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Author Topic: Cabinet Keyboard Emulation Defaults vs Custom  (Read 1459 times)

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Lamaman1971

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Cabinet Keyboard Emulation Defaults vs Custom
« on: April 25, 2017, 07:39:29 pm »
Hi Guys, Ive got a 4 player CP and am using an iPac. Ive tried to stick to the Mame defaults as far I can but the use of CTRL, ALT and SHIFT have caused me no end of bother and Im considering changing the iPac to supply different key codes. Problem is, with 4 players, Im using many of the available keys. Is this something any of you have encountered before and changed successfully? Ive a handful of obviously spare Alpha numerics available - 9,0, C,P and T. Im wondering if the use of character keys such as ;',./[]\ is also permissable or rather, if it has been done before.

Ive attached my panel layout.

My current approach is to prioritise Player 1 and the overlapping keys :

LCTRL : C
LSHFT : P
LALT : T

P2BTN5 : 9
B2BTN6 : 0

This "should" be enough I hope. Any thoughts?

Howard_Casto

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Re: Cabinet Keyboard Emulation Defaults vs Custom
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2017, 09:46:03 pm »
Remapping alt is recommended, ctrl isn't necessary but wouldn't be a bad idea,  but shift shouldn't cause any issues.... you just need to turn off sticky keys. 

Don't use the oddball character keys if at all possible as some games and emulators don't make it easy to remap to those keys.  Avoid  1-5 as well as 9 and 0 as many emulators hard code those to various debug functions. 

No offense but it sounds like you designed your control panel wrong.  While player 1 and 2 might need 6 to 8 buttons, 3 and 4 only need four.  There isn't a single 4 player arcade games that uses more than 4 buttons and 90% of them just use three. 

Honestly your safest bet is to install every emulator you intended to use and check the mappings to see if they'll cause issues. 

Lamaman1971

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Re: Cabinet Keyboard Emulation Defaults vs Custom
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2017, 08:43:32 am »
Hi Howard,

I took a long look at the mappings last night and remapped ALT. Im leaving SHIFT and CTRL alone for now as I suspect your right that these wont cause issues.  Using P is a bad idea is its almost universally the PAUSE button - something to note there too.

However - in response to your comment about my CP please take a look a the attached PDF - you will see that P3 and P4 are four button controls.

Interesting comment around 9 and 0 though, Ill be sure to take a look at those in more detail.


BadMouth

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Re: Cabinet Keyboard Emulation Defaults vs Custom
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2017, 10:14:34 am »
I don't use the first four defaults because in addition to the hotkey issues, some other emulators can't use those keys.
I always replace them with V B N M so I can copy stuff across cabs.
Never had a 4 player panel, so I'm not sure if those keys already apply to those.

IIRC player 2 uses the bracket keys for two of the defaults, but I never had an issue with them.


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Re: Cabinet Keyboard Emulation Defaults vs Custom
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2017, 01:39:29 am »
Sorry I accused you of building a wonky panel.  I'm just trying to wrap my head around how you are out of inputs. 

In regards to the oddball symbol keys I was thinking it had something to do with visual pinball, but it's been a decade or two since I had a hard look at the layouts.  I don't think it was the brackets... maybe the backslash?

Oh btw home/end/insert, ect.... those are often used for debug keys as well, and some emulators can't read them, so avoid those as well.