Firing Speed with Ipac 2

[brentshelton]

I am running the Ipac 2 usb version.  I have noticed it does not respond as fast as I hit the button on my control panel when firing.  I especially notice this in games like Galaga.  It is not firing every time the button is pressed when pressing fast bursts.  I have checked my wiring and everything is correct.  The real arcade game does not respond like this, I see it fire correctly no matter how fast I press the button over and over.

Is this just something that is part of MAME or should I not be experiencing this?


Thanks in advance!

[ArtMAME]

I have noticed it with other games like Centipede, Asteroids, Tron, etc...

Sadly, I think it is part of MAME.  I have tried tweaking the MAME settings, but nothing seems to help.  I have used both USB and PS/2 type interfaces, both IPAC and Keywiz types... still no help.

Maybe someone can chime in and let us know if they have had any success??? Anybody???

[Ginsu Victim]

Don't blame the Ipac. That's not the problem.

Also, are you comparing Galaga original to Galaga with speed hack in the arcade?

[brentshelton]

Not blaming the Ipac, just unsure if this is a issue with MAME machines in general people live with or if I have a problem somewhere.

Not necessarily Galaga, but with any game.  If I push a button in rapid succession over and over, not all presses produces a fire.  I am making sure that the button goes completely down and completely up every time, but it seems like not all of the signals reach the game or maybe they are not all processed.  For instance it could be because it takes longer on a MAME machine being that the signal goes through the IPAC then to PC then to MAME to be applied to the game.  Whereas on an arcade machine the signal goes straight to the circuit board.

[Ginsu Victim]

Sounds like something is wrong with your setup. Try doing the same thing with a keyboard. That's all IPAC really is anyway. If the keyboard gives the same results, look elsewhere for the problem.

[MonMotha]

I have a friend who was using a JPAC to play a music drum game on his PC.  He noticed basically the same thing.  Rapid strikes in succession (which are easy to do on a drum set) were often dropped.  No MAME involved.  I'm not sure that there was ever a resolution.   I could see this happening with some debounce methods.

[Jack Burton]

Different emulators and encoders may drop inputs occasionally.  This is why I'm always touting the cthulhu pcb as it is not supposed to drop inputs.  However, I can't guarantee that as anything can happen on a PC running an OS in the background of an emulator.