GroovyGameGear GPWiz49 / gamepad question

[quarterback]

I have a GPWiz49 that I bought to use with a 49-way joystick.  These controllers are "gamepads" rather than "keyboard emulator".  I now want to use it for something beyond my 49-way stick. 

It has "23 additional inputs, including 5 that are "shiftable", for conventional Joysticks, buttons or similar switch based devices" I can get them to register in my WinXP/control panel/game controllers window, but I don't know how to map those gamepad buttons to work with MAME.   IOW, how do I get a gamepad button "22" to register as "arrow up" etc?

Do I need 'key2joy' or something like that?  And, if so, what do I need to know about it to make it work? (I've seen the name bantered around but I know nothing about it)

Thanks

[Timoe]

not sure if this answers your question but you can press "tab" in mame and set the
player 1 up  to  game pad button 22


then when switch "GP22" is pressed the character will move up.

[mccoy178]

I used the tab function in a game and just mapped the buttons that way.  Also, for other emulators, most have esc hard coded, (pinmame especially comes to mind), so instead of using joy2key, I'm adding a keywiz and hooking up the escape and pause buttons that way.  I will probably hook up all the pinball buttons through there and the start buttons for poop and giggles.

[quarterback]

not sure if this answers your question but you can press "tab" in mame and set the
player 1 up  to  game pad button 22

then when switch "GP22" is pressed the character will move up.

I used the tab function in a game and just mapped the buttons that way.

Ahhhhh... sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees.  What you're saying is that these numerical "gamepad numbers" will register while I'm in MAME as well.   

IOW: no need for some intermediate piece of software, I just need to reconfigure MAME to use the GPWiz49/gamepad button-numbers instead of the keyboard key-strokes.   I was over-thinking it.

Thanks y'all!

[mccoy178]

I would try to hook up your switches to the lowest numbers available, due to some emulators not registering the high joystick number inputs.  Just something I thought you should be aware of.

[quarterback]

I would try to hook up your switches to the lowest numbers available, due to some emulators not registering the high joystick number inputs.  Just something I thought you should be aware of.

Cool.  I'm only running MAME, but that's good to know.


Well, I got it all hooked up an working.  Next question though, how do I configure MameWah to work now?  It's wants the "1",  "2", "esc" and up/down keystrokes are no longer coming out of my CP.   I scanned through the docs but couldn't find anything.  I know I'm using an old version, is that the problem or is there some easy answer to this?

Thanks

[ppilot]

Edit the 'default.ini' file in the ctrlr subdirectory.  Should be pretty self explanatory.

[quarterback]

Edit the 'default.ini' file in the ctrlr subdirectory.  Should be pretty self explanatory.

Thanks man.  I had read the crtl.document file in the "docs" folder but though the ctrlr subdirectory was only for setting info for individual games or emulators.  I didn't realize it was also a place for settings that controlled mamewah itself  Sometimes the mamewah docs make me dizzy.    and this gamepad stuff is all new to me.

But with a little playing around, I'm all good to go.
Thanks again all
qb

[Samanai]

I hate to ask a question that I'm sure will have an obvious answer, but I'm stuck and can't find anything in search that has been on point.

I'm using PowerMAME with a Mala frontend, but am just now getting around to installing actual joysticks (the HApps 49 ways) for use with that setup.  I have my GPWiz49 wired up and it registers in the Windows game controller config utility, but I have not figured out how to make it work in MAME.  Once you tab into the controls settings for MAME and select a function to change, should the buttons wired through the GPWiz49 automatically display when pressed (much like a keyboard button would)?

Is there something I have to do enable the use of the GPWIZ49 with PowerMAME? 

[u_rebelscum]

Is there something I have to do enable the use of the GPWIZ49 with PowerMAME? 

Did you enable joysticks?  I know official mame disables them by default.

[Samanai]

Bingo!  Every thing is A-OK now.  I knew it was going to be something that obvious.  Thanks!