Is there something special about the letter "Q" in Mame?

[jhuie]

I'm helping a friend convert his SF II cab to run Mame. Using a JPAC to do keyboard encoding. All works well, except that button 3 on the player two side sends a lower case Q...but Mame won't recognize it.  In Notepad, it's clearly being sent properly.  But when I hit TAB and go into program the controls, it won't accept the q character at all, either from the button or from the keyboard. It will let me assign pretty much any other key...but not q.  What am I missing?

On a related note, I have another Mame cabinet that's working fine and has been running for a long time.  It only has 2 player buttons but it randomly sends the lowercase q character.  Not sure where it's coming from yet.  Mostly it's harmless and just causes a beep since it's not assigned to anything. But if I'm in Notepad editing something it will insert the letter q in random places as I'm typing.  Strange

Thoughts?

[shateredsoul]

hmm... are you using hyperspin?

[BadMouth]

Did your friend do his set up from scratch or copy everything over from yours (possibly along with the q issue)?

Old forgotten AutoHotKey script?

I have one that posts "q" to exit some pc games.

[Turnarcades]

It could be a failsafe in the MAME version you're usng or the front-end. I'v always mapped player controls to 'regular' keys (a-z except for q, 0-9, comma, full stop etc. and the numpad) as even the MAME defaults use 'function' keys like CTRL and SHIFT, which some other emulators do not like (they either can't be mapped or cause conflicts with emulator functions). I've managed to map 4 players with credit and start buttons each without using anything but 'regular' keys, as it avoids any issues like this whatever platforms you use.

[jhuie]

Yes, I'm using Hyperspin. No, I didn't copy it from the other machine. It was a fresh install.  Are other people able to map a q to a button? Button 3 specifically? Or is there something in Mame that disables that?

[Turnarcades]

Dunno, but just in case I'd avoid using Q and just use a different key.

[jhuie]

Well q is the default for the third button on player 2.  I went to my other machine and checked and it was set to q, even thought it doesn't use a 3rd button. But....when I went to change it and then change it back to q again....it won't let me.  I don't know if this is a bug in Mame or a "feature" or just something I have configured wrong on both boxes.  I like the idea of using the default keys and it would be better than having to go figure out how to reprogram the jpac.  But it won't let me! 

[bkenobi]

You can always manually edit the cfg file.  But, if MAME doesn't detect the button in the setup, it probably won't during game play either.

[Dazz]

Yes, I'm using Hyperspin. No, I didn't copy it from the other machine. It was a fresh install.  Are other people able to map a q to a button? Button 3 specifically? Or is there something in Mame that disables that?

Disable, the use HyperLaunch option in HyperHQ for HyperSpin.  By default that locks out the Q & S buttons in MAME.  HyperLaunch is not needed for MAME.  Also, HyperLaunch force quits MAME on exit.  Any button changes you made in MAME will not save unless HyperLaunch is disabled.

[shateredsoul]

Yes, I'm using Hyperspin. No, I didn't copy it from the other machine. It was a fresh install.  Are other people able to map a q to a button? Button 3 specifically? Or is there something in Mame that disables that?

Disable, the use HyperLaunch option in HyperHQ for HyperSpin.  By default that locks out the Q & S buttons in MAME.  HyperLaunch is not needed for MAME.  Also, HyperLaunch force quits MAME on exit.  Any button changes you made in MAME will not save unless HyperLaunch is disabled.

yup, that's why i asked  , I had that same issue with other buttons .. I had issues if a button in the emulator matched one of the admin buttons in hyperlaunch

[jhuie]

Ooooooooooooh.  Ok then. Thank you guys! I'm not sure I ever would have figured that one out on my own.

[mrtuesday42]

yeah. i had a similar issue where i would accidentally quit games because player 2 was using q as a button, which by default is quit for hyperspin.

[elkameleon]

I just want to say that this was my issue too, specifically with mortal kombat, because I had to change the default controls. I changed the execution from hyperlaunch to normal, and bam! everything works now. Thanks!

[MTPPC]

I edited the hyperlaunch script and recompiled it to use two unused keys for the secret quit function. I didn't know you could just can hyperlaunch for mame.

[Gray_Area]

This shouldn't be a problem in-game. Bad Hyperspin.

[MTPPC]

I came to realize that I didn't have the problem in MAME. My setup defaulted MAME to not use hyperlaunch. I had the problem on NAOMI and Dreamcast emulators. It really threw me off for a while until I identified exactly what button combo it was and when I searched that, I found a thread where someone else had the problem. http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?2234-WTF-My-Q-key-doesn-t-work