NEO GEO in Mame

[MameMaster!]

....has anyone noticed occassional issues with the joystick control when playing Neo Geo games in Mame

[brian23]

what game specifically are you playing that is having the issue? or is it common across all NeoGeo games? I played a couple yesterday and don't have any issues.

[pointdablame]

I never noticed any problems in my .69 install.

[MameMaster!]

what game specifically are you playing that is having the issue? or is it common across all NeoGeo games? I played a couple yesterday and don't have any issues.

any Neo Game requiring 8 way (I guess that's just about all of 'em!)....it seems to be isloated to Neo.

[Goz]

All of mine play fine in .78

For what that's worth

[More Cowbell]

No problem here, Sport-o.
I'm on .96. I do notice on some of the NEO-GEO games that they seem to stutter. I always chalked that up to a 1ghz processor trying to run the more robust games.

[MameMaster!]

hmm.... I can't even begin to guess what's up then.

Thanks for all of the feedback. I'll have to "investigate" further....TO THE BATCAVE.

 

[RayB]

As usual... the common sense advice:

- What speed is your computer?
- What kind of control interface are you using?
- What version of MAME (DOS, Windows, custom build?)
- What happens when you plug in a keyboard and play with a keyboard?

[MameMaster!]

As usual... the common sense advice:

- What speed is your computer?
- What kind of control interface are you using?
- What version of MAME (DOS, Windows, custom build?)
- What happens when you plug in a keyboard and play with a keyboard?

- What speed is your computer?
1.7 Athlon
- What kind of control interface are you using?
XArcade PCB
- What version of MAME (DOS, Windows, custom build?)
MAME32
- What happens when you plug in a keyboard and play with a keyboard?
Haven't tried. But again, this only effects Neo games.

[RayB]

[quote author=MameMaster

[MameMaster!]

the XArcade isn't USB by default I have it running through a USB XArcade convertor.

The PC is off line and only used for the arcade.

I'll try your keyboard idea just to see what happens. can't hurt.
Thanks!

[MikeDeuce]

During my brief (1 week) ownership of the x-arcade I did notice some weirdness in 2 player mode without a kb hooked up. Do you have a PS2 keyboard plugged in normally? If not, this page seems to imply you should: http://zapek.com/docs/itsux/x-arcade.html


The USB adapter manufactured by X-Gaming doesn't work

That's true. Actually it almost works but every now and then the direction stops responding for 1 second. I won't mention how great this is when playing a game and you lose a life because your ship got stuck during a crucial moment. After a few mail exchanges with X-Gaming, they sort of acknowledge that problem and suggest buying an "Y-mouse" (some PS/2 -> USB adapter manufactured by someone else) which acording to them is "the only PS/2 to USB adapter working with the X-Arcade". Then why the hell do they manufacture and sell their own one? To waste people's time and money? Seems so.

Generic USB adapters have troubles working as well

It seems their statement about the "Y-mouse" is true (I don't have one to test though). Because most random PS/2 to USB adapters which do work fine with PS/2 keyboards fail to work with the X-Arcade. Update: it seems it works better if there's a keyboard plugged into the X-Arcade (which is really annoying). A friend of mine found a working adapter and mailed one to me (thanks!). It's a 'Maxxtro' adapter.

[MameMaster!]

wow.....that's pretty wild....but that is what is happening.

I wonder why I'm only noticing it with Neo games...but it could be because those require super fast and complex movements.

Hmm....more stuff to try out.

I would hate to have to plug a keyboard back into the XArcade PCB. I haven't had one attached for about a year since I've been using my USB adapter by XArcade.

  feh.


FYI-- this is part of the XArcade faq---

How do I use the X-Arcade

[pointdablame]

wow... is that adapter really worth the $50?

For that price, I'd just get an Ipac or KeyWiz and rewire the damn control panel.  Yikes.

[u_rebelscum]

One possible cause that this only effects NeoGeo in Mame is some NeoGeo chip is "running" at some speed slower that the original, due to mame does not emulate the "pausing" the chip does.  IOW, mame emulation of NeoGeo is not perfect.

OTOH, if the input pauses are > than a tenth (1/10, aka 0.1) a second, propabaly not this.  [shrug]

... I'd just get an Ipac or KeyWiz and rewire the damn control panel.  Yikes.

That's one option, as long as he knows it's the x-arcade encoder.  Test other keyboards & gamepads.  Try the keyboards using the same adparter.  If the probs only show on with the x-arcade, I'd say yup, change the interface.

[MameMaster!]

XArcade actually has been great over time with any minor issues that crop up.

I'm going to reach out to them today to see if they could send me a new USB interface as a replacement for the  one that I have.

they guarantee all of their stuff for a "lifetime".....so I'll give that a shot.

Interestingly I tried out a bunch of Neo games last night and they all worked fine. I can't pin down any specific reason this happens.

but I will try to get a new adapter first.

Again...thanks for all of the suggestions!

[divemaster127]

I owned a dual player xarcade for a short time & had the same problems i dumped & just built my own & have never had any problems since
divemaster

[MameMaster!]

Sigh.

I got a response from XArcade indicating that there IS a problem with the USB adapter.

They are in the process of re-designing the XArcade PCB to overcome this issue and have offered me one to test out when it's ready.

I'll post my results when I get it.

Thankfully this only affects the USB adapter. So if you use the keyboard pass through you're fine.

Thanks again to everyone's comments. I guess I'll have to plug the keyboard back in. It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's more crap in my cab (and it's already packed tight with stuff!).