Setting up controls

[Jkawch]

Hello,

Currently, the cab Im in the middle of building is a cocktail. The way I have it set up, is standard vertical controls for either side of the cocktail, as well as a horizontal control panel coming off one side.

For each vertical CP, I use 1 Happ super for 8-way, and 1 J-Stick for 4-way. Also I only use 4 playing buttons, a 'player' start button, and the first player side has a spinner.

For the horizontal, I use 2 360 Joysticks, 6 buttons each, start buttons, and a trackball.

My question is, I bought the IPac, and OptiPac, but now Im wondering if I SHOULD have bought the IPAC(4) (double the inputs).

I want to be able to effectively 'turn off' one of the two joysticks on the vertical control panels, so that one will only be able to use the 8-way or 4-way dependant on the game. My work-around (what I was thinking) for this would be using the 5,6,7,8 switch buttons. But this then rules out having 4 extra switches for administration. Is there a way to have mame automatically select the 'shift' key, so I could have it auto-select the 4-way j-sticks?

Thank you for any help, and sorry if this is a bit confusing,
JKawch

[FractalWalk]

If you want to "turn off" the joysticks then you will have to have separate inputs (as you described). That can be done with what you have.

Do you need 4 extra buttons for admin?  Can't you use the shift function with existing buttons for admin?

[Jkawch]

Well, using shift wouldnt be a problem with administrative options. The problem is, I have only 4 extra spots on the ipac (4 directions, 6 buttons, coin and start are taken)...and I have 2, 4-way Joysticks. So...Im not entirely sure what to do.

One question I have is, are there any (or many) vertical games that use 6 buttons? I plan on only using 4 buttons for my vertical control panels. With this setup I COULD use the 5,6,7,8 buttons for both players for the 4-way joysticks. Only problem here, is that buttons 5 & 6 are being used on the horizontal control panel.

Im starting to confuse myself

[FractalWalk]

Maybe I'm the one that is confused. The I-Pac has 28 inputs. I'm assuming that you aren't going to use both vertical and horizontal controls at the same time (e.g. 4 player Gauntlet) so those can share inputs.

You want to separate your player 1 vertical joys, so that fills 8 inputs (4 apiece). You said player 1 would have 4 control  buttons, so now we are up to 12.  Assuming player 1 start and player 1 coin, brings you to 14.  

I'm also assuming that you won't have simultaneous 2 player play with the verticals but rather will switch players (flip screens), which means you can use the same mappings for the player 2 joys and control buttons if you want.  But even if you do separate those controls (to keep players from controlling the other player's game!) that is still just 28 inputs (2 x 14).

So you are good as long as you don't have extra admin buttons. If you want admin, you can use shift functions to handle that.


I don't know of any 6-button verticals but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

[Jkawch]

Thanks Fractal...for some reason I just couldnt put it down logically...brain fart kind of day.

Furthermore on this subject though...would it be possible to buy a type of switch that acts as an on/off (like a flip switch) and could act as the 'shift'? Therefore turning on/off the vertical or horizontal control panels? I think the I-Pac even allows for a LED to turn on if the shift is 'held down' (switched on).

Really...Im just covering ---my bottom--- as I can see 20 people surrounding this machine with 2 people playing, and people messing around with some controls effectively messing around with the players controls.

[FractalWalk]

...would it be possible to buy a type of switch that acts as an on/off (like a flip switch) and could act as the 'shift'?

That shouldn't be an issue of the switch as that would simply be a toggle wired to the shift input. The problem is that it would act as if the shift key were continually pressed. I'm not sure how the I-PAC or the OS would react to that, but I don't think it should be a problem in MAME.

Another solution might be to use the I-Pac as normal and share inputs on the vertical and horizontal side like outlined before. Then set up a toggle switch between your controls and the I-pac.  I know just about nothing about wiring, but I would think you could just wire the vertical ground to one side of an On-On toggle and the horizontal ground to the other side and then the toggle gets wired to the I-PAC ground. Flipping the switch one way connects your vertical controls to the I-pac and flipping it the other way breaks that circuit and connects to your horizontal.  

Red= vertical controls
Yellow = horizontal control
Gree = toggle
Blue = I-pac