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Author Topic: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)  (Read 41972 times)

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PL1

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #40 on: February 09, 2016, 06:39:42 pm »
Originally I thought the file size might be enough of a hint to violate the rules.
We have no problem with listing the file size or list of the contents of roms though, so maybe?
I wouldn't throw a Rule 5 flag on a post that contained info like the following:
- Game title
- Company /author
- Year released
- Operating system
- Controls
- Installed executable filename (i.e. "Daytona.exe" NOT "Cornholio's_Daytona_Pack.rar" NOT a self-extracting executable NOT an .ISO)
- Executable filesize (installed/uncompressed)

If the info posted describes the game, no problem.   ;D

If the info posted describes how/where to find a copy for download, that gets into Rule 5 territory.   :police:


Scott
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 08:39:09 pm by PL1 »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #41 on: February 09, 2016, 06:42:02 pm »
Originally I thought the file size might be enough of a hint to violate the rules.
We have no problem with listing the file size or list of the contents of roms though, so maybe?
I wouldn't throw a Rule 5 flag on a post that contained info like the following:
- Game title
- Company /author
- Year released
- Operating system
- Controls
- Filesize

If the info posted describes the game, no problem.   ;D

If the info posted describes how/where to find a copy for download, that gets into Rule 5 territory.   :police:


Scott

File name other than the game title?  :angel:


PL1

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #42 on: February 09, 2016, 06:46:35 pm »
File name other than the game title?  :angel:
I knew I was forgetting something.   :embarassed:

Describes the game, doesn't hint where to get it.

Added.


Scott
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 06:49:42 pm by PL1 »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #43 on: February 09, 2016, 07:52:21 pm »
File name other than the game title?  :angel:
I knew I was forgetting something.   :embarassed:

Describes the game, doesn't hint where to get it.

Added.


Scott

Honestly I would draw the line at the file size.
Giving the file name of the bootleg compressed file is a huge hint IMO.
...but if management is ok with it.  :)

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #44 on: February 09, 2016, 08:29:20 pm »
Honestly I would draw the line at the file size.
Giving the file name of the bootleg compressed file is a huge hint IMO.
...but if management is ok with it.  :)
I agree that a filename of a compressed bootleg pack or self-extracting executable would be a huge hint, but the name of the installed executable file should be fine.

Clarified.
- Installed executable filename (i.e. "Daytona.exe" NOT "Cornholio's_Daytona_Pack.rar" NOT a self-extracting executable NOT an .ISO)
- Executable filesize (installed/uncompressed)


Scott
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 08:39:30 pm by PL1 »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #45 on: February 09, 2016, 09:56:55 pm »
By the way (and completely off topic), if any of you are playing this game with a wheel and pedals, how in the world do you do a hydro jump????? I can't figure it out and I'm leaving too many turbo boosts left on the playing field!

I played some this evening with an xbox controller.
Accell and Brake were just mapped to buttons.

I found that I had to keep Accell down also.
I'd already be on the gas and boost buttons, then hit the brake button and it would jump.
Not sure how that works on a combined axis.

Whatever version I have, the sound crapped out on the medium courses.
The music and some sound effects were there, but the engine noise was gone.

EDIT:  If you're using a logitech wheel, you can have profiler post a button press for the brake pedal instead of an axis.
I don't think the game relies heavily on having an analog brake pedal.  :lol
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 10:03:21 pm by BadMouth »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #46 on: February 09, 2016, 10:30:08 pm »
Damn that looks pretty good.  It's got a wave racey vibe too.  Now that Nintendo is finally making games in 1080p it's a crime against humanity we don't have another wave race game. 

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #47 on: February 09, 2016, 10:48:23 pm »
Damn that looks pretty good.  It's got a wave racey vibe too.  Now that Nintendo is finally making games in 1080p it's a crime against humanity we don't have another wave race game.

I played it a lot this evening.  It's fun (well worth $1.39!), but I do have some gripes about it. 
The usual "newer games suck" stuff.
Everything is about acquiring skill points and money to improve your jetski.
It's 90% that and only 10% actually learning the track and getting smarter about your lines.
I was stuck on a level and repeatedly came in 2nd every time.
Then I noticed that everyone but the guy who came in 1st had the same jetski as me.
He had the next level up.
Sure enough, as soon as I won enough money and spent it on the next performance upgrade.....first place!
Also, you don't learn how to do new tricks by learning anything.  You "buy" new tricks with skill points.  ::)

Both analog sticks are required to do tricks, which is how you get boost.
So I don't think it will work with a steering wheel setup.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 10:50:25 pm by BadMouth »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #48 on: February 09, 2016, 11:00:24 pm »
Buying riptide!

