Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Software Forum => Topic started by: zobook on December 10, 2007, 10:38:24 am
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I'm planning the design of a CP. I thin it will be 6 "action" buttons, one "start" button and not sure about a "coin" button or a "home brew" coin door. The question is, i don't want a lot of "mame" related buttons. I thinking about just one used in combination with the others and the directions.
If i call this special button the "MAME" button, i will push MAME+Left and bring the menu(normally TAB), y press MAME+right and pause (normally P), MAME+Down is UI_Select (normally ENTER) and MAME+Up will quit (normally ESC). In this way i keep mi hand on the control and with the other y keep the MAME button pressed as needed.
Will somethin like this work well? I plan to use a really (really) cheap hacked USB gamepad.
Of course, some stranger that comes to play will be :dizzy: but that's OK, if you wanna play, you have to pay the price ;D
Any suggestions will be welcomed
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Will somethin like this work well?
Yes.
Official Mame comes with ctrlr files for HotRod, X-Arcade, and SlikStik that do something like this. You might want to take a look at them as examples, but take note: they don't have a "mame button" so use combos of just normal keys, and I hate their UI_Cancel mapping (so I change it, see below).
My suggestions:
- Set UI_Select to p1 button1. Easier and pretty intuitive.
- Be careful about UI_Cancel. I'd be very reluctant to make it close to any other combo or any common key presses. Which is why I don't like the hotrod etc UI_cancel, and one reason I'm suggesting not have UI_Select as you said; if the joystick bounced from down to up before you let go of your mame button, or you pressed right+up & mame when you want to pause, oops. :( How about mame button + start1 + p1 up? If not that, at least do mame + p1up + not p1left + not p1right. (not: when mapping press twice quickly)
- I like the idea of the "mame" button, over using combos of common buttons. The Ipac and keywiz have similar buttons to your mame called shift & shazaaam, respectively; the difference between your's and those is the shifting/shazaaaming is done inside their encoders instead of mame.\. OTOH, others here might suggest not even having the separate mame button. Up to you.
- Setup to your liking using mame's tab, "Input (general)", then copy cfg/default.cfg to ctrlr/yourname.cfg. Then use the ctrlr file (what I do), or just keep it for backup.
- Don't forget the UI directions (UI_up, UI_down, etc), and maybe (depending on your layout) the dual stick directions (P1_joystickright_up, P1_joystickleft_up, etc).
Good luck!
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Thanks for your suggestion
if the joystick bounced from down to up before you let go of your mame button, or you pressed right+up & mame when you want to pause, oops. :(
I think about that after i post, the "rebound" may be a problem. I liked the idea of remapping to mamebuton+buttonx because solves that problem.
Maybe the UI_Cancel (the most "dangerous") could be something like MAME+button1+button6 (thinking about a 2 rows of 3 buttons layout) so you can't press it accidentally. The other actions (pause, menu) can be safely just mame+buttonx and as you said UI_select can be just button1 (wich will be harmless in most situations).
I really like the advanced configuration of controls mame has. the posibility of using some complex like (x AND y) OR z OR (j NOT k) is very good. i always keep a backup of the cfg when i have configured all to my taste (just in case i screw things up).
In Marcianitos page there is a very good tutorial (http://www.marcianitos.org/tutoriales/controlesavanzados.php) about that (spanish only, sorry)
Thanks again