Service menu, dip switches, etc

[Stormrider]

Hi. I have a question about this. MAME has a key menu to modify the dip switches and a key to access the service menu. Now, do all arcade machines have both settings. I undertstand that the dip switches are hardware switches that are used to configure the game, and the service menu is a software interface to do the same, so does the later substitute the former? Is it more usual to find service menus than dipswitches settings in recent games? And finally, why does Neogeo games have a service menu that is not accesible with the same key than the rest of games? Do you know if the F2 key for these games be remapped to a joystick button or to the same key as the service menu? (even if it requires editing the MAME source)?

[Stormrider]

   PORT_BIT( 0x0080, IP_ACTIVE_LOW, IPT_OTHER ) PORT_NAME("Enter BIOS") PORT_CODE(KEYCODE_F2)   \

I've found that in neogeo.c. I suppose that changing keybode_f2 for he joystick button combination I have for service menu will do the trick. But, first, are there more games which have F2 for service menu? In that case maybe it would be easy for me to edit my Autohotkey script and add a hotkey for the button combination which presses F2.

[Thenasty]

why not just edit the MAME general settings and change it there to anything you want, even combo keys ?

Just press TAB, Select the General Settings and find the one that is assing to F2 and change it.

[romshark]

II think you're asking if you can remap the service menu to another button? For most games, go to (in MAME while a game is running):

Input (General) -> Other Controls - > Service

Change from F2 to whatever your choice is.
It may not change all games, as stuff like Neo-Geo is listed as "Enter Bios". For those, you might have to change it in each game:

Input (this game) -> Enter Bios

Maybe there's a way to change it all at once. Not sure, didn't want to mess with my setup too much (I use an IPAC with an input set to F2.)

The history part is all from my observations and opinions, and may be inaccurate. If anyone wants to add info or correct anything, feel free to.

It seems that dipswitches are more common on older games. For example, my TMNT board only has dipswitches, but my Simpsons board only has a Service Mode switch. Certain older games do have service menus also, such as Robotron. Probably based on cost for a form of memory that saves data even without power (mostly battery-based back then.) Other old games used it to just get into diagnostics (screen test, input test. Ms. Pacman and I think Pengo do this) and still others treat it as credit input (Donkey Kong).

I think of it as similar to the home video game market at the time. On the origional Nintendo Entertainment System, a few games had save, but many were password based, or had no save at all. By the time the Super Nintendo came about, many games were able to save.

By the way, the one mapped to F2 can be called a Test button or Service Menu button. There is another button called Service as well, mapped to 9 in MAME. This button usually gives credits (i.e. an arcade employee testing a game, or giving a free credit if a customer's coin is eaten, ect.). This button also is sometimes used to navigate the Service Menu (especially in gun games, since there's no joystick.)

[u_rebelscum]

Remember, not all arcade cabinets/boards were made the same.  Mame tries to cover them all, to mixed degrees of "F2"-ness.

Mame has five service buttons: Service, Service 1, Service 2, Service 3, and Service 4.  (The four numbered types are often test credit switches, but sometimes more relevant, ie: service mode related.)  For most, but not all, games, mame uses the "standard" Service button (and it's default F2 map) to enter service mode and the game's settings menu.  For these games, remapping the "Service" button in "Input (general)" works.  However, some games don't fit this mold exactly.

Some  games had a "Service" and a "Test" switch, named so by the manufacturer, but the one labeled "Test" did what most boards called "Service".  Other games had multiple service buttons.  Others required some combination of the service switch plus something else.  Others (coughneogeocough) didn't have a service switch but something like it.  Mame tries to make these games close to the "standard" while keeping the emulation as close as possible too.

For those combo games, mame usually makes you prees the two buttons.  MameDev FAQ has most of them included in its [rul=http://mamedev.org/devwiki/index.php/FAQ:Games]game specific page[/url].

Games like the neogeo games' "Enter BIOS" switch don't use mame's Service type, but "Special" or (in this case) "Other" input types.  I think these have to be remapped in each game's "input (this game)".  Unless you edit the source and recompile.  IIRC, the "other" type doesn't remap through mame's ctrlr file; neogeo games have a few input with the "Other" type.  (Ctrlr file is the way IMO to remap across multiple games for most inputs.)


As for F2 service mode vs Dipswitches, some game had both that did the same thing, some had only one or the other, and some the two didn't match.  Really old games only had dipswitches; as technology changed and memory became cheaper, many of the newist ones only have the service mode.