Crazy questions on maximum number of control inputs!

[Tiger-Heli]

In the spirit of "nothing succeeds like EXCESS", I have some questions on max number of arcade inputs.

It seems like a realistic maximum would be six players in a street fighter layout, so 6x4 joysticks + 6x6 buttons+6 start+6 coin = 72 inputs.

It seems like I saw some arcade games with this configuration, but I'm not sure.  Does anyone know if any were actually produced?

Now, in MAME, the standard inputs are 4 joysticks x 4 inputs + 10 P1 and P2 buttons, plus 4 P3 and P4 buttons, plus 4 coin and 4 start buttons = 52 inputs.  (Mame does have defined inputs which could be used, such as J1RightUP=P6B1.)  AFAIK, the closest MAME comes to the above is Xmen6p, which is 6players, 3 buttons each, or 54 buttons with the coin and start buttons.  However, the game isn't working and the MAME driver doesn't support more than 4 players, despite the name.

Question 2:  For the people here familiar with MAME, when one of these games is added, will MAME use non-standard names (like the joy1RightRight example) to "fill" the inputs, or will the core be modified to add new inputs?

I am guessing they would add new inputs, but the last time I remember a similar change was when they made 3 and 4 Start3 and Start4 instead of Coin1 and Coin2.

And yes, I realize I am aging myself.  :-))

[Howard_Casto]

There is no such thing as a 4 player fighter game....

Therefore you need a maximum of 6 buttons for player 1 and 2 and a maximum of 4 buttons for 3 and 4


Also start buttons for player 3 and 4 are optional.  Every 4 player game i've seen gives you the option of pressing button 1 after you've inserted the coin into the proper slot.  As a matter of fact the ninja turtles and other konami games don't even have start buttons.  So really that many inputs are useless unless :

A. You want to make your own custom mahjong controller.

B.  You have mental health issues and you want to make a 4 player playstation control panel or some other useless pos.  

So if and only if xmen 6 player ever gets fixed then 54 inputs will be used for that game and that game only... for everything else around 34 is the max.  

[eightbit]

HC your math don't add up. I think you need 40 to do what you said. p1/2 6 buttons=20. p3/4 4 buttons=16, start 1/2 and coin 1/2=4

Aren't there a few games that use 7 or 8 buttons and like 2 that use 10 for p1/2? Some games require 4 start buttons, track and field comes to mind, Many of the 4 player games require 4 coin buttons, gauntlet, TMNT. Plus add to that what ever dedicated administrative buttons you want.

Maybe just maybe you might play one of those games one time and decide its your favorite game, if not decide which games you want and build around that. I'm a fan of the simple control panel, not a single button more than what is required. I'll program shifted buttons for things like start 3/4 and coin 3/4 if I need them since I won't likely use them regulary. I've been thinking a dual trackball panel would be nice for track and field and marble madness, if I did that I'd put 4 player start buttons on it and 2 trackballs and that would be it. My control panels are swappable.

[Tiger-Heli]

Ok, I was wrong about the 4-player fighting games.

HC should have access to the following information.

I did a quick scan of my image archive and found a bunch of 3 and 4-player, 3-button games, but NO 4-button games.

Does anyone know what games supported more than 3  players and more than 3 buttons each?

Also, X-men was 6-player, 3 buttons each, but were there any other 6-player games (even with 1 or 2 buttons or no buttons)?

Thanks again!!!

[hyiu]

There is no such thing as a 4 player fighter game....

Therefore you need a maximum of 6 buttons for player 1 and 2 and a maximum of 4 buttons for 3 and 4


Also start buttons for player 3 and 4 are optional.  Every 4 player game i've seen gives you the option of pressing button 1 after you've inserted the coin into the proper slot.  As a matter of fact the ninja turtles and other konami games don't even have start buttons.  So really that many inputs are useless unless :

A. You want to make your own custom mahjong controller.

B.  You have mental health issues and you want to make a 4 player playstation control panel or some other useless pos.  

So if and only if xmen 6 player ever gets fixed then 54 inputs will be used for that game and that game only... for everything else around 34 is the max.  

gaunlet  does uses 4 start buttons....
I'm not sure but I think some of the dungen and dragon series might uses 4 buttons.... (again... not sure on this...)

building a 4 player PS2 panel means mental health issue ??
then building a cabinet from scratch, digging out the guts of a hard drive and vcr to build a spinner... that's insane... anyway... we're all nuts here... haaa haa haa....      

for the record... I already build 4 1 player stick... which can be plugged together with pad hacks or sidewinder hacks or whatever else hack I do later.... so... I guess I'm certified with mental health issues... haaa haaa haaa....  

[Tiger-Heli]

I did a search of the output of Sortinfo and the KLOV (both highly suspect), with the following results:

There are no 3-player 4-button games.  There is only one 3-player 5-button game ?Guardians of the Hood? (in MAME as a test driver), and only one 3-player 6-button game - ?Powerpuff Girls?, Status unknown.

There are three 4-player 4-button games: Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystera, Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom, and NBA Jam Extreme.  There is one 4-player 6-button game Super Street Fighter - Tournament Edition.  There is one 4-player game with 6 buttons and a trigger stick with thumb button (8 buttons): War: Final Assault, but the cabinet pic definitely looked like single player.

There is one 6-player 2-button game: Hard Dunk (emulated by Modeler), two 6-player 3-button games: X-men and JSR Arcade - Second Chapter and one 6-player 6-button game, Clue (although I think that one may be bogus).

Thanks to all for the help and if anyone can confirm the above.

[SirPoonga]

D&D is 4 player with 4 buttons.

[u_rebelscum]

(snip)...
There are three 4-player 4-button games: Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystera, Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom, and NBA Jam Extreme.

Thanks to all for the help and if anyone can confirm the above.

These games are four player/four button games.  I can't confirm the others.

MAME driver doesn't support more than 4 players, despite the name

Mame's core doesn't dirrectly support more four players, but this can be hacked arround two ways.
1) By using "IPT_SPECIAL" (or "0") instead of "IPT_JOYSTICK_DOWN | IPF_PLAYER5" as the input type.  Probably should PORT_BITX to name it correctly.  However, you couldn't map it using the ctlrlr/ini files until the mame core supported six players and the hack removed
or
2) by using "IPT_JOYSTICKRIGHT_LEFT | IPF_PLAYER1" and the like instead like you suggested.  Maybe should PORT_BITX it again, this time to misname it correctly.  This way can use the ctrlr/ini setup, but if it is misnamed correctly, you'd have to remember which right_left or left_left and which player flag is used for players' 5 & 6.

[Lilwolf]

Dont forget other keys you want to have

pause
full throttle
quit

Then you have the likes of me...

my next cabinet WILL use all my leads on my MK64....  And I might have to hack some others controllers.... And yes... All at once...  

but I'm moving away from hot swappable control panels.... And going with put them all on at once....

[Jeremiah Ravener]

There is one 4-player game with 6 buttons and a trigger stick with thumb button (8 buttons): War: Final Assault, but the cabinet pic definitely looked like single player.

War was a one player cabinet, but could be networked with three others, thus a 4 player game. As for the 8 buttons, that is accurate.  Anyone who's played this game will be hard pressed to forget it due to it's rather origional (as far as an arcade game) control scheme, trying to recreate a PC FPS: an anolog stick for your view, a weapon trigger, drop weapon thumb button, four direction movement buttons, jump, and a POV changing button.