Best way to set up MAME PC to be fully controlled by arcade sticks and buttons?

[eastbayarb]

I wanna set up a PC spacifically just for MAME. I was thinking about setting it up with XP Lite or one of those smaller versions of XP for speed. I want the PC to have (other than the OS) to have no other software other than MAME, and for it to be controlled pretty much completely by my arcade sticks and arcade buttons (if need be, an external 10 key keyboard).  What's the best way to do this? I also wanna connect the PC to my supergun, so do I need an ArcadePC video card or what else to connect it via JAMMA?

[fjl]

You ask alot of question that have already been answered in the past. Do a search. But I'll help you with a few questions...

You can use normal Windows XP or perhaps even better, Windows98SE. And to make it controlled only by the arcade joysticks, you can install a frontend(arcade menu system controlled by the joysticks) and have it run automatically when windows starts. The frontend can then also be used to shut down the PC.

[EVEGames]

eastbayarb,
I did a couple searches myself just to see what people had said in the past on this topic, and admittedly I didn't read through every message my searches returned, but I didn't readily find what I was looking for with "control without keyboard" or "control with joysticks and buttons".  So although I'm sure it's been answered before, I'm gonna throw my 2 cents into the mix. 

Use XP.  With two joysticks, six buttons per player, Payer 1 and Player 2 start buttons, and a programmable keyboard encoder with a shift function (IPac, KeyWiz, etc), there should be no need for a keyboard.  And with a trackball and a dedicated button or two for mouse-clicks, you can in fact control your entire machine without using a keyboard or a mouse - Windows, your front-end, your emulators, and of course your games. 

One spoiler to this is if you need to run computer games (C64, Amiga, ST, AppleIIe, what have you), which are not arcade-style games.  For example, if you want to run Bard's Tale III - Thief of Fate on your C64 emulator, you need to be able to type in the names of the spells you want to cast.  So unless you want to get REALLY SLICK and have a hotkey set up to bring up a virtual keyboard, you're stuck with a keyboard.  With that said, you can still play the majority of computer games by mapping shifted values (via your encoder again) for "Y", "N", the numbers 1 - 9, and some of the Function keys (F1 - F12).
Beyond that, here are some tips.

* As efjayel said, add your front-end to your Startup folder to launch automatically.

* As efjayel also said, choose a front-end which can shut down your machine automatically upon exit.  Or this can still be done in a number of ways without a keyboard or mouse, that you can find with a search on this forum.

* Choose a front-end with a configurable control scheme, and remap the scroll, launch, switch menu, etc controls to your buttons and joysticks.

* Choose command-line based emulators which can accept parameters for full-screen, exit on escape, as well as the game name of course, straight from the front-end.

* Choose emulators with a configurable control scheme, OR those which conform to the default MAME control scheme already.  Some emulators which are not MAME-friendly have been tweaked by third parties, do a Google search.

* Remember, to "Type OK" in MAME, just wiggle the Player 1 joystick Left then Right.

It requires some work and some customization, but in the end it's very satisfying to never have to roll out that keyboard hidden under the control panel like a dirty little secret 

-EVE Games

[Hoopz]

You ask alot of question that have already been answered in the past. Do a search.

Pot meet kettle; kettle this is pot.   

eastbayarb, I'd suggest looking through the wiki:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Main_Page

for Front Ends.  They will allow you to do what you need with the joysticks.  Are you planning on having a trackball?  It can be used as a mouse in most front ends. 

[CrazyKongFan]

I did a keyboard hack on mine, with 2 joysticks, one is set to the arrow keys. I also have one of the player buttons control, and another enter. Also have an ESC admin button on the CP. The ESC and CTRL lets me shut down windows, while the joystick and enter let me go thru the menu and select games (I'm currently using MAME32, although I may change that) I have mine boot into MAME32. I do have a mouse sitting outside the cabinet, if I need to do something in Windows though. I'm not done with the cabinet yet, so that may change too.