Keyboard vs. Joystick hack?

[allroy1975]

Ever since I read the post about how to use an Ipac (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=10652 ) in Sports games, this has been driving me crazy.  
Why did I build my Control Panel with an IPac vs. 4 Joysticks?
are there a large number of mame games that don't work with Joysticks?  Is it too hard to hacka USB gamepad?
it seems like it would be SO easy to do, and you could play ANY game.  Including my Virtua Tennis that I posted a question about a while back.  You could still just do a Keyboard hack for the player buttons etc.  
Anyone have a good answer?
Thanks..
Matt

[isugoat]

i did my first with a keyboard and it was hell.  then i picked up a couple sidewinder gameport gamepads...they work flawlessly and the hacking was really easy.  i recommend them highly.

[Tiger-Heli]

Ever since I read the post about how to use an Ipac (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=10652 ) in Sports games, this has been driving me crazy.  
Why did I build my Control Panel with an IPac vs. 4 Joysticks?
 
Anyone have a good answer?
Thanks..
Matt

Comes down to what games you want to play.  MAME is primarily looking for keyboard inputs, so a gamepad hack is not that great (sometimes the gamepad will use things like "Joypad 1 X-Axis-" when you just want a button for up arrow.  And I have heard that multiple USB gamepads may swap locations after a reboot (depends on the pads, motherboard, OS, )
OTOH, some games don't support keyboard inputs, so you have to use a gamepad.