i-pac j-pac for and ultra cade

[ultramike]

Hi, my ultracade died so im changing over to Mame. Im a noob with this so im starting off small.  Im using a pent. 4- 1.6 gig machine with a low end graphics card. running Windows XP on a freshly formatted harddrive. I shut off everying i could to make it as fast as possible.  A friend of mine gave me Mame 32 0.59.0. with some roms. I see there are alot newer versions, but this works for now. The games run fine with a keyboard on the Wells Gardner monitor that came with the cabinet.  but the controls are wacky with the joysticks. The cabbinet is wired with a  jamma connector going to the usblinx interface. I have two joysticks, 7 buttons for each player(including start buttons) there is a game exit and a test button also. And one track ball.  If im reading the info right on Ultimarc, the j-pac only handles 4 buttons through the plugin jamma harnes?
 All of my button are wired through the jamma harnes connector. My jamma connector looks the same as the one for the j-pac. Are my button wired different?
Should  i get the ipac 4 instead?
 It sounds like there is more room for expansion on the ipac 4. If things go well i might build a better rig with a modern pc.
 Also, i was thinking of getting the arcade vga agp card from ultimac also. my card is real old. any thoughts? and thanks for any info you have.

[davidrfoley]

You can download the USBLinx Manual from here http://bit.ly/beQa3N

It includes the keyboard mapping for all of the joysticks and buttons in the UltraCade cabinet.  The trackball is simply mapped as a mouse.

[ultramike]

i printed that out, but i didnt do anything with it.  i didnt think to check if its mapped out like mame. thanks for the reply

[davidrfoley]

You can change the default mappings in MAME to match your USBLinx.

[Hoopz]

You can change the default mappings in MAME to match your USBLinx.

A year to the day since your last posts.  How's the trial coming along?

Also, the Optigun doesn't have a lot of support from people who've tried to buy it but, oddly, haven't received it.  Care to comment about that?

[davidrfoley]

Not allowed to comment on the ongoing litigation issues.  OptiGun has shipped to some people, others were delayed and sent refunds. 

[Hoopz]

What was the issue on the Optigun shipping delays?  That's a product quite a few people were tracking but people are hesitant to purchase from vendors who have issues.

[HaRuMaN]

Ahh, someone rubbed the lamp again I see...

[davidrfoley]

Normally not a stocking item due to long periods of no orders, and then large OEM orders have take up all inventory.  There are a few commercial games using the technology.

[ultramike]

i have the same problem when i went into windows control panel and tested the keyboard. the joystick locks up and sticks. i must have to up date the keyboard driver or something. the suck part is i dont have a network card in the computer. ps do you know who i can send the ultracade board, and harddrive to be repaired?

[davidrfoley]

What version of the USBLinx do you have?  Are you running it with both PS2 and USB cables attached, or just PS2?  We still repair UltraCade systems.  You must ship it in with the original CD's and GamePacks as we are not selling them any more due to the ongoing litigation.  You can also repair it yourself, there is nothing proprietary in the hardware.  You need an Intel CA810e or D815EFV motherboard.  Any Socket 370 Pentium III or Celeron 1GHz or better.  PC100 or PC133 memory, minimum of 256MB is recommended.  Any IDE hard drive will work. 

[ultramike]

i have a900-0010-01 rev. i was running both usb and ps/2 together. thats how it was in the ultracade.  i just tried one at a time. it was better with just the ps/2, but the joystick would still lock up. as for the ultracade, one day it wouldnt get out of the dos like boot mode. i do have the cds and the serial numbers so  i tried booting it from the cd. it would just stop dead. i went in with a keyboard and really killed it. i  reset something to the effect of restore defaults, then it wouldnt start up at all. i brought it to a computer repair guy, but he couldnt get it to boot. i thought i couldnt change any of the hardware.  so i figured it was dead forever. it is a cool machine. i liked how dummy proof it is. just give it power and its ready to go. i do want to build a mame cabinet, but my boys were really happy with the ultracade. if i can find out how to boot it, maybe i should get another hard drive. if not then get the mother board and chip. any info would be great. thanks, mike

[hakme]

i have the same problem when i went into windows control panel and tested the keyboard. the joystick locks up and sticks. i must have to up date the keyboard driver or something. the suck part is i dont have a network card in the computer. ps do you know who i can send the ultracade board, and harddrive to be repaired?

i have the same USBLinx card and the same problem, the joystick locks up and sticks when i press more than 4 buttons at the same time, i think it might be the driver, read the manual (page 7) and graph on page 8 http://service.globalvr.com/downloads/ultracade/components/040-USBLNXM-UCT_USBlinx_User_Doc_v02H.pdf if you have the cd that came with the machine you should look if you have drivers and maybe share them with me ;p

[xmrkite]

I too have an ultimate arcade and it has some issues.

The controllers get stuck so that your character ends up going left or up or down or right and keeps going that way. Nothing you can do.

If i hook up only usb and no ps/2, then it works great and i mean great...that is, unless 10 buttons are pressed at the same time. Then it totally freezes up all controls and the game keeps playing.

Any idea what to do? Is the usblinx board defective? When i plug the usblinx into my linux pc via usb, it says that not enough power for all downstream ports.

-Thanks