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I-Pac4 + Mac Mini = complete confusion
alfonzotan:
Hi, folks... just built up a new control panel that's intended for a Mac (actually Hackintosh) cabinet project. The good news: it doesn't look half-bad for a first attempt (although nobody is ever going to mistake me for a carpenter). The bad news: almost nothing works--at least as far as the standard buttons and joysticks, which are wired through an I-Pac4 (the trackball and mouse buttons, wired through a hacked mouse, work fine).
When I plugged it all up to a Mac Mini for testing (and please, let's skip the "Macs suck!" "No, Windows sucks!" manamana this time around), none of the controls corresponded to the keys as laid out in the UltiMarc documentation. Firing up the Mac IPac software and resetting the firmware to the software's defaults did change the key responses--but they still don't match what they're supposed to be.
And then I ran across this post, stating that the IPacs may not be Mac compatible any more (although I'm not sure what it means by "old Macs"):
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=98753.0
What gives? UltiMarc's FAQ still states that the I-Pacs are compatible with USB Macs. Anybody else run into this mass confusion?
I'm going to load up XP in a Boot Camp partition later and see if the thing responds properly on that side, but in the meantime, I'd appreciate hearing from anybody who's successfully (or unsuccessfully) used any variety of an I-Pac with OS X. The Mini I'm testing with is loaded with 10.5.x.
One question up front: what did you select the first time the Mac "saw" the I-Pac and brought up the keyboard recognition screens?
alfonzotan:
UPDATE: Looks like it's not a "Mac thing" after all. I got an email back from Andy at Ultimarc, and it turns out several I-Pac4's were sent out recently with I-Pac2 firmware loaded. Also ran across this post on another forum from a guy with similar problems:
http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=224176&page=0&view=expanded&sb=3&o=&vc=1
Andy sent me the correct firmware (I hope)... I'll try flashing it in this evening.
alfonzotan:
That fixed it... Everything working great now.
taylormadelv:
Just to make this thread worth while to others, did Andy say that all new ipacs are compatible with Old Macs (G4 and older running OS 9) now? Because the last ipac2 I bought was NOT compatible and Andy did not offer any solution besides purchasing an "old" ipac. So I don't see a complete resolution here for "old macs". Old Mac means NOT running OS X and NOT running on an Intel CPU.
BTW, besides AAE, Macmame OS9 is the BEST Vector emulator there is!
alfonzotan:
--- Quote from: taylormadelv on July 17, 2010, 09:01:49 am ---Just to make this thread worth while to others, did Andy say that all new ipacs are compatible with Old Macs (G4 and older running OS 9) now? Because the last ipac2 I bought was NOT compatible and Andy did not offer any solution besides purchasing an "old" ipac. So I don't see a complete resolution here for "old macs". Old Mac means NOT running OS X and NOT running on an Intel CPU.
BTW, besides AAE, Macmame OS9 is the BEST Vector emulator there is!
--- End quote ---
I didn't ask, since I haven't had a working OS 9 install for many years, but it's a good question.
FWIW, the old OS 8 app "Vectorama" was the very best vector emulator I've ever seen, even better than MacMAME. Not sure where you could find it today, though; I got it from Emulation.net way back in 1997 or so. One of these days I'm going to beat SheepShaver into working well enough to run that one.