Ho Ho Ho! Merry Blitzmas!

The time has come for all you good little boys and girls and Santa has brought you a gift on this joyous Blitzmas day (exactly on time and in no way late in any way, shape or form).

Mystery Fastly Forward - Fast and Furious SoftMod

This is a softmod for the Arcade1up Fast and Furious cabinet named, Fastly Forward. It introduces the ability to run the Team Encoder (SAM) menu to select through various roms and emulate them on the device, it does not remove stock functionality. Removing the USB stick will make the cabinet function like normal, running fast and furious from the stock menu will run our menu, exiting our menu will go back to the normal game.

Mystery Dragon Flash - Dragon's Lair Audio Fix

Mystery Dragon Flash is intended to reflash your Arcade1up Dragon's Lair with the fix provided by Arcade1up which adds about a half a second delay to the audio, the history of this is that a user in the community discovered there was an audio delay. I don't recall the exact name Chuck is what comes to mind. He quickly pointed out the issue and it seems as if Arcade1up had a solution as of July in 2022.

NOFATE v1.0.1

This is a softmod for Arcade1Up's Terminator 2 cabinet - please read the included README file before installing. Installation is easy, but if the steps aren't followed things can go wrong.

NOTE: Do not attempt to install this on other any other hardware. There's a good chance you'll brick it, and even if you don't, the mod and the guns WILL NOT WORK, full stop. 

 

Requirements:

MicroSD card

 

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Rad Mystery - Team Encoder - Outrun Softmod

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Rad Mystery - Video Preview of Installation after USB flashing

We recently discussed Rad Mystery our softmod for the Arcade1up outrun cabinet on Kongs-R-Us channel and gave a quick overview of how the installation works, this post serves as the official release for it and the first surfacing of S.A.M (Shit Ass Menu, or as it develops Simple Arcade1up Menu).
 

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A quick note about S.A.M.:

The purpose of this menu is to facilitate a simple selection of games without being tied to the dependencies traditionally required by things like Emulation Station, or RetroFE.

Eventually, it may progress into something more but ultimately it means we get mods out to you faster as we don't have to battle with system dependencies.
 

Managing Games with S.A.M:

We think it's important you understand the menu that's being used if you're the type that would like to tinker and add more games, we do include an existing SAM configuration but you will have to appropriately name the roms/folders where we have the ROMs located based on our launch.sh configuration for that to work. Alternatively, we're sure there will be community-provided images but Team-Encoder themselves does not and will not release ROM packages for our modifications.

 

Game management in S.A.M. consists of two files:

menu.xml - Artwork and display

This contains an XML-ish format of the games you'd like listed in S.A.M. The key is that each game is a <item> entry and you will need a new item for each game you want to add, each entry contains a title and imagePath as values.

One example is:
<item title="4 Wheel Thunder" imagePath="images/dc/4WheelThunder.jpeg"/>

In this case, we're adding the game 4 Wheel Thunder and instructing SAM to look at the file images/dc/4WheelThunder.jpeg for the image to display.

It's recommended that you crop/resize images to 500x400 for the best performance; resolutions, as image sizes beyond this cause performance issues with SAM the more games you load.

It's also important to remember that what you use for "title" will also be used in launch.sh later on to determine what parameters to launch the game with, so it's best to avoid symbols or special characters or you'll cause syntax issues when the code reaches launch.sh

launch.sh - Launch parameters/details to launch game

In launch.sh you have a few things to look at, there are a few helper functions we've included that are required to get games running at their best performance on this specific hardware. On specific cabinets we won't be able to dynamically adjust resolution to gain performance or library paths will have to be adjusted.

The main helper functions included in the version of launch.sh that ships with Rad Mystery are:
set_res_640x480 - Utilized when setting the cabinet rendering resolution to 640x480
set_res_800x600 - Utilized when setting the cabinet rendering resolution to 800x600
set_res_native - Uitlized to revert to the cabinet's default resolution.
export_lib_path - Utilized to 'hack' the lib path to avoid system dependencies that wouldn't exist otherwise for emulation cores and other software.
revert_lib_path - Utilized to launch SAM after game exit as it's reliant on the core system libraries unlike emulators.

Next, you'll see a list of launch_XXX such as the one below:

launch_hydro() {
    set_res_640x480
    /mnt/OutrunB/retroarch/retro190 -c /mnt/OutrunB/retroarch/retroarch.cfg -L /mnt/OutrunB/retroarch/.config/retroarch/cores/flycast_libretro.so /mnt/OutrunB/retroarch/roms/DC/hydro/hydro.chd
}

In this specific instance, we're setting the resolution to 640x480, then we're launching Retroarch and we're specifying that we'd like to use the flycast_libretro.so core which is a Dreamcast emulation core, and then at the end we provide the path to the ROM file.

