Pi Zero W

When I installed the SD the Pi Zero W came with from CanaKit, I had a heck of a time getting it working. First, the micro USB hub I had from Amazon basics didn't work.
Then I had to manually load up the wifi config.
I installed libSDL, advmame (thanks Silverman) and fceux and ... performance was crappy.
But I couldn't see anyone else saying Asteroids was broken out the box.
So I tried to install my Pi2 SD...
I learned that older versions of raspbian don't work with the Zero. Not even if you

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install rpi-update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo rpi-update
Its because PiZeroW runs best with the latest raspbian build, Jessie. It doesn't like the old build, Wheezy as the wifi is flakey.
So after a couple flips of build, it looks like my original video settings we mangled on the SD card that shipped with the Pi Zero W. My latest attempt work - and Pacman is playable with latest advMame - but asteroid is not. That said, Super Mario works like a charm...
Now I need to discover how to tune the Pi Zero.
And my Orange Pi arrived...

PiPlay struggles.

The PiPlay interface randomly hangs. Fortunately the web interface allows a reboot.

Setting up a joystick is not intuitive. You need to install the jstest and set the codes in a variety of config files. As far as I can tell, the controller config python script does not work.

For SNES, go to the emulators directory and find the snes9x.cfg file. Update the mappings in there (after you've installed and run jstest to figure out what the buttons are.)

For NES, you need to jump through a few hoops. First, "startx" from CLI. Then, find the fceux directory (in the pimame emulators directory). Start a terminal in X. Run the fceux --inputcfg gamepad1 command and set up the buttons.

For advmame, find the default.cfg and add your joystick settings. You can get a hint what they should be via tab in the emulator.

I finally got sound working on astroblaster and starcastle. The trick is to find the sound samples with the same name as the roms and install it in the sample directory. You can find this in the .advance directory (hidden) in the ~pi directory (that is home). I haven't tried donkey kong yet, but if that works, I'm in heaven.

PiPlay on Raspberry Pi 2

Yes, I finally got around to it. I installed MAME on my Pi 2. After trying to install it on my existing SD card, I figured I'd just use a pre-existing image. win32diskimager is the tool to backup your old images and image and make new ones. Pick either of these two images.

• http://piplay.org/
• http://retropi.org.uk

Add DHCP to the wireless network adapter. Go to raspi-config (tools) and resize the partition to use all 8G. Reboot the thing and install the latest MAME via its home screen. Reboot again. HTTP into the Pi and use the PiPlay upload for ROMs. Have tons of fun.
br> Here is my gear.