Mame key questions

[Itchigo]

I made a bartop, and I'm running an old version of Mame (.0153). I'm having issues with having more than 1 key pressed at once. It seems if I press a 2nd key with one key already pressed they both stop when the 2nd key is pressed. Example: I'm holding the right key, moving to the right. I want to go left quickly so I press left just before I letup on the right key. Instead of changing directions, it stops and I have to press left a 2nd time. I should also mention I'm using this for my encoder.

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Windows sees it as a keyboard. Is there any way to change how windows sees this, say to a controller or whatever? (Windows 7).

I'm thinking if I solve the above problem, I'll solve this too. With a 4 way joystick, I should be able to press up/left and move diagonally, right?

I know I should remember this lol, but I'm getting older.....

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Dunno if this helps, but back when MAME had a built-in frontend, I seem to remember a setting / checkbox that prevents input from directional-opposites. Not 100% though; possibly it was some other emulator.

 

[AnonTet]

MAME still has a built-in FE which I use. FE are too convoluted these days :)

Check that you have multikeyboard 1 (it's probably at zero).

People tend to buy thse "zero-lag" chinese ones that seem to work quite well so it might be another problem.

You can also run mame -v in a command line to check for errors.

If you want diagonals you need to set the restrictor to 8-way.

And why are you running such an old mame version?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

MAME still has a built-in FE which I use.

I know, and I use the current one myself, but there used to be a much more user-friendly GUI that included more front-end options. Nowadays you have to be better at settings up ROM INI files yourself, from what I've found. That and other stuff.

Anyway, I think maybe the option I'm remembering was "steadykey." Evidently it helps clear up multiple keypress problems when timings are an issue.

Not sure where steadykey would get set in .0153, but if you can't find it from the interface, you should be able to find it by searching the term in the MAME directory, specifying to search within .ini and .cfg files.

 

[AnonTet]

Common mistake. I had an issue with that at mametesters where I was misinterpreted.

FWIW vanilla mame has an internal UI. Not to be confused with MAMEUI (not official mame) and GUIs are for front-ends.

I'm not so sure using steadykey is a good idea unless it's for troubleshooting nowadays. It causes even more delay to inputs which can hinder gameplay if I recall correctly.

From the ebay page:

• The MAMI 30 can connect up to 22 switches and 2 joysticks (2 player)
• No ghosting or key blocking , all inputs are non multiplexed

So it shouldn't have this problem. I still think he has to enable multikeyboard first and go from there then open notepad and check that all moves register according to the map on ebay page.

Otherwise I'm more inclined to wiring issues.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

FWIW vanilla mame has an internal UI... GUIs are for front-ends.

Yes, vanilla MAME is what I was referring to.

"GUI" refers to an interface-style. That's what vanilla MAME used for many years, before they switched to the all-text interface maybe... ~eight years ago?

 

[AnonTet]

It's not me who's nitpicking and it's not semantics either. This happened 2 months ~ago.
As he might file a bug at mametesters and mentions he pressed TAB to access key mapping menus I would use the words they expect, hence my comments. I got my ticket discarded for this.

You know the saying, when in Rome... :)

side note: It's normal different people to talk different languages for the same thing. I go through this between manufacturers and there are written standards so it's a lost battle really :\

 

[Itchigo]

Thanks for the help guys! I contacted the seller, and it turns out the board itself doesn't support multiple keys. Something having to do with how they coded their chip is what the seller told me. But they refunded my money and I found an older (new) Ipac for cheap to replace it. I always have multiple keyboards and mice checked.
" Mmm, looks like I indeed do have a problem. I recently revised the sw and broke something I guess. When you press the second button it should repeat the key like a keyboard does. "

In my pincab I have a Keywiz from Groovy Game Gear. Been rock solid for going on 12 years. I would've bought another, but they don't take Paypal. I'm unemployed so I'm doing this from parts and Paypal so it's not out of pocket. I'm trying to stay away from the China stuff, but I know almost everything is made there so it'll take a while to get our dependency away from them. If the only option is only made in China, then it has to be a US seller. ??

I saved the Mame setup from when I first got Mame, that's why it's old. I've heard you had to go redownload roms whenever they updated. In my case I got a torrent long ago with all roms, and images. And the version I've had has been rock solid too. The PC I'm using was an old free one from 2008. Still it should have no problem running these old games. I just put a bare copy of 7 on it, and turned off as much as I could.

This is an older pic, but I used to have Mame in my backbox. where the DMD goes. Now I'm giving it it's own pc/cabinet. This desktop used to run EVERYTHING when I built it. Now the cab finally has it's own PC.

 

[Itchigo]

Update.

 

[AnonTet]

You're a fan of Defender or is that an old CP layout reused?

I'm assuming it's wip and the spinner goes at the top and the center half-drilled hole is for... trackball?

Regarding MAME, even for older games, emulation is probably better at least in some ways if you use a more recent version. Most (very) recent curious case, you now have correct render in 1942 "capcom" animation at the start due to a 20 year old bug! so there's always something that makes the experience closer to the real thing.

