Having trouble configuring Q*bert on MAME for four way diag on a U360

[Diewrecked]

Hi guys

I know there are a number of other threads covering this topic but none of the suggestions thus far has helped on my setup.

I assume this is the same for everyone. I have two U360s on my MAME. Q*bert defaults to the following setup on first launch:
Up - performs up/right
Down - performs down/left
Left - performs up/left
Right - performs down/right.

Obviously I want movement of the character to correlate to movement of the joystick, ie when he moves up/right when the joystick is moved up/right, not when the joystick is moved up.

First thing I tried was to set control options for "this game" where character up was an input of up/right, down was down/left etc, thus:

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- This file is autogenerated; comments and unknown tags will be stripped -->
<mameconfig version="10">
    <system name="qbert">
        <input>
            <port tag="IN4" type="P1_JOYSTICK_RIGHT" mask="1" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    JOYCODE_1_YAXIS_DOWN_SWITCH JOYCODE_1_XAXIS_RIGHT_SWITCH
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port tag="IN4" type="P1_JOYSTICK_LEFT" mask="2" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    JOYCODE_1_YAXIS_UP_SWITCH JOYCODE_1_XAXIS_LEFT_SWITCH
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port tag="IN4" type="P1_JOYSTICK_UP" mask="4" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    JOYCODE_1_YAXIS_UP_SWITCH JOYCODE_1_XAXIS_RIGHT_SWITCH
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port tag="IN4" type="P1_JOYSTICK_DOWN" mask="8" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    JOYCODE_1_YAXIS_DOWN_SWITCH JOYCODE_1_XAXIS_LEFT_SWITCH
                </newseq>
            </port>
        </input>
    </system>
</mameconfig>

Of course this simply resulted in no joystick movements causing the character to move. So time for a trawl through the forums then! First port of call was this idea from u_rebelscum:

make mame use a "rotated 4-way" grid map (no other remapping needed).

I'd make a qbert.ini file and put one line in it.  What the line says depends on which of the above two choices you use.  I prefer the latter:

joystick_map    4444s8888..444458888.444555888.ss5.222555666.222256666.2222s6666.2222s6666

All this served to do was to make the character not move at all  in spite of what joystick movements I tried - up/down/left/right or any diagonals (same as my original config - I did delete that CFG file before I tried this).

Next I found this CFG from Congui:

This is my cfg looks like:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- This file is autogenerated; comments and unknown tags will be stripped -->
<mameconfig version="10">
    <system name="qbert">
        <input>
            <port type="P1_JOYSTICK_RIGHT" mask="1" index="42" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_6_PAD KEYCODE_2_PAD
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_JOYSTICK_LEFT" mask="2" index="43" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_8_PAD KEYCODE_4_PAD
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_JOYSTICK_UP" mask="4" index="44" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_8_PAD KEYCODE_6_PAD
                </newseq>
            </port>
            <port type="P1_JOYSTICK_DOWN" mask="8" index="45" defvalue="0">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    KEYCODE_2_PAD KEYCODE_4_PAD
                </newseq>
            </port>
        </input>
        <mixer>
            <volume_multiplier final="256" final_max="2560" mixer="256" mixer_max="2560" />
        </mixer>
    </system>
</mameconfig>


Hope this helps.

This works to a level, ie the diagonals on the joystick work the way they should, however the unidirections also still work, ie, left will still go up/left, so if I go to hit down/left but accidentally don't do enough "down" the joystick picks it up as a left movement and I go up/left and die (again).

So what I need to know is, how can I use the four diagonals ONLY without the unidirections too?

Many thanks for any advice you can offer guys - cheers  

[bkenobi]

There are other tools that you should be looking at for U360's AFAIK.

[ubiquityman]

Copy the following line to the config file. Erase everything else in the config file except for this line.
(that way it'll have the default configuration)  That's it.  It's that simple.

joystick_map 444488888.444488888.444458888.444555888.445555566.222555666.222256666.222226666.222226666.

I've included the graphical image of what it looks like from the MAME Joystick Mapper.

[Diewrecked]

Apologies for the delay in response but I wanted to be sure I got this right before I posted it!