 

There's more required to get the game to launch, SAM won't understand that a launch_hydro function exists within launch.sh instead we have to dive a little bit further down until we find the following block of scripting:

 # Check the game title and call the respective function or command
case "$GAME_TITLE" in
    "4 Wheel Thunder") launch_4wheelthunder ;;
    "Crazy Taxi") launch_crazytaxi ;;
     "Daytona USA") launch_daytona ;;
    "E.O.S.") launch_eos ;;
     "Re-Volt") launch_revolt ;;
    "Burnout Legends") launch_burnout ;;
    "Mario Kart 64") launch_mk64 ;;
    "Diddy Kong Racing") launch_diddyracing ;;
    "Cruisn USA") launch_crusnusa ;;
    "Cruisn World") launch_crusnwrld ;;
    "Cruisn Exotica") launch_crusnext ;;
    "California Speed") launch_calspeed ;;
    "Ridge Racer 64") launch_rr64 ;;
    "F Zero X") launch_fzero ;;
    "Wave Race 64") launch_wavrace64 ;;
    "Starwars EP1 Racer") launch_swep1 ;;
    "Toy Racer") launch_toyracer ;;
    "Southpark Rally") launch_sprally ;;
    "Pole Position") launch_polepos ;;
    "Chase H.Q.") launch_chasehq ;;
    "Double Axle") launch_doubleaxle ;;
    "POD Speedzone") launch_podspeed ;;
    "Test Drive 6") launch_testdrive6 ;;
    "Test Drive Rally") launch_testdriverally ;;
    "Test Drive Lemans") launch_testdrivelemans ;;
    "Tokyo Extreme Racer") launch_tokyo ;;
    "Tokyo Extreme Racer 2") launch_tokyo2 ;;
    "Vanishing Point") launch_vansishingpoint ;;
    "Speed Devils") launch_speeddevils ;;
    "F1 World Grand Prix") launch_f1wrld ;;
    "F355 Challenge") launch_f355 ;;
    "Metroplis Street Racer") launch_msr ;;
    "Sega GT") launch_segagt ;;
    "Wacky Races") launch_wackyraces ;;
    "Disney Magical World Tour") launch_dsnywrldtour ;;
    "Hydro Thunder") launch_hydro ;;
     "RetroArch") launch_retroarch ;;
    # Add more cases for other game titles
    *) default_launch ;;
esac

As you might recall, we mentioned the title field of the menu.xml would eventually become relevant, this is where that matters. When SAM parses the data from the menu.xml it then takes the title field and passes it into launch.sh when you're attempting to launch a game. This means the name here must match that in the menu.xml then you add an entry after it with the name of the routine you've defined above launch_XXX or in our case launch_hydro.

The other important thing is that while our image contains a pre-populated launch.sh and menu.xml, We do not provide ROMs with our image. So how do you know what to name them? Or where they should go? Looking at the lines within the launch_hydro specified previously you'll notice we pointed out a ROM path at the end, each of the currently available games in the launch.sh and menu.xml contain these paths and you'll need to name and place the games appropriately if you do not have a pre-loaded image.

So in the case of hydro thunder the path for the ROM would be "OutrunB/retroarch/roms/DC/hydro/hydro.chd" for it to work with our current menu.xml/launch.sh meaning you need the "chd" version and to navigate to that path on your USB drive, then launching it from SAM will work with our clean image provided.

The future of SAM, making it user-friendly

There is a future for SAM as it will be used on all of our modifications going forward, and will be the required front-end to be used out of the box with our softmods for any cabinet we provide a modification for. Currently, it's not user-friendly or convenient. We wrote the current launch.sh and menu.xml entirely by hand and manually resized the currently provided images as well. In the future, our goal is to provide a utility that will allow for the auto-population of both files and the automatic resizing and placement of images. A SAM game manager if you will while this doesn't exist currently we're hoping people are able to find pre-loaded images provided by the community and not affiliated with Team Encoder. In other words we hope those who are more technical in the community are able to use this information to provide others who are less technical with an easier path forward until such a user-friendly solution exists.

 

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Installing Rad Mystery

Now that we've covered the basics of SAM we can talk about downloading and installing Rad Mystery itself, unlike other modifications this one does not require you to utilize a PC to flash the PCB. Instead, we've created a USB image that should easily be flashed on any platform using a utility like Balena Etcher.