Looks like it will be another week before the cabinet is done because I keep playing games!

Thanks for the heads up!

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #49 on: February 09, 2016, 11:12:25 pm »
Damn that looks pretty good.  It's got a wave racey vibe too.  Now that Nintendo is finally making games in 1080p it's a crime against humanity we don't have another wave race game.

I played it a lot this evening.  It's fun (well worth $1.39!), but I do have some gripes about it. 
The usual "newer games suck" stuff.
Everything is about acquiring skill points and money to improve your jetski.
It's 90% that and only 10% actually learning the track and getting smarter about your lines.
I was stuck on a level and repeatedly came in 2nd every time.
Then I noticed that everyone but the guy who came in 1st had the same jetski as me.
He had the next level up.
Sure enough, as soon as I won enough money and spent it on the next performance upgrade.....first place!
Also, you don't learn how to do new tricks by learning anything.  You "buy" new tricks with skill points.  ::)

Both analog sticks are required to do tricks, which is how you get boost.
So I don't think it will work with a steering wheel setup.

That's the "Mario Kart 8" gameplay model and I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon.  The only thing is, it works much better for MKart8 because it's also a battle game, so a slow cart can still potentially win a race.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #50 on: February 09, 2016, 11:15:26 pm »
Quote

Both analog sticks are required to do tricks, which is how you get boost.
So I don't think it will work with a steering wheel setup.

Good thing I just saw this.  I think I'll skip it and keep working.  My cabinet thanks you.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder
« Reply #51 on: February 10, 2016, 01:22:33 pm »
Both analog sticks are required to do tricks, which is how you get boost.
So I don't think it will work with a steering wheel setup.

It will work with my yoke+ ;)  Thanks, gonna try it out

@Howard - I concur with BM, Off Road Thunder analog is desperately needed. 

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #52 on: February 10, 2016, 10:28:59 pm »
Ok.... Offroad thunder it is.  (This one is surprisingly fun btw.). 

So I did a cheat engine search on the game and found the time left and speedo values.  I'll look for the steering later tonight.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #53 on: February 11, 2016, 01:30:27 am »
Ok, that was surprisingly easy.  I found the analog value for the wheel, blocked it, and confirmed that I could adjust it manually in an analog fashion. 

Is there anyone out there that's good at assembly hacking?  The reason I ask is that while I can certainly write a wrapper for the game the change that needs to be made is so small that an exe patch might be better. 

Here's what's going on:

The game reads the controllers via HID interface, which is nice because all the values will be the same.  The X axis is 0 (full left) to around 65,000 (full right) or read as a float 0 to 10.  Now the game does all sorts of nonsense to this value which I'm largely ignoring as it isn't important.  Eventually it converts it to one of three values.... -2.0 (full left), 0 (centered), or 2.0 (full right).  So yeah it makes zero sense... they took a game expecting a float of -2 to 2, an analog, float value and fed it one of 3 digital values even though they read a gamepad to get an analog, float value.

Anyway....

All that needs done is the joystick x axis, which I have the address to, needs to be multiplied by .4 to get the 4 integer resolution, subtract 2, to put the left values in the negative range, and store it in the game engines steering value, which I also have the address to.  So three lines of assembly and it's fixed.  Unfortunately code caves and assembly aren't my field of expertise.... reading it and writing it are two different things. 

So if anyone can help me out let me know.  Otherwise I can write a wrapper fairly easily.  I'll go ahead and get the view value and the rpm so those can be fed to mamehooker as well.  Did offroad thunder have force feedback?

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #54 on: February 11, 2016, 02:50:25 am »
So I found all the pertinent outputs... speed, rpm, nitro, view ect.....

The original game had three view buttons correct? 

I'm going to try and part those out tomorrow like I did Outrun 2k6 and find something that can be used for FF. 

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #55 on: February 11, 2016, 03:04:42 am »
I'm going to try and part those out tomorrow like I did Outrun 2k6 and find something that can be used for FF.
... or for a simple xinput rumble :D

May I ask what the minimum specs are for this game?

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #56 on: February 11, 2016, 07:30:54 am »
I'm going to try and part those out tomorrow like I did Outrun 2k6 and find something that can be used for FF.
... or for a simple xinput rumble :D

May I ask what the minimum specs are for this game?

