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Has anyone ever worked out Force Feedback for San Fran Rush/MAME?

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twistedsymphony:
I own 3 fully working San Francisco Rush Arcade machines I'm debating converting one or all of them into Racing MAME setups and I've been doing a lot of research.

The key for me is I want to be able to continue playing San Fran Rush in these cabs with as near perfect emulation as possible... and that include Force Feedback.

I know the sticky states "Force Feedback - Not supported in MAME", however I was wondering if it's possible to use something like MAMEHooker to get FFB output, or if there is anyone actively working on getting FFB outputs from MAME?

I was also wondering, on a technical level, what exact is missing from MAME that is preventing FFB from working? I do have software development experience, though I spend most of my time writing database applications, I wouldn't mind at least seeing if there is anything I can contribute to a solution.

For me a Racing MAME setup isn't worth doing unless I can get FFB from my San Fran Rush.


FWIW I already have a pair of Global VR Immersion PCBs that I can use to interface the original Arcade system with a PC.

Howard_Casto:
Before  you get your hopes up, I don't think you understand how mamehooker works.  Mame has an output system that by itself does absolutely nothing.  All mamehooker does is communicate with that output system.  So if it doesn't work in mame, it doesn't work in mamehooker, that's the deal. 

SFR has rather complex FF, I've never attempted to work on it.  Feel free to have a go if you want to though.

twistedsymphony:
Thanks for the reply. So if I understand what you're saying MAME itself isn't generating any signals that MAME hooker can latch on to?

I thought that outputs in MAME were enabled as of version .110? Is this a problem with the specific drivers for the particular games that feature FFB or is it something else altogether?

BadMouth:
(was typed before Howard's reply)

There's no workaround.   :(

No one is working on it as far as I know.  What is missing varies by driver.  Some don't have the ffb boards emulated, some with simple shaker motors and such just need the outputs "hooked up" (I don't really know what that means).
I'll leave any further explanation to someone more knowledgeable about coding MAME.
Check out Howard's MAMEHooker threads in the software forum for a little insight.

There is an obscure PC version of Rush the Rock out there that has force feedback, but it didn't resemble any feedback in the arcade game IMO.
The game is rare because it only worked with one video card on the market when it was released, but you can find it online packaged with a glide wrapper that allows it to run.  It has a bunch of weird quirks where you have to press a key to enable analog control, then another to switch it to steering wheel control.  This isn't done until after the race starts.  I was working on an autohotkey script to automated it, but have had too many other things to work on recently.  With some tweaks to the glide wrapper, you can get it looking like the original arcade game.
In summary, the game is worth checking out, but is a PITA to get working with analog controls and the ffb seems to include engine vibration which gets annoying.   

Howard_Casto:

--- Quote from: twistedsymphony on January 24, 2014, 12:01:50 pm ---Thanks for the reply. So if I understand what you're saying MAME itself isn't generating any signals that MAME hooker can latch on to?

I thought that outputs in MAME were enabled as of version .110? Is this a problem with the specific drivers for the particular games that feature FFB or is it something else altogether?

--- End quote ---

No the output SYSTEM was enabled as of .110.  Outputs have to be added on a game by game basis.  As Badmouth said, sometimes it's a trivial matter of finding the memory address and linking it to a output function (aka hooking it up), sometimes the data is encrypted and it has to be sorted before we can use it and sometimes, as in the case of SF Rush, the game had a dedicated pcb that was used just for outputs that hasn't been emulated in mame. 

Aside from me, there isn't a whole lot of interest in the MAME dev community in terms of hooking up outputs that do anything complex.  It worked so much on it over a period of 1 year that I burnt myself out on it and haven't returned to work since. 

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