A little help for a newbie

[Phantoms]

Okay, I get the part about the keyboard matrix. How do I map it? How do I wire stuff? I am going for an 8 way joystick/10 pushbutton design. Oh, and I'm using the keyboard hack method.

[Lilwolf]

dont hack a keyboard... dont hack a keyboard... don't hack a keyboard.

I've never heard anyone really having a good keyboard hack... but I've read many many times about people spending a TON of time and not being able to press enought buttons to play most games.  Or not able to press them fast enough.

Troubles with keyboard hacks.  They aren't consistent.  Keyboard encoders they use can be different for the same brand keyboard same model year... So no finding the right brand...  

But an Encoder (best solution by far).  Ipac will do you great (28 connections), configurable, fast, great guy!  (just sent me out extra chips for my optipac because I fried my board... it was my fault... THANKS!!!)

Or... if you want to hack something... definately a great goal.  Hack a joypad.  They are made to work with each button pressed.  They don't have ghosting.

[Tiger-Heli]

Absolutely, I completely recommend going with an encoder for the reasons listed above.

However, if you are stubborn and want to attempt a keyboard hack, more info than you would ever want to know is available here: http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/keyhack2.html

[Phantoms]

I'm not interested in spending alot of money though.

[delta88]

keyboard hacks work well if you want olny one player controls....tested an should work....to much more is a no go

[mattv]

Young people today... Always looking for the easy way :-)
If the guy wants to make a keyboard hack good for him!

I'ts possible to get a keyboard hack working well, just not easy.

This site was linked on the main page a while back and should have all the answers you need.
http://digitalpuppy.tripod.com/kbhack.htm

You may also want to think about buying / making a keyboard splitter so you can have you controls and a normal keyboard plugged in at the same time, Stephen Hans has a good site with details on this but I can't find a link for it at the moment.

Having said all that, I destroyed 2 perfectly good motherboards while perfecting my keyboard hack (2 players, 6 buttons per player). So for me at least I could have bought 4 encoders and still come out ahead.

Buying an encoder is probably the best way to go, especially since there is not much support around for keyboard hacks any more - I know i'm certainly not keen to go back.