How to interface Ivan Stewart 3 player controls to MAME?

[albrigsr]

All,
I have a 3 player Ivan Stewart Offraod Track Pak arcade game which at times is having issues with its board.  I have started thinking that I should just forgot about trying to repair it since the boards are difficult to repair based on my research and connect the controls all to MAME and just use it as a substitute for the board.  It has 3 wheels, 3 buttons (one per player) and 3 gas pedals.  I don't know what I would need to use to interface the controls though or how difficult it would be.  I reviewed the Opti-Pac, Opti-Wiz and U-HID but am still confused.  How many would I need to allow for all 3 players?  Is it possible?  Also, do I need another card/interface for the 3 buttons?  Also, I would like to interface to the existing arcade monitor so I need to understand the best way to accomplish that.  An ArcadeVGA?  Finally, is this all fairly difficult to attempt or should I forget the whole idea?  I have built several standalone MAME machines but they have used just joysticks, buttons and either TV/Computer Monitors.

I appreciate any help!

[BadMouth]

You'll actually need 2 switch inputs for each player.  Start+Coin 

A single U-HID would be able to handle everything, but will require configuring first. 
http://www.u-hid.com/home/u_config_utils.php
You have to tell it which pins will be hooked up to the optical inputs (steering wheels) and analogue inputs (potentiometer in the pedals)

If configuring the U-HID is too intimidating (it shouldn't be), an Opti-Wiz can handle 3 axis; x,y,z(wheel) and shows up as a mouse in windows with no configuring.
One of those would cover all 3 wheels.  I don't think GGG offers any interface for analogue inputs, so you'd still need to order an A-PAC from Ultimarc for the pedals.
The A-PAC will show up as an analogue game controller and has enough other inputs to cove your buttons.
It looks like the Opti-Pac sold by Ultimarc only has 2 axis, so if you wanted to order everything from one place, you'd need 2 of those.
You might want to check with Andy to make sure.

Personally I'd go with the U-HID for the sake of having everything on one interface.
If you already know how to wire an optical encoder, you shouldn't have any trouble with any of these interfaces.
If not, there isn't that much to it to learn.

I'm pretty useless when it comes to arcade monitor info, so I got no advice there.
 

[paigeoliver]

There are also VGA to CGA video convertors you can buy.

All,
I have a 3 player Ivan Stewart Offraod Track Pak arcade game which at times is having issues with its board.  I have started thinking that I should just forgot about trying to repair it since the boards are difficult to repair based on my research and connect the controls all to MAME and just use it as a substitute for the board.  It has 3 wheels, 3 buttons (one per player) and 3 gas pedals.  I don't know what I would need to use to interface the controls though or how difficult it would be.  I reviewed the Opti-Pac, Opti-Wiz and U-HID but am still confused.  How many would I need to allow for all 3 players?  Is it possible?  Also, do I need another card/interface for the 3 buttons?  Also, I would like to interface to the existing arcade monitor so I need to understand the best way to accomplish that.  An ArcadeVGA?  Finally, is this all fairly difficult to attempt or should I forget the whole idea?  I have built several standalone MAME machines but they have used just joysticks, buttons and either TV/Computer Monitors.

I appreciate any help!

[PL1]

Opti-Wiz can handle 3 axis; x,y,z(wheel) and shows up as a mouse in windows with no configuring.

Wouldn't using the z-axis cause the same problem that you encounter with spinners since windows handles z-axis inputs as 4 steps per transition, instead of one-to-one for the X-axis and Y-axis?

Details on the z-axis spinner issue mentioned in this thread.


Scott

Edit:  TopJimmyCooks has updated that thread with a "divide by 4" workaround and recompiling MAME.  Details here.

[matsadona]

I would try to fix the board as the first option, since it will never be the same in MAME - just similar and with a lot of tweaking...
What kind of issues with the board do you have? There are plenty of people around here and at the KLOV forum to help you.

[BadMouth]

Wouldn't using the z-axis cause the same problem that you encounter with spinners since windows handles z-axis inputs as 4 steps per transition, instead of one-to-one for the X-axis and Y-axis?

Details on the z-axis spinner issue mentioned in this thread.

Was not aware of that issue.
I learnted sumfin.
Thanks. 

[albrigsr]

Guys,
Thanks for your help thus far.  If I read it all correctly then it looks like a U-Hid is the way to go with regard to the controls as it can handle everything (I did forget the coin switches!  Thanks!).  I will review the link for the U-Hid.

Paige - I have seen some converters.  It looks like Andy has a VGA Breakout cable
( http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/section.php?xSec=11&xPage=1&jssCart=600ad12d035c5db0654f71f93a876e55 ) on his site or a J-Pac could work for video as well.

matsadona - I have had two issues.  First, the sound is very staticy (not sure that's a word so perhaps a better phrase is that the sound contains much static!).  It's not the volume pot as I have tested for that.  It's possible that the power supply needs to be changed as maybe it's not properly grounded or something.  I will try to do that.  The second issue is that the game ahs started to freeze and garbage appears on the screen.  This is intermittent but when it has happened it wasn't resolved with a power cycle but rather turning off the machine and coming back several days later.  That too could likely be a power issue so that's what I will attempt.  If a new power supply doesn't work then I will likely move toward the MAME route as the posts I have seen on usenet or KLOV all point to people spending hours on end reseating ROMS, changing chips, etc. all utimately with no success.  It's a real bummer because it's a great game and there's nothing like a 3 way race between friends or with my two young sons!

Again, thanks to everyone for the quick responses and let me know if I need to know anything else.

[matsadona]

I think you are on the right track having the PSU as the main suspect. Correct voltages is really critical and from my experience that is usually the problem. Let's hope that is the case here.
But if you are going for MAME, maybe you'll sell me the board

[albrigsr]

matsadona,
No problem.  I will let you know.  Just don't bet against me now on the power supply fix!

[albrigsr]

I bought a new power supply finally from Tornado Terry and installed it.  It solved the static problem.  I just wanted ot post in case someone else has the same problem.