options for 49 way joysticks?

[y2k600f4]

I can't seem to get my williams arch rival joysticks to work with a recent MAME upgrade. I was running a pair of GPWIZ49 with an old version of Mala FE for years w/o issues until my PC crashed.

I can't seem to get the joysticks to work with any MAME FEs with the new build and my guess is the GPWIZ49 are obsolete and I need to replace my joysticks or encoders? Any suggestions on what my options are?

[RandyT]

There's no reason I can think of as to why the GP-Wiz49 should not be working with your new build, unless the sticks aren't getting their required 5VDC and GROUND, or your new installation hasn't enabled the joystick option.

What happens in the gaming devices test screens of the OS?

*edit*

If the issue is specific to front-end navigation, either the FE you are using doesn't support joystick navigation, or there is a setting which needs to be enabled for it.

[y2k600f4]

There's no reason I can think of as to why the GP-Wiz49 should not be working with your new build, unless the sticks aren't getting their required 5VDC and GROUND, or your new installation hasn't enabled the joystick option.

What happens in the gaming devices test screens of the OS?

*edit*

If the issue is specific to front-end navigation, either the FE you are using doesn't support joystick navigation, or there is a setting which needs to be enabled for it.

Thanks for the reply Randy. No issues with the hardware (work as expected in the gaming device test screens). My issue is with my FE. Been several years since I build this console and trying to re-visit what I did years back and the changes made in MAME and the FEs since then. I think my best bet is to just duplicate my old setup on the new computer which basically will be MaLa v1.74, an old version of MAME (0.116) and set49mode since I can't find much info on using any updated FEs with the joystick option. I think my problem is trying to use a newer version of MAME (after the 0.117u1 release that changed to the Raw input API)

[bobbyb13]

There's no reason I can think of as to why the GP-Wiz49 should not be working with your new build, unless the sticks aren't getting their required 5VDC and GROUND, or your new installation hasn't enabled the joystick option.

What happens in the gaming devices test screens of the OS?

*edit*

If the issue is specific to front-end navigation, either the FE you are using doesn't support joystick navigation, or there is a setting which needs to be enabled for it.

Are you aware of any frontend (which I will avoid then) that has issues this way?

I need to order a few of your boards Randy.
And... any progress on that ball top 49 way you have hinted at in the past?
I have a few old Midway 49s that I can use but I'm too old to be a fan of bat tops.
 

[RandyT]

Are you aware of any frontend (which I will avoid then) that has issues this way?

I need to order a few of your boards Randy.
And... any progress on that ball top 49 way you have hinted at in the past?
I have a few old Midway 49s that I can use but I'm too old to be a fan of bat tops.
 

Worst case, there are some 3rd party utilities like JoytoKey or similar, which can be used to send keystrokes from joystick devices.  Best would be one which MAME isn't able to see/use, so it would only work at the desktop for your FE.  i.e. the less invasive they are to the OS, most likely the better.  Maybe even an AHK script would do the trick.

As for the balltop 49-ways, we have them but they may be more than you wish to spend.  There are a number of custom machined replacement parts which makes them costly, but we still offer the units for less than a new unit without those parts from Suzo/HAPP. Email me if you would like details.