DOWNLOAD FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS BASED FRONT ENDS
The following Windows based Arcade Front Ends have been tested:
- HyperSpin
- Big Box & Launch Box
- CoinOPS Retro Arcade & Latest CoinOps(choose CoinOps from Arcade front end setup wizard)
- CoinOPS Next 2, CoinOPS 2 Gems, CoinOPS NEXT, CoinOPS Arcadia (choose CoinOps Legacy from Arcade front end setup wizard)
- Core Type R
- Game Ex and Game Ex Arcade Edition
- MaLa
- Attract Mode
- RetroBat
- Pegasus for Windows (Experimental)
At the end of the Pixelcade software install, the Arcade front end setup wizard will run and you’ll choose your Arcade front end. You can run this wizard multiple times to integrate Pixelcade with multiple front ends.
Pixelcade Version 6.x – For Pixelcade LED & LCD Marquees
 |  |
IMPORTANT: Do not install under Program Files or you’ll need to run with Administrator privileges
How to Set Up High Score Scrolling
Pixelcade LED artwork is updated from time to time. You can check the online Pixelcade artwork repo to see what has been updated. Run the Pixelcade LED Artwork Updater to get the latest artwork from the Pixelcade artwork repo.
MAME games with in game effects powered by DOFLinx. You’ll be prompted at the end of the Pixelcade installer if you want to enable Pixelcade DOFLinx effects and note your your MAME version must be close to 263 or 270. All the necessary DOFLinx files will be installed automatically by the Pixelcade installer.
Optionally, you can also follow this guide that enables Pixelcade LED only to function as a DMD while playing Visual Pinball and Pinball FX3 and FX2 (Steam versions only).
IMPORTANT: For Windows 11 users, turn off Windows Defender as it likely will block the Pixelcade software installation. And then you may need to also add a Defender exclusion for the Pixelcade folder.
Firmware and Artwork Updates for Pixelcade LCD
LEDBlinky Free Version vs. Paid Version
| Marquee updates while front end scrolling for emulators & games | Scrolling text during game launch, startup, and shutdown | Screen Saver | Splash Screen Removed | High Score Scrolling on select MAME games | |
| Free | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Paid | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The Pixelcade installer will also install the free version of LEDBlinky if not already installed.
Windows 7 is only supported for Pixelcade LED V1 boards and is not supported for Pixelcade LED V2 boards.
Optional Command Line Parameters
The Pixelcade installer will add Pixelcade (pixelweb.exe) to your Windows start-up folder to run automatically when Windows starts. If you want to further customize Pixelcade, you can add the following command line parameters to the startup command.
Usage of pixelweb:
-b string
optional bind address (default “0.0.0.0”)
-check-artwork
Checks to see if there is an update to Pixelcade LED artwork
-colorlogging
show the selected console and rom in color in the Pixelcade Listener window (default true)
-d string
path to pixelcade device. Set to auto to scan for device. On Windows use COM# (default “auto”)
-debug
debug log level
-delay int
time (in seconds) to delay device init
-demo
Enable demo mode
-devicescan
scan for device if not found or not specified with -d
-font string
default font for text (default “Arial Narrow 7”)
-fontcolor string
default font color for text (default “ff0000”)
-fontcolorrandom
random default font color. Overrides -fontcolor (default true)
-fontsize int
default font size for text (default 28)
-fuzzy
enable fuzzy matching for images (default true)
-fuzzydistance int
higher number means more distance and less confidence for match (default 20)
-fuzzymatches int
max number of fuzzy matches before disregarding (default 40)
-image string
optional image to display on startup (default “mame/pixelcade.png”)
-install-artpack string
installs the paid Pixelcade LED art pack which requires a license code
-install-artwork
first time install of Pixelcade LED artwork
-logfile string
optional log file
-nointro
skips playing the startup text and logo. Screen will be black on startup.
-nomdns
Skip mDNS registration
-p string
path to pixelcade root (default “C:\\Pixelcade”)
-port int
optional port to listen on (default 8080)
-progress-installer
Use an alternative artwork installer that shows download progress in a command line
-progress-stdout
print progress output as stdout only
-silent
silent mode / do not display any log output
-sports-ticker-refresh float
num minutes before updating sports scores, minimum is 1 minute (default 0.25)
-startup
startup mode
-stock-ticker-refresh int
num minutes before updating stock ticket updates, minimum is 1 minute (default 1)
-swapbluegreen
swap blue and green. Only needed for certain panels.
-system-image string
optional system image to display on startup. Overrides -image
-text string
optional text to display on startup (default “Welcome to Pixelcade”)
-trace
trace log level
-update-artwork
updates Pixelcade LED artwork
-update-doflinx
updates DOFLinx MAME files only
-version
shows the Pixelcade software version