Step 1    Download and Install Pixelcade

Tested on Windows 7 and Windows 10

§  Download and install the Pixelcade LED Marquee software for Windows

§  Install Pixelcade under your Maximus Arcade install directory like C:\MAX 2.10\Pixelcade for example.

§  Choose < 1 Panel (64x32) > if you have one LED matrix panel for a 64x32 resolution or < 2 Panels (128x32) > if you are daisy chaining 2 LED matrix panels. The artwork will be different based on this selection.

§  Launch Maximus Arcade Preferences

§  For each emulator, select the “Pre-Launch” tab and select the respective .bat file for the emulator (ex. mame.bat for MAME or atari2600.bat for atari2600).

§  Check the box Run Application on Game Launch

§  Select the respective .bat file like mame.bat for MAME and atari2600.bat for atari2600. These files will be located in the Pixelcade folder.

§  Enter the respective .bat file name and %file in the Command Line box. For example, mame %file for MAME and atari2600 %file for atari2600.

§  Choose “hidden” for the Window State and “long” for Path to media.

Repeat for each desired emulator, some examples:

The following emulators have .bat files and a default LED GIF but you can add additional ones too following the same format

3do.bat

amiga.bat

atari2600.bat

atari5200.bat

atari7800.bat

atari800.bat

atarijaguar.bat

atarilynx.bat

atarist.bat

c64.bat

capcom.bat

coleco.bat

daphne.bat

dreamcast.bat

fba.bat

futurepinball.bat

gamegear.bat

gb.bat

gba.bat

gbc.bat

intellivision.bat

mame.bat

mastersystem.bat

msx.bat

n64.bat

neogeo.bat

nes.bat

ngpc.bat

odyssey.bat

pcengine.bat

ps.bat

ps2.bat

psx.bat

saturn.bat

sega32x.bat

segacd.bat

snes.bat

ti99.bat

vectrex.bat

visualpinball.bat

wonderswancolor.bat

zinc.bat

zxspectrum.bat

§  Choose “Options” and “Startup”

§  Check the box Run Application on Game Launch

§  Select default.bat

§  Enter mame in the Command Line box.

§  Choose “hidden” for the Window State and “long” for Path to media.

§  This will change to the default LED marquee when Maximus Arcade first starts.

Repeat for each desired emulator, some examples:

If you’re on Windows 10, the PIXEL board will show up as “USB Serial Device”

If installing the driver manually

Right click and Choose Update Driver Software…

Browse to the driver folder in your Pixelcade installation

§  Power on your PIXEL board using a 5V power supply plugged into the DC barrel jack.  Plug into your USB port on your PC using the included USB A-A cable.

§  Ensure the toggle switch on the board is pointing towards “USB”, it will not work if it’s pointing towards “BT”.

§  Your board will show up under Windows device manager in the Ports selection as either PIXEL-LED (Windows 7) or USB Serial Device (Windows 10).

§  If you’re on Windows 7 and need to install the PIXEL LED board driver manually, it’s located under <Your Pixelcade Install folder>\driver

§  Take a note of the COM port that has been assigned.

§  From the Windows start menu, launch “Pixelcade Config”

§  Change the port to match your PIXEL board from the previous step.

§  The install program will automatically set the Led Resolution to 64x32 if you selected 1 panel or 128x32 if you selected 2 Panels from the earlier steps. But you can change here if you change your installation type later.

§  Now let’s run a test and check if your PC is communicating to Pixelcade.

§  Launch “Pixelcade Test Write to LED Panel”

§  If successful, you’ll see the output on the left and the 1941 game logo will be displayed.

§  If not successful, check in Windows device manager that the board has been recognized and double check that you have selected the correct port in “Pixelcade Config”

If you receive an error java was not found, then you’ll need to install Java. VERY IMPORANT: You must install Java 32-bit, Java 64-bit

is not compatible

https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

§  Now launch Maximus Arcade and after selecting a game, the LED display should change to a generic LED marquee respective to the selected emulator.

§  You can add specific LED marquees for your favorite games by creating a 64x32 or 128x32 .GIFs using your favorite image editor like Photoshop. Simply name the .GIF to match the rom name and place in < your pixelcade install \ emulator >.

§  So for example, the game 1941 has four roms:

1941.zip

1941j.zip

1941r1.zip

1941u.zip

So you would create one .GIF design and make 4 copies with the names:

1941.gif

1941j.gif

1941r1.gif

1941u.gif

And place them in for example

C:\MAX 2.10\Pixelcade\mame

Be sure and use the .gif extension and not the extension of the rom.

If the game selected in Maximus Arcade does not have a specific GIF, then a generic GIF for the selected emulator will be automatically selected instead.