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Mame's 4-way Joystick emulation??
dave197878:
I Read that the lastest versions of mame have 4-way emulation on for such games as pac man.
Can this be turned on/off ? And if so whats the advantage of useing a real 4-way Joy vs 8-way with emulation?
I play both 8-way and 4-way games.
thanks.
mgb:
I'm not really sure what the 4-way emulation in Mame is that you are talking about but I'm sure someone here can chime in on that. But as far as the question of whats the difference between a 4-way and 8-way joystick; Its really because trying to use an 8-way joystick to play certain 4-way games just makes control really hard.
A good example is Donkey Kong, If you're using an 8-way (especially an 8-way like a Happ Comp, which easily hits the diagonals), it can be a bit tough coming off the ladders. If you try to quickly go left or right and you accidentally hit the diagonal, the guy will get hung up and not move.
A proper 4-way will restrict you from hitting the diagonals so you don't get hung up.
Of course most guys wanna play both 4 and 8 way games so you have to deal with that issue and many people deal with it different.
The basic options (as I know them) are:
1) Have a dedicated 4-way joystick along with an 8-way or two.
A lot of guys will use a typical dual 8-way fighter setup and have a dedicated 4-way joystick (maybe wired in parrallel with player 1) elsewhere on the control panel.
2) Use Ultimarc U360s and handle the blocking of diagonals through software mapping for needed games.
Many people now prefer this method. I can't say much about it becuase I never tried it. it seems to me that a lot of people like this setup using octagon restrictors in order to feel all directions.
3) Use a 4-way, 8-way switching stick such as the Mag Stick Plus, Sanwa JLW, Omni2 (GGG), Seimitsu or Zippy.
These sticks allow you to change the restrictor setting by repositioning it depending on what you need. They're not all exactly on the fly though.
I guess there are other ways as well. maybe even using octagon restrictor gates so you can at least feel the directions well.
For my control panel, I went with two sticks, Controller one being a Sanwa Jlw sett to allows be 8-way (round restrictor) and controller 2 has the option of being set to 4-way or 8-way. I will be replacing the current Sanwa with an Omni2 so I can just reach up through the coin door and change it accordeing to the game I wanna play. And I just assign my 4-way game controls to that joystick.
I hope that helps you somewhat. I'd advise that you do some searching here on the forums, for the 4-way, 8-way thing, Theres a lot of info here on that.
Cynicaster:
I went with the 2 x 8-way + dedicated 4-way on my panel. It clutters things up a bit but I don’t regret a thing because all sticks see heavy use. My brother, who has the same setup minus the 4-way, always raves about how much better certain games are with the 4-way when he’s playing on my cabinet.
If there is a new 4-way “simulation” capability in MAME, I’d be really curious to know how it works. If you take a Happ Competition as an example, the problem arises because, as mentioned, it’s relatively easy for the player to accidentally hit a diagonal when they are actually trying to hit a cardinal direction. What this means is that two switches on the joystick are closed simultaneously, when the player is really only intending to close one switch. So, unless MAME can read the player’s mind to find out on a case-by-case basis which of the two inputs corresponds to the player’s true intent, I’m not sure how it would be possible to simulate 4-way operation via software.
dave197878:
Thanks for your responses. Was just wondering if any one herd of this 4-way emulation on mame.
and it if exists or is just a bunch of bs..
Thanks again.
Mario:
--- Quote from: Cynicaster on January 03, 2012, 12:56:07 pm ---So, unless MAME can read the player’s mind to find out on a case-by-case basis which of the two inputs corresponds to the player’s true intent, I’m not sure how it would be possible to simulate 4-way operation via software.
--- End quote ---
Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't Mame just need to ignore the joystick inputs if the diagonals are hit, making a diagonal act as if the joystick was recentered? This could prevent accidental moves, and force the player to move the joystick to the non-diagonal positions.
Or maybe the diagonals will use the last non-diagonal joystick values. For example, moving from UP to UP-LEFT will continue to act like UP, but moving from LEFT to UP-LEFT will continue to act like LEFT.
Mario