Driving controls - one to rule them all?

[Landstander]

I thought I'd ask a bunch of questions to anyone who has faced this task before. A search revealed a few threads about driving controllers but not much in depth.

I'd like to make a driving controller that would be usable with as many driving games as possible. I know some driving games like Championship Sprint are optical and have no limit to the wheel's movement and others like Outrun use a potentiometer and have limited travel. Also, games like Spy Hunter and Road Blasters use something more like a flight yoke than a wheel. Will one wheel type be better suited for emulating the others within MAME?

I don't remember seeing a game with more than 5 gears (4 forward and one reverse), although most will just have a low-high gear selector. Is switching a gearshift into one of the gear's positions electrically equivelant to just pushing and holding a button down? Could you wire 5 buttons on a control panel and after assigning them within MAME just hit a button for shifting into each gear?

The vast majority of pedal setups have only 2 - but there are a few games (Hard Drivin) that can use 3 pedals. I assume all the pedal setups are analog devices with a pot to sense the position of the pedal. Is that correct?

So, my closing questions - is there a solution to be able to play the vast majority of driving games? Is it best to adapt a PC wheel hooked to the joystick port? (I have an Act Labs Force RS and a Thrustmaster Nascar both available for parts).

Thanks for any input!

[Pasqualz]

I don't know if this would be useful, but there used to be an iten you could buy to use your mouse with a steering wheel. Basically, the item clamped to yur desk, and the mouse was positioned (upside down maybe?) in this device, then the steering wheel colum was fed through two holes so that it rested lightly right on top of the mouse ball. Basically, when you turned right, the mouse ball turned right (as if you were moving the mouse to the right) and the same for left! I doubt they wstill make this device, but it shouldn't be too hard to build from some wood, metal brackets, and velcro. Now that I went through all that typing, i'm still not sure if it would work well with both 360 degree and 270 degree steering games. Has anyone tried this? how's it work???

[Tiger-Heli]

Will one wheel type be better suited for emulating the others within MAME?

Depends how important feel and accuracy are to you.  Best I can answer is that most Championship Sprint style games won't work well with a 270 degree wheel b/c the game wants you to travel beyond the limits of the wheel.  Most optical wheels won't work well with Outrun type games b/c MAME can't handle the inputs properly.  OTOH, a PC (potentiometer) wheel with button would work well for Spyhunter or even a Star Wars yoke for OutRun.

Xiaou2 had a geared design that would let a single wheel operate as either 270 (pot-based) or 360 (optical), but I don't know if he ever did anything with it.

Is switching a gearshift into one of the gear's positions electrically equivelant to just pushing and holding a button down?

Yes, except generally in MAME you don't have to hold the button down, so buttons are easier to interface with MAME than an original shifter.

Could you wire 5 buttons on a control panel and after assigning them within MAME just hit a button for shifting into each gear?

Yes.

I assume all the pedal setups are analog devices with a pot to sense the position of the pedal. Is that correct?

Not necessarily, Hard drivin' I think was 3 analog devices, but many games simply had a switch (up or down) for the brake (and sometimes for the gas pedal, or the clutch.)  At least one had optics for the gas pedal.

The rule here though is that MAME does a good job with analog to digital conversion, but you can't convert digital to analog - so a pot based setup will work on switch style games or pot style games, but a switch based setup will not work on pot-based games.

So, my closing questions - is there a solution to be able to play the vast majority of driving games? Is it best to adapt a PC wheel hooked to the joystick port? (I have an Act Labs Force RS and a Thrustmaster Nascar both available for parts).

For pot-based games, it is best to use a PC wheel.  I prefer the USB port, but the joystick port will work.  For optical games, it's best to either pick up an arcade wheel or E-bay ($10-$20), or just use a spinner.

[Minwah]

My 2 pence:

3 analog pedals will cover all games...they can be used for games which orig. used analog or digital pedals.  Personally I went for 2 pedals, as I'm not interested in the games which use a clutch.

Shifter is quite tricky, as the games in MAME are treated differently.  The 3 different ways I know of are 1) Same button toggles gear, eg Pole Position, 2) One button for Lo, one button for Hi, eg OutRun and 3) Hold a button for Lo, release for Hi, eg ChaseHQ.  The best way to interface / setup these I haven't decided on yet...I don't know much about 4 speed etc. shifters, I just have a Hi/Lo/Turbo one.

