Arcade 1UP cabinets

[Harrison]

A very quick Google and I think just a default setup bootable USB stick with Ubuntu is all that would be needed. Using the built in Disk Utility or
gnome-disks depending on OS version it has benchmarking built in that can fully test an SD card. I will try it out over the weekend on a Ubuntu install I already have setup for my RPi4.

Here's some info about the tool.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/6993...nostic-utility

Why Linux and not Windows? Easy. Stability and no bloatware. I was a loyal Windows user for most things for years, but have more recently been using Linux far more for non gaming or design stuff. It's far faster, lightweight and stable. And file copying is far faster. That's why servers use it and why most emulation setups run on Linux. And you dunt need state of the art hardware either. I couldn't use it as a full desktop replacement though as even the best ones are a it clunky compared to Windows. But they are getting there.

[Demon Cleaner]

Btw I send your card this morning, what a hassle because of the UK. Had to sign papers and tell them what's inside of the package because it will go through customs. I also had to give a phone number or email otherwise they won't send it. So I just gave them dave.watts@gmail.com as fake.

Like I said the error was wdf01000.sys:

If you have wondered what exactly is wdf01000.sys, it is a Windows driver that helps your computer to communicate with hardware and other connected devices.

What failed wdf01000.sys?

A few users have complained of this BSoD error. It is triggered by a few factors, including:

Issues with Windows Driver Frameworks – If the WDF fails to work, you may run into this error message.

File issues – The wdf01000.sys error and other blue screen errors can often be due to corrupted or missing system files.

Hard drive issues – Hard drives, especially bad and defective ones, have triggered this error for many users.

Compatibility issues – If some programs have compatibility issues with the OS, it can lead to an error. This, in many cases, could actually be your antivirus software.

Defective drivers – Users have encountered this issue when drivers are outdated or defective.

[Harrison]

I've been asking on other forums about copying larger SD cards, and a lot suggest the DD commandline tool in Linux as it is the fastest by far. The only downside is it clones the whole drive, block by block, so whilst it's an exact copy it even copies blank space. But this would mean it would still compress smaller if there was a lot of blank space.

The other tool suggested a lot was Clonezilla.

And other suggestions include:

Winimage

Just another portable tool for win: https://odin-win.sourceforge.net/

HDD Raw copy tool

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

https://rufus.ie/en/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

[Demon Cleaner]

I usually use Balena Etcher or the Win32 Disk Imager like I did the copy of the card.

[Harrison]

Talking to some on other forums the instability and slow speed of imaging or cloning a large SD card is due to USB. And failure is due to USB buffer cache size issues. That's why when performing it in a large card they say to not perform any other action on the system whilst it's running. It's almost like the old days of early CD burning.

Have you seen mass SD card duplicators? I was looking around to see if there existing alternatives to USB based SD card readers and came across these duplicators. Some can clone over 100 SD cards simultaneously which is quite mad. They do cost about £1500 though.

An ideal memory card copier would be one that didn't use USB. Maybe proprietary PCI-E or SATA.

I want to find out what those that offer SD card setups for sale use to clone their cards. Such as those selling RPi retropie setups.

[Demon Cleaner]

Balena have one too https://store.balena.io/products/etcher-pro?

[Harrison]

That a really nice design.

[Harrison]

This looks like a nice solution to use a RPi in a one player arcade cabinet build.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/p...29156918558803

And the next one, called Controlblock sports 2 player inputs, and can be attacked to support 4 joysticks.

https://www.petrockblock.com/controlblock/

[Demon Cleaner]

OMG, just saw this posted by one of my favorite retro stuff tester, what a beast!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqdOV5kpyz4

[J T]

It was my eldest's 10th birthday, so we did a laser tag party. I hadn't done that for ages, it was really good fun.

Around the edges of the waiting room they had about 4 or 5 arcade 'devices'. By devices, I mean proper arcade sticks (1P and 2P), 6 buttons, mounted into a small table top box which had the emulator inside (I don't know exacty what was running it) and hooked up into a TV. The kids loved it, and ended up playing a lot of random old tripe but the one game that seemed to be most popular was the Simpsons arcade. At one point almost all the devices were playing that.

It almost tempted me to go for something like this at home but I know that it would either lead to fights, or go unused, so I don't think I'll bother really.

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The splash screen said 'pandora 95' or 'Pandora 9S' and I am just googling those. Seems they can be bought for not all that much money. I was assuming they were a kit / assembly required type of thing but it turns out they are much more of a 'plug in and play straight away' item. Seems like there's a lot of variety and some are crappy but others are decent. Hmmmmm.