Windows and 3+ player games

[screaming]

Hey all,

  Since I had the opportunity to test out more than 2 players on my cab, I noticed a problem that I'm having with player 3 button 3 (enter) and player 1 button 1 (alt).  When these two buttons are used together, my emulators go into "windowed" mode.

  Is the solution just to remap player 3 button 3 to something else and then change all the 3+ player games?

  What have you guys done to get around this problem?

/steve

[crashwg]

There's probably a way to disable that in windows.  I looked for a couple minutes but couldn't find it though.  Perhaps someone else will know better than I.

[SirPoonga]

If you use the ipac just reprogram.  Don't use the ctrl or alt.  On my site I have a great 2 player setup.

Have player 1 start as shift and player 2 start's shifted function as esc on the ipac by default sucks too.

[Stormy151]

Does anyone have or know of an example of a 4-player setup for an IPAC?  By default, some of the same keys are assigned to multiple players, I'm trying to get them set up while avoiding conflicts such as the Alt+Enter thing.

[hulkster]

hmmmm...ive yet to set up my ipac4, but am getting close.  do you have to go into the ipac interface to change the keys?  last time i just changed the keys in the TAB menu in mame.

[GGKoul]

Hmm.. what FE are you using?  As I have a 4 player panel and have never had an issue with programming the IPAC.  Except for the 1UP / 2UP escape thing...

Here'a a list of the default IPAC keys.  http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac2.html

Hope this helps!
-GGKoul

[hulkster]

i dont have any problems, i havent even tried to hook it up to 4 players, i was just wondering since i thought this guy was having problems with 3 players or something.

[screaming]

i dont have any problems, i havent even tried to hook it up to 4 players, i was just wondering since i thought this guy was having problems with 3 players or something.

  No, the issue is that P3B3 (player 3, button 3) is, by default, mapped to the ENTER key and P1B2 (I misspoke earlier) is mapped to the ALT key. When these two buttons are pressed at the same time, Microsoft Windows interprets this as a toggle between full-screen mode and windowed-mode.

  To maybe clarify my question: Is there a way to tell Windows to NOT interpret this sequence this way (which I've never heard of, either globally or by shortcut) or is there a way to tell WIN32 DOS MAME (NoNameMame) to override this?

  Otherwise I am forced to change P3B3 to P1B2 to something else, then remap the keys in all the games (or by INI file, which isn't hard). I'm sure I'm not the first one to come across this, since it seems most of y'all have Windows and a decent group of you hav 3+ player cabs.  Lastly, if you were forced to remap your keys, which one did you remap (P3B3, P1B2), why, and what did you remap it to?

  The ideal solution would be to simply tell Windows to ignore the ALT-ENTER sequence since it would work across any DOS-based emulator, but I think the chances of this are slim.

/steve

[Stormy151]

OK, that chart of the default IPAC keys shows what I'm talking about.  Player 2 button 5 is mapped to the letter I, as is the Player 3 Joystick Up command.  There are a few other keys that are "doubled up" like that.

I'm sure it's because there aren't really any games that are 4 player with more than 4 buttons- because you only run into this issue if you exceed 4 buttons per player.  My CP has 6 buttons for player 1 and 2- so I had a problem.

I reprogrammed the problem keys using the software that comes with the IPAC, so it's no longer an issue, but I hadn't considered the Alt+Enter thing.  I'm wondering what else I missed.  

I can't be the only person with a 4 player panel that's run into this, can I?

[ashardin]

Screaming.

Are you using windows 98?  If so, right click the actual MS-DOS icon for the emulator in Windows Explorer.  Select Properties, and a box will pop up, and you are looking for the last tab (forgive my lack of specifics here, but I am going from memory at work on an XP machine).  

Anyway, there is a section that has the keyboard shortcuts with checkboxes.  Disable all of these (espcially the Alt-Enter that is given you trouble!) and you won't have this problem again.

Hopefully someone on a win98 computer can chime in if you need more info...

[screaming]

Screaming.

Are you using windows 98?  If so, right click the actual MS-DOS icon for the emulator in Windows Explorer.  Select Properties, and a box will pop up, and you are looking for the last tab (forgive my lack of specifics here, but I am going from memory at work on an XP machine).  

Anyway, there is a section that has the keyboard shortcuts with checkboxes.  Disable all of these (espcially the Alt-Enter that is given you trouble!) and you won't have this problem again.

Hopefully someone on a win98 computer can chime in if you need more info...

  I am not using Windows 98 I'm using Windows XP.  I forgot all about that option in Windows 98! That's a great tip for all the Win98 folks out there.

/s

[screaming]

I'm sure it's because there aren't really any games that are 4 player with more than 4 buttons- because you only run into this issue if you exceed 4 buttons per player.  My CP has 6 buttons for player 1 and 2- so I had a problem.

  There are no games in MAME that have 3 or 4 players and use more than 4 buttons per player...

/s

[Teknique]

For looks I went with a 6 button layout for P3 and P4 (modeled after SlikStik Quad).  Im using the standard Mame default mapping with my IPAC.  When I have people over, we all want to play something that everyone can play- so I made a list of 4 player games.  Unfortunately, I have the same problem as screaming in that when the 3rd player and 1st player are pounding on buttons at the same time, the game crashes.  Not good.  So Im will have to remap my IPAC.  Im using WinXP so I guess im SOL with that Win98 option I saw in an earlier post.

Is this the best way to fix the problem?

Tek

*edit*
Fixed it.  Just reprogrammed IPAC P3 button 3 to 'T' and went into Mame TAB menu and reprogrammed globally P3 B3 to 'T' and changed the 'tilt' command from 'T' to '\'

[GGKoul]

What program are you using to run Mame?  I have a 4player cab, running MAME32 and I've never had this problem.


I think the problem your having is from running the game in Windows mode. IE: With the Windows box around the game screeen.  Try changing your setting so the game runs in Full Screen mode.  Therefore removing the Windows Box and the ATL problem.


Regarding the "Double I" question.  There is no 3 or 4 player games out there that require a person to use more then 3 or 4 buttons each.  So having a "I" 3up and 2p5b shouldn't be a problem.


As I said before.  I have a 4player cab and the only issue that I had when playing is the 1up/2up ESC.

Hope this helps.
-GGKoul

[kevin]

Found this with a quick google search.

http://mrdario.tripod.com/tools/tools.htm

I haven't tried it, but Keyboard Disabler supposedly disables all the standard Windows 2000/XP key combinations.

-Kevin