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SideWinder StarGate Control Panel Hack

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D_Harris:

I'm working on a dedicated StarGate MAME control panel for a friend and I'm using the (game port)SideWinder hack.

I've completed all of the soldering after reading StaticX's hack page, and when I load StarGate in WolfMAME 106 defaults to 8 specific game play switches that are used on the SideWinder for the following:

FIRE
THRUST
SMART BOMB
INVISO
HYPER SPACE
REVERSE
MOVE UP
MOVE DOWN

With the single ground daisy chained to each of those 8 switches that represents a total of 9 leads.

So that leaves the still unused 7 SideWinder controls I have leads soldered to: "Move Left", "Move Right", "Left Trigger", "Right Trigger", "M", "Start", and "Mode".

None of these do anything. (Except Mode, which appears to turn off the controller).

Can anyone tell me how to activate "Player 1" and "Player 2" start, as well as the "Coin", "Pause" and "exit" options from the control panel so I won't need to use the keyboard?

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Blanka:

Just wire them to the unused buttons, and remap the stuff with your mame button ini.

TOK:

Not a huge deal, but Stargate and Defender both have freeplay modes built into them so don't need to wire a coin button if you don't want to.


D_Harris:

Ok. I'll have to figure out how to manipulate the "mame button ini".

As long as it's possible, then no problem.

As for free play, I think he wants the option of using coins.(Especially if the attract screen act differently under free play).

So, this is where I'm at. To get coin up, player 1, player 2, pause, and exit I'll re-map the right trigger, left trigger, move right, move left, and start(which doesn't appear to do anything in MAME anyway).

But does anyone know what the normal function is of the "PR" button(#10) on the SideWinder? I assume that the Mode button just turns the controller off.

Thanks.

P.S.: Below are some diagrams I drew up for SideWinder hacking.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

D_Harris:

Ok, to wrap this up.

The only leads that I haven't as yet connect to ground are the one's belonging to A) Start: SW #9, B) Shift(M): SW#10, and C) Mode inputs.

"Mode" is just to turn the SideWinder off, but I also don't at present have the "Shift" and "Start" connected completely because the are always "on".(I don't know if that would be an issue).

But I'm hoping that at least one of those two can be re-mapped also. (Apparently, by default, these three inputs are not used in MAME).

In the diagram below, the red buttons are the working default SideWinder->StarGate buttons. At the front of the control panel the blue buttons convey the inputs I connected to them. and the green button is as yet not designated.

I built this for a friend who is practicing to get the MAME record. He wanted a dirty CP with a tight joystick and loose buttons.(Which is what you want for this game).

I had to cannibalize several control panels to get what I needed to build this one up, but it is done.

Lastly, I was told about a "lag" issue in MAME when playing StarGate. Does anyone know anything about this?

While testing out this control panel I experienced the kind of lag that you get when the CPU is over-loaded processing a lot of on-screen movement, but I experienced it regardless of whether there was a lot going on or not. (The PC I'm using is a 866Mhz Pentium III, with 512mb).

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

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