Requirements:

• A USB flash drive which has at least 64gb of storage space, to run our clean image
• A microUSB to USB-A female adapter - something like this Amazon US Adapter
• Some software such as Balena Etcher, or Win32diskimager

Installation Steps:

1. Download the image from here
2. Insert your 64gb USB drive into your computer, use Balena Etcher or your imaging application of choice to select the extracted .img file, and flash the USB stick.
3. After safely ejecting the USB stick from your computer, use the OTG adapter to insert it into the microUSB port of your Outrun cabinet while it is turned off.
4. Turn the cabinet on and navigate to "Rad Mystery" or "Rad Rally" (Stand-up) and you'll see yourself in SAM if everything has gone according to plan.

Troubleshooting Tips:

If the modification is not installing, or it has installed and when clicking "Rad Mystery" Rad Rally launches instead of SAM it means that your USB drive isn't being detected. This could either be a bad OTG (MicroUSB to USB-A Female) adapter or a bad flash drive. We can only recommend attempting to reflash the USB stick with a new image, or confirming that all cables are inserted properly, if it's still not working after this point our recommendation is to try a different OTG adapter.

For additional support or information on any modifications that Team Encoder does feel free to join our discord by clicking here.

Discord (READ THE RULES, CHOOSE A ROLE IN #roles):

Just be sure to read #rules, and select a role under #roles this way you're not banned, or kicked from our discord we take our rules there very seriously and will not hesitate to kick someone out or call them out for not reading them.

 

Wheel Calibration:

It is recommended that you calibrate your wheel the first time you run this modification, and again in the future if your steering ever feels completely off. To calibrate the wheel hold all of the buttons on the face of the cabinet before turning it on and you'll get to a calibration screen. Follow those on-screen instructions and when you're finished the wheel and pedals will be properly calibrated. If you watch the video linked above Kongs R Us does show this process.

Default Control Layout:

At the moment the wheel is mapped to dpad left/dpad right AND the joystick left and right, this seems to cause problems in some N64 games which rely on utilizing the dpad to initiate camera functions, you can unmap the left dpad/right dpad in settings if this happens to you per game/core.

A - The >> button acts as the A button when emulating games.

B - The << button acts as the B button when emulating games

X - The Music note acts as the X button when emulating games.

Y -  The shifter turbo button acts as the Y button when emulating games.

DPAD up/Down - The shifter itself is your dpad/analog up and down to navigate menus, including Retroarch and game menus.

Gas Pedal - The gas pedal is used to select a game within SAM, make sure you depress it fully, as it's not extremely sensitive.

Exiting Games:

To exit games you first press >> and then the Music note and hold these together for a few seconds until the game exits and you'll find yourself back at SAM.

Volume:

Volume at the moment can only be adjusted when you first turn the cabinet on before selecting Rad Mystery, once you're utilizing Rad Mystery, SAM or an emulation the volume controls will not work until you return to the stock Arcade1up menu again.

Retroarch Settings (Wheel Sensitivity, Control Remapping, Frame skipping, etc):

If you hold the start button for about 4-5 seconds while emulating a game that does not utilize a standalone emulator, you will get to the Retroarch settings where you can adjust/remap inputs for your specific core/game or adjust sensitivity/emulation settings for that core/game the stock controls work well enough to navigate this that you won't need an external keyboard or etc.
 

 

Going back to stock:

Seated Outrun users: Utilize the given update from arcade1up: https://arcade1up.com/pages/outrun-seated-arcade-cabinet-bonus-game-firmware-update this will remove Rad Mystery from the main/stock screen.

Stand-up Outrun users: Simply unplug the flash drive.

Announcement: 4 player retroarch/other application (moonlight) support for the "Simpsons" / We'll do TMNT soon.

Notes/WARNING:

• This will wipe out your cabinet if you have mods already they will be cleared and the cabinet will be reverted to stock, this is the only time we should need to do this future updates this should not be necessary.
• This automatically enables ADB so you do not need to turn developer options on, despite the UI showing it as 'off'.
• This does not include roms, cores for retroarch, emulators, a front-end or anything else, this is not to mod your cabinet you can use the standard methods already made available by the community to modify your cabinet and install retroarch, moonlight, N64 emulators etc. This simply makes 4 player controls work properly in these applications.

 

Not working: Track ball will work in bowling as expected, it will not work in other apps in this version.

Requirements: Windows PC or a PC with a Windows Virtual Machine, Micro USB cable, 7zip (https://7-zip.org/) to extract our archive, Simpsons Cabinet, patience, and a brain.

