How do I recompile Mame for Shifter support?

[Zeppo]

I bought a happ hi/low shifter for a driving cab I am making.
I have read something about how mame doesn't like these shifters since it's a single button that is either open or held closed.
Also, I read it was fairly simple to recompile, but I must be missing the thread that tells me what I need to change.
Does this still need to be done in .114, and if so, what do I need to do?

Thanks!

[Angry_Radish]

Try wiring it up using all 3 terminals on the switch, that way depending on the position, one of the two will be closed.

[Zeppo]

Ok, maybe I was thinking about this wrong.
Digging through the Pole Position driver, I see a line that says:

- Change POLEPOS_TOGGLE to 0 if you are using the original gearshift.

Ok, so I do a search for POLEPOS_TOGGLE and find a few instances that look like:

PORT_BIT(0x02, IP_ACTIVE_LOW, IPT_BUTTON1 ) PORT_NAME("Gear Change") PORT_CODE(KEYCODE_SPACE) POLEPOS_TOGGLE /* Gear */

I was thinking I would find a line that said something like POLEPOS_TOGGLE = 1 and then I could change the 1 to a 0.
Butis it telling me I should remove the part where it says POLEPOS_TOGGLE and replace it with a 0 so it would look like:

PORT_BIT(0x02, IP_ACTIVE_LOW, IPT_BUTTON1 ) PORT_NAME("Gear Change") PORT_CODE(KEYCODE_SPACE) 0 /* Gear */


?

I'm so confused, and probably making much more difficult than it needs to be.

Thanks.

[u_rebelscum]

Ok, maybe I was thinking about this wrong.
Digging through the Pole Position driver, I see a line that says:

- Change POLEPOS_TOGGLE to 0 if you are using the original gearshift....

I was thinking I would find a line that said something like POLEPOS_TOGGLE = 1 and then I could change the 1 to a 0.

I'd change:
#define POLEPOS_TOGGLE   PORT_TOGGLE

to:
#define POLEPOS_TOGGLE   

but the note means change the same to:
#define POLEPOS_TOGGLE   0

FWIW, "#define"s are used so you can make one edit in one place, and all the places that use that macro get the edit when compiled.

[Zeppo]

Oh, I see.
I was thinking the # was like a REM

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Zeppo]

Well, I tried compiling it changing the line to read:
#define POLEPOS_TOGGLE   0

It errors out.

Tried it without the 0:
#define POLEPOS_TOGGLE

and it compiles, but doesn't seem to work correctly.
I am testing it with my keyboard, so maybe after I hook up the shifter it will be work correctly?
I test it by holding down the space bar, and while it will shift to HI when I press the space bar, it does not shift back to LOW when I let off.

Thanks!

[u_rebelscum]

... I tried compiling it ...:
#define POLEPOS_TOGGLE

and it compiles, but doesn't seem to work correctly.
I am testing it with my keyboard, so maybe after I hook up the shifter it will be work correctly?
I test it by holding down the space bar, and while it will shift to HI when I press the space bar, it does not shift back to LOW when I let off.[/quote]

I tried it with this and it works.  IE: in high gear only when space bar is pressed, low only when it's not. 

[Zeppo]

Hmm.. Maybe I didn't save after I changed the polepos driver and recompiled.

I double check tomorrow.

Thanks!

[Zeppo]

Ok, I recompiled it, and tested it again.
Still not working.
Bashed my brain a few times.

That's when the brilliance struck.

I needed to move the new compiled mame.exe and other files to my mame directory.
 

Ok, moved them over.
Then I started getting the error that the rom was missing 54xx.bin
I tried polepos.zip  polepos1.zip and polepos2.zip  and they all said the same thing.
Did a google on the problem, and was told I needed the parent rom.
Well, I thought I had the parent rom.
Hmmm.
Kept looking, and found the 54xx.bin file, moved it to the polepos1.zip and now it works.

 
Thanks!

[Space Fractal]

I dosent have the shifther myself, but is it not possible to trick mame to work with these shifter with a utility like AutoHotKey, or are Im completly wrong?

[Howard_Casto]

I dosent have the shifther myself, but is it not possible to trick mame to work with these shifter with a utility like AutoHotKey, or are Im completly wrong?

Yeah ahk should be able to fix this issue real easily. Basically you'd wire the microswitch to an input other than the shifter default (lets say 'A') and have a varible setup to store it's last state (either on or off) when the current state becomes different than the last state, press the space key once.  So long as the user remembers to put the shifter in the "low" position before launch it'd be fine. 

[Dmod]

It seems like some games use one key to control high/low shifting so that when the key is held it's in one gear and when released in another.

Can AHK be used so that a momentary press of a gamepad button will effectively hold a key down?

[Minwah]

I tried it with this and it works.  IE: in high gear only when space bar is pressed, low only when it's not. 

I got this working ok last week. But now I am thinking for the sake of consistency it would be nice to have gear input = lo gear, for all games.

However I've been looking aimlessly at source code for a while and I haven't a clue to be honest. Can anyone point me in the right direction??

[u_rebelscum]

I tried it with this and it works.  IE: in high gear only when space bar is pressed, low only when it's not. 

I got this working ok last week. But now I am thinking for the sake of consistency it would be nice to have gear input = lo gear, for all games.

However I've been looking aimlessly at source code for a while and I haven't a clue to be honest. Can anyone point me in the right direction??

Are you looking for which games are button down = hi vs = lo?  Or where to switch it?  Or something else?

I have no idea which games at hi when closed, or lo when closed.

If you're wondering where to switch, the easiest, but most hackish is to change the PORT type definition between IP_ACTIVE_HIGH and IP_ACTIVE_LOW.  This should work for almost all games.  But... that would not make it into official mame, and there is a way that probably would.  Much more work: complete the POSITIONAL type code as it was designed to be, and use that type.

[Minwah]

Are you looking for which games are button down = hi vs = lo?  Or where to switch it?  Or something else?

Yes, just wanted to make them all the same, for the sake of consistency. Some of them in standard mame are gear=lo, and some are gear=lo. I have converted the toggle type, and again, it turns out there are some games lo, some hi.

I have no idea which games at hi when closed, or lo when closed.

I need to double check this as I realised I had some old cfg files, but I think the following use the gear input as hi:

grchamp
konamigt
polepos/2
stocker

If you're wondering where to switch, the easiest, but most hackish is to change the PORT type definition between IP_ACTIVE_HIGH and IP_ACTIVE_LOW.  This should work for almost all games.  But... that would not make it into official mame, and there is a way that probably would.  Much more work: complete the POSITIONAL type code as it was designed to be, and use that type.

Changing to positional type, in all honesty is probably beyond my level of knowledge, and I do not expect my changes to get into official Mame.

Thanks for the 'easy' method I kindof got this to work by chance another way, by adding 'value="0"' to the gear input section of cfg files for some of these games (polepos & stocker) - I guess this is doing a similar thing.  I will make this change for these games, but it does not work for grchamp & konamigt unfortunately - they are already set to IP_ACTIVE_HIGH, and changing to _LOW doesn't seem to do anything. Any ideas how I might be able to alter these ones?

Thanks again!