Unless you make a pretty complicated DIY 1-steering-wheel-to-rule-them-all (as Tiger-Heli says Xiaou2 did some design work of) then you'll need 2 wheels, 1 360 and 1 270.  Alternatively you could use a 360deg wheel, and a yoke insead of a 270deg wheel, which would enable you to play a few more games - this is what I'm planning

[Landstander]

Looking through KLOV I see that Ferrari F355 Challenge actually has a 6 position gear shifter (1-5 and reverse). One more thing to consider.....

[Silver]

I was planning 1 analogue pedal (gas) and 1 microswitched (brake) - do most games use analogue or digital for the brake?

Either way - it sounds like 2 x analogue is best. (I'm planning 2 pot-based pedals wired to a dual strike hack).

re gear shifter: I'm sure (2) and (3) (in Minwah's post) can be simply done on a hi/lo shifter - as for (2) the hi/lo buttons are mapped to the shifter position, and in (3) simply mapping the lo to the shifter will work (I think). I though pole position was a shifter too, but if its a button-up then a shifter with a button would cover it.

more generally: are most pc wheels 270's?

also - there are a ton of PS2/xbox wheels available cheap 2nd hand - are these 270's as well, and anyone know typically what pots they use - how hackable are they onto an optipac/dual strike?

[Tiger-Heli]

>Either way - it sounds like 2 x analogue is best. (I'm planning 2 >pot-based pedals wired to a dual strike hack).

Agreed.

>I though pole position was a shifter too, but if its a button-up then a >shifter with a button would cover it.

It's a shifter.  MAME set the controls for convenience rather than authenticity.  Someone somewhere posted a source code patch to "fix" it.

>more generally: are most pc wheels 270's?

Yes, they are.

>also - there are a ton of PS2/xbox wheels available cheap 2nd hand >- are these 270's as well,

Yes

>and anyone know typically what pots they use - how hackable are >they onto an optipac/dual strike?

Dunno.  You could also use DaveB's AKI interface, which is USB and works with any value of Pots.

[Xiaou2]

Hiya : )

  Well, thats the crappy drawing of a possible design for a multi-wheel.  

  I personally have no use for it as I have supersprint wheels and starwars yoke - as well as a super hangon controller.   I (rough) designed it just for fun and for others to try out... tho I admit it would be a fun project to do (just do not have the time).

  Im quite sure that its very possible to do this.  Also,  a simular method could be used for Multi-spinner (an engaugeable geared drive for higher accuracy in arkanoid)... and or also a pot based gear to use as a paddle (for games like pong).

  Someday I do hope to design and build a shifter that feels like Race Drivin's.  Its the best arcade shifter ever built.

[Kremmit]

Posted by: Landstander  Posted on: Today at 03:07:34pm

Looking through KLOV I see that Ferrari F355 Challenge actually has a 6 position gear shifter (1-5 and reverse)

Apparently so did Ridge Racer:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6102724849&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Wish I could pony up the dough for this.  It should be hackable for any game.

[Silver]

Tiger-Heli: Thanks for the info....

Looks like for a 360 wheel, an arcade part is what is needed - unless you hack a spinner and a wheel perhaps?

I like the idea of a combined 270/360 although not sure I'm going to go in headfirst and be a guinea pig. Although would be perfect in terms of space (which is bad enough when considering 2 wheels, pedals, 4player cp...)

Ah well, I think a 270 yoke and 360 wheel will cover the most. Although I love UncleT's setup - amazing!

if you have not seen it, go look:

http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/MomsArcade/MomsArcadeMain.html

[Minwah]

re gear shifter: I'm sure (2) and (3) (in Minwah's post) can be simply done on a hi/lo shifter - as for (2) the hi/lo buttons are mapped to the shifter position, and in (3) simply mapping the lo to the shifter will work (I think).

2) Well yes, but hi/lo shifters (usually) only have 1 microswitch, so it means wiring the NO to one input and NC to another.  While this would work OK, it means there will always be a keypress being sent (I don't like that idea for some reason).  Maybe a switch to turn the shifter on/off would be a solution to prevent that.