I have done some investigation on this but still have not found a proper solution that does JUST diag four-way.

Ubiquityman when you use your map the diagonals on the joystick work correctly but also the unidirections up down left and right still perform the functions as above: Up performs up/right; Down performs down/left; Left performs up/left and Right performs down/right. So I first tried to make the dead zone bigger:

joystick_map 444488888.444458888.444458888.444555888.455555556.222555666.222256666.222256666.222226666.

This looks like the first image. This makes no difference to the joystick movement of the ini you provided, ie, diagonals work fine but the unidirections still function. So then I made the dead centres of the unidirections dead zone, ie:

joystick_map 444458888.444458888.444458888.444555888.555555555.222555666.222256666.222256666.222256666.

This looks like the second image. This results in the joystick not working at all. Q*bert doesn't move with either diagonals or unidirections. So then I decided to increase the size of the corner zones by populating the four corners of the central square:

joystick_map 444458888.444458888.444458888.444458888.555555555.222256666.222256666.222256666.222256666.

This looks like the third image. Again this results in the joystick not working at all and the character not moving. Finally I decided to populate the entire map with directional arrows with the exception of the four squares at the ends of the dead centre directions (highlighted in the fourth image), as such:

joystick_map 888458888.888488888.444488888.444488888.544456665.222266666.222266666.222266666.222256666.

This is like in the fifth image, again it results in the character not moving no matter what direction you move the joystick.

Bottom line (from what I can tell) is that if the very edges of the dead centres of the directions are populated (the four squares highlighted in the fourth image, the ones left neutral in the fifth image) then the character moves both with diagonals and with unidirections; when those four squares are set to neutral then he doesn't move at all.

So is there a way of making it work JUST with diagonals and not with unidirections?

Cheers

[ubiquityman]

You know, I was not clear on the instructions.

You need to paste the "joystick ....." line into the qbert.INI file (not the qbert.CFG) file.

So, first, I hope you had that right.  If not, it might be the cause of some of the problems.

Next, you can try with sticky spots.  I think that's going to be better than dead spots.

joystick_map 4444s8888.4444s8888.444458888.444555888.ss55555ss.222555666.222256666.2222s6666.2222s6666.

[Diewrecked]

I did indeed create these maps as qbert.ini files in the INI folder

Sorry Ubiquity that last map you suggested just causes the character to not move again.

I'm wondering if there's a way of using an Ultramap map for this one game but MAME maps for all the others? I don't even know if a known working good map exists that way round?

Thanks for all your continued help..

[ubiquityman]

Sorry Ubiquity that last map you suggested just causes the character to not move again.

I'm wondering if there's a way of using an Ultramap map for this one game but MAME maps for all the others? I don't even know if a known working good map exists that way round?

From the sounds of it, I'm getting different behavior than you.
The game works fine for me.
Have you checked to make sure the Ultramap is set to Analog?
What version of MAMEui are you using?
 

[Diewrecked]

Have you checked to make sure the Ultramap is set to Analog?

I've not launched Ultramap since I installed the sticks. I launched it to double check and *cough* it was set to 4-way *cough*

I've set it to analogue now and my second map
joystick_map 444458888.444458888.444458888.444555888.555555555.222555666.222256666.222256666.222256666. works fine!

Thanks again for all your help Ubiquity and sorry for being such a total nightmare!!!

Cheers 

[ubiquityman]

I've not launched Ultramap since I installed the sticks. I launched it to double check and *cough* it was set to 4-way *cough*
I've set it to analogue now and my second map
joystick_map 444458888.444458888.444458888.444555888.555555555.222555666.222256666.222256666.222256666. works fine!
Thanks again for all your help Ubiquity and sorry for being such a total nightmare!!!

LOL.  I should have asked if you plugged the joystick in.  
It happens to the best of us.

You were using a crippled U360.  Now you have it set to analog, your games will work much better!!!
Glad you have the problem solved.

[Herk]

Ubiquityman,

     I just added your line to a brand new qbert.ini file and I now have a perfectly controlled Qbert.  I had put Qbert on the "this sucks" pile but it's in the favorites pile now.

Herk