720 controller and Optipac

[Captain No Action]

Hey all. I have finally hit a snag and have to ask questions. I bought a real 720 controller and the Optipac and cannot get it to work properly. What I do get or can is the skater will turn directional left and right only. Sluggishly. The input for game controller is set to joystick and the curser will move everytime vertical. Ive searched here and mame forum but it doesnt help with my current release or problem. I know the best rated was MAME 0.141. Whatever help I can get is much appreciated. Specs are as follows:

Win 7 Home x64
MAME 0.172 only, no emulator, basics first
720 rev 4
Optipac P1 track ball x and y

I have the whole ultimarc package. I am new to this but have a 2 player joystick and spinner working so I believe I am not completely brain dead.

Thanks, Matt

[paigeoliver]

Ok, you are going to have to do some digging for this one. I believe you need a custom mame build to actually use a real 720 controller.

[BadMouth]

I'm not sure they ever did incorporate the second optical disc into MAME correctly.

As far as the sluggish and absolute turning, have you tried adjusting the sensitivity in MAME?
Nothing should be mapped to axis inc and axis dec.  (not exactly sure of the phrasing on 720)

[jerryjanis]

Is there an option to select something like "Real" as the controller type? This option was created for users of a real 720 joystick. I can't say for sure if it's still in effect (sorry, it has been a while for me), but might be worth a try.

Here is an old discussion that took place when the code was first added to Mame:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108728.0.html

Here is a link to the mame driver which appears to include code to choose the "Real" controller type:
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/drivers/atarisy2.cpp

[Captain No Action]

Thank you gentleman.

Custom MAME, uh oh. Not sure what you mean.

I did adjust the sensitivity in MAME, Analog Controls that were at 10 were increased to 100. So all is at a 100.

I did try real for the input and nothing happened. Only joystick worked. The CP joystick and buttons work fine. I read the link to the older threads and got a headache. I will continue reading those and try and understand it. I am unsure as to what to do with that text though.

Off question. Is it better to run an older version of MAME to get the games to work properly or try and keep up with the latest version. I am thinking that you need the highest MAME version for the weakest current version of that game.

[paigeoliver]

You can run multiple versions of mame on the same machine. I normally run most of my games through an older (pre .100) version because there won't be any slowdowns. I only go to newer mame versions for specific titles that don't work right in the older versions.

In the case of 720, whatever version you can get the controller working in is what you will want. The game itself has been running fine and full speed for as long as I can remember (maybe 15 years now), so any improvements in the code will not be as important as getting the controller working right.

Thank you gentleman.

Custom MAME, uh oh. Not sure what you mean.

I did adjust the sensitivity in MAME, Analog Controls that were at 10 were increased to 100. So all is at a 100.

I did try real for the input and nothing happened. Only joystick worked. The CP joystick and buttons work fine. I read the link to the older threads and got a headache. I will continue reading those and try and understand it. I am unsure as to what to do with that text though.

Off question. Is it better to run an older version of MAME to get the games to work properly or try and keep up with the latest version. I am thinking that you need the highest MAME version for the weakest current version of that game.

[Captain No Action]

Thank you paigeoliver, I will try the older versions of 720 and MAME. Will post what I find. Hopefully we can get this figured out and leave some info for the future poor soul that attempts this.

[PL1]

Here are several links that you might find useful.

http://www.720zone.com/720-Joystick-Help.html

http://jstookey.com/arcade/720/720-arcadejoy.php

As of Mame 142, support for the 720 arcade joystick has been added to the official Mame build, so there is no longer any need to run an old version of Mame Analog+ or build your own old version of Mame in order to use the 720 arcade joystick.

Scott

[Captain No Action]

Thanks PL1. I have seen the 720zone web site. I revisited and saw I didnt use the right connection on the OptiPac. jstookey does not have the info up anymore.

SUCCESS. It works. The next problem is figuring out which holes, that are not marked, are the push buttons. Hah. Love it. I still suck at it but thats ok. The main problem was the wiring done by the person I bought it from was backwards. I just played around till I got it. Ill post picks and write up what I have for others when their time comes.

Thanks guys.

[BadMouth]

Now that we know it works, this is one of those controllers that I'd like to have a shoddy $30 homebrew version of.
I'll add it to my list of things I'll never get around to.

[Aceldamor]

Authentic ones only go for about 600-800 nowa days......