Sidewinder vs. IPAC

[enemyace]

I need an answer to the age-old question, "Should I do a Sidewinder hack, or should I just buy an IPAC?"

I currently have 4 sidewinders that I was planning to hack, but now I'm wondering if I should just sell them on ebay and use the money to go towards an IPAC. There are a couple of questions I have that would help with my decision:

1. Can you use the default MAME keys in other PC games and emulators, or do you have to reprogram the IPAC often to play them? My machine will be used for more than just MAME.

2. Is there a way to use function buttons in MAME such as tab, esc, and ~ with the sidewinders? How can you exit MAME with a sidewinder?

Is there any reason why I would want to keep the sidewinders other than the cost? There really is no difference in performance between the two, is there?

[SNAAAKE]

funny but answer is I-pac...hacking 4 of them wont be funny at all.

Why go through all the trouble when you dont have to .

[Silverwind]

A lot of emulators allow you to remap the controls.. so i don't see why you shouldn't be able to use the same key configuration for up/down/etc

Even if you don't have any ROMS for the emulator you want to run.. you can still download the emulator and see if you can remap the keys for it..  most of them do support remapping..

[Silverwind]

FYI

I'm also currently building some controls..  I plan on just buying an I-PAC to save me the time/hassle.. not to mention being a little cleaner..

[Jakobud]

Dude just spend the money and headaches and buy an IPAC.  Seriously.

[eightbit]

Most emulators either are the mame configuration or they can be changed to be. Few emulators or games don't work with keyboard input. If you have a particular emulator you want that can't be changed the Ipac depending on how you set it up has extra inputs that you can map to those buttons. Reprogramming the ipac isn't a big deal, I think you can even do it from the command line on the fly so you could make it automaticly program for the game when you launch it.

Your going to have more problems with the sidewinders. They will work with less emulators. I don't know if the function keys can be mapped. I should be able to tell you tomorrow.

For a simple 1 player control panel a single sidewinder is a pretty good choice. For 2 players or more you should invest in an Ipac. I received 3 sidewinders today, for $3 each, including shippng it was $15. I'm planning to put one into a cab with a single joystick. I'm a huge ipac fan but I wanted to give a try at hacking a joystick.

If you bought the USB sidewinders you've probably already spent more than an Ipac would have cost you.

[rampy]

I have 2 sidwinders hacked for my cabinet...  It works for me, it was kinda fun to hack, it was super cheap, but does introduce some hassles/limitations especially since I have a lower class machine that I run in DOS (but that's also why it works pretty well for me)...

anyways I suggest if you have teh bread, use the IPAC.  Since it generates keyboard "input" there isn't an emulator that won't work with it (although a few oddball emu's may make you alter your profile/mapping - but as noted earlier MOST emu's either follow MAMEs conventions or allow remaping)

I have issues where I can't get say nesticle or snes9x to output sound AND use my sidewinders (I can get either or to work) in DOS.. now that's partially a function of my lamo ISA card (again due to me being in DOS) but its the type of thing I deal with... although besides MAME, more and more of my emu's are being configured for winbloze... but that's a different story...

Anyways...  in MAME you can configure whatever joysticks, buttons, keys, mousebuttons to do most any function...

Currently with sidewinder I use  "pressing mouse button 1 and 2 at the same time" to exit a game...  and I use "mouse 1 and  sidewinder 1 "start" and sidewinder 2 "start" buttons at the same time to "pause"...
Just to show you can work around anything and get things configured to "work" in your project,.... but there is a great product on the market that's reasonably priced, and unless you wish to have slightly more geek status by using a soldering iron (which isn't really that hard/geeky) , spring for the ipac...

But in a pinch or  1 player stick or if you're broke, nothing wrong with a SW gamepad hack...

rampy

[enemyace]

Thanks a lot guys! It sounds like I should try to get the IPAC. It would probably be a lot more flexible and foolproof than the sidewinders.

[Searcher7]

If you ever want to play 2 or 4 player games can't you daisy-chain the sidewinders. But what about IPACs? Will a single one accomodate multi-player games?

Sidewinders are cheap(I have abouut a dozen of them for back-up), but has there been any technical problems associated with the IPAC?

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Searcher7@mail.con2.com

[ashardin]

Darren,

You can get a 2 person or 4 person IPAC.  On the 2 player version each player can have joysticks plus 8 buttons, on the 4 player version players 3 and 4 have 4 buttons (I don't believe there are any emulated games that can use 6 buttons for players 3 and 4).  They also get their own start and coin button.

[pyrobrit]

The problems are few and far between and mainly user generated during install.  Andy at Ultimarc will give you a better response to your email queiries if you have a problem than MS ever will on a sidewinder.

regards

Nick.W

[Searcher7]

Considering the price of a Sidewinder, tech support isn't necessary.

How much is a 4 player IPAC?(I assume that 1, 2, 3, 0r 4 players can use it).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Searcher7@mail.con2.com

[hyiu]

well... I believe I have said this before....

if you don't mind soldering.. and you need to count your pennys before spending.... hacking gameport SW will get you going in Mame and you'll save a few bucks....

but if you can afford, get the IPAC....

and if you have tons to cash to spend... forget about it all...
get the Hanahohoho cab..... you just have to plug it in..... haaa haa haa.....

ok...... going crazy here..... need to play some Guantlet...
somehow... after seeing lord of the rings... I always have the urge to play guantlet... and I want to be Elf !!... heee heee heee.....        
I kept on seeing warrior, wizard, elf.....

ok..... getting too carried away here.....  

[Silverwind]

Four player IPAC is $65, $69 if you want USB interface also

and from Ultimarc.com
"The I-PAC2 has 28 inputs. They are all programmable and are designated as 2 joysticks, 8 buttons each, plus coin1, coin2, start1, start2. One of the inputs is assigned as a shift key to access an alternate code set.
The I-PAC4 has 56 inputs. All programmable and designated 4 joysticks, 8 buttons each plus coin 1,2,3,4 and start 1,2,3,4. Two of the inputs are assigned as shift keys to access two separate codes sets covering the player 1,2 and the player 3,4 inputs."

So for four player ipac.. you still have 8 buttons for each player..

[TaskyZZ]

I used sidewinders in my cab, the gameport version.  This was before the IPAC was readily available and cost effective.  I have had no problems with it.  I used 2 sidewinders for the two players joysticks and 6 buttons each.  Then I used the other 8 buttons (sidewinders have 10 buttons on them) for the 1-4 player coin/start and for ESC, F10/11, Tab, and Pause.

It works well, and I have two more actual sidewinders plugged in that two more people can hold in their hands and play as well.  So there can be 4 players, two on the control panel and 2 holding actual sidewinders.  Works great this way.

Also, it is very easy to install a PC game and get the sidewinders working, especially with a game like Colin McRae Rally 2 which actually has split screen gaming for the PC.

[enemyace]

Maybe I'll do this instead. I'll start out with the sidewinder hack for money's sake, and upgrade to an IPAC later on. I could always use the hacked sidewinders to make a few single player control panels and sell them on eBay, or I could sell the hacked pads to someone at BYOAC.

Can anyone tell me what wattage of soldering iron and what gauge wire to use on the sidewinder hack?