MAME Split Screen

[Fishinfiend]

Is there a way to take a monitor, turn it sideways and while playing a game on MAME have it show the game controls (i.e. 4 way joystick, button1 fire, button2 turbo) on the bottom of the screen?

[Locke141]

You may want to look into LED control option.

Here is just a few options, that I have never used, but you should look around at other options or ask about LED control options.

https://www.ultimarc.com/pacdrive.html

http://www.ledblinky.net/ledblinky.htm

LED-Wiz is also an opting but Groovy Game Gear seem's to be down.

[Laythe]

Is there a way to take a monitor, turn it sideways and while playing a game on MAME have it show the game controls (i.e. 4 way joystick, button1 fire, button2 turbo) on the bottom of the screen?

Sure.  Make a layout file per game, and an image for the game controls per game.

Examine an existing layout to see how they work; they're found in the MAME artwork/ directory.

[Fishinfiend]

I was meaning something more like this minus the actual joysticks and buttons.

[Laythe]

I was meaning something more like this minus the actual joysticks and buttons.

OK.  That's a kind of low-res example, but, it would work.  It wouldn't look great, but, it would work.

Crop out whatever part of that image you want to use.  Save the image in your MAME /artwork/ folder, in a new subdirectory named the same as the ROM it corresponds to.  (The name you'd type to launch the game in MAME.) 

Find a simple layout file to see how they work.  You can get some examples from Mr. Do's Arcade at mameworld.info - they are great.

Copy your example layout file into that artwork directory you just made that contains the image you wanted to use.  Name it default.lay and then open it in a text editor. 

Edit it.  You'll probably want to mess with the coordinates to move things around.  You'll want to change the image filename to point at your image.  It's pretty easy to figure out.

Try it by starting the game in MAME.  You might have to enable artwork in the MAME menu. 

If it didn't do what you wanted?  Edit it some more.  If you just get diagonal lines, you probably didn't get the image filename right.

After an hour or two tinkering, you should be able to put any images you want, anywhere on the screen, with the game screen playfield anywhere you want, rotated as you like, at any scaling.  It'll give you total control over how MAME displays your game.  It's quite powerful.

Once you've got the hang of it, do it for all the games you care about.

[smass]

Nice explanation.   

This would also work for creating layout files to fill up the black bar space on the left and right when you use a 16:9 monitor and play traditional 4:3 format games.  Since I am lazy I wonder if anyone has tackled this kind of project for say the top 100 mame games and posted the files?  I will do a google search, but if anyone has some input it would be appreciated.

[PL1]

Since I am lazy I wonder if anyone has tackled this kind of project for say the top 100 mame games and posted the files?

Mr. Do's has 185 widescreen layouts here.

Big10p posted some layouts over at mameworld -- IIRC he may have also posted these to Mr. Do's.   


Scott

[smass]

Since I am lazy I wonder if anyone has tackled this kind of project for say the top 100 mame games and posted the files?

Mr. Do's has 185 widescreen layouts here.

Big10p posted some layouts over at mameworld -- IIRC he may have also posted these to Mr. Do's.   


Scott

Thanks for the links.  I am building a widescreen stand-up arcade mostly for fighters - but I want to add a selection of classics as well.  This smaller list is perfect.  As I have learned - less can definitely be more when it comes to games on a cab. 

[Fishinfiend]

Thanks Laythe,

That is exactly what I wanted, now I just have to start working on it.