Lono2 vs iPac4

[millercentral]

I'm in the midst of a refresh/overhaul of my beloved 3-way cocktail. Along the way, I picked up a Lono2 4 joystick USB controller to replace the iPac4 that is currently drive the majority of the inputs. I've had some minor problems with the ipac4 over the years, and thought the joystick-based interface of the Lono2 would be a nice upgrade...

But now I'm having second thoughts... While I know MAME configuration won't be a problem, I'm planning to experiment with other emulators after the refresh as well (especially VisualPinball, Future Pinball, AAE, Supermodel), and upgrade to HyperSpin for the front end, and I'm worried that they won't all be as flexible from an input config point of view.

Will I be running into trouble moving to an all joystick-based input system? If so, will Joy2Key be enough to solve any problems I might face with this plan?

Or, another thought, is there any problem wiring some of the critical buttons (like the pinball buttons) to BOTH the lono2 and the iPac4?

Would love some advice on the matter.

Thanks! -james

[Nephasth]

No problem with Hyperspin or Nestopia. I haven't dicked around with any other emulators. But any emulator that can utilize a gamepad device won't be an issue. And I believe Joy2Key should take care of issues with emulators that want to see a keyboard.

Quick question though... why have 2 4-player controller devices in one cab?

ETA: If you want to "try before you buy", just try using any computer gamepad (if you have one) in the emulators you want to use. If they work, cool, if not try Joy2Key. If it works with Joy2Key, the Lono will too.

[Trip]

Kinda wish I would of saw the Lono2 before I got the ipac4, having issues with keyboard keys causing some unusual errors when 4 players are banging on it at once.  Don't know if it is key conflicts or what yet remapped any ctrl/alt/shift keys out of my setup.   Lono should get rid of any chance of that with MAME.

Let us know your thoughts when it gets installed.

[PL1]

VP and FP can definitely be picky about wanting keypresses instead of HID buttons.

If joy2key or xpadder don't work, you can use Degenatron's AVR encoder in pinball mode to handle the flippers and your dedicated admin buttons.


Scott

[millercentral]

Quick question though... why have 2 4-player controller devices in one cab?

The original plan was to replace the iPac4 with the Lono2, so there would be only one. But not having any other plans for the iPac, I've considered leaving it in and either duplicating inputs, or have a few specific inputs wired to it, in order to make emulator/app configurations easier.