3) Yes, that's the easy one

As for 1), I don't know whether mapping the same button to NO as NC would work...in theory it would work if there is a gap when switching the gear lever (when switching from NO to NC and vice versa).  I don't know in practice whether this would work or not  

[Silver]

Ah yes I had not thought about the constant keypress - this could come back to the ps2 vs usb post, as I think a constant keypress behaves differently on the different inputs(?).

What would be nice is some kind of adaptability on how different controls are dealt with by mame. Problem is what works best would vary from cabinet to cabinet depending on control (obviously).

Could be a case of get it built and then work through the problems later ;-)

[Tiger-Heli]

Ah yes I had not thought about the constant keypress - this could come back to the ps2 vs usb post, as I think a constant keypress behaves differently on the different inputs(?).

I know it is handled differently in MAME than it is in Windows.  Not sure if PS/2 and USB affects it.  (Although to add further confusion, the I-PAC/2 handles it differently depending on interface choice.)

[pocketbikez]

a happ 4-way shifter is a good alternative for multi game compatablity. the shifter has a spring that wants to keep the shift lever on the 3rd and 4th gear side of the shifter. so i use 3rd gear as low and 4th gear as high in games like pole position, outrun, buggy challenge, turbo and spyhunter. it feels just like a highlow shifter. as an added plus the shifter can play all the other 4 speed games like nightdriver, superbug, firetruck and montecarlo.

a spyhunter steering wheel used as a 270degree mame wheel has trigger buttons that i like to map as gear shift buttons like an f1 race car. my lap times are faster as compared to taking a hand off the wheel to shift.

[Karman]

>I though pole position was a shifter too, but if its a button-up then a >shifter with a button would cover it.

It's a shifter.  MAME set the controls for convenience rather than authenticity.  Someone somewhere posted a source code patch to "fix" it.

Does anyone have the patch to fix this?   I have a Pole shifter that I want to make functional.

[bdsjake]

a happ 4-way shifter is a good alternative for multi game compatablity. the shifter has a spring that wants to keep the shift lever on the 3rd and 4th gear side of the shifter. so i use 3rd gear

pocketz, how do you hook up the 4-way shifter and use it in mame?  I looked at the exploded diagram on Happs but can't quite tell, does it use 4 microswitches?  are they hooked to an ipac or keywhiz?  do you have any problems with repeated keypresses if you, eg, leave it in first gear and the microswitch circuit is now closed permanetly (until shift to another gear) rather than momentary?

thanks,

[pocketbikez]

pocketz, how do you hook up the 4-way shifter and use it in mame?  I looked at the exploded diagram on Happs but can't quite tell, does it use 4 microswitches?

yes it uses 4 microswitches. it holds down a microswitch for each gear.

are they hooked to an ipac or keywhiz?

i have it hooked up to a microsoft dual strike joystick hack. the cabinet is in the final artwork stages and i should have a webpage up in a few weeks.

do you have any problems with repeated keypresses if you, eg, leave it in first gear and the microswitch circuit is now closed permanetly (until shift to another gear) rather than momentary?

you can test this out by mapping buttons on your control panel or keyboard as gear inputs for a specific mame game. when u press and hold down a button it will be in 1st gear, then change gears and press and hold down your 2nd gear button and it will mimic the way the 4way shifter works.

i havent had any problems with other inputs when the shifter is holding down a key.

when i TAB into a game to set up controls i push the shifter lever half way between 3rd and 4th gear so it isnt pressing a key. the shift lever will stay in this inbetween position on its own. otherwise i will have problems when trying to map controls or using the mame frontend.

[Chris]

What about the Act-Labs shifter?  Isn't it programmable?

--Chris

[bdsjake]

pocketz thanks, look forward to your write up of new cab.  your cabs are all great and inspirational!

[pocketbikez]

What about the Act-Labs shifter?  Isn't it programmable?

the act-labs shifter would work fine, and im sure you could map it just like the happ 4way shifter. its also cool how they sell adapter plates to change it from a 6 speed to a 4 or 5 speed.

but... it isnt a real arcade control. my experience is that pc wheels, pedals, and shifters have a slightly flimsy feel. arcade controls like the happ 4way shifter are industrial strength and they feel more like a real arcade machine.

[Rocky]

>I though pole position was a shifter too, but if its a button-up then a >shifter with a button would cover it.

It's a shifter.  MAME set the controls for convenience rather than authenticity.  Someone somewhere posted a source code patch to "fix" it.

