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| I-PAC shift function vs. KeyWiz Shazaam Function for Howard C. |
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| RandyT:
--- Quote from: creepfactory on February 19, 2003, 09:40:41 pm ---Sooooooooooo How much is the Keywiz, and are they READY, tested and working. I am sorry but the Ipac WORKS, Andy is GREAT on getting stuff out, and man it is just plain proven. Maybe Keywiz will be the next ultimarc, but maybe they will be the next T-stick or other companies that can't deliver. I am not saying Keywiz can't deliver, just has not yet, and you can get an Ipac TODAY ordered and in your hands in a few days. Not trying to be a spoil sport and I encourage competition, but the site isnt near finished either, Andys is up and running for a long time, I personally wouldn't put up a site untill all of it is up, but I am willing to try the Keywiz, but can't find if its for sale yet or where to buy. But keeping optimistic! --- End quote --- Huh? :D The store has been open for over a week now, and we've already shipped about 2 dozen units :) Maybe you have to refresh your browser? The hardware has been finalized for close to a month now and has been rigorously tested by a number of individuals. I have a unit here that hasn't been removed from power for close to that entire time. No problems. We're working on the site as we get time. The KeyWiz area has been fully functional from the time we went live. Should have most of the other stuff fixed by this weekend sometime. Just click on the cart in the upper right corner of the screen to get to the store. Clicking on the KeyWiz logo will take you to the KeyWiz section. RandyT |
| eightbit:
Creep Randy has been shipping for 2 weeks now. His website isn't totally fleshed out but the keywiz stuff is complete and the shopping cart is open and working. He's even selling some accessorys other than the keywiz. --- Quote from: SirPoonga on February 19, 2003, 10:13:23 pm ---Or map to keys you normally don't use in mame but in other arcade or pc software. I have P1B1 mapped to Enter (very useful) and the shift to tab which is also very useful outside of mame. When does mame recognize the input, on the keypress? so in mame say, like me, you have pause as your shift function on the ipac. In mame to do tab on my cp I just use shift p1b1 on the ipac. if it was mapped in mame to do the same thing but in software it would pause the game first. Soemthing I don't want as we know the issues with pausing a game and configing controls. --- End quote --- The key is sent on key down. As with all interfaces you need to plan your buttons and inputs wisely. |
| SirPoonga:
--- Quote from: eightbit on February 19, 2003, 10:21:32 pm ---The key is sent on key down. As with all interfaces you need to plan your buttons and inputs wisely. --- End quote --- Right, but in order for the IPAC shift to work it has to detect if you are holding it or not so it doesn't quite send the keypress right away. Therefore the char 'p' (my pause key) does not get sent when I hold the shift key down. That's my point, if I map it in software p will get sent to mame. RandyT, your site has some confusing problems. First, the shopping cart to get to the store. That's the ONLY way to get tot he store. I couldn't find the store right away because a shopping cart icon is generally used to show your shopping cart, not to got the store. I was expecting something on the keywiz info pages like "Add to shopping cart" when I saw the shopping cart in the top of the screen. Second, this wording is weird. "Want to send a Shazaaam! keycode with only one click? These special adapters will make it happen. Order 1 for each switch you want to have this feature." Do you have an info page that explains that in more detail? Put a link to it in the shopping cart description then. I didn't realize the functionality of this until I talked aobut it in IRC. |
| RandyT:
--- Quote from: SirPoonga on February 19, 2003, 10:42:31 pm --- RandyT, your site has some confusing problems. First, the shopping cart to get to the store. That's the ONLY way to get tot he store. I couldn't find the store right away because a shopping cart icon is generally used to show your shopping cart, not to got the store. I was expecting something on the keywiz info pages like "Add to shopping cart" when I saw the shopping cart in the top of the screen. --- End quote --- The store script does have this feature and I will implement it on the description pages. It's another one of those things I haven't gotten to yet. Getting the store set up the way I wanted took a lot more time and effort than I expected (mainly because I wanted to customize the look), and I think I'm pretty much happy with it. So now I can start to look at some of the other parts of the site. Sorry if the cart thing is confusing. I wanted that button to be a fixture on all the pages, and that includes the ones where there isn't anything for sale. :) Originally I did want it to show the cart. Just not sure if that's something I can make the script do. I'll look into it, and If I can, I'll change it and put the web store link on one of the "tabs" at the top of the screen. --- Quote ---Second, this wording is weird. "Want to send a Shazaaam! keycode with only one click? These special adapters will make it happen. Order 1 for each switch you want to have this feature." Do you have an info page that explains that in more detail? Put a link to it in the shopping cart description then. I didn't realize the functionality of this until I talked aobut it in IRC. --- End quote --- Agreed. I'll have a complete page up on that shortly. I just threw that up there quickly so those that may have been following the discussions here would have the option of including them with their order. A link will definitely be in the item description, as well as from the main KeyWiz info pages. Thanks for the observations. :) RandyT |
| Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: u_rebelscum on February 19, 2003, 09:03:41 pm ---Sounds to me like the adapter is just a simple, pre-built Y-adapter to plug the button into two of keywiz's ports: a "normal" button port and the "shazzam" button port. Just like hard wiring a button to player1 coin & p1 start on the ipac. Is this right? --- End quote --- Not quite, read -Iz- (sp?) post further up this thread. There's an electronic component involved and I think -Iz- gave away more than RandyT wanted to about it. (And I won't say anything more). --- Quote ---my $0.02: I don't mean this as flamebait but... IMO, the shift and shazaam keys are almost useless in mame, since they're just doing something in hardware that mame can do in software. --- End quote --- Not taken as flamebait, but this is an opportunity to show off how the keys are different. (BTW, I made the same argument as you years ago). First with the I-PAC (AW pointed this out to me long ago) and I will steal the data from my keyboard hacks page. *** Lack of shift key support - The I-PAC includes several special "shift key" functions which are designed to reduce the number of buttons required on the control panel. For example, pressing the 1 key and the 2 key together simulates ESC and exits MAME. Since R36B13, MAME allows key combinations and multiple assignments to be made to each input. Therefore, from the MAME Input (General) menu, selecting UI CANCEL = "1 2 or ESC" accomplishes the same thing. Caveat One: The I-PAC includes this functionality in the controller code, so this feature will also work using it on emulators which do not support key remapping. Caveat Two: Key remapping in MAME does not exactly mimic the I-PAC shift functions. The differences and the results are as follows: On the I-PAC, if you press the shift key nothing happens until you release it. Then it either sends it's own code (1) or (if you have pressed another key) the shift code. If you map the same combinations in MAME, you will always get the first key send followed by the combination key send. The effect of this for each shift key function is as follows: Coin Input: The I-PAC uses 1 and P1B1 keys to mimic coin input. In MAME, from the attract screen, if you map this combination, the first coin input will register. If you try to input a second coin, the game will start a 1-player game, because MAME reads the 1 key first. Therefore, you will never be able to start a two player game. For this reason, I recommend having a dedicated coin input key on your panel if using a keyboard hack. (You CAN get around this from the attract screen for most games by pressing the P1B1 key FIRST, followed by the 1 key; but a dedicated key is the easier solution). ESC: The I-PAC uses the 1 and 2 player start keys to mimic ESC. In MAME, the game will either quit immediately or will start a one or two player game and then immediately quit. This is perfectly acceptable and I recommend mapping these keys if you don?t want a dedicated escape key. Pause: The I-PAC uses the 1 and J1 Down key to mimic Pause. In MAME, if you are on the attract screen with credits already input, MAME will start a new game before pausing the game (assuming you press the 1 key first). If you are in one of the game playing screens MAME will pause properly unless you press the J1 Down key first, in which case the player position will move down slightly before the game pauses. This is acceptable, although I personally prefer a dedicated Pause key so that I don?t have to remember key combinations when I need to stop gameplay at a critical point. Tilde and Tab: The I-PAC uses the 1 and J1 Up or J1 Right keys, respectively, to map these functions. These keys will function the same way as the Pause key above. See the section on assigning key for my personal key mapping recommendations on these keys. Enter: The I-PAC uses 1 and J1 LEFT to mimic this key. This will work in MAME. This key is only used in MAME for items on the Configuration or On Screen Display Menus. The only difference between using this key in MAME is that the if you enter these menus without pausing the game, the player may move left while you are hitting enter! You are not likely to do this, though. Again, see the key mapping section for my personal recommendations on this key. **** (To be continued) |
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