I should have done a clean install of Windows 10

ltdunstan

Let my experience be a lesson to others. I opted to keep my programs and files from Windows 7 during the install to Windows 10. What a mistake....

Issues I encountered:

1st Install Attempt

Could not find the exe file in C:\Users[YOURUSERNAME]\AppData\Local\Programs\PolycadeUI\
Polycade Front End entered "How to use" screen - did not recognize ROMS - entered Screen Saver Mode
Uninstalled

2nd install Attempt

Polycade Front End entered "How to use" screen - did not recognize ROMS - entered Screen Saver Mode
I had to Uninstalled

3rd Install Attempt

1. Installer would not complete installation

Wiped Drive - Clean Install of Windows 10

***Issues may have been related to the original key mapper program which would run automatically or some other ungodly MS gremlin in Windows.

1st Install attempt on clean install of Windows 10 - Worked the first time

Issues - Not all ROMs and artwork recognized

Current Issues -

My Polycade is from Kickstater and has a single toggle switch to change controller configures for different systems
does this toggle have a function in the new front end?

Exit Button does not function - Can not exit game, must wait for the timeout screen or press ESC on keyboard - is there a way to remap the ESC to the Exit Button?

Center Button Launches Windows Game Recorder - Fixed this issue

Player 1 Joystick does not auto switch to 4 way not sure how to fix that one

Some games do not have instructions - I'll compile a list

Some ROMs with artwork not working - I'll check these ROMs to see if the ROM is bad and compile a list

Overall the install was pretty good once Windows was cleaned up.

admin

Thanks for the detailed report @ltdunstan !

A few notes for the next person and a few for you:

The beta-install instructions page calls out "PolycadeUI", which we quickly had to change back to the original "polyface", but forgot to update the install instructions to reflect this change.
Currently, polyface always shows the "How to" screen on launch and after waking from the screensaver. This will be controlled by a setting soon.
Exit button for Windows 7 users: We've found that polyface's built in exit button does not work on Windows 7. The work around for this is to use the "button_on_guide2" app (this launches by default on win7 polycades) and remap the exit button in MAME and Retroarch to use this. If you need deeper instructions here, let us know!
Exit button for Windows 10 users: a few things need to happen to make the exit button work properly:
Disable the windows game bar (windows settings -> Gaming, then uncheck "Open game bar using...")
All Polycades currently have a helper app that launches at startup. It's possible this app interferes with the way the exit button works in polyface. In order to disable this, press "CTRL ALT DELETE" on your keyboard at the same time. Then, select "Task Manager". Next, click on the "Startup" tab. Find the "button_on_guide2" entry, select it, then click the "Disable" button in the bottom right corner. Lastly, restart your machine.
Player 1 Joystick does not auto switch to 4 way: Polycade v1 (mostly kickstarter machines) used an auto-switching joystick that would change from 4 way mode to 8 way mode depending on the game selected. We later discovered a better, more reliable way of doing this. It's worth mentioning that the joysticks used in the v1 units also have started to fail after extensive use. The new joysticks (used in v2 and v3) are more reliable and don't need the auto-switching functionality. A future update (scheduled for release in roughly 1-2 months) will provide support for the auto switching joysticks in polyface, but currently this does not work.
Instructions: Right now most games don't have instructions. No need to compile a list here, we'll be fixing this programmatically soon.
Artwork: as mentioned above, artwork is currently static and so you should see only a handful of these showing up (the ones we've manually added in).
Polycade v1 "joystick mode" switch: (different from the 4-8 way switching) About 1/3 of the v1 Polycades had this advanced option. Here's an explanation of what this is: On all polycades, the controls are recognized by the PC as xbox controllers. The joysticks on the Polycade operate the "D-Pad" on the xbox controller. However, an xbox controller also has a "Left Stick" analog joystick and a "Right Stick" analog joystick. The "joystick mode switch" enables you to change the Polycade joysticks from operating the D-Pad on your xbox controller to operating the "Left Stick" or "Right Stick" on the xbox controller. This is useful because some games on Steam do not allow control remapping, and only allow you to control the character using the "Left Stick". Limbo is one example of a game that will only function on a Polycade if you have this switch.

ltdunstan

The new update rocks!!! It will be amazing when the other features come online.

admin

Nice, glad to hear it!! We have a big update coming in just a week or two 🙂