Does anyone have the patch to fix this?   I have a Pole shifter that I want to make functional.

I asked this question last fall concerning Spy Hunter. It uses one microswitch for the shifter. MAME changes the original code so you can simply press the switch and let go (so you don't have to hold a button to get high gear).  However when you actually use a shifter, it doesn't play right since the switch toggles between high and low.

Here's the change you need to make to the source code:
(From jerryjanis and u_rebelscum):   search the driver of the game you want to change.  Look for IPF_TOGGLE.  Remove the "|" symbol and the "IPF_TOGGLE" after it.

What this does is require a held button for high gear, release for low.
(I know that Pole Position 1 & 2 and Spy Hunter use this method, but there are others, too.)

Here's the link to the thread:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=11680;start=msg90721#msg90721

Good luck,

Rocky

[Minwah]

MAME changes the original code so you can simply press the switch and let go (so you don't have to hold a button to get high gear).  However when you actually use a shifter, it doesn't play right since the switch toggles between high and low.

This is one things which gets my goat a bit.  MAME is supposed to be about accuracy, yet the controls (IMO one of the, if not the most important part of a machine) are so often very in-accurately emulated or documented in MAME.

I did some research on a bunch of driving games, and they all used 1 microswitch (held down, or released).  Some of these might actually have used 2 inputs (NO & NC), like OutRun is represented in MAME, but I bet very few (if any, I didn't find any) used a 'toggle' style shifting input, as used here in MAME.

I believe Howard has been fixing many inputs, tho IIRC not all corrections were accepted into MAME, even though I am sure Howard would have the accuracy right.  I noticed when I touched on this the other week at mame.net, no-one (other than SirP) commented....

[paigeoliver]

Looking through KLOV I see that Ferrari F355 Challenge actually has a 6 position gear shifter (1-5 and reverse). One more thing to consider.....

You might ALSO want to consider that Ferarri F355 Challenge used 3 VGA monitors for the one player version and 6 for the two player, and thus PROBABLY wouldn't be the easiest game to support in your cab even if it was emulated.

[Minwah]

You might ALSO want to consider that Ferarri F355 Challenge used 3 VGA monitors for the one player version and 6 for the two player, and thus PROBABLY wouldn't be the easiest game to support in your cab even if it was emulated.

True, the DC version would work well though, IF there is an easy way to hack the analog controller...

[Landstander]

I know it's not an ideal true-arcade solution - but I use an Act Labs Force RS wheel with my Dreamcast (as well as PC). Interface modules are available for the Force RS to hook it to many different platforms.

True, the DC version would work well though, IF there is an easy way to hack the analog controller...

[u_rebelscum]

MAME changes the original code so you can simply press the switch and let go (so you don't have to hold a button to get high gear).  However when you actually use a shifter, it doesn't play right since the switch toggles between high and low.

This is one things which gets my goat a bit.  MAME is supposed to be about accuracy, yet the controls (IMO one of the, if not the most important part of a machine) are so often very in-accurately emulated or documented in MAME.

I agree with you, but I bet we (even with the others in BYOAC that agree with us) are a minority.  I've thought a lot about it and understand many of the reasons why the inputs are done the way they are.

First, imagine the posts if all the shifters were changed so you had to hold down the button.  

Inputs is one place mameDev has desided to let the limits of the PC determine how many of the inputs are emulated/simulated; another example,  limited number PC buttons ==> 12-rotaries (ikari joystick) simulated as a dial.  I mean, this one makes sense only because of the limits of the PC.

Then there are also a lot of grey areas:
Analog joystick/yoke games (example: Star Wars) playable with trackballs,
Analog position gun game playable with lightguns (and trackballs),
PC lightgun reload (becasue PC guns output differently than originals),
Analog pedals, joysticks, and trackballs playable with keyboard.

And the not-so-grey because it-was-done-in-bootlegs, and no-way-for-mame-to-tell-anyway:
Yoke games playable with flight sticks,
Cone buttons playable with normal buttons.

Plus don't forget the unemulatable (by mame) parts of inputs: tron's joystick handle shape, tempest's spinner speed and feel, starwars' yoke, spy hunter's steering wheel, etc.  These are very important to getting the original feel of the game, but out of mame's emulation power.  Not BYOAC's power, though.


