Ghosting + IPAQ

[ginno]

Hey guys

Just wondering, I think I read somewhere that the IPAQ overcomes the ghosting problem(+ other problem can't remember what it is called) as opposed to a keyboard hack

I have programmed my IPAC to my own custom keys and when to play a bit of Street Fighter II only to find it was very un-responsive.  So i went back into WinIPAC to test the buttons were working.

Here I went crazy witht he Player 1 buttons and noticed when my brother would have trouble getting his player 2 buttons to register.

The IPAC dosen't use a matrix like a keyboard does it?? Should this activity be normal??  Has changing the key strokes to my own caused this problem?

Can anyone shed some light on this prob?

Cheers guys...

[Tiger-Heli]

USB or PS/2 connection?

The I-PAC has a limit of something like 14 simultaneous keys plus modifiers in USB mode, unlimited in PS/2.  Shouldn't be a problem in normal gameplay, but if you're mashing buttons in WinIPac you might notice it.

Otherwise check your wiring. . .  (maybe run ghostkey and check for a stuck Alt key, etc.)

[NoOne=NBA=]

My first thought is that you are probably using CTRL and ALT in your 1P button array.
If so, the computer may be trying to send commands, rather than game data, from the other keys pressed.

[Tiger-Heli]

My first thought is that you are probably using CTRL and ALT in your 1P button array.
If so, the computer may be trying to send commands, rather than game data, from the other keys pressed.

Ctrl and Alt actually HELP the USB limit problem.

That could be the case in WinIPAC, but MAME shouldn't be affected, assuming that's what he was playing SF in.

[ginno]

Im not using ctrl or alt keys, here is a layout of my keystrokes, ill try the ghosting program to check for keys in a few days



Save it to get a better look, it has been scaled down automatically

[Tiger-Heli]

Im not using ctrl or alt keys, here is a layout of my keystrokes, ill try the ghosting program to check for keys in a few days

Using USB mode?

The only thing I can see are some potentially poor choices - the direction arrows, Page Up and Page Down all send extra characters to the buffer.  Bad for a keyboard hack, but I would think the I-PAC could handle it.  See http://www.mameworld.net/tigerheli/encoder/scancodesset2.htm for a summary and http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/keyhack2.html under "Choosing the Keys" for details.

[ginno]

sorry, should have mentioned earlier, ps/2 connetion...

Would having number / scroll / capslock on the keyboard on have anything to do with affecting these results?

Ill have a browse thru those links, thanks all....

[Tiger-Heli]

sorry, should have mentioned earlier, ps/2 connetion...

Okay, I'm stumped, you might E-mail Andy.

Would having number / scroll / capslock on the keyboard on have anything to do with affecting these results?

It shouldn't, but possibly just having the keyboard plugged in would.  Wouldn't hurt to test without it.

Ill have a browse thru those links, thanks all....

Links just tell you what keys to stay away from.  If you were not seeing problems with a keyboard, but see them with an I-PAC, I'm again stumped.  You might try remapping the I-PAC and MAME to more "PC-friendly" keys and seeing if that helps.

[tk_42_1]

I had a similar problem with my IPac when I added pinball buttons to my CP.  I went and reprogramed my IPac and things acted screwey.  Well, it turns out that I had a wiring problem.  You might just want to double check that.  Mine was hard to see at first.

[ginno]

When you say wiring problem what do you mean? Were wires touching each other or were they loose etc?

Cheers

[Fusion Disaster]

Something unrelated, but helpful you might consider, is mapping P1's button 1 & 2 or 4 & 5 to 'O' & 'K'. That way you can bypass the OK screens in MAME if they ever come up. (yes I know you can bypass them by modifying the mame config file, but every once in a while they still show up).

[ginno]

Fushion if you have your P1 joystick mapped left as <- arrow and right as -> arrow

then all you have to do is tap left then right on the P1 joystick this works as well (dont need to map those specific keys then)

Cheers

[The Man]

I thought there was a BIOS key repeat setting or something.  I remember someone else having this problem but it was the BIOS setting or a keyboard setting. I would start there, but if you still can't figure it out send Andy an email, he is good at getting back with people.

[Tiger-Heli]

Fushion if you have your P1 joystick mapped left as <- arrow and right as -> arrow

then all you have to do is tap left then right on the P1 joystick this works as well (dont need to map those specific keys then)

Cheers

And if you have the joystick mapped to something else, start MAME and under TAB General Inputs - User Interface, Set UI Left and UI Right to the same thing as your joystick and you can still do that.