You may, but you really don't even need to.  :lol

From the Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Box:
Windows 2000 or XP
1.4Ghz Pentium 3
AMD Sempron 2220+
256MB RAM
DirectX9 video card with 32MB of RAM

EDIT:
This is one of the big reasons I'd like to see the controls on this or the other version of Rush The Rock working.
SF Rush works fine in MAME, but takes a pretty good PC to run at full speed.
Same goes for running Rush2049 on a Dreamcast emulator.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 07:43:30 am by BadMouth »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #57 on: February 11, 2016, 07:33:12 am »
:D
Thanks, good to know I am still in specs (glorious P4 3GHz).

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #58 on: February 11, 2016, 07:46:50 am »
Yeah I'm no help on the writing but that's great news!  Thanks!!!

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #59 on: February 11, 2016, 08:17:05 am »
So I found all the pertinent outputs... speed, rpm, nitro, view ect.....

The original game had three view buttons correct? 

I'm going to try and part those out tomorrow like I did Outrun 2k6 and find something that can be used for FF.

don't have much time, so just posting the pics of what's there.
Standard Happ Active Driving setup used in all midway stuff.
Calibration in the service menu goes 0-240

EDIT:  You don't need to try to turn it into the arcade version.  Most of us will be overjoyed just to have analog control so we can add the game to our cabs.
FFB would be a huge bonus.  Of course if that's the type of thing you enjoy working on, have at it.  :)
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 09:13:45 am by BadMouth »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #60 on: February 11, 2016, 09:18:42 am »
As usual thanks for the info... it saves me a lot of time. 

I'm not as familiar with the late era midway stuff....  WTF is a hoop cam?

Btw I may only have a resolution of -2 to 2 for the wheel, but it's a float, so the actual resolution is infinitely larger than that because I can do fractions. 

Should I perhaps de-res the joystick value to one byte (0-255) prior to conversion to keep the arcade resolution in tact?

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #61 on: February 11, 2016, 09:31:18 am »
Hey I haven't tried this on the racing cab yet, but did this game already have force feedback?  I fired up the hex editor for the exe and there are around 30 clearly labeled force-feedback constants in the game... almost as if there was going to be an adjustment menu.  It all seems to eventually be merged into "FFB" and "FFB 2" along with some other clearly labeled outputs like the speedo and shock force.

I'll work on it tonight like I did last night, but it looks like there are already values I can use in the game and, if you don't mind me writing to the exe, I can probably make a cfg menu for all of those FFB constants as well. 

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #62 on: February 11, 2016, 10:01:17 am »
I'm not as familiar with the late era midway stuff....  WTF is a hoop cam?

Hoop CAP.
Those crazy folks at Happ call a steering wheel a hoop and a center cap a hoop cap.  :P
It does nothing but cover the bolts that hold the wheel onto the adapter.

It's been so long since I tried the MAT3 version on my cab that I can't guarantee it didn't have force feedback, but I'm 99% sure it didn't.
I'm sure I would have remembered a game that had ffb, but didn't have analog control!
This game ran on the same PC as hydro thunder, which we've learned ran on an embedded OS with TNT extenders that allowed windows drivers and commands to work on it.
Maybe they were able to start out with the original code from the arcade game and then modify it to run on a home PC.
Or maybe they started out planning to have it as a feature, then the bigwigs at Midway said "hey we're running out of money, this thing needs to ship today!"

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #63 on: February 11, 2016, 10:07:38 am »
I wouldn't  bother with the 0-255 stuff unless it becomes evident that this PC version contains huge chunks of the actual arcade game code and it's already in there somewhere and just being worked around.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #64 on: February 11, 2016, 12:45:55 pm »
Well this is decidedly 2000-ish windows force feedback.  There's even a "vibration.ffe" effect file in the common folder for MAT 3.  It looks to me like the game shipped unfinished.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #65 on: February 11, 2016, 12:48:39 pm »
EDIT:
This is one of the big reasons I'd like to see the controls on this or the other version of Rush The Rock working.
SF Rush works fine in MAME, but takes a pretty good PC to run at full speed.
Same goes for running Rush2049 on a Dreamcast emulator.