Personally, I wouldn't mind as much about the mis-simulated inputs as long as an original input's output can be used too, and it's noted in the source what was the original input.  But that takes hacks and messes up the code a bit more.

[wpcmame]

Unless you make a pretty complicated DIY 1-steering-wheel-to-rule-them-all (as Tiger-Heli says Xiaou2 did some design work of) then you'll need 2 wheels, 1 360 and 1 270.  Alternatively you could use a 360deg wheel, and a yoke insead of a 270deg wheel, which would enable you to play a few more games - this is what I'm planning

Wouldn't it be possible to implement something in mame to convert from 270 to 360?

The more you turn the weel the quicker the pulses are sent. Wouldn't be like the original but it could make it possible to use only one wheel.

Has it been tried already?

[Minwah]

I agree with you, but I bet we (even with the others in BYOAC that agree with us) are a minority.  I've thought a lot about it and understand many of the reasons why the inputs are done the way they are.

First, imagine the posts if all the shifters were changed so you had to hold down the button.  

Some good points there URebel, but...

My argument is that there seems to be little consistency.  eg in some driving games you *do* have to hold the shifter button down (eg Chase HQ).  Also not terribly important, but sometimes steering wheels (pot based) are ad_stick and sometimes paddles - it would be nice if there were some guidelines for the driver authors to use.

Also, I think the main reason it bugs me, is MAME's 'playing the games is a nice side effect' phrase.  If what you say is true (I'm sure it is), then this really contradicts MAME's apparent reason for existing.

Has anyone really pushed for input changes like this before?  I'm sure people have submitted changes like the PolePos one before, I guess they just get rejected...surely if we were to present proof of how the original worked they would have to change it??  Rhetorical question, I know the answer is no, but perhaps if enough of us bugged the MAME devs maybe they could be persuaded?  I mean I don't want to piss them off, but in this case IMHO they are just wrong!  

[Minwah]

Wouldn't it be possible to implement something in mame to convert from 270 to 360?

The more you turn the weel the quicker the pulses are sent. Wouldn't be like the original but it could make it possible to use only one wheel.

Has it been tried already?

It is already in MAME - just map some pot-based analog inputs to P1_DIAL and P1_DIAL_EXT (in ctrlr files), or 'Dial' and 'Dial' in the TAB menu...

It works really quite well, I played a bit pf Super Sprint with my GameCube pad earlier

[Xiaou2]

Wouldn't it be possible to implement something in mame to convert from 270 to 360?

The more you turn the weel the quicker the pulses are sent. Wouldn't be like the original but it could make it possible to use only one wheel.

Has it been tried already?

It is already in MAME - just map some pot-based analog inputs to P1_DIAL and P1_DIAL_EXT (in ctrlr files), or 'Dial' and 'Dial' in the TAB menu...

It works really quite well, I played a bit pf Super Sprint with my GameCube pad earlier

  Yeah - but try racing a friend that has equal skills and a spinner - and they will lap you 10 to 1.

  Supersprint without a spinner/360 wheel is a horrible idea.   Not only will is play horrible... it loses a lot of the fun factor.

  Spinners hardly take up any space... and you can play so many games with a spinner... that I wonder why anyone wouldnt add one to thier panel?   Heck, you can even place them right above a joystick, and still access them very well.

[Minwah]

 Yeah - but try racing a friend that has equal skills and a spinner - and they will lap you 10 to 1.

  Supersprint without a spinner/360 wheel is a horrible idea.   Not only will is play horrible... it loses a lot of the fun factor.

I agree...but I was certainly surprised how well the game worked.  I wasn't as good as with a spinner (I'm not much good anyway), but I could get round the track pretty well.  I just expected it to be pretty horrific...

[ferrarimanf355]

Looking through KLOV I see that Ferrari F355 Challenge actually has a 6 position gear shifter (1-5 and reverse). One more thing to consider.....

Actually, F355 Challenge has 6 forward gears (no reverse).
Ridge Racer uses 6 forward gears and a clutch (Ridge Racer 2 and Rave Racer can use that setup as well, or you can use a up/down shifter).

[u_rebelscum]

My argument is that there seems to be little consistency.  

Yes, MameDev has tried to make it more consistent in the past, but it's usually up to the person who wrote the driver (and when the driver was first written, as different input types were added later).

eg in some driving games you *do* have to hold the shifter button down (eg Chase HQ).

