IPAC Programming special chars.

[billf1]

Is there a way to program special chars that are linked to shift inputs (ex. !@#$%^&*()_)?

When I try to enter them, it takes my shift press, not the special char.  My next project will be four player, and I need to get in some of these keys to avoid dupes, and avoid the possibility of ctrl, alt, shift etc, exiting or otherwise breaking things and many of the normal special chars are already used in MAME, and I would either lose control (of something I would like to have as shift functions), or run out of unique keys, so obviously may have a button do something I did not intend.

Thanks,
Bill

[AndyWarne]

You can program upper case keys as macros.

But I dont think you want to do this. I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding here. A lower case and upper case key on a keyboard sends exactly the same keycode. The OS works out whether you wanted a lower or upper case character (or the top row of characters on the top row of keys) by checking if it received a shift key code.

This is not relevant in Mame. You can only use each key in Mame not each symbol marked on each key.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I use the following additional keys which work for me on my 4-player panel:
\
/
[
]
'
0
-
=
,
.

D

[billf1]

You can program upper case keys as macros.

But I dont think you want to do this. I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding here. A lower case and upper case key on a keyboard sends exactly the same keycode. The OS works out whether you wanted a lower or upper case character (or the top row of characters on the top row of keys) by checking if it received a shift key code.

This is not relevant in Mame. You can only use each key in Mame not each symbol marked on each key.

ohh, that sucks.  I knew that i could not type a "$" for example in MAME, but I thought it was because MAME recognizes L-Shift or R-Shift as a key stroke and "4" as a separate keystroke,... So i thought that if I bound "$" to a a button in iPAC, then used a button bound as they key it would work to program "$" as a command, because i was accessing it with one keystroke still.

Upper/Lower I knew was not an option already.  But I thought that was due to the fact MAME thought that people would hit caps lock and "break" their games and not know why it had happened.

Thanks Andy

Bill

[billf1]

I use the following additional keys which work for me on my 4-player panel:
\
/
[
]
'
0
-
=
,
.

D

I was planning on a couple, but I was thinking I would still be one key short.  ohh well, not the end of the world, just not ideal.  I think my other option is to double up P1 buttons 5, 6, 7 with P3 2, 3, 4, and same for P2 and P4, as the 5, 6, 7 buttons would not be used anyway on any 4 player games.  although then it would be up to P1 & P2, to not be an ass and screw up P3 and P4.

[AndyWarne]

I use the following additional keys which work for me on my 4-player panel:
\
/
[
]
'
0
-
=
,
.

D

All of those will work because you can assign any key to any input. But it is any KEY rather than any character as its a keyboard device. So for example $ and 4 are both the same KEY.

[AndyWarne]

I was planning on a couple, but I was thinking I would still be one key short.  ohh well, not the end of the world, just not ideal.  I think my other option is to double up P1 buttons 5, 6, 7 with P3 2, 3, 4, and same for P2 and P4, as the 5, 6, 7 buttons would not be used anyway on any 4 player games.  although then it would be up to P1 & P2, to not be an ass and screw up P3 and P4.

I am not fully clear on what you need to do. There are approx 100 different keys available for selection, is this not sufficient?

[billf1]

My keyboard isn't full-size, so I do not have 100 keys that I can press, I can scrounge up an old keyboard though, not a big deal.  Or I should be fine if I use function keys, but several are programmed to other emulators I use and cannot be changed, so I was trying to avoid them, but I guess I could use them for P3 and P4, as they wont be used for other emu's anyway.

[AndyWarne]

I was going to suggest using the Windows on-screen keyboard but I tried this and MS seem to have removed all the function and num keypad keys from this.

But there are probably other third-party on-screen keyboards out there which have all keys available.