Another alternative for Rush 2049 is to try the Gamecube version of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 in Dolphin Emulator. I was never able to get Rush 2049 to work on DEMUL, although I believe other DC emus could play it OK, but it worked on Dolphin fine for me (although I think some revisions of the emulator do have problems with it hanging before start-up). Although the Gamecube was a more recent system, I think Dolphin is slightly better optimised when it comes to running games, as I've found I can get away with turning more of the graphical quality settings up in it than I can in DEMUL, so if your PC's struggling with DEMUL Dolphin might be worth a shot.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #66 on: February 11, 2016, 01:50:15 pm »
Well it's essentially the same version as this one, only the required system specs are much lower.  I'm fairly confident I can get FF working.... it appears to be in offroad thunder at least, only not hooked up.  My guess is the others are the same. 

The hacking is going at a blinding speed.  I decided to look at it another 10 minutes and managed to get the gas and brake analog values as well as determining the method to re-institute the dedicated shifter.  Turns out it's simple like in Outrun 2k6, you just write the gear number you want.  So I need to part out the views and find the FF data, which seems to be in there and pre-normalized from the other data I've been finding... it's merely a matter of hooking it up. 

Keep in mind I've already written the program.... Outrun FXT.... I'm manipulating the same stuff....  so once I'm satisfied with the data collection I just modify the fxt wrapper, do a few cosmetic changes and it's ready to go. 

Since it's not nearly as much work, I don't mind doing this for the other games as well pending that I can spread it out over time of course. 

If any of you have some spare time to kill something that would be helpful for the mamehooker end of things would be some video of the cabinet in attract mode.  I know it has a digital speedo and led tacho, but I'm not particularly familiar with the blink patterns of the view, start, nitro and race leader buttons.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #67 on: February 11, 2016, 02:07:48 pm »
The Dreamcast version of Rush 2049 ran fine on my cab using a NullDC build from 5-6 years ago.
I'm mostly just looking out for those with lower spec PCs.

I say mostly because the MAT3 versions are easier to integrate into a front-end as a standalone game.
All the games in MAT2 & 3 can be launched individually using their separate exes.  Just ad -f to the command line for fullscreen.

I set my front-ends up to launch all arcade games from one list regardless of emulator.
I'll slip these in the arcade list as if they were the arcade version and nobody will pick up on it. 
It just says "press start" as if it's on freeplay.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 02:09:34 pm by BadMouth »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #68 on: February 11, 2016, 02:21:07 pm »
Well I found the force feedback values... I think.  It looks oddly sega except instead of using bits they are using bytes (typical late midway wastefulness).  The first two bytes are the type of effect and intensity of the effect, the third is the direction (looks like 42 for left and 43 for right) and the forth is on/off. 

Don't expect miracles though.... these values look a little chunky.  They'll make my 2k6 hackjob look smooth by comparison. 

Oh and in regards to the "press enter to continue" prompt upon startup.....

All the text is in the exe, so a quick edit can get rid of that and all the menus for MAT are external.  So we can blank them out and simulate a enter press or something.  The animated background is actually individual textures, so a simulated startup screen could be done as well. 

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #69 on: February 11, 2016, 03:04:35 pm »
Can't say I invested much time in ensuring this is the best one, but here is a video of some of the lamps.


Judging by the one on the left, nothing is going on during attract mode.

EDIT: There is a little bit, but only during a specific part: see avi file here: http://arcadius.esero.net/Arcade/Cabinets/MIDWAY_OffRoad_Thunder_A/

First coin in - tach and speedo light up
Total amount to play entered - delay, then start button lights up when start screen appears
View buttons - active view button is illuminated

Nitro -  The only lamp I see in the instructions is the one inside the nitro button.  Not exactly sure how it behaves.  I would guess it's illuminated when you have nitro available and goes out when you run out.  A video of hydro thunder had it flashing rapidly before the race starts.

Race Leader Upper/lower - would be self explanatory if not for the separate upper and lower.  I am not seeing anything in the manual about a Race Leader panel.  I also don't see it in any pics.


Honestly I'm not all that worried about making things blink properly.   :lol

EDIT: OK, the Race Leader light was located in a topper used on linked setups.  The offroad Thunder one was rare and I could only find a picture of a thumbnail of it.
Hydro thunder also attached so you get the idea.  Upper/Lower could be the part that says Race Leader and then the number.  Number being illuminated if participating...maybe.
I will look for a manual for the topper.

IIRC, the movie theater I'm going to this weekend (to see Deadpool) has some game with that blue hydro thunder seat.
I think it's hydro thunder, but not 100% sure.  If it is, I'll get video of the behavior of the lights.

It was Rush 2049.  If need be, I will go back and record some video when and if you take on that one.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 09:02:20 pm by BadMouth »

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #70 on: February 11, 2016, 10:18:27 pm »
Thanks for the links, as usual.

