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| I-PAC shift function vs. KeyWiz Shazaam Function for Howard C. |
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| _Iz-:
(I'm in canada) In my experience the duty is no biggie, it's the brokerage fee some shipping companies charge to bring it across the boarder into canada that's the killer. I ordered an ipac and it came with no additional charges. I ordered parts from happs, they shipped UPS and I was dinged almost $40 in brokerage. I almost died from the shock! I have heard that USPS has the cheapest brokerage fees, it's only $5. I hang out on the redflagdeals.com forum and everyone there refuses to order from the US unless they will ship USPS. -just my $0.02 Now, I have a question for RandyT. I have been following the Keywiz vs Ipac discussions very closely and there is one concept that I am having a little trouble with. It has been stated that the Keywiz can have more than 32 "dedicated" inputs using an "adapter" or "special button" but I cannot find any details on this additional item anywhere. What is it? How does it work? Is it really just a dual button that activates the shazzam key and another at the same time? |
| Howard_Casto:
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on February 17, 2003, 05:56:41 am ---Ok, I'm a glutton for punishment, but the other thread is now locked, so I'll try here. Let's say you have a 4-player, 4-button cabinet - 32 inputs. This uses all your KeyWiz inputs, but the Shazaam! key does not take away an input, so you can mount it in the middle of the panel and use shifted keys for coin inputs, TAB, etc. Now with the I-PAC, let's say you have a 4-player, 3-button cabinet - 28 inputs. You no longer have a P1 Start button, b/c this input is required for gameplay. Sure you could map your P1 Start input to "nothing", mount it in the center of the panel and have a dedicated Shift button with the I-PAC, but that takes away an input, so you now only have 27 inputs and not enough to play the games. Or you can use P1B1 as a gameplay and Shift button, but then as HC said in a previous post, you have Shift functions popping up during gameplay and Player 4 reaching across to press Player 1B1 to add a new coin. As I said in a previous post, think of the KeyWiz as 33 inputs, one of which (Shazaam) can't be used for gameplay, or think of the I-PAC as 28 inputs, but only 27 if you want a dedicated Shift key. I can't make it any clearer, if you still don't get it, you probably never will, unless anyone else wants to try!!! --- End quote --- The amount of inputs and the way the shift/shazaam keys function have nothing to do with each other. I had come to believe that the shazaam key could also be used as a regular key. Apparently that is not the case. So I take it back, the shazaam key isn't the same as the ipac shift key. It's WORSE :D A dedicated shift key is a bad thing.. umm k. You should at least have the option of using it as a dual function key. I, for example, refuse to have special "mame keys" on my control panel. If I have to have a "shift key" put on special then I'm not getting it. The idea is I want my cp to look like it could actually be on a real arcade machine. If I have a row of function keys then it ruins that. I figure a lot of people with faithful mame conversions of arcade cabinets feel the same way. This revelation has really offset the balance for me. I can now say that the ipac is better than keywiz, although the keywiz would still be a good choice for budget projects. |
| RandyT:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on February 19, 2003, 12:12:44 pm ---So I take it back, the shazaam key isn't the same as the ipac shift key. It's WORSE :D A dedicated shift key is a bad thing.. umm k. You should at least have the option of using it as a dual function key. --- End quote --- Ok, if having the ability to use a "shifted" function with a single button press is "worse", then I can't argue :D For an explantion on making a "dual-purpose" button, read a followup in a bit.. --- Quote ---I, for example, refuse to have special "mame keys" on my control panel. If I have to have a "shift key" put on special then I'm not getting it. The idea is I want my cp to look like it could actually be on a real arcade machine. If I have a row of function keys then it ruins that. I figure a lot of people with faithful mame conversions of arcade cabinets feel the same way. --- End quote --- No doubt. You won't have to have a ton of "mame" keys if you don't want, but the option will be there if you do. In fact, you could have up to 24 special function buttons on there in addition to controls that used all 32 inputs, with none of them being a dedicated "Shazaaam!" button, if you so desire. --- Quote ---This revelation has really offset the balance for me. I can now say that the ipac is better than keywiz, although the keywiz would still be a good choice for budget projects. --- End quote --- Jumping to conclusions again. eh ? :) RandyT |
| RandyT:
--- Quote from: _Iz- on February 19, 2003, 11:37:55 am ---Now, I have a question for RandyT. I have been following the Keywiz vs Ipac discussions very closely and there is one concept that I am having a little trouble with. It has been stated that the Keywiz can have more than 32 "dedicated" inputs using an "adapter" or "special button" but I cannot find any details on this additional item anywhere. What is it? How does it work? Is it really just a dual button that activates the shazzam key and another at the same time? --- End quote --- The adapter is a special "Y" adapter with an integrated electronic compnent. With this adapter, any SPST switch (button, coin door, slam switch, tilt, etc...) can perform the function I wrote about. This will allow one button to do the same thing as pressing Shazaaam! and another button simultaneously, but without the need for a dedicated Shazaaam! button. Using this method, you could also have a "dual purpose" button, as while this button is held, any other button pressed at the same will send the Shazaaam! keycode assigned to it. The only limitation is that the dual-purpose button's function needs to be carefully selected as it's keycode will be sent as well, but only when it is first pressed and not be sent again as long as it is held down. For instance, this button could be a "start" button on your panel, with it's definitition set to ";". If you don't have any credits racked up, pressing ";" won't do a thing. Likewise, it's very unlikely that ";" will have any effect in any outside application. This would make it a good choice. Then you could press the "start" button and a second button, to send the "Shazaaam!" keycode associated with the second button. These adapters will be available from the site starting this evening at $1.25 each. (only gave the price because I know that will be the next question :) ) RandyT |
| _Iz-:
So for each "special button" does 1/2 of the "Y" connect to the shazzam input on the keywiz and the other 1/2 connect to the specific input you want to use? I assume it then forces the keywiz to use the shifted code for that specific input? Note to HC, This is how the number of inputs are extended, you don't have to use these for mame functions, they can be action keys, insert coins, etc, you just need to program the code set appropriately. IE: use all 32 regular inputs for 4 sticks and 4 buttons per player, then use 8 (or more) " buttons with the special adapter to be insert coins and start 1-4. However, I personally still like the dual function shift button on the ipac better. Like HC I have my control panel configured without any "extra" function keys, I just use the ipac shifted codes for controlling mame. Although, I suppose 1 extra button wouldn't be the end of the world, I just prefer no extra... On another side note, I have re-programmed my IPAC so that "esc" is player1start + coin1 instead of player1start + player2start. I found my kids were exiting games accidentally when they played together, they would get a ways into a game, hit a difficult section, both die and slap the start buttons virtually simultaneously, exiting the game. (Then scream in frustration!) ;D RandyT - Any idea if your adapter would work on the Ipac for single button shifted inputs? Is it basically 2 wires with diodes to restrict current flow to 1 direction (so the 2 inputs don't short each other out)? |
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