You mean the shifter physically popped back into low?  Or are you talking about the turbo button?

(Not my side of the arguement, but) If the shifter stayed in high when let go, and high meant a switch was held down, you aren't holding the button, the shifter is.  Others have stated that their stance is: if, in the original game, you could let go of the shifter and it stayed in that gear, then they think a toggle button emulates / simulates that the best that a normal PC can do without the "special" arcade hareware.  [shrug]  That's the stance some take, and if they write the driver, they have a lot of say.

I say that's a hack, but tomato .. tomato.

Also not terribly important, but sometimes steering wheels (pot based) are ad_stick and sometimes paddles - it would be nice if there were some guidelines for the driver authors to use.

I don't like that either.  Usually, a game that uses ad_stick up & down for gas & brake use ad_stick for the wheel.  And most games that use paddle also uses the pedal type inputs.

I like the Paddle + Pedals combo much better than ad_stick + ad_stick for racing games.  However, if the original game had the gas and brake sharing an axis, then, sad to say, but ad_stick is better for emulating that input than two pedals (which would mean two seperate axes).  I'd be happy with a paddle + ad_stick Y for those games, but many feel that if ad_stick Y is already being used, then why not use ad_stick X?

Also, I think the main reason it bugs me, is MAME's 'playing the games is a nice side effect' phrase.  If what you say is true (I'm sure it is), then this really contradicts MAME's apparent reason for existing.

Has anyone really pushed for input changes like this before?  I'm sure people have submitted changes like the PolePos one before, I guess they just get rejected...surely if we were to present proof of how the original worked they would have to change it??  Rhetorical question, I know the answer is no, but perhaps if enough of us bugged the MAME devs maybe they could be persuaded?  I mean I don't want to piss them off, but in this case IMHO they are just wrong!  

I've pushed, HC has pushed, others have pushed.  Best results (AFAIK) have occured when a writer "sees the light" and switches his driver's inputs.  IIRC, a long time ago Aaron Giles changed all his ad_stick X to paddle for all his drivers.  That was just as I was getting started with mame, so I don't know the reasons why the switch.  I use hoping all would follow, but most writers used one or more of the arguements listed above and didn't.

[Minwah]

You mean the shifter physically popped back into low?  Or are you talking about the turbo button?

No, sorry, I meant in MAME, you have to hold down a key (Shift by default I think) to stay in Lo, and release it for Hi.

(Not my side of the arguement, but) If the shifter stayed in high when let go, and high meant a switch was held down, you aren't holding the button, the shifter is.  Others have stated that their stance is: if, in the original game, you could let go of the shifter and it stayed in that gear, then they think a toggle button emulates / simulates that the best that a normal PC can do without the "special" arcade hareware.  [shrug]  That's the stance some take, and if they write the driver, they have a lot of say.

I guess it's fair enought the driver author has the last word.  Thing is, in a shifter there is a microswitch which is either closed or open, depending on the position of the shifter.  IMO MAME should treat an input or key as that microswitch.

I say that's a hack, but tomato .. tomato.

Heh, yeah

I don't like that either.  Usually, a game that uses ad_stick up & down for gas & brake use ad_stick for the wheel.  And most games that use paddle also uses the pedal type inputs.

I like the Paddle + Pedals combo much better than ad_stick + ad_stick for racing games.  However, if the original game had the gas and brake sharing an axis, then, sad to say, but ad_stick is better for emulating that input than two pedals (which would mean two seperate axes).  I'd be happy with a paddle + ad_stick Y for those games, but many feel that if ad_stick Y is already being used, then why not use ad_stick X?

I agree with you.  Perhaps not the best way to go about it but I almost think they should just add some new input types, like 270wheel & 360wheel.  I mean dial is essentially a 1-axis version of trackball, paddle a 1 axis version of ad_stick.  If 270wheel existed then it could work exactly the same as paddle, but there would be no question as to what type the driver authors should use.

I've pushed, HC has pushed, others have pushed.  Best results (AFAIK) have occured when a writer "sees the light" and switches his driver's inputs.  IIRC, a long time ago Aaron Giles changed all his ad_stick X to paddle for all his drivers.  That was just as I was getting started with mame, so I don't know the reasons why the switch.  I use hoping all would follow, but most writers used one or more of the arguements listed above and didn't.

Oh well, I guess some things you just have to accept