Is Ipac Ultimate a keyboard or joystick hack?

[rackoon]

GOAL: use a xbox controller for all emulators and controll panel for Mame using hyperspin

I am building my 5th cab and up to this point I have only installed mame and used an Ipac. My friends talked me into buying a set up hyperspin hard drive with a lot of emulators on it. I decided to give it a shot just to play around with it so I went ahead and bought one.

Problem is that they recommend using xpadder and an xbox controller to cover all the games and emulators at once. I'm cool with that but not for mame. Mame is all I care about but all my friends are all excited about nintendo and playstation stuff as well, I kind of am a little.

Problem is I need an joystick hack not a keyboard hack to make this all work, I think. Andy's site at Ultimarc makes it seem like the Ipac Ultimate is both or something. Regardless I already bought it several months ago.

I think I need my computer to think there is a joystick install. Even then, I don't know if it would show up as one or two joysticks.

I have been searching for weeks to solve all this so any help would be great.

[Titchgamer]

Its neither.

Its a interface board which is basically a upgraded keyboard encoder.

You can have proper arcade controls wired to the Ipac and plugged into the PC as normal and also have Controllers plugged into it also.

But you will have a few problems.

1) Pre installed HDD's tend not to work the way they are supposed to and they are generally frowned upon so you may well have some headaches ahead!

2) Controller assignment issues.
This may or may not rear its ugly head depending on the emulators you use and how you set up the system but there are work arounds if required.

[rackoon]

Yea, I know, the pre-setup HDD's are not well received. I just wanted to use Hyperspin this time and failed setting it up several times. Then I got sucked in to the    whole 100,000 games thing and just wanted to give it a shot. I play the same 30 games most of the time and they are all Mame stuff. But, it would be nice to check out some of the old console games I use to play though.

Problem is that, from what I have been told, if you have a game pad installed it trumps your keyboard hack. I thought this is why grooveygamegear sold keyboard and joystick hacks.

I cant be the only person who want to play Mame with their arcade controls and other emulators with a game pad.

[aldub516]

I never understood the frowning upon of pre-built hdds, especially for hyperspin. When i was first starting hyperspin and asked about the possibility of making a "master" hyperspin drive that i can transfer to other pcs. everyone said it wont work, or theres problems, etc.. I personally have since put my hyperspin harddrive into 7 pcs.. and after changing the drive letter for the hdd, it instantly works with no issues. Then i just make minor tweaks such as installing hyperspin font, any codecs, or netframeworks, etc. I now have a little usb drive with all the common outside apps i might need to make it run perfectly, so i throw that in, install everything on it, and change the controllers to whatever i have running on that cabinet. Within 10 minutes i can transfer my whole complete setup hyperspindrive to any pc, running any windows, and have had zero issue. And have done this for all of my machines, and a few friends machine. I remember asking someone for an sd image of a project they were working on, and they said it wouldnt work for x x x x reasons.. and i remember just thinking....that doesnt make sense lol    to each their own.

[Titchgamer]

I never understood the frowning upon of pre-built hdds, especially for hyperspin. When i was first starting hyperspin and asked about the possibility of making a "master" hyperspin drive that i can transfer to other pcs. everyone said it wont work, or theres problems, etc.. I personally have since put my hyperspin harddrive into 7 pcs.. and after changing the drive letter for the hdd, it instantly works with no issues. Then i just make minor tweaks such as installing hyperspin font, any codecs, or netframeworks, etc. I now have a little usb drive with all the common outside apps i might need to make it run perfectly, so i throw that in, install everything on it, and change the controllers to whatever i have running on that cabinet. Within 10 minutes i can transfer my whole complete setup hyperspindrive to any pc, running any windows, and have had zero issue. And have done this for all of my machines, and a few friends machine. I remember asking someone for an sd image of a project they were working on, and they said it wouldnt work for x x x x reasons.. and i remember just thinking....that doesnt make sense lol    to each their own.

Its because of the exact reasons you have specified.
People buy them thinking they will just work but they dont.
You need drivers, codecs, controls etc etc etc.
And for those of a non technical mind that causes problems.
There is also the legality thing with the roms etc but thats another point.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I never understood the frowning upon of pre-built hdds, especially for hyperspin. When i was first starting hyperspin and asked about the possibility of making a "master" hyperspin drive that i can transfer to other pcs. everyone said it wont work, or theres problems, etc.. I personally have since put my hyperspin harddrive into 7 pcs.. and after changing the drive letter for the hdd, it instantly works with no issues. Then i just make minor tweaks such as installing hyperspin font, any codecs, or netframeworks, etc. I now have a little usb drive with all the common outside apps i might need to make it run perfectly, so i throw that in, install everything on it, and change the controllers to whatever i have running on that cabinet. Within 10 minutes i can transfer my whole complete setup hyperspindrive to any pc, running any windows, and have had zero issue. And have done this for all of my machines, and a few friends machine. I remember asking someone for an sd image of a project they were working on, and they said it wouldnt work for x x x x reasons.. and i remember just thinking....that doesnt make sense lol    to each their own.

It usually frowned upon because it comes with roms.  (not always).  The Hyperspin guys hate these HDDs too (last I checked years ago).  Try posting this to their forum and you will most likely be instantly flamed.

That said, for your original issue, I believe the new ipacs are BOTH.  You just need to download the firmware that supports it:  http://ultimarc.com/download.html

DeL

[AndyWarne]

The I-PAC Ultimate I/O is not a hack !

But it emulates both keyboard and joystick (game controller device). Each pin can be assigned as either type of device.

[behrmr]

GOAL: use a xbox controller for all emulators and controll panel for Mame using hyperspin

I am building my 5th cab and up to this point I have only installed mame and used an Ipac. My friends talked me into buying a set up hyperspin hard drive with a lot of emulators on it. I decided to give it a shot just to play around with it so I went ahead and bought one.

Problem is that they recommend using xpadder and an xbox controller to cover all the games and emulators at once. I'm cool with that but not for mame. Mame is all I care about but all my friends are all excited about nintendo and playstation stuff as well, I kind of am a little.

Problem is I need an joystick hack not a keyboard hack to make this all work, I think. Andy's site at Ultimarc makes it seem like the Ipac Ultimate is both or something. Regardless I already bought it several months ago.

I think I need my computer to think there is a joystick install. Even then, I don't know if it would show up as one or two joysticks.

I have been searching for weeks to solve all this so any help would be great.

If you install a gamepad it will work with both MAME and a keyboard (ipac).  You may need to tweak the assignments in MAME to make sure that UP is mapped to both the kbd and the gamepad, for example.  Your issue, I am guessing, will be that the frontend may not work with a gamepad.  That's what xpadder is for.  It maps gamepad actions to keystrokes. 

[rackoon]

Sorry Andy, I use the term hack loosely to explain how it all works to people who have never seen a custom cab before.

Your stuff is top notch I got your stuff in all my cabs and I am going on my 5th Ipac. 

In fact I need to put in another order in at the end of the month. Oh and by the way your customer service is awesome. You fixed an order for me a while back and you had it taken care of in less than 24 hours. Customer for life:cheers: