Usage

Running ArcadeDMD

Launch run.bat, or let the automatic start do it when Windows starts. Then start your games as usual, from LaunchBox, BigBox, HyperSpin or directly in MAME or RetroArch. The frontend needs no setting.

Since 1.37 ArcadeDMD has no console any more. Its icon sits near the clock, among the hidden icons (the ^ arrow) until you drag it onto the taskbar. A click opens its window, a right click its menu (open, log, restart, start with Windows, quit). run.bat opens the window too, the automatic start only puts the icon. Running run.bat while ArcadeDMD is already running opens the window of the one running. run_console.bat starts it with its console, as before, to look for a problem. Everything it does is written to runtime\arcadedmd.log.

The window

• Status shows the game running, the marquee and the LED panel live, RetroArch, MAME, the screens, the last lines of the log, and starts ArcadeDMD with Windows or not.
• Screens picks the marquee screen among those Windows sees (Identify the screens shows a big number on each), the HD or virtual LED display, and the LED panel (Pixelcade and its port, ZeDMD and its brightness). Test plays a 12 second demo.
• Emulators checks RetroArch's network commands and fixes them in one click, with RetroArch closed (a copy of the old retroarch.cfg is kept next to it). It checks MAME and the plugin version and installs or updates the plugin. It shows your coin and START buttons, sets what is recorded of each game and zips the last game with the log, ready to send.
• Frontend picks where the logos come from, LaunchBox / BigBox, RetroBat or none, and what the marquee shows between games.
• Log follows runtime\arcadedmd.log live, with a search.

The folder fields have a Browse button that opens Windows' own folder window. What is changed in the window goes into config.json, and ArcadeDMD starts again with it by itself. The window is a page ArcadeDMD serves on your PC only (127.0.0.1), opened in Microsoft Edge in app mode.

What happens during a game

1. The game starts. ArcadeDMD recognises it (its MAME name, or the content RetroArch loaded) and takes the marquee if the game has a file in games\. On an LCD marquee, its window comes in front of the BigBox marquee without taking the focus from the game.
2. The game's logo comes first, your LaunchBox Clear Logo, big then gliding to its place. A game without a Clear Logo gets its title in metallic lettering on the HD screen.
3. The scene of the game follows the game live. The values read in the game's memory drive it.
4. You quit the game. The marquee goes back to the frontend at once (the Pixelcade goes back to pixelweb).

With "mode": "always" (see Configuration) the marquee stays with ArcadeDMD all the time, black outside games.

When nobody plays

The fighting games wait for a coin. The game's logo sits between two coin doors, a coin spinning above each one. Insert a coin and it drops into its slot with +1 and the credits rolling, then PRESS START shows in big while the doors and their coins stay. The game's own demo, behind, sets off nothing.

With RetroArch, run coin_buttons.bat once so that ArcadeDMD sees every coin and every START (see RetroArch). With MAME, the credits are read in the game.

Tools in the folder

File	Purpose
install.bat	installs everything
run.bat	starts ArcadeDMD, its icon near the clock and its window
run_console.bat	starts ArcadeDMD with its console, to look for a problem
screen_setup.bat	puts the scene on an LCD marquee, as virtual LEDs or in smooth HD
demo_fight.bat, demo_neogeo.bat, demo_capcom.bat, demo_cave.bat, demo_afterburner.bat, demo_sonic.bat	the scenes with simulated values
learn.bat	finds a missing address (score, credits...), see Learning Addresses
coin_buttons.bat	shows ArcadeDMD your coin and START buttons (RetroArch)
test_retroarch.bat	checks RetroArch, the loaded core and the memory reading
test_coins.bat	writes down what the Neo Geo BIOS does when a coin goes in, to send if a coin does not drop
test_pixelcade.bat	test pattern on the Pixelcade
test_panel.bat	test pattern on a ZeDMD panel
ports.bat	lists the COM ports, to find the Pixelcade's

Language

Texts are in English, or in French when Windows is in French. "language" at the top of config.json chooses ("auto", "en", "fr").

Pause

When the game is paused, PAUSE blinks on the LED panel ("show_pause": false turns it off).