Gamepad Hack/ Y Cable Question...

[S.Tiber]

fellow arcade junkies,

i have (2) 6 button propads i want to hack for use in a mame cabinet.

i wanted to connect both controls to a y-cable, and then to my gameport.  if i do this, will each gamepad still be able to utilize it's respective 6 buttons??  or will the y-cable limit each controller to 3 buttons??

what i want to do is build a mame cocktail cabinet, hack the gamepad and for the 1 player side, have a button config like this:

button 1 - one player
button 2 - two player
buttons 3,4,&5 - action buttons
button 6 - credit button

the 2 player side will just use the 3,4&5 buttons.

now, do i even need 2 gamepads & a y-cable for this set up,
or should i just use 1 gamepad, and run long lead wire from the controls at the 1-player side, to the controls at the 2-player side.  i understand if i do it this way, player 2 will be able to interfere with player 1's game.....and vice verca.

any advice would be great!! thanks!

-steve

[Tiger-Heli]

fellow arcade junkies,

i have (2) 6 button propads i want to hack for use in a mame cabinet.

i wanted to connect both controls to a y-cable, and then to my gameport.  if i do this, will each gamepad still be able to utilize it's respective 6 buttons??  or will the y-cable limit each controller to 3 buttons??

what i want to do is build a mame cocktail cabinet, hack the gamepad and for the 1 player side, have a button config like this:

button 1 - one player
button 2 - two player
buttons 3,4,&5 - action buttons
button 6 - credit button

the 2 player side will just use the 3,4&5 buttons.

now, do i even need 2 gamepads & a y-cable for this set up,
or should i just use 1 gamepad, and run long lead wire from the controls at the 1-player side, to the controls at the 2-player side.  i understand if i do it this way, player 2 will be able to interfere with player 1's game.....and vice verca.

any advice would be great!! thanks!

-steve

A gameport splitter will not work for this.  See http://www.gunpowder.freeserve.co.uk/wheels/wiring.htm
The gameport is limited to 2-joysticks and 4 buttons total.  The Propads are using some of the P2 Joystick axes for additional button inputs.

Your options are -

Wire the pad with one joystick and three action buttons and run the cables across, but you are limited to one joystick and three buttons total, so you could only play 2-player alternating games.

Hack the gamepad and a USB gamepad (assuming your computer supports USB)

Hack two USB gamepads,

Buy a keyboard encoder (www.groovygamegear.com, www.ulitmarc.com)

Hack a keyboard - http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/keyhack2.html (not recommended)

[S.Tiber]

thanks for the reply...

all i want is to play 2 player (vertical) alternating games.

right now, with my gamepad hooked up to my pc, i have joystick & 6 buttons.  can't i just hack those buttons to HAPP style arcade buttons and keep the 6 button functionality?

so, after configuring the player 2 controls through main menu>inputs all games, if i make player 1 and player 2 the same controls i should have no problem right??

[Tiger-Heli]

thanks for the reply...

all i want is to play 2 player (vertical) alternating games.

right now, with my gamepad hooked up to my pc, i have joystick & 6 buttons.  can't i just hack those buttons to HAPP style arcade buttons and keep the 6 button functionality?

so, after configuring the player 2 controls through main menu>inputs all games, if i make player 1 and player 2 the same controls i should have no problem right??

Should work fine.   In fact, I'm not even sure you need to do the >inputs all games thing.  Most alternating games used the same controls for P1 and P2, so MAME's P2 controls tab doesn't really  mean anything.

[S.Tiber]

so, backing up a little bit, just for easability & neatness sake,
can i hack two propads, use a y-cable and still have all the buttons??

i guess what i'm trying to find out (short of getting off my cheap $%# and buying a y-cable) is:

does using the y-cable just split the signal into 2 equal signals (like a cable tv splitter)?  or does it split the gameport signal into 2 separate signals, therefore giving me half the controls on one propad, and half on the other??

thanks again for the help!

[Tiger-Heli]

so, backing up a little bit, just for easability & neatness sake,
can i hack two propads, use a y-cable and still have all the buttons??

i guess what i'm trying to find out (short of getting off my cheap $%# and buying a y-cable) is:

does using the y-cable just split the signal into 2 equal signals (like a cable tv splitter)?  or does it split the gameport signal into 2 separate signals, therefore giving me half the controls on one propad, and half on the other??

thanks again for the help!

No, you can't.  Forget about the Y-cable for what you are trying to do.  Just mount the gamepad PCB in the bottom of your cab and run wires from it to both sides of the cocktail to the buttons.  (With terminal blocks to make it really easy.)

A Y-cable is not a simple splitter.  If you look at the diagram I referenced, Pin 3 is J1 X and Pin 11 is J2 X.  A gameport splitter routes Pin 3 from Joystick A to Pin 3 of the gameport and Pin 3 from Joystick B to Pin 11 of the gameport, etc.  It won't do what you want.