Mapping X-Arcade Joystick So I Don't Need A Keyboard Or Mouse

[SalParadise]

Hello, I'm new to this whole "build your own cabinet" thing, and am hoping to get some guidance from someone who's been down this path before.

I have the trackball-less X-Arcade two player joystick and am hoping to use one of the four "programable modes" to configure the whole system so I don't need to have a keyboard or mouse.  I'd like to fire up the pc and have it auto-launch the Mame program and then be able to use the joystick to navigate through what game want to play.

So, the way I see it, I need help in how to set up these three things:

1 - How to have my pc auto-launch the Mame program.
2 - How to program my joystick to work for all games, but also add "enter" and "escape" (so that there is no need for a keyboard).
3 - Can my pc be configured to run via a toggle switch for on/off? (so I don't need to "shut down" the computer each time).

Any guidance would be appreaciated.

Best,
Evan

[SalParadise]

Let's simplify this a bit, can anyone provide me with a layout/key/legend of how I should map my X-Arcade dual joystick (no trackball) so that I can funtion in Mame without a keyboard or mouse?

All help is greatly appreciated.

[BadMouth]

Let's simplify this a bit, can anyone provide me with a layout/key/legend of how I should map my X-Arcade dual joystick (no trackball) so that I can funtion in Mame without a keyboard or mouse?

All help is greatly appreciated.

Wanting to remap the x-arcade is kind of off track for what you want to do.

Press TAB while playing a game in MAME.
go to INPUT-GENERAL

Remap UI Enter (or something like that) to whatever button or combination you want to launch a game
Remap UI Cancel to whatever you want to exit a game

Mess around with MAME's input system and learn how remapping works.
Press delete to clear a field.  Map something and then immediately map it again and it will be mapped to EITHER of the buttons you just mapped.
Press two buttons at the same time and it will be mapped to the combo.
Just play around with it until you understand it.

To choose and launch games, most people use a program referred to as a "front end".
Most absolute newbs start out with Maximus Arcade.
Some front ends can shut down the PC for you when you exit.  I'm not sure about Maximus Arcade.
Most have an option to start them with windows, but if not all you have to do is place a shortcut to the program in the windows startup folder.

Once you've become familiar enough with MAME and front-ends, you'll probably want to run emulators other than MAME.
Then you might want to remap the first four Player 1 buttons on the x-arcade to plain letters instead of the MAME defaults. 
Some other emulators can't use buttons like Shift and Ctrl.
If you're only running MAME, then it doesn't matter.

[SalParadise]

Thanks for the tips, in the past hour I've successfully set up all of the "in-game" controls.

My next step will be looking into the front end/Maximus Arcade, so that I can scroll through, select, etc while just in the GUI.

Thanks, again.

[BadMouth]

Thanks for the tips, in the past hour I've successfully set up all of the "in-game" controls.

My next step will be looking into the front end/Maximus Arcade, so that I can scroll through, select, etc while just in the GUI.

Thanks, again.

An area of confusion for newbs is the variety of things being referred to as MAME.
On true official MAME build, the game selection screen looks like this:


If it looks like this, then you're using some unofficial derivative like MAMEUI or MAME32


It's fine to use the one with the better user interface.  I use MAMEUI on my laptop to try out new versions and use the official MAME build on my cab.
To select games on the cab, I use a front-end.  I use Mala, but it's no longer updated and recent changes in MAME has made it harder to use with the current version of MAME.

I'd start with Maximus Arcade, Atomic FE, or mGalaxy. 
You probably want to get a feel for how this stuff works before setting up something more complicated like Hyperspin.

[SalParadise]

Thanks for the guidance.

You're right, I'm using MAMEUI and will have to look into a front end to work with.  In reading about them, they all seem like a major pain to configure.

I really just need to create macros for my X-Arcade joystick for Enter, Page Up, and Page Down.

Thinking about just using one of my three programmable modes to accomplish this, and then just toggle the mode back to what I've already set up for game play.

Thanks, again.