Help with MAME menu

[unit416]

I built my MAME cabinet about 6 years ago using an ipac-4 as a controller and Game-Ex as a front end. I've forgotten most of what I learned to build the cab because it's worked great with no glitches. I am now having a problem that I can't solve. Whenever the SW1 key is pressed (L-ctrl) the MAME menu is brought up as if I am pressing TAB. The SW1 key will also function normally by firing, jumping, etc., but with the menu being brought up it makes the game unplayable. I've reprogrammed the ipac with no luck and am looking for suggestions. 

[paigeoliver]

The very menu you are bringing up can solve your problem. Bring up the menu and look at the controls, you will almost certainly find that somehow L-Ctrl is set to menu, change it back to whatever it was supposed to be.

By chance were there any kids playing on the machine? I have found that any 2 grade school aged children left alone with a cabinet for 30 minutes will manage to get into the tab menu and change the controls by accident, even if you have the tab menu set to an impossibly unlikely button combo (if you put a button for it on the panel, then forget it, they will mess up the controls in 10 minutes). I always hide my tab button somewhere on the machine where it isn't visible.

[LeedsFan]

Yeah the TAB menu itself is where you fix this. One thing to add is that it's best to have just one key or button for any switch or option. In Mame you can have a few inputs to do one thing... for example you can have three different keys to act as button #1 input. It's best to use just one only. In Mame you see this as "Player 1 Button 1    L.Alt  or  Mouse 1  or  etc.etc."  Go down to that line and press Delete. It should then say "None" for that input. Then press Enter and you can press whatever you like for that input.

I used to make the mistake of pressing Enter first and then pressing Delete.... which only added Delete to the list of keys for that input!   

(This is assuming the Delete key is used for clearing the selected input. As default it is though, unless it's been changed)


It is amazing how kids manage to find these menus. My DK bartop has been working flawlessly for 2 years now... and just this weekend I took my projects to an exhibition. With a couple of hours I come back to the machine and it's got a Mame menu up on the screen!     

[unit416]

You hit the nail on the head... my kids were playing it before it went haywire. I will do what you suggested and see if that fixes it. Thanks alot!