Area51 RELOAD help needed

[reko19]

I've been busy this week. Got dual actlabs guns in , working on getting it to work. So far HOTD, HOTD 2, HOTD 3, Mad Dog, Mad Dog2 are all working with all games except for HOTD3 working from Mamewah as well.  My great thanks to the guy who created the trounleshooter. Pretty much got it to work in mame as well (I am running Windows command line version of MAME 0.111b). The only problem is reload in Area 51. It is very temperamental. It only reloads if I land a shot at the outer perimeter of the monitor. I could be pulling the trigger till I am blue in the face with the gun pointed at the floor, nothing happens. This makes a reload tougher than shooting bad guys. Any help is greatly appreciated, I am running out of ideas. 

[NoOne=NBA=]

The easiest solution is to download the cheat file and enable infinite ammunition.

[reko19]

I came to the same conclusion. Never used cheat files before, another "science research" project coming up.

[ahofle]

The only version of MAME I've ever gotten to work with dual actlabs guns is an old version of MAME Analog+.  For some reason, offscreen reloads do not work well in official MAME.  I can't remember the version that worked though.  I'll dig it up when I get home.

[reko19]

Thanks. Starting Mame 0.104, there is a support for the dual lightguns. Reload is a different issue. Works fine in PC games (HOTD, Mad Dog).  I haven't tried too many other mame lightgun games for reload, so far struggling with Area 51.  I run Mamewah front end which I love. Having both Mame and analog mame might be a problem.

[u_rebelscum]

Do you have mame's reload enabled (-offscreen_reload / -reload)?

[reko19]

yes, have offscreen_reload set to 1. And it does work, it's just that I have to land a shot very close to the monitor edge. If I point it to the floor nothing happens.

[u_rebelscum]

yes, have offscreen_reload set to 1. And it does work, it's just that I have to land a shot very close to the monitor edge. If I point it to the floor nothing happens.

Sounds like the reload option is not working again.  
The symptoms you're having are the same as if you did not have reload enabled; that option converts only the offscreen shots to reload.  If you want, try disabling the reload option, and you should get the same results.  More technically, the gun outputs an offscreeen shot as a button two press at the last onscreen location, and the option is supposed to convert a mouse button two press "back" to --> a button one press at the edge of the screen (currently 0,maxY according to source).  It's been working on and off over the years, though. 

I'll see if I can rehook up my gun and do some testing this weekend. (no promises though)

[reko19]

you nailed it right on the head. I did originally have reload disabled, enabling it didn't change a thing. And yes, the off-screen shot lands at the last on-screen shot location. any further input is greatly appreciated, you could email me directly

[ahofle]

Actually, please keep the discussion here -- I'm interested to see what happens.  I've NEVER been able to get any version of official MAME to completely function in Area51 with 2 Actlabs guns including offscreen reloads for both players.  The closest I've come (other than analog mame) is having everything working except the 2nd player's offscreen reload. 

Just curious, why does it convert offscreen shots to 0,maxY instead of something more static like -1,-1 (or 0,0 if negatives aren't allowed)?

[reko19]

how did you get 1st player reload to work?

[ahofle]

It was several MAME versions back that it worked, and even then it was only working for the first player.  I have the same problem as you with the current MAME.

[u_rebelscum]

Just curious, why does it convert offscreen shots to 0,maxY instead of something more static like -1,-1 (or 0,0 if negatives aren't allowed)?

It started with 0,0 but this didn't work on some games (lethal enforcers 2, mostly, IIRC).  The change happened in, err... clip from whatsnew:

0.106u12
...
Changed the coordinates where for offscreen lightgun reloading, moving
it from the upper-left to the upper-right for better compatibility.

Funny thing is the source (current, 0.107, & 0.106u12) set it to lower-left (actually "minX, maxY"), and the documentation matches when it says "0, maxY".  [shrug]  Hmm... I guess the whatsnew was wrong.  I wonder if the maxX, minY that matches the whatsnew is "better"?

Mame could send "-1,-1" but that's probably less compatible with more games, and might crash some.


Skimming the source, I see maybe why current mame reload has problems: looks like mame's reload option only works on mouse 1, while most lightguns, with mame's multiple mouse & multiple lightgun support, are not mouse 1.  But there's a lot going on, so I'll have to do some coding and testing to be sure.

[ahofle]

I'm not sure if this will help you any, but I am finding several lightgun issues in other games (not sure if they are related).  There seems to be some problems with the gun tracking depending on what resolution/video settings you are using.  For example, Vs Hogan's Alley and Vs Duck Hunt do not track properly at 640x480 with ddraw (the crosshairs never go past the right 3/4 of the screen), but work perfectly at 800x600 with d3d for whatever reason.  It's as though something is incorrectly hardcoded somewhere.  In Zombie Raid, the guns seem to be all over the place.  Again, not sure if any of this is related or if any of this lightgun code is common/reused for all drivers.

[reko19]

I kinda gave up Yesterday and went with the cheats.  I assigned a short cut key under the cheat menu for unlimited ammo, but it doesn't stay assigned from one game to another. Is there any way to make it "stick" so I don't have to go to the cheat menu every time I start the game?

Also, on a different note, F12 now creates a subfolder within the "snap" folder. So I have to manually rename and move the file in order for it to work properly. Any idea why this was changed, it was working perfectly before?

[rdowdy95]

Hey Reko how did you get MAdDog and MadDog2 to load from mamewah.  I can get them to load as PC Game exe files, but when I launch MadDog it never launches at fullscreen???  Well the game never launches at fullscreen for me.  I always have to press F or 2nd player joystick down.  To go fullscreen.

[reko19]

I use a shortcut to a batch file. Batch file calls autohotkey file. Autohotkey starts the game and sends "F" for fullscreen and "R" for don't move crosshair on the reload keystrokes every time the game starts. I also have it assign ESC to ALT+F4 so I could exitthe game the same way I do it in Mame. I could send you the batch and AHK, but AHK is discussed here

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52588.0

[rdowdy95]

What folder do you leave the ahk file in, and also how do you make the batch file do you make it using autohotkey.  I tried to use the program before and I had no luck, but I am going to have to learn this stuff so I can run it all from Mamewah.  Could you send me your ahk file for Mad Dog Mccree.

[rdowdy95]

Fozzy gave the good script for this, but where it says Run,mdm.exe do I have to put the Run,C:\games\mdm.exe like that or jus the mdm.exe  Also Fozzy made his ahk files as straight running exe files.  So I really don't get it.  It is confusing.  But hell I really don't even know how to use the program.  The script I did before then I exported it as an exe didn't work so if anyone knows any more detailed instructions it would be greatly appreciated.