Anyone know how to hook a playstation 2 up to a Mame cabinet and use joysticks ?

[ctozzi]

I really want to hook my old PS2 to my mame cabinet so I can play Mortal Kombat Trilogy , which displays through a tv, i know how to hookup the video, but need to know how to hook up the controls to be able to use my Arcade control panel ? Is there such an adapter ? If so anyone done this before. Here is a pic of the cabinet I'm still waiting on my custom control panel.

[HaRuMaN]

What you need are some hacked playstation 2 pads.  I would suggest the Nubytech street fighter pads as they have a true common ground.

[ctozzi]

I already can use my playstation controllers through an adapter I already have, what I'm looking for is like an ipac type device to assign control pad buttons/joysticks to the playstation 2 games moves.

[HaRuMaN]

Hmm... maybe I misunderstand you.

You want to put your PS2 in your cabinet.  You want to use your arcade controls to play MK trilogy.  Right so far?

[ctozzi]

100 % correct I think it would be cool to be able to use my PS2 to play games like mk trilogy, or gauntlet dark legacy. I have tried the Playstation emulators but it's too much work for me to dowload and find the games.

[HaRuMaN]

Ok.  So, if that's what you want, why wouldn't a hacked playstation 2 controller (like the Nubytech pad) work for you?

For example, here is a picture of a controller hack I did for the Dreamcast:



All you would have to do is then wire your controls (joysticks & buttons) to the hacked controller.

[ctozzi]

that would work but to simplify things i was looking for an already made adapter, but i see how that would work. If nobody knows of one I will probably do that. Thanks

[Necroticart]

why not emulate MKT with epsxe and use a front end to load up the emulator like maximus arcade it would save you alot of headaches and time plus you can program it to your cp

[ctozzi]

I would like to do that but i have tried a bunch of the playstation emulators and I get so confused on the software and were to get the games. I already have the games is there a way to simply load them into tis emulator ? Any directions you might have to simplify this would help. Thanks ie: pictures of screen shots

[Jack Burton]

if you go to excellentcom.net and look for their "Super" board it may be what you need.  It is a PS2 to JAMMA adapter.

Or if you plan on using an I-pac or J-pac with your setup you can just get this:

http://ultimarc.com/psx.html

[ctozzi]

that's exactly what I'm looking for. Have you used this ?

[Necroticart]

If you want to learn how to setup any emulators look up for example epsxe setup on YOUTUBE thats where I learned how to setup some of the emulators I use also keep in mind if you have a dual core pc most likely you can use a dreamcast emulator for mortal kombat gold and marvel vs capcom 2 to get them on your cabinet

[wbassett]

I know a lot of people don't like this company but I haven't had a problem with their products at all.

X-Arcade can be connected directly to a PS2 with their adapter-
http://www.xgaming.com//service/images/adapters/Adapters.shtml

Now even though I think the TankStick is okay, it is a bit dicy price wise.   Why spend that much when you can make your own layout and use different sticks and components?

You can also get their encoder for $50 and the adapter above and it will be plug and play with the PS2... just add your sticks and buttons.
http://www.x-arcade.com/byoarcade.shtml?CMP=KNC-google&gclid=CNuRtc_55ooCFRf1gAod8mNPlg
And it comes with a solderless wiring harness that you just plug into the encoder and the stick and buttons.

You can of couse hack a PS2 controller if you want and that would be cheaper, but this way you can also have more inputs and even connect it to a PC later on if you want.  I'm not saying this is the way you should go, just an alternative option is all and it is already setup to connect right to a computer or a PS2 (with the adapter).

[Jack Burton]

X-arcades have a bad rep in the fighting game community.  See this thread on SRK

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=162239&highlight=%22x-arcade%22

there are several other threads that basically mirror this one.  It's a topic that comes up now and again.

The basic gist is that X-arcade pcbs and adapters can have significant lag, missed inputs, and incompatibility with some ps2 games.  whether or not this have been fixed in recent versions is unknown to me.

As far as the ultimarc converter goes, it has very very little lag, only the bare minimum noticeable by a fighting game player.  I don't know about it's compatibility, I haven't tested it with too many games.  The button layouts can be kinda weird, depending on how your J-Pac or I-pac has been installed. 

For example, on my cab I had my I-pac wire up like this to the standard six button street fighter layout.

1 2 3
4 5 6

where the numbers are the inputs on the I-pac.  It came out something like this when I connected it to the adapter.

x R1 o
L1 S T

Which is just nonsensical.  But it only took five minutes in the options menu of the game I was playing to get that fixed.


That can be easily remedied with the button config in whatever game you happen to be playing.

[wbassett]

First let me say I am not trying to argue-
It is interesting that people complain about the sticks XArcade uses and say to replace them with Happ sticks...  Retroblast rated the XArcade sticks and the Happ comp sticks as being virtually identical.  I'm sure there are better sticks out there but the generic response makes it sound like any and every Happ stick is better.

As far as the encoder, all I can say is I haven't had any ghosting or lag whatsoever with mine.  I guess if there is any question or doubt the best advice would be to spend the extra money on the Ultramarc setup.

[Jack Burton]

Retroblast is just plain wrong.  They are not identical, even to an uncompetitive player.  X-arcade sticks use levered joysticks with different switches and joystick shapes.  The comps use a square acuator with cherry switches. 

IMO 99% of the fighting game comunity prefer Happ/IL comps over X-arcade joysticks.  The most comon reasons stated are a smoother rotation, that feels more circular, ease of doing half and quarter circle motions, and better microswitches.

If anything, the X-arcade is an imitation of and is similar to the Happ Super joystick, which is a less popular joystick.  The benefit to those are that the acuator can be inverted to switch the joystick to 4-way mode.  For fighting games they are functional, and hardly the worst joystick, but rarely used outside of arcades where the OP either didn't care or was oblivious to the difference.

As far as any Happ joystick being better, yes, in my opinion, any single joystick available on Happs website is better than the sticks that come in X-arcades. 

[Turnarcades]

The biggest problem with the X-arcade is the sub-standard encoder inside, not just the controls. Many customers came to me after problems like ghosting which completely kill the authentic experience.

I'm about to give the Ultimarc PSX adapter a try as I've done the controller hack thing before and I can't be bothered again. Let me know if it turns out good.