Is there a chart of what controls each game wants?

[waname]

Here are two sentences of background, followed by the question:

I'm building a "legacy" (mostly old games) MAME setup for a friend who's not real computer literate.  My plan is to use AdvanceCD because you can't screw up the hard drive no matter what, and I can build a CD with 20 configured games to begin with, then configure more games later, and so on.  No sense in overloading the kids with choices.

I don't remember that much about arcade games, though I used to play a bunch.  Is there any chart that says:

Pacman: 1 4-way joystick, coin, P1 start, P2 start
Missile Command: 1 trackball, (shoot, I don't even remember what buttons!) coin, P1 start, P2 start
Och!  I was going to list some more, but I honestly don't remember button layouts!

At the moment, we're focusing on the older games, so I don't feel a need to clutter the setup with more buttons than necessary.  If this thing is a big hit with the kids, we can upgrade the system.

AdvanceCD seems like a great way to go, with an automatic front end, and so on.  And if power goes out, I don't get a call about Windows not booting.  True, they can't save high scores.  That's probably OK.

And I know that I'm going to need some extra buttons for controlling the AdvanceCD frontend.  Looks like you can highlight a game with the P1 joystick, but to actually start it you need to press the Enter key, which I don't think is a standard MAME button.

Thanks for listening- my real hope is if I can find a resource that shows the controls needed, and maybe even some of the layouts that were used.  (My secret hope is to one day play Gondomania again.)

Wan

[Tiger-Heli]

Well, the answer may be more complicated than your question:

If you go into the Tab - Inputs this game menu in MAME, it will tell you what buttons MAME thinks the game needs - "This game uses P1 buttons 1 through 4".

If you get the controls.dat (which is really controls.ini or controls.xml) file from http://fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/controls_dat.php it will tell you "What MAME calls Button 1 is really "Jump" on the CP.

If you get the control panel image packs from http://www.mamehot.net/php/stuff.php?stuff=panel , you can see how the buttons were arranged, and maybe even what they did.  "Jump was a blue button on either side of the joystick."  (Lots of files, though).

Then there are viewers like CPMaker and Johnny5 that will overlay an image of your CP so you know "The red button is "Jump"", but these are fairly hard to configure (but ultimately worth the effort).

But, no, there isn't a direct way to get what you are asking for.

[waname]

Wow- thank you.  Looks like those two sites have everything I need.  Those would probably go well in the FAQ.

Yep- it's a lot of files, but the info is there and I can puzzle through it.

I tried finding CPMaker but googling CPMaker MAME just brought me back here!  Oh well!  I'll have to muddle through with whipping up some directions for each game (another reason to deliver only a dozen or so games to begin with.)

Again, thanks for taking the time.

Wan

[SirPoonga]

Search the software forum for CP maker.

[Tiger-Heli]

Here some motivation for setting up Johnny5 or CPmaker (if the pic shows up).

This is Howard C's default layout in EmuLoader, which means you have to create individual images for each game, but the results are awesome.

BTW, MAMEWAH and some other frontend can generate these automatically, and Buddabing has a patch in the software forum to display these when you pause a game.

[Buddabing]

Here are two sentences of background, followed by the question:

I'm building a "legacy" (mostly old games) MAME setup for a friend who's not real computer literate.

[waname]

Again, thanks so much for all the help.

Now I wish I'd started this project a long time ago, so I could

(a) eliminate the use of non-controller keys in the AdvanceCD frontend.  Do I really want to dedicate a button to the "enter" key when "fire" (or "coin" so you don't have to move your fingers) would work as well?  Sigh.
(b) get it working with the little EPIA motherboards' graphics.
(c) integrate something like you have written that shows the controls after you pick the game, and waits for a "fire" (or "coin").
(d) save high scores to a hard drive or floppy drive.

BUT!  I'm not going to have all that done for Christmas!

(I know that Knoppix allows saving high scores to a floppy, and works with EPIA, but the gaming menu looked confusing to me.  I'm sure I'll take another look at it in the future.)


So I'm going to say thanks very much for all the help, again, and I'm going to try and provide "a system" that they can start with- plays some good games, and serves as a starting point for discussion and improvement.

You guys are a great community- in fact, you're SUCH a great community that there are almost too many options to choose from.  But in my own situation things are less complicated, because AdvanceCD doesn't leave too many things open.

Wan

[StephenH]

Consider the games you are going to play most, and then figure what you can live with, and what you can live without.  Here are some examples:

1) If you are running most old school games, most can be run with 3 buttons per player.

2) Neo Geo games need 4 buttons per player.

3) If you like the newer fighting games (i.e. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Mortal Kombat Series, etc), you will need at least 6 buttons per player.

4) Games like Marble Madness, Capcom Bowling, Centipede, Missile Command, Golden Tee, Rampart, etc all need a trackball for input.  Some of these even used dual trackballs.

5) Games like Arkanoid and Tempest used spinners for original input.

6) If you like Shooting Games, you may want to get one of the Act Labs USB Light Guns.   These are the only guns that work with MAME well.

7) If you like Driving Games such as Pole Position, Hard Drivin, Out Run, etc, these games used a wheel and pedals.  For these to work in MAME, you may need a racing wheel and pedals that can emulate joystick inputs.

Many flight sim games used an Analog Joystick, instead of digital.  This joystick can input a much wider range of values for each direction, than the usual 8 positions. 

9) Some games like Stun Runner, Star Wars, Starblade, and others used a yoke.  These can be wired through Analog inputs.

[Tiger-Heli]

2) A few Neo Geo fighting games need 4 buttons per player.  The vast majority will work with only 3.