About the config, you probably want to backup your current folder, install newer version of MAME, run mame64 -cc to create a new mame.ini and edit it where possible with the options from the old mame.ini and go from there. You just need more powerful machine to run the more recent games or if want to use shaders so I don't think I can recommend use of older mame version. Next week should be released v0.223 and it'll bring more news

Keep up the good work.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Personally I'm quite happy with what MAME achieved years ago. Now I do use a fairly recent version (~1yr old), but all the stuff I really value was perfected ages ago AFAIK, such as simulating original video, adding the graphics overlays, being able to fiddle with vector graphics & frame-skipping, the cheat system, saving states, etc, etc.

I guess just expanding the MESS line & functionality would be valuable. Last time I checked, the individual console programs & ROMs had to be named precisely according to MAME's internal naming system. That's a real annoyance when you compare to most individual emulators.

Was that Capcom bug really all that significant? It's hard for me to think of a game, out of hundreds or even thousands, where a MAME bug really limited my experience of the game.

Maybe for a purist / perfectionist, I guess, but I'm not sure I'd have any real reason to recommend newer MAME versions over older versions at this point, assuming the desired games have already been emulated.

 

[AnonTet]

Totally understand that.
The 1942 was more of a fun fact to make the point that even in things that play perfectly well, can sometimes still be improved which is why I read the release notes. There are much more interesting developments in older games like ZZZZZZAP for example.

Keep us posted on the build. I like to see others progress because I can't finish mine :)

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Keep us posted on the build. I like to see others progress because I can't finish mine :)

So what is your working build like, Tetragon Anônimo?

Me, as a middle-aged guy, I played most of the 70's & 80's games while they were still on location. Maybe I could have built a cab when I was younger, but as a guy with prematurely creaky joints, it's actually pretty fun to just play MAME games using my projector, with keyboard sitting on arthritic lap.

Last project remotely of this nature I built was a Sapo machine. No video, no electronics, no electricity at all!

https://www.google.com/search?q=sapo+game+peru&tbm=isch

 

[Itchigo]

You're a fan of Defender or is that an old CP layout reused?

I'm assuming it's wip and the spinner goes at the top and the center half-drilled hole is for... trackball?

Um, you tell me lol.

I had a USB spinner which stopped working. I'm trying to figure out if it's dead or not. Haven't had time to hit it with a meter yet.

I was going to mount my tracball, but realized I had it wrong, so I stopped. Also the plug is bad. I'm wondering if I can snip the PS/2 and wire it directly to my IPAC2.
#BLACKCATSMATTER! :)

 

[AnonTet]

@Itchigo
'nuff said :D

I would love to play it but i'd do just as well if I played it with my nose. It's a shame really because everything in the cabinet whispers to me.

I think you can't connect anything analog to ipac2. I bought the opti-pac at the time for that and a quick read at Ultimarc says i'm right. But if you have nothing to lose... I'm curious to see if you can hack it :)

@Ike Savage
Close but no cigar Ike. My nick is a short form of Anonymous Tetraktys :) (and you should've translated to pt_PT instead of pt_BR )

I'm on my 3rd CP layout. Still needs paint (after all this time) and lots of underground cable routing that I will never fix or show because the 25 rgb lit buttons are an headache.

Regarding the arcade chassis let's just say it's doing fine guarding motorcycles in a garage.

Attached image shows previous layout. It also proves that i'm an idiot because I changed what was working perfectly just to have lights and u360 joysticks. Only thing missing now is a light gun but I FINALLY ordered one too, yesterday.

Only the spinner, TB and top right joystick made it to the new one. The box is still as big and heavy as it looks (800x400x200mm MDF)

 

[Itchigo]

Looks good, you just need some graphics.:D

I went with a Defender style layout because most shooting games I like have left/right on the left side of the CP, and thrust/fire on the right. (Defender, Asteroids, etc.

The Defender I bought in 1990, back when I was still in the biz. My high game is like 13m. (It's an hour per million). When you get to 990,000- everything you hit gives you a free guy. Then you get no more free guys until you "catch up. Example- hit 50 things between 990,000 and 1,000,000 and you won't get a free guy until 500,000. In other words you get your free guys in advance. Then at wave 254 it resets to wave 1, and wave one difficulty. Then I could freeze the game and take a break. (Pickup all 10 guys, then with nothing else on your screen, drop them in the lowest part of the planet- fast.)

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

(and you should've translated to pt_PT instead of pt_BR )

Pretty common issue with these Romance languages, it seems. The online translators seem to assume you want the more populous version vs. the source version, so to speak.

Indeed, Google Translate gives no regional choices whatsoever for Spanish and Portuguese.

 

[StevOz]

Well I have clocked Defender and gone past wave 255 actually, finishing @ 3 999 975, pretty sure it was 255 and not 254, still never pulled off the 10 man pause trick, that said it was never easy here as every week you went into play the game the settings were adjusted to be more difficult by the operator. Which I actually liked as it made the game worth another challenge. Defender actually has a lot more difficulty settings then many other arcade games.

Also tried to clock Joust once though after 6 hours play and 7.5 million, I just ran all my remaining birds into the lava, wanted to match the highest at 9999999 though ran out of time to catch the last bus home. :)

 

[Itchigo]

It could be, I always mix them up. I heard later that it had to do with having 1 byte of memory. I was never a big Joust guy though. I wqas always pinball through and through. The exceptions were the games I did well at like Defender, Asteroids, etc. When I was a kid I'd got to the local convenience store, put my Walkman on, and "put my 10 hours in". I had an intercom on my Walkman. :)