[BETA] ArcadeDMD - Live score and animated game scenes on your marquee (LCD, Pixelcade, ZeDMD)

[Byoyoyo]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share ArcadeDMD, a free and open source program I made for my Vewlix cabinet and ATGame with Pixelcade.
It reads the game's memory while you play and shows what happens on the marquee, live. Score, lives, credits, health bars, rounds, bosses, special moves, each game with its own animated scene.

   

It runs in smooth HD on an LCD marquee (1920 x 460 on a Vewlix, for example) or on a 128 x 32 LED panel (Pixelcade LED, ZeDMD). Nothing in the game or the emulator is modified. It reads the memory through a MAME plugin or through RetroArch's network commands (FinalBurn Neo, Genesis Plus GX).

The game GIFs below come from real games played on my cabinet, replayed through ArcadeDMD.

The King of Fighters '98. King's ILLUSION DANCE takes the whole marquee, then each hit shakes Benimaru's bar. This desperation move show already runs on my cabinet and comes with the next release.

Metal Slug 3. Eri jumps in the Slugnoid, then WARNING, and the boss arrives with its life bar.

Metal Slug 3. BOSS DESTROYED and MISSION COMPLETE, at the very moment the game shows them.

Twinkle Star Sprites, two players. Attacks, a PERFECT, then K.O. and WIN!

With nobody playing, a fighting game waits for a coin. The coin drops in the slot, the credits roll, then PRESS START.

The same games on a 128 x 32 LED panel (Pixelcade LED, ZeDMD).

What you get
- Your LaunchBox Clear Logo when a game starts.
- Ready-made scenes for Metal Slug 1 to 5 and X, the 57 Neo Geo fighting games, 97 Neo Geo games done one by one, the Capcom CPS1, CPS2 and CPS3 games and the Cave shoot'em ups.
- Animated backgrounds that follow the game's stage or mission, and an effect for every event (hits, combos, K.O., weapons, bombs, coins).
- Some games tuned round after round on my cabinet from recorded games, until the marquee follows the game to the moment. The King of Fighters '98 with each player's desperation moves and their commands lighting up as the stick does them, the gauge, the stocks and MAX. The six Neo Geo Metal Slug games with weapons, vehicles, bosses and their life bar. Windjammers, Puzzle Bobble 2, DoDonPachi, Twinkle Star Sprites.
- A learning tool that finds the missing addresses (score, credits) from a few captures.
- Everything on screen is drawn by the program, nothing is taken from the games. You can swap the drawings for your own pictures (the Metal Slug vehicles and soldiers, the Windjammers players, the LED tank, an INSERT COIN GIF for the panel) by dropping them in the sprites folder. The wiki explains how.
- English and French. Windows, Python 3.12 or newer. MIT license.

Download
GitHub https://github.com/Byoyoyo/ArcadeDMD
Latest release https://github.com/Byoyoyo/ArcadeDMD/releases/latest
Wiki https://github.com/Byoyoyo/ArcadeDMD/wiki

The wiki explains step by step how to install and set up ArcadeDMD, with MAME or RetroArch, on an LCD marquee, a Pixelcade or a ZeDMD, and what each game shows. install.bat does most of the work. PROGRESS.md says where each game stands.

ArcadeDMD is in BETA. It runs on my cabinet, but some games are still being tuned and you may run into bugs. If something looks wrong, the log (runtime\arcadedmd.log) and a recording of your game help me fix it. The wiki explains how to send them.
 

Feedback is welcome. If a game you love is missing or not right yet, tell me here or open an issue on GitHub.