Links: https://mega.nz/file/N41FjLaD#m3VwSBDPV2Pc1XmyMTXVxXx4-MNRMv50joyGA6zQHrM

Instructions:

1. Download the 7zip archive from above.
2. Extract the files to a director not on your desktop preferably.
3. Run MysteryDawsonExperience.exe
4. Run step 1 (Install Drivers) - if you've already done fighter droids in the past you don't need to do this step.
5. Run step 2 (Install SimpsonsControlFixToPCB)
6. Connect micro USB cable to microUSB port on your simpsons while it is powered OFF!
7. Turn your Simpsons on, if you hear the ding/it connecting to your PC and the application successfully verifies that it is indeed a simpsons PCB... continue.
8. Reboot when it says to
9. Install included retroarch "Retroarch_TEConfig.apk" for automatic control configurations (Some configurations are required still, like disabling overlay or setting a hotkey for bringing up the menu)... live button is bindable but only to player 1.


Fucked up?/Have no input? Re-install it, you'll start back from stock.

Announcement: 2 player retroarch/other application (moonlight) support for the "Fighter Droids"
Requirements: Fighter droids must have been installed at least once, if you accepted the latest update for some cabinets you will need to re-install fighter droids and not accept the update (It will run our input fix, not robs/arcade1ups.... this is only intended for fixing retroarch not input lag fixing)
Cabinets : MvC, Xmen Vs Sf, Bigblue... this will not work on Shinku, yoga flame or MVC2 (Or Simpsons/TMNT In Time)
Links:

• Control Fix: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1044692266129825873/1044756746020859954/ControlFixTest2.apk
• RetroArch: https://mega.nz/file/twMnFawR#-_7CMA9SAEGyDuL0yu6ZprjXfDkrVtPHf1XHh9293bs
  Note: Despite the fact this says "Simpsons" ignore it, it was originally built for simpsons we haven't released anything for simpsons yet.

Instructions/What to do with this: (Someone want to make a batch file with adb included, be our guest... we're not supporting this).

1. Download ControlFixTest2.apk
2. Download Retroarch apk
3. Do the below:

adb shell pm uninstall com.android.SimpsonsControllerFix
adb install -g ControlFixTest2.apk
adb shell am start com.android.SimpsonsControllerFix/.MainActivity
adb shell sync
wait 10 seconds
adb reboot

Enjoy. We're done with the fighters, Merry X-Mas enjoy your emulation.

Fucked up?/Have no input? Re-install fighter droids it'll start you back from stock.
 

Today we are officially releasing a fix to the input lag that has plagued the Android based fighter cabs! If you have a Street Fighter: Big Blue, X-Men vs Street Fighter or Marvel vs Capcom cab, check out our latest release to instantly improve your gameplay experience both offline and online. 

Check out the release below:
https://www.team-encoder.com/FighterDroids

#FreedTheInputFix

Awhile ago we posted the following PSA on a few modding facebook pages:


We want to make it clear, that demanding cabinets be modified isn't going to get us to look at them any faster and is in fact demotivational. We will start intentionally avoiding cabinets or people that make demands.

This includes the following comment on one of PDub's videos:

Things like this will make us care less and ultimately just avoid the cabinet altogether, just wanted to throw that out there because I'm getting annoyed seeing this stuff and the constant questions of "This thing has a USB" or "This thing has an SD Card", or "The countercades are the same as the 3/4th why isn't this done there". No, they're not the same you're making an assumption and a stupid one. I had considered doing bigbuck sooner than later, but at this point, I will intentionally avoid it just because of this person... we have a long list of cabinets to go through and entitled attitudes won't help.

USB Ports, SD Card slots, Ethernet ports or any other form of peripheral does not make something more or less hackable, the methods we utilize do not rely on these while we may integrate them for use with the modification each cabinet will be different, not every cabinet will be running Batocera when we mod it as an example.

We'll get to cabinets when we get to them what we've announced is what we're working on, until then just be patient and don't be an asshole.

Thanks to all of those who appreciate the work and continue to support us/me in what we do I know I can come off as an asshole at times, but I'm trying to be clear as to why. We do this for fun and entitlement and such makes this less fun and makes me want to walk away from the hobby altogether.

 

Today we are announcing the release of a new mod for 4 of the Arcade1Up countercades! Like our many other mods, this one features a simple installer application and will put the popular Batocera interface on a USB drive for easy use. This mod currently supports the following 2 player counter cades: Mortal Kombat II, NBA Jam, Marvel Superheroes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Please see this page for the download links and instructions for your specific machine:

https://www.team-encoder.com/MysteryCounterCade