Calibrate Guns in MAME?

[kronic24601]

Ok I have the AimTrak, and things work quite well in most games.

I tried to play CarnEvil yesterday and although my Cross-hairs were all calibrated accurately, when I pulled the trigger I could see the "bullet" effect hitting only in the left most corner ... like on the edge of the screen. No matter where I shot it was pretty much off the screen.

After pressing TAB and sifting through all the options I couldn't find a way to calibrate it.

This leads me to believe I'm supposed to calibrate it either in some other admin section within MAME that I'm not aware of ... or more likely, there is some way to calibrate it within the game itself???

Anyone have any thoughts?

[markronz]

I cannot speak to the AimTrak gun itself or the CarnEvil itself, but I can tell you that for a few shooting games, you have to go into the service menu for the game, and there is some sort of gun calibration that you need to do within there.   

I myself have the Act Labs guns, and what I do to do for a few games was this:

1.  First make sure the guns were set up in the MAME controller configs for the game.
2.  Do the calibration on the gun itself (Act Labs guns have a calibration button thing directly on the gun, not sure if AimTrak's do...)
3.  If necessary, go into the service menu within the game itself and do the configuring.

Hope that helps!

[kronic24601]

So ... pardon this simple seeming question ... but ... how do you go into the service menu of any particular game?

[bkenobi]

F2 IIRC.

[markronz]

Yeah, usually it's F2, but it's a configurable button like any other in MAME.  So go and look at the MAME controls and see was Service is set to, and change it if desired.

[kronic24601]

awesome thanks!

Also, kinda a related quesiton.

In MAME ... I'm trying to figure out how to configure button presses ... I cannot quite figure out how to get an "AND" or "OR" logic in there.

For example

(1 AND up) might deliver a different result ... I'm sure this is really simple but I'm kind of a tard...

[Firebat138]

In answer to the Carnevil thing...  I am pretty sure that game doesnt work, or at least I could never get it working.  Let me know if ya get it...

[nickynooch]

In answer to the Carnevil thing...  I am pretty sure that game doesnt work, or at least I could never get it working.  Let me know if ya get it...

Carnevil works fine for me with the actlabs guns in mame.

[Firebat138]

damn....  i have to relook at this again...  I could never get that one working... 

[kronic24601]

well CarnEvil requires both a fast computer, and the CHD ... so that might be your problem ... the game works fine for me, but my shots are just not calibrated right in-game.

[nickynooch]

You do have to do the service menu thing for the actlabs too (if memory serves), but trust me it works.  Perfect aim too!

[markronz]

I wish I could get CarnEvil to work on my machine.       I have a Pentium D Dual Core 3.4 Ghz machine and the game is still so choppy that I can't even play it.   I have the CHD and everything.  Extremely minimal other software running on the machine.   I can't figure out why it won't work for me either.  If anyone has any tips on that, let me know...

OP, in regards to setting the buttons you just have to keep hitting whatever button you have set for select to get the OR going.   So you would highlight the item you want to remap, hit the select button, press the button you want to set there.   Then if you want to set another key for that (the OR command) you would just hit the select button again and hit the next button.  Rinse, repeat. The main thing is that you don't move the cursor off of that button when you do it.   If you move to a different button and then back and try to set it, it will just overwrite whats there.   Man that sounded sort of confusing...  Hopefully that made sense.

When in doubt, you can always just manually update the default cfg file.

[kronic24601]

Ok so then "AND" would be pressing them at the same time? I think I'm having problems due to the kind of keys (like f8 and ctrl don't like to go together).

As for the setup, take a look at my footer ... even with my setup CarnEvil has a choppy beginning with that clown and the spinning background. His words get a little behind and chug a bit ... I think 5GHz would be ideal ...

[markronz]

Sorry, I'm less familiar with the AND as I don't have a need for it on my cabinet.   If I were to do it, I would probably manually go hack the Default cfg file.   There's likely a way to set it through the real menus, but I don't know how to do it.  Hopefully someone else here and help you with how to do that.

Otherwise, you could just set up the two different buttons as an OR and then edit the default config file changing the OR to an AND.

[TAG]

I wish I could get CarnEvil to work on my machine.       I have a Pentium D Dual Core 3.4 Ghz machine and the game is still so choppy that I can't even play it.   I have the CHD and everything.  Extremely minimal other software running on the machine.   I can't figure out why it won't work for me either.  If anyone has any tips on that, let me know...

Using MAME .119, it runs fine on the 3 ghz Core2Duo I'm using.  A little stuttering on the clown, but nothing affecting gameplay.  Maybe a slight frameskip will help without causing too much jumpiness?

[Cananas]

Ok I have the AimTrak, and things work quite well in most games.

I tried to play CarnEvil yesterday and although my Cross-hairs were all calibrated accurately, when I pulled the trigger I could see the "bullet" effect hitting only in the left most corner ... like on the edge of the screen. No matter where I shot it was pretty much off the screen.

After pressing TAB and sifting through all the options I couldn't find a way to calibrate it.

This leads me to believe I'm supposed to calibrate it either in some other admin section within MAME that I'm not aware of ... or more likely, there is some way to calibrate it within the game itself???

Anyone have any thoughts?

This could be useful:
http://www.ultimarc.com/AimTrak%20Setup%20Guide.pdf

[kronic24601]

very nice. It has all the game specific information toward the end of the PDF.