buttons, they are just not recognised.
If I run the Input Testing utility, everything seems to be working ok

Playing Son Son is a weird one....a 2 player game plays perfectly on player 1 & player 2 controls . However even though I didn't need to, as an experiment I tried to go into the config and remap the controls. I intended to remap them to what they already were, but again it gets to the 2 player inputs and the buttons or joystick on the right hand side are again not recognised.

I am at a bit of a loss as to what is going on. It seems like the 2p player side is being locked out, or is not being classed by the core as the same method of input or something like that. I tried changing the line "player_2_controller=usb-1.7/input3/" in the ini file to be the same as player 1, but it made no difference.

If someone could have a go at mapping 1p + 2p sticks to Robotron and let me know how they get on, that would be helpful.

Thanks.
No problem at all -

MiSTer joystick mapping is a bit weird sometimes, expecially with twin stick games. It tries to be inteligent and that seems to cause issues when you think you are following the on-screen instructions.
Be aware there are also different generations of Arcade cores, some using an older framework that used different buttons for mapping coin, start etc.
It'll all get streamlined over time as cores are updated and refined.

Anyway back to Robotron 2084 as an example - (I would have posted this sooner, but I was playing Robotron for a solid 15 minutes).
First bit of advice, do not change global mapping - as a brand new system the controller mapping is as per most modern Arcade & Console cores, so should not need re-mapping. Only re-map with games that seem to not recognise Coin or start - each game can have a unique controller map done inside the game menu (F12). Remember to save settings and also reset the core to see any changes you have made - this is really important as you may change something and if it's not saved and the core reset it will not be implemented in that play session!
Having a keyboard plugged in is super helpful for remapping -

With Robotron - open the game settings menu (F12).
Go down to Define robotron buttons
Do the control mapping on Joystick 1 (Right / Left / Down/ Up)
Then is says Fire Right - Do not press anything, just spacebar on the keyboard to be 'undefined'
Same with Fire down - just skip with the spacebar 'undefined'
Same with fire up - just skip with the spacebar 'undefined'
Same with fire left - just skip with the spacebar 'undefined'
You can select a start button on player 1 controls
Don't select anything for Player 2 start (It will be auto-mapped for you) - just press spacebar for 'undefined'
Now select your player 1 coin button or activate coin-mech
Select a button if you want advance.
Select if you want auto up and the next one pause. or you can set these to both 'undefined'

Do you want to setup alternative buttons? - No

Then you are back at the menu
Go back a page in the menu (right)
You should see an option Fire: - select until you see 'Second Joystick'.
Now make sure you save settings - very important
Then reset the core and it should be fully working in dual joystick mode.
You will never need to do that again for Robotron2084.

I know that sounds a bit complex, but it's second nature when you work out the MiSTer O/S is trying to help you with auto-mapping controls to games. What I mean by that is always try to setup just player 1 and it will automatically set the same controls for players 2,3,4 etc.. If you try to map defined player 1 I/O inputs as being used for player 2, then it gets upset.

Try it and let me know if it's all working for you. It's working well here for Robotron2084, I'm going to give it another credit :)
 
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tronads

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Thanks Richard, that has done the trick....almost.
I followed what you said but when I started the game, still no firing from the second joystick....until I pressed 2p Start, then the joystick kicked into life.
I powered off and on and it has retained the settings, but again, it won't fire until I press the 2p start button.
Is that what you experienced?
 

multisystem

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Thanks Richard, that has done the trick....almost.
I followed what you said but when I started the game, still no firing from the second joystick....until I pressed 2p Start, then the joystick kicked into life.
I powered off and on and it has retained the settings, but again, it won't fire until I press the 2p start button.
Is that what you experienced?
Yes, that is one odd quirk of the MiSTer O/S unfortunately that causes this problem for dual control/Twinstick games.

The Core needs to see a button press on controllers to activate them. Normally a single or multi-player game will just activate as soon as any action button is pressed - not the joystick motion unfortunately. So this is a quirk that that causes Robotron and any other twin stick games to need any other action button to be pressed on 'Player 2' control so the second joystick can become active.
For a dedicated Robotron cabinet there is a simple way to avoid this - you just wire up the second joystick to the extra Player 1 I/O and map it all as a single player 1 input setup. This then makes 'Joystick 2' physically connected to Player 1 and you don't need to 'activate' Player 2 to get it working.

The second player control activation is a bit of a pain you will only see with games that use two sets of controls, like Robotron.
If you have controller info displayed in the Mister.INI setting it will flash up on the screen when you first start the system and press a controller button - same thing happens to Player 2 etc. This is how you know the player controls are now active to the FPGA core/game.
You can switch off controller info display by setting to 0 and then it will not flash up.

I hope one day it will allow the core to remember all controller mapping, at the moment the best we can do is player bindings so at least player 1 is set to a specific controller input. If you don't have that set, then it's possible you could end up with Robotron motion on the right and fire directions on the left. - that would not be good.
 

tronads

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Thanks again for that detailed explanation. Its no big deal just a quick single press of a button to get it going, I just wanted to check it wasn't a quirk of my settings.

One final question....am I right in thinking I cannot rotate the image to play vertical games pillar boxed on a horizontal monitor.
I thought I could, but I now think it's only for digital displays.....again no big deal, I have the Goliath MK3 with the monitor on the wheel :)
 

multisystem

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Thanks again for that detailed explanation. Its no big deal just a quick single press of a button to get it going, I just wanted to check it wasn't a quirk of my settings.

One final question....am I right in thinking I cannot rotate the image to play vertical games pillar boxed on a horizontal monitor.
I thought I could, but I now think it's only for digital displays.....again no big deal, I have the Goliath MK3 with the monitor on the wheel :)
With the Analogue output you get the true native video output signals as per the original game. That's great because it's totally authentic, but as you say it's not possible to convert a vertical game to being displayed as horizontal.

Ideally you need two machines :) One for Horizontal and one for Vertical.

There are some things you can do to enable the analogue video scaler and set defined (fixed) resolutions to run any game with, but I really don't recomend doing any of that as it changes the native format of the game display.
 

Nik73

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I didn’t order mine until the middle of August and was well into level 5+, so wasn’t expecting it for a while and was in no rush. Really nice surprise to get a dispatch email on Thursday and have it delivered today. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a while until I get chance to have a play. :(

I have a mister setup for consoles and computers and it’s by far the best retro purchase I’ve made, especially for computers, so looking forward having a play. Ordering this gave me the kick I needed to turn my cabs on for the first time in a couple of years!
 

Jamie

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Got mine the weekend, really happy with it, seems to work great.
One question, my cab has a cps2 34 pin kick type connector for my extra buttons, but if I'm right the connector on the multi system is a cps1 type. Is there an adapter to convert one to the other?
 

xMasterPx

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