Multiple Serial Devices in Mame.exe

[Lilwolf]

Ok, I'm finally going to look at remounting my trackball....

I have an opti-pac, but considering going with multiple USB mice instead.

Does anyone know if you can get multiple serial mice working in mame with the old serial driver in the windows version of mame?

Or should I go multiple USB mice and a Analog mame?

I only have one trackball right now... but as soon as I get that going, I'm going to start building a control panel to handle 2 steering wheels... and I'm going to need analog mame to get them running unless I play around with more then one mouse.

Also, will the opti-pac do a better job then the USB trackballs for less rollback?

(btw, I already have a few cheap usb mice to hack... so cost isn't an issue)

thanks

[Tiger-Heli]

Does anyone know if you can get multiple serial mice working in mame with the old serial driver in the windows version of mame?

No, you can't, mamew won't recognize the DOS driver.  you can run two mice (serial-serial or serial-PS/2) with mamed, in straight DOS.  You can use this in Win 95, 98 or ME, using a DOS box, but the second mouse must be unplugged when Windoze first loads and you have to install a DOS driver (from a batch file) when MAME starts.  The second DOS mouse driver or MAME Analog + won't work in NT, XP, or 2000, so you can't do it at all with these OS's.

Hopefully Urebel will correct me if I missed anything.

[u_rebelscum]

Does anyone know if you can get multiple serial mice working in mame with the old serial driver in the windows version of mame?

No, you can't, mamew won't recognize the DOS driver.  you can run two mice (serial-serial or serial-PS/2) with mamed, in straight DOS.  You can use this in Win 95, 98 or ME, using a DOS box, but the second mouse must be unplugged when Windoze first loads and you have to install a DOS driver (from a batch file) when MAME starts.  The second DOS mouse driver or MAME Analog + won't work in NT, XP, or 2000, so you can't do it at all with these OS's.

Hopefully Urebel will correct me if I missed anything.

Looks like you got everything.

Just to note, direct X won't recognize the dos driver, preventing mamew from using it (passing the blame from mame to windows ).

Also, will the opti-pac do a better job then the USB trackballs for less rollback?

(btw, I already have a few cheap usb mice to hack... so cost isn't an issue)

Depends on the USB mouse.  Test the USB mice you have.  If you have rollback in windows, you'll have problems in mame.  FWIW, I've tested five different USB mice (logitech, kensington, Happs USB interface, and two generics) and have gotten zero to very minor & rare rollback in my winME system and mame.

[Lilwolf]

I fixed my optipac I think (the reason I didn't use it ages ago... plugged in the +5 to ground and blew a few items...  I had to replace a resister and a chip... thanks Andy!)

I started hacking a few mice last night also.   I was holding one up the the trackball and it didn't seem to do any rollback at all.... I think I'm going to go with this solution first.  

Since it's easier and I'm not 100% sure that my optics from the trackball are working..