Conflict with buttons and emulators Maximus Arcade

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Hello All

Im building my third mame cab and this time im using windows 7 with MA.

I have run into some conflicts that i didnt have before with XP

basically ive noticed that some buttons such as the alt button causes my game to pause and then go in to selecting tabs at the top.  my nes emulator does this, and so does my genesis emulator.  ive downloaded different emus for these consoles and seem to have the same prob.

im using a keyboard that i hacked so that i can choose any button i wish, but my default setup worked on my previous 2 mame cabs.

ive included a pic of my mame button layout.  if i have to i guess i could change all the wiring for different buttons but i would like to avoid this if i can.

i chose this button/key layout because thats what Mame uses.

any help or advice would be appreciated

[PL1]

im using a keyboard that i hacked

First point of concern is the 6-button limit imposed by "boot protocol mode" which almost all keyboards use. 

Second point of concern is possible blocking/ghosting depending on the keys you select.

If budget is that big of an issue, please consider getting two KADE AVRs from a source like the one mentioned here instead of a keyboard hack.

Change P1B1 (Ctrl) and P1B2 (Alt) to another keystroke not used on your panel.

Go into "Input (general)" -- "Player 1 Controls" and change those two button settings.

If you've previously changed the default inputs on any games, you'll need to manually change the P1B1 and P1B2 settings in those games.


Scott

[Delicious]

thats what i was thinking i might have to do

any key recommendations for p1b1 and p1b2?

thank you

[PL1]

any key recommendations for p1b1 and p1b2?

No keys in particular.

MAME is really flexible so just pick two keys that don't conflict with fixed functions in your other emulators and you'll be fine -- assuming you ditch the keyboard hack. 


Scott

[Delicious]

for some strange reason i didnt see your first reply till now,  is an avr an encoder?  im not really on a budget so i dont mind dropping a little cash on something here and there. 

in future builds i want to do light up buttons, i assume ill need something other than an encoder for that right?  some type of separate controller for the leds?


thank you for your time btw,  i was totally unaware of that  6-button limit imposed by "boot protocol mode".  all i knew was that i had to always disable sticky keys.

[PL1]

for some strange reason i didnt see your first reply till now,  is an avr an encoder?  im not really on a budget so i dont mind dropping a little cash on something here and there. 

I was too slow on the edit. (finished it just before you clicked on reply)  That's why you didn't see it.   

The KADE firmwares turn compatible AVR microcontrollers into encoders.

IMHO they are a great combination of low cost and versatility.

in future builds i want to do light up buttons, i assume ill need something other than an encoder for that right?  some type of separate controller for the leds?

Depends on what you want:
* One color always-on -- easy to wire, no controller needed
* Changing/animated colors -- much more complicated to wire, requires a controller

i was totally unaware of that  6-button limit imposed by "boot protocol mode".

That limit is why the MAME devs originally chose Ctrl, Alt, Shift, etc. -- "modifier" buttons don't count against the limit.   


Scott

[DeLuSioNal29]

Did you try disabling numlock in your BIOS?

[Delicious]

Did you try disabling numlock in your BIOS?

never have thought about that,  im just a newbie enjoying everything im learning. 

DeLuSioNal29

I want to personally thank you for all you have done for MA, the tutorials themes, and such.

I use your intro movie for all my mames when they start up.  I even use the Ace Mega Codecs because i saw you recommended it.
 

Ive got a MA question that you might know about, ive searched the forums and didnt find anything about this.

basically when i  select mame in MA and go to scroll through the list a letter at a time it only goes through letters A through G.  i dont know why when it was going A through Z earlier    I have even forced rescan of all games on start up and have no luck.

any ideas?

[Delicious]

PL1 thanks for the tips. 

im sure this is probably a stupid question but are these avrs superior to my hacked keyboards?


the main reason i like hacking keyboards is that i can choose any key to assign to any button.

the price is certainly right on them

or do you think i would be better off buying an encoder such as the Ipac?


on the light up buttons i wanted them to do patterns and such instead of being static.  I was curious about led blink software but  i didnt see anything about buying additional hardware


anyways thank you so much for your you advice,  i changed out the ctrl and the alt buttons and everything works great

[PL1]

are these avrs superior to my hacked keyboards?

Yes.

Comparing a hacked keybboard to a modern encoder is like comparing a Model-T to a modern car.

Both have internal combustion motors, 4 wheels, and are used to get from point A to point B, but . . .

As the personal text under RandyT's avatar says, "Friends don't let friends hack keyboards."   

the main reason i like hacking keyboards is that i can choose any key to assign to any button.

You know you can do this with any dedicated keyboard encoder (IPac, KeyWiz, KADE), right?   

on the light up buttons i wanted them to do patterns and such instead of being static.  I was curious about led blink software but  i didnt see anything about buying additional hardware

Something has to translate the software commands that switch the LEDs on and off.

anyways thank you so much for your you advice,  i changed out the ctrl and the alt buttons and everything works great

Glad to assist.   


Scott

[DeLuSioNal29]

Did you try disabling numlock in your BIOS?

never have thought about that,  im just a newbie enjoying everything im learning. 

The reason I brought that up was because Windows 7 has issues with Numlock with some controllers.
Read more here:  http://joomla.maximusarcade.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2270

I want to personally thank you for all you have done for MA, the tutorials themes, and such.
I use your intro movie for all my mames when they start up.  I even use the Ace Mega Codecs because i saw you recommended it.
 

Glad to hear it!

basically when i  select mame in MA and go to scroll through the list a letter at a time it only goes through letters A through G.  i dont know why when it was going A through Z earlier    I have even forced rescan of all games on start up and have no luck.

any ideas?

Did you change the location of your MAME directory (upgraded version of MAME, etc)?  Maximus hates this.  For example, if you originally had MAME in the C:\MAME directory and then move it to somewhere else, Maximus still looks at the original location.  (You may hear beeps when trying to select certain games).

I've never seen MA behave as you described though.  It's usually able to scroll through the whole a - z list.

DeLuSioNaL29

[Delicious]

I never moved the directory, all the game work when i select them.  i can use player one joystick to scroll through a page at a time if i move it left or right. but when i try to page by letter pressing player 1 or 2 it only goes a through g. 

i can page to games with letter g and then go past letter g by using the joystick. 

PL1 thanks for the link im gonna order 2 of those avrs and try them out