Four GP-WIZs on one computer?

[bakechad]

I have read a bunch of GP-Wiz posts and am fairly confident it will work for my planned project.  But I thought I would solicit some opinions before I move forward.

I plan on building four single player control panels(similar to the photo below) for use with mame.  The idea is that four people can sit on couch/chairs and play on a TV, rather than hunching around a single four player control panel.



Each control panel will use a GP-WIZ Max 32 with a different USB device number.  So far I am assuming that each one will be treated as a separate gamepad and will not conflict.

So my questions are:

- Will this work?
- How funky will the game controls need to be configured in mame?
- How is GP-WIZ wired (I have only used the ipac previously), is is setup for mame as a standard or do you need to wire it and change the settings in mame?  Would I need to change the settings for each game?
- Will all four controllers be wired the same or 1st wired for player one, 2nd wired for player two, 3rd wired for player three, & 4th wired for player four?
- Are there any other issues I am missing?

Thanks

[Flinkly]

you'll need to remap controls, but since you will be getting usb device numbers 1-4, the number one panel will always be number one, unless you plug in pad's two and four, then two will be player one and 4 will be player two, since they stack in numerical order. you can remap controls for mame globaly, so unless a game uses something special or you want the controls layed out differently, it will be simple.  you might have to mess with joy2key, but again, that's simple.  and just for disclaimer stuff, i've never done this exactly before, but going off of previous knowledge, it would work fine, just a little bit extra work.  and since it's usb, you could plug in and unplug during a session and the computer wouldn't goof.

good luck.

[Tiger-Heli]

What Flinkly said, but alternately, for your setup - you might want to get all the GP-Wiz's with the same Device ID.  If you do this, I think you can plug in any panel in any order and the first one plugged in is Panel 1, second is Panel 2, etc.

I'm just going from what I have heard though.

[markrvp]

I have always assumed that if you plug in just one GP-Wiz 49 that has a USB ID # other than 1, that it still works fine, is that correct?

[Tiger-Heli]

I have always assumed that if you plug in just one GP-Wiz 49 that has a USB ID # other than 1, that it still works fine, is that correct?

Let me try to explain this better and hope it answers your question:

Assume I have Panel A which is USB ID #4
Panel B which is USB ID #2
Panel C which is USB ID #3 and
Panel D which is USB ID #1.

I initially install panels A, B, C, and D together (IN THAT ORDER) so A (ID #4) is seen as Joystick 1, B is Joystick 2, C is Joystick 3, D is Joystick 4.

You are correct that I can now unplug all the panels and plug in ANY of the panels and it will be seen as Joystick 1.

The problem occurs if I didn't label the panels (and have different USB IDs) and I grab Panel D and plug it in and hand it to Player 1 and grab Panel A and hand it to Player 2, Panel D will be initially seen by Windows and MAME as Joystick 1, but when I plug in Panel A, it will become joystick 1 and Panel D will drop down to panel 2 and the players will have the wrong controls.

If all of them have the same ID, then I can plug any of them in and Windows will recognize them in a FI-FO manner.

The time that I would want different device ID's is if I were building a standalone cab with a four player CP and planned to have four GP-Wiz's connected at system boot-up.

Also - note that MAME only checks for joysticks at initialization, so if you are playing Twin Cobra with Panel A only connected, you won't be able to connect Panel B mid-game and start 2-Player action . . .

[Kremmit]

I have always assumed that if you plug in just one GP-Wiz 49 that has a USB ID # other than 1, that it still works fine, is that correct?

Yup, works fine.  So far, I've owned a #2, #3, and #4, but never a #1, and they all worked fine by themselves or mix-n-match.

[Tiger-Heli]

Kremmit may have understood MarkRVP's question better than my long-winded reply !

[markrvp]

Kremmit may have understood MarkRVP's question better than my long-winded reply !

The nice thing about asking you the time, is that after you answer I also know how to build a clock for future time reference. 

[Tiger-Heli]

Kremmit may have understood MarkRVP's question better than my long-winded reply !

The nice thing about asking you the time, is that after you answer I also know how to build a clock for future time reference. 

Quite true (and I probably spell out that advantages of analog, digital, or atomic clocks while I'm at it)!!!

[Ninja Supremacist]

The main problem I see is that half your buttons will go to waste.  The GP-Wiz32 boards have 32 inputs each.  Mapping them isn't a problem as joystick 1 button 1 is different from joystick 2 button 1. 

I'd suggest building two two player controllers.  You'd save time and money.

[Tiger-Heli]

The main problem I see is that half your buttons will go to waste.  The GP-Wiz32 boards have 32 inputs each.  Mapping them isn't a problem as joystick 1 button 1 is different from joystick 2 button 1. 

Yes, half the inputs are wasted, but the boards are less than $25 each (Eco, non-solder) (less than you could hack a gamepad for if you figure your time into it as well).

I'd suggest building two two player controllers.  You'd save time and money.

Three problems here -

The GP-Wiz is seen as one joystick and 28 buttons.  Many emulators (non-MAME) only recognize 16 joystick button inputs.

Separate single panels let you use as many as needed any way you want to.  With two 2-player panels, you have to decide - Will Player 2 always use the same panel as Player 1, or will I use separate panels (Player 1 uses the first dual joystick panel and Player 2 uses the second).  And you likely want a different setup with your gf than you do with your beer buddy.  (Hopefully).  NTTIAWWT!

Finally, there is the problem of input mapping - yes you could map buttons 16-28 as player 2 directionals and buttons in MAME, but for the same panel setup you would want Player 2 mapped to Joystick 1 buttons 16-32, for the separate panel setup, you would want Player 2 mapped to Joystick 2 buttons 1-8, but you wouldn't want to map it both ways or you couldn't play 3 player games, if you had two friends over . . .

[Kremmit]

Kremmit may have understood MarkRVP's question better than my long-winded reply !

Did you ever see "The Usual Suspects"?

I'm gonna start calling you Verbal.