Start button doubling as coin button/KeyWiz?

[Ceifeirot]

I'm trying to get it so that when the player presses the start button it registers as both a start button press and a coin insert. Is there some way to do this with MAME and the KeyWiz? Also, Is there a way to get it so that if you press both start buttons at the same time, it exits the game with my setup?

THanks
Alex

[paigeoliver]

Your choice of encoder has no bearing upon your question.

Now for the good news. Mame can already do more than one thing with a single keypress, just assign the same keypress to more than one thing.

Now for the bad news.

That doesn't work for most games. It will work fine for some games, specifically the games that are multiple players at the same time and allow the individual players to enter and exit the game at any time. It is not going to work right for anything else.

Complicating the issue, some games use the start button as an action button.

[hyiu]

start button as coin button....
I guess this doesn't really matter what encoder you use, (or I use gamepad hack...) but more a mame config question...

I have not played a lot of games in mame...
but most newer games will work fine....

(when you start a game.... like ms pacman... you press the button once, and it'll give you a credit... and then you press it again, and it'll start the game, and at the same time give you another credit....)

for some older games... (I don't have much time to try all the older games.... a lot of catching up to do... haaa haa..) some of them will NOT work... they'll need another button... as to how many.... I really donno.... but try it... I think you'll find it acceptable... (I think so far, I found less than 10 games... I can live with that....)
 

ohhh... ps: yes, for guantlet... since the start button is also the potion button... so.. everytime you put in health... you'll also use 1 potion or something....

[paigeoliver]

Most older games will instantly start the game if you have the coin button doubling as the start button. Which (unfortunately) makes it impossible to start a 2 player game.

A better solution would be a hidden coin button.

If you are only playing games that alternate players, then you can make player 2 start the same button as coin. My "Galaga" is wired that way, as was my dedicated Time Pilot. That works fine, but only for games that alternate.

[GamingGreg]

It's possible to rig up a short delay circuit, that would press coin and then press player start.   However, not all games use P1 Start, sometimes it's P1 Button1.  So you'd still end up pressing two buttons there anyway.

[Tiger-Heli]

I'm trying to get it so that when the player presses the start button it registers as both a start button press and a coin insert. Is there some way to do this with MAME and the KeyWiz? Also, Is there a way to get it so that if you press both start buttons at the same time, it exits the game with my setup?

THanks
Alex

What exactly are you trying to accomplish (why do you want to do this)?

I thought you could map both P1 Start and Coin 1 to the same key and tested it and it failed miserably (all I could do was add additional coins and I could never start a game).

You could have dedicated coin buttons and use P1B1 (L Ctrl) or P2B1 (A???) for both Start 1 and P1B1 (and remap MAME to match).  You can even have separate buttons on the control panel both connected to the B1 inputs.  (i.e. a 1P start button and the regular P1B1 button both mapped to LCtrl on the KeyWiz).  This would be used if you just wanted to save 4 encoder inputs.

The drawbacks to this are as follows:

DISADVANTAGES
 
The biggest disadvantage to this is if you were to use this setup and then try it with an emulator that was looking for separate start and action buttons and does not allow re-mapping of key inputs.

[Ceifeirot]

Wow! Thanks for all the input!
It's a little more information than I needed but hopefully it'll help others in the future too (who are searching the forums)

I just want a temporary way to do this since I forgot to have extra holes drilled for escape/pause/etc.

I think I may have the coin return button act as a coin insert, if possible.

I know the problem with having it exit as described, I just need to be careful not to hit the start button at the same time as P2. (but I'll probably add an escape button later)

Thanks again!

[NY_in_TX]

I heard of a cool trick while reading RGVAC.  

It only works well for games where 2 players have to take turns or 2 player simultaneous games without continue

Assign coin in and 2 player start to the same key

first press of P2 adds a coin
now you can start a one player game
or press P2 again and it adds another credit
a third press of P2 starts a 2 player game


when I get my Ms Pac cocktail working I am going to add this feature as it will only play the turn based classics.  

again this isn't the best solution for mame, but it may help you.

I also think your keywiz has a shazam button so that may solve all your problems.  just shazam all the admin keys you need

NY

[Tiger-Heli]

first press of P2 adds a coin
now you can start a one player game
or press P2 again and it adds another credit
a third press of P2 starts a 2 player game

Not quite right, and not exactly like you would expect, but it's workable, I tried it with PuckMan, it works like this:

first press of P2 adds a coin
now you can start a one player game
or press P2 again and it adds another credit and starts a 2 player game.

I also think your keywiz has a shazam button so that may solve all your problems.  just shazam all the admin keys you need

True, and there are a number of advanced tricks to using the Shazaaam! function as well.