Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: clhug on May 01, 2006, 11:56:14 pm
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I'm trying to decide what admin buttons to put on my control panel. I've already searched the forums and read a lot on that topic in general but there's a few things I can't figure out.
Some people mention an Auto Up (F1) and Advance button (F2) but I can't find any explanation anywhere of what these two buttons actually do. I also don't find them defined in the MAME global config. F1 is labeled as Toggle Crosshair and F2 isn't listed at all. Could someone please explain these two?
I also see some people mention Reset (F3). I understand what this button does, but don't quite understand why it's really needed for a home play unit. I understand having it from an emulator standpoint since it was probably part of the original games, but in practical use in a MAME cabinet, why would I need this? Is this just a shortcut to be able to restart a bad game without having to wait through losing all remaining lives? Or there some other reason I might want to use F3?
Thanks!!
(Oh, right now I'm pretty much down to just having Pause and Esc on my panel. Using a real coin door so no need for coin buttons either.)
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I'm not sure about the first two, but I can I can tell you that I love having a reset button for the exact reason you mentioned. If I'm trying for a high score in pacman and mess up shortly after the game starts, it's annoying to either have to run out your lives, or exit out of the game and enter it again (changing monitor resolutions twice).
Personally, my Mame panels have coin, reset, pause, and exit.
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I think there were also a some games that required you to restart the machine when turning it on for the first time. So for those games, you'll need reset in MAME.
The first time starting up Robotron, I needed to hit f3 to get it to work if remember correctly.
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The "Auto Up" button is a toggle button (i.e. it stays down until pressed again). In many cases it was more of switch than a button. The button's two states are called "Auto-Up" and "Manual-Down" (note the hyphen).
The names come from the button's 2 functions which both work together with the "Advance" button.
1. The button selects if the "Advance" button should move to the next or previous entry (in settings and audits). "Up" means move to next, "Down" means move to previous entry.
2. The button selects if the game is in "Automatic" or "Manual" mode. Don't remember but I think "Automatic" was used to have the game cycle through various tests. When in "Manual" mode the "Advance" button moves to the next test.
In mame the "Auto up" naming is confusing. It would be better if it was called something like "Auto & Up / Manual & Down".
Don't think the button is marked as a toggle button in mame (you need to hold it down manually to set it in Auto or up position).
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Couldn't you set up a shifted option so you don't need a physical button on the CP?
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Here is a excellent thread on this topic
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52150.0
It's a very entertaining read as well....still maks me laugh... :laugh2:
The first post in this thread by jelwell is where it starts getting interesting.
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I think there were also a some games that required you to restart the machine when turning it on for the first time. So for those games, you'll need reset in MAME.
The first time starting up Robotron, I needed to hit f3 to get it to work if remember correctly.
AH! Now that's familiar!! I'm new to the whole MAME thing and I thought I was either dreaming or it was a bug in the software. A few games do that to me, Robotron, Defender, and Joust I think for sure. Good to know that's how it's supposed to be. BUT, it seems to only be the VERY first time you go in to the game. When it happened to me I just exited the game and went back in and it worked after that. So if it's just a first time thing I could live with having to exit and go back in. If I do find though that it's happening all the time then I can see having the F3 available for that.
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The "Auto Up" button is a toggle button (i.e. it stays down until pressed again). In many cases it was more of switch than a button. The button's two states are called "Auto-Up" and "Manual-Down" (note the hyphen).
The names come from the button's 2 functions which both work together with the "Advance" button.
1. The button selects if the "Advance" button should move to the next or previous entry (in settings and audits). "Up" means move to next, "Down" means move to previous entry.
2. The button selects if the game is in "Automatic" or "Manual" mode. Don't remember but I think "Automatic" was used to have the game cycle through various tests. When in "Manual" mode the "Advance" button moves to the next test.
In mame the "Auto up" naming is confusing. It would be better if it was called something like "Auto & Up / Manual & Down".
Don't think the button is marked as a toggle button in mame (you need to hold it down manually to set it in Auto or up position).
Thanks for the explanation. That helps some. But what's the reason I'd need to access these screens this in any particular game within MAME? I can understand them being there purely from an emulation standpoint if they want to truly emulate the original game functions, but if I care about is playing the games, what would I use these functions for?
Thanks again!
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Couldn't you set up a shifted option so you don't need a physical button on the CP?
Yes, I think that's what I plan to do. I do want a dedicated Pause button that's easy to use for guests, but I think I'm going to take somebody else's idea I read in another thread and have Pause be my shift button and then a 2nd button for Exit, so to Exit you'd have to press and hold Pause and Exit to prevent people from accidentaily hitting Exit by itself. I may or may not assign an unshifted function to that 2nd button, but I'm trying to get a better idea of what these other admin functions do to decide if I want them easily accessible or not. I do also have a keyboard and mouse inside the cabinet but I hope to not have to use that very often, if ever, in general game play.
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Here is a excellent thread on this topic
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52150.0
Yep, I had read that thread already before posting this thread. Beyond the side discussion there, it gave me a some good general ideas but still never explained specifically what the F1 and F2 were or why I'd need any of them (including F3) during regular game play.
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I have no special function buttons on my 7-button panel. Aside from the standard J-Pac shifted buttons, I programmed the top row of buttons to shift to F2, F3, and F5 (Menu in ScummVM).
I don't really see why anything other than possibly Esc and Pause should have any place on a control panel.
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btw, my favorite is SPEED (its mapped to F10 and F11 at the same time... so it unlocks the speed). I want to modify mame sometime so that on button press it unlimits, and sets the fps to 12... and on release it goes back to the original, but I haven't had time)
but VERY useful when starting a game to be able to jump the speed to 300% w
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Yep, that's a great time saver. I ended up default mapping my rarely used 3rd player coin button on the side of the CP to F10/F11, and then manually changed it back in the few games like gauntlet that have a 3rd player coin slot.
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The "Auto Up" button is a toggle button (i.e. it stays down until pressed again). In many cases it was more of switch than a button. The button's two states are called "Auto-Up" and "Manual-Down" (note the hyphen).
The names come from the button's 2 functions which both work together with the "Advance" button.
1. The button selects if the "Advance" button should move to the next or previous entry (in settings and audits). "Up" means move to next, "Down" means move to previous entry.
2. The button selects if the game is in "Automatic" or "Manual" mode. Don't remember but I think "Automatic" was used to have the game cycle through various tests. When in "Manual" mode the "Advance" button moves to the next test.
In mame the "Auto up" naming is confusing. It would be better if it was called something like "Auto & Up / Manual & Down".
Don't think the button is marked as a toggle button in mame (you need to hold it down manually to set it in Auto or up position).
Thanks for the explanation. That helps some. But what's the reason I'd need to access these screens this in any particular game within MAME? I can understand them being there purely from an emulation standpoint if they want to truly emulate the original game functions, but if all I care about is playing the games, what would I use these functions for?
Thanks again!
I'd still like the answers to my follow-up questions here if anybody is willing. Thanks!
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I use the F2 key all the time when I want to adjust settings INSIDE a particular game. For example, changing credit options, difficulty, or other SOFTWARE switches for games that don't use DIP switches (configurable in the MAME menu).
If you don't mind reaching in for the keyboard at times when you might need to do things like that, then don't use them. By no means would you ever need a dedicated button for them, use the SHIFT functions of your encoder. I don't know if it can be explained any more clearly than that.
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The first time starting up Robotron, I needed to hit f3 to get it to work if remember correctly.
That's only true the first time. After that, it "remembers".