Yeah I'm not super concerned about accuracy, but if you are going to do something you might as well do it right.
Besides.... blinkly lights are fun, I have to justify putting them on.  Shoot I'm thinking of doing a light bar just for the cop games.  ;)

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #71 on: February 12, 2016, 04:53:44 am »
I could sleep this morning so I thought I'd go ahead and fix the view..... damn... it's a tough nut to crack!

I can find the view just fine, but thus far I've hit a dead end trying to change it.  I've got to be missing something.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #72 on: February 13, 2016, 01:38:08 am »
Alright.  I figured out the view finally.  Man Midway did things weird sometimes. 

I was messing around with it some more and I'm wondering if I should hack the menus as well.  Start doesn't start anything and the secret code inputs, which have been moved from the vr buttons (as now there is only one) are nearly impossible to input. You press up on the joystick to select mirrored courses as well.   

Opinions?

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #73 on: February 13, 2016, 02:01:49 am »
As far as it's good for you, it is for me too ;)

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #74 on: February 13, 2016, 06:13:05 am »
Alright.  I figured out the view finally.  Man Midway did things weird sometimes. 

I was messing around with it some more and I'm wondering if I should hack the menus as well.  Start doesn't start anything and the secret code inputs, which have been moved from the vr buttons (as now there is only one) are nearly impossible to input. You press up on the joystick to select mirrored courses as well.   

Opinions?
All I'm really worried about is analog steering.  Changing "press enter" to "press start" would be a bonus.  Ffb would be crazy awesome.
...but I'd be happy with analog steering.

If the secret codes can be input via keyboard controls, then we could do something in autohotkey if easier.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #75 on: February 13, 2016, 01:34:59 pm »
Well it's one of those deals where it's so screwed up that I'm not sure how to tackle it. 

In the arcade obviously start gets you through all the menus.  While in the menus the three colored circles for various settings represent the three view buttons.... you use them to activate any of the options and if you bring up the secret code menu, you press the view buttons to enter it.... they represent the numbers 1-3. 

In this port start doesn't really do anything other than get you off the title screen.  The view button acts as start and the nitro button of all things acts as back.  While in the selection menu pressing the actual start button brings up the secret code prompt.  After it's up, the pause button (yes there is a pause button AND a start button) types a 1, up on the d-pad types a 2 and pressing start again gives you a 3. 

Oh and even though all the menus clearly show that you should be able to press the gas pedal to select stuff.... it doesn't do anything in the menus. 

To make matters even worse, you can't remap the start or pause buttons in any of the MAT games. 

So yeah... how do I sort out this cluster****?

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #76 on: February 13, 2016, 02:09:21 pm »
is there a way to determine what screen you're on and based on that map whatever control the original arcade game used to whatever the MAT version expects?

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #77 on: February 13, 2016, 02:20:57 pm »
Maybe.... much like 2k6 and most arcade 2 pc ports, the menu is original to the pc and uses it's own set of values while the actual in-game action uses another. 

I can most likely get start to work again by editing some code, but I'm unsure about how to do the view buttons.  I can certainly get the button they've given us to act as vr 1, but the other two I'm making don't exist as far as the game is concerned, so I don't know the best way to get them to control the other two functions.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #78 on: February 13, 2016, 04:20:43 pm »
It doesn't have to work exactly like the arcade.

I wasn't even aware the secret menu was there.  If a keyboard key does the same thing as up on the d-pad, then there is something we can use for a workaround.  I'll mess around with it later tonight and see how it works.

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Re: Hacking Hydro Thunder..err Offroad Thunder (Updated)
« Reply #79 on: February 13, 2016, 06:07:07 pm »
Well that's the thing.  After playing with it some more, the menu is hard-coded.  Even stranger is the fact that some functions do NOT have a keyboard binding.  Joystick button 10 brings up the secret menu for example and button 9 pauses.  Button 2 on the gamepad is the "ok" or enter button and button 3 is always back/cancel.  Oddly enough the one mapped to up seems to work.  It's auto-mapped to any useable "up" axis or hat on the gamepad.
The keyboard start and pause control the MAT pop-up menu, so they don't work. 

So to fix it the menu code would have to be scrapped completely and the wrapper would have to take assigned buttons and translate them to the hardcoded joystick inputs and pass them along.

So all that complaining about MK9 having hardcoded keyboard inputs.... they've been doing this crap since the midway days.