AimTrak and MAME problem

[Dennis691]

Hello everyone, first post here!

My AimTrak gun is having nothing but problems.  I just restarted my computer when I open up the Ultimarc AimTrak program it keeps crashing.  Thats a new problem that just happened right now.

The original problem I am having is with MAME.  I am running all my emulators through HyperSpin and when I use the gun in other emulators it has no problem but when I go through MAME the crosshair is going ALL OVER THE PLACE.  I set the inputs and made sure the X is set to X only and Y is set to Y only.  The gun is regonized as Mouse 1 and when I use a regular mouse or even the trackball it works perfectly, this problem in MAME is strictly limited to the Lightgun. 

I am at a lost with this for now.

[Dennis691]

A little update.

When I turn the gun to an emulated joystick it works perfect in MAME. I prefer to have it a mouse though but it but I hope this can help someone with more info to figure this out.

[ABACABB]

Are you using MAMEUI?  If so, in the Options section where you define controllers, I would suggest setting the lightgun controller to your Aimtrak.  That way trackball games can be set to mouse.  Define the X and Y axis for the lightgun (which would be your Aimtrak).  Start here and see if this gets you anywhere

[DarthMarino]

Yeah, it should recognize as "Gun 1 X" when mapping in MAME.

[Dennis691]

Not using MAMEUI. I got my drive with hyperspin setup so I don't know how to setup mame except pressing tab during a game as the ini file.

I know where the mame exe file is, is there a way I can use MAMEUI with my exsisting mame? I am a huge noob when it comes to mame which is why I went with a setup drive to avoid this...

[DarthMarino]

Is there an INI folder where the MAME exe is?  Do you see an .ini file for the game you are trying to play?

[BadMouth]

In the control mapping screen (TAB), make sure the lines marked INC and DEC aren't mapped to anything.
Those are for button presses and would result in ANY movement of the gun being interpreted as holding down the button for that direction.
(ALL OVER THE PLACE  )

[Dennis691]

There is an ini file in the folder where the exe is MAME/mame.ini. There is also a ini folder with another ini file in it MAME/INI/mame.ini so I don't know which ini file I should change so I changed both lol.

I did set INC and DEC to NONE.

[DarthMarino]

This should help explain how to use the .ini files:
http://easyemu.mameworld.info/mameguide/mameguide-inifiles.html

Change the two I have bolded to "lightgun" instead of "keyboard".  The reason why you should also do it for adstick_device is because some games like T2, Revolution X and Operation Wolf actually use an analog stick that's shaped like a gun.

#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
paddle_device             keyboard
adstick_device            keyboard
pedal_device              keyboard
dial_device               keyboard
trackball_device          keyboard
lightgun_device           keyboard
positional_device         keyboard
mouse_device              mouse

[Dennis691]

i set light gun device to light gun but not adstick.

[DarthMarino]

I was just copying from the site I sent you.  I assume those are default. If the trackball games work then there is no need to change anything.

[DarthMarino]

i set light gun device to light gun but not adstick.

What game are you trying to play? Check the .ini file for that individual game.

[Dennis691]

I tried time crisis, police training and Area 51 and all were the same. Where would the game ini files be?

[Dennis691]

Little update.

Installed MAMEUI and it fixed the problem! 

Only problem I am having now is the left and right buttons aren't mappable but I have to check the aimtrak configure tool to make sure I have those buttons enabled. I will heck that later though.

[leapinlew]

I will never own a lightgun on a cabinet. All I ever see is posts like these. I like the lightgun and the PS2 setup, but lightgun and computer just seems too iffy.

Good job getting yours fixed.

[Dennis691]

Yea I def wouldn't recommend it unless you have the knowledge to tinker around and figure all the bigs out.

I did figure out the buttons, I had to enable joysticks bc the buttons are reconized as a gamepad yet the movement is a mouse. Go figure....

[Runadumb]

I will never own a lightgun on a cabinet. All I ever see is posts like these. I like the lightgun and the PS2 setup, but lightgun and computer just seems too iffy.

Good job getting yours fixed.

While it may be entirely user error I find the guns to be the biggest pain in the ass.  Just started trying to set mine up again after them sitting unused for over a year since the last time and I'm having to look up how to do it again.
 Both MAME and Aimtrak are so well established at this point why there isn't simple integration is surprising to me.

[Dennis691]

Yea the guns are sometimes not worth the extra effort to get them working. Even though I have mine fully working I am afraid to restart my computer and loose it all lol.

They should make a better install and setup process for this, I find myself working on the arcade than I do playing it!