Keymapping an 8-way for Q*Bert

[NoOne=NBA=]

Someone asked me for more information on how to set up an 8-way to play Q*Bert in another thread, so I thought I'd start a new thread for the search function.

To set up your 8-way for Q*bert, go to the Inputs for this game menu, click on each of the following, and then press BOTH directions you want mapped to that function.

Up=Up AND Right
Right=Right AND Down
Down=Down AND Left
Left=Left AND Up

Once you have these set, you have to push UP-RIGHT on the stick to send an Up signal to the game, etc...
That makes the 8-way behave exactly like a rotated 4-way stick.
This works BEST with a stick that has corners (T-Stick, Happ Comp, etc...) because the square restrictor on the stick will guide you to the corners; but it will work WELL on any 8-way stick.

[vader]

Thanks alot NoOne.....set it according to your instructions and I'm happily Qberting......have the occasional mishap, but I am using happs supers....but otherwise very happy.....made it to level 9 first time around....haven't played it in 15 yrs....lmao....no to shabby

[Apollo]

Awesome I can't believe I've been too dumb to figure that out myself. Thanks.

[Thenasty]

I setup my 360 and it work ok, but it was a little hard to just have it in between the two, so I came up with a MOD if you own a 360. It works alot better now. Here is the link.

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=25385

[NoOne=NBA=]

I don't have 360's, but it works well with my Wicos.
I have the Wicos set so that the leafs contact almost immediately when the joystick moves.
That may give me more diagonal than you get with the 360's.

[nostrebor]

Thanks for posting this fix! Now I must spend the next 17 hours playing Qbert

[pocketbikez]

wow, i hope this is a new control feature and hasnt been in mame for a long time. if its been in mame all along i wish i knew earlier. i just set up an 8way and its about 98.5% as true as my dedicated diagonal 4way. the diagonal 4way seems to slightly clunk into the directions better, and the 8way feels a little looser probably because of the less restrictive actuator.

thanks for pointing this out, now i can CONGO BONGO more often.    

[Thenasty]

the diagonal 4way seems to slightly clunk into the directions better, and the 8way feels a little looser probably because of the less restrictive actuator.

It is not actually an actuator, but in the original 4way joystick, it is shape as diamond so you can't go diagonals. The q-bert/bongo uses this joysticks and they mounted it on the CP diagonally.

[spidermonkey]

I was using the 8-way in game menu trick for quite a while and it worked great for Q-bert however I still had control problems with Congo Bongo. I was using a Happ Competition 8-way with a n2new balltop replacement shaft. I couldn't and still don't understand why this trick works great for Q-bert but not so good with Congo Bongo. Due to the fact that Congo Bongo is one of my favorite games I ended up mounting an nos Wico leaf switch 4-way on a 45 degree angle and now both Q-bert and Congo Bongo work perfectly. If I could have gotten the software trick to work with both games I certainly wouldn't have wasted money for a 2nd 4-way stick on my cab but I didn't know what else to do. Has anyone else with Happ Comp 8-ways noticed that this trick isn't as effective with Congo Bongo? Maybe I should have experimented with different models or brands of 8-ways before plunking a 2nd 4-way onto my already crouded cp.

[Thenasty]

I was using the 8-way in game menu trick for quite a while and it worked great for Q-bert however I still had control problems with Congo Bongo. I was using a Happ Competition 8-way with a n2new balltop replacement shaft. I couldn't and still don't understand why this trick works great for Q-bert but not so good with Congo Bongo. Due to the fact that Congo Bongo is one of my favorite games I ended up mounting an nos Wico leaf switch 4-way on a 45 degree angle and now both Q-bert and Congo Bongo work perfectly. If I could have gotten the software trick to work with both games I certainly wouldn't have wasted money for a 2nd 4-way stick on my cab but I didn't know what else to do. Has anyone else with Happ Comp 8-ways noticed that this trick isn't as effective with Congo Bongo? Maybe I should have experimented with different models or brands of 8-ways before plunking a 2nd 4-way onto my already crouded cp.

I guess you did not have a P360 joystick, cause if you did, I had posted a mod to add a leaf switch to the 360 mounted diagonnally (see in project annoucements, if oyu haven't already).

[bigle]

i gave this a try and it works great.

however, when i exit the game and go back later, the keymapping returns to it's original up/down/left/right instead of the new "up and right" etc.

anybody got a clue as to why this is happening?

thanks

[papaschtroumpf]

how do you remap the controls for a single game? This is something that I have never done, I always use the default MAME controls, but in this case I can see how this would make playing much more useful.
I think there is some kind of ctrl file in some made directory to do this right? I'll have to go read up on that.

[mahuti]

Oh my goodness. Almost ALL of the games that I play in mame are remapped.

All you need to do is open the tab menu during a game. Select "this game" or whatever and redo the controls be selecting the option, hitting "enter" and pressing the desired control(s) to map to.

Give  it a whirl.

[MoonDog]

Yippee!!  I can play Q-bert now.  Brings back memories.  

Thank you! Thank you!

[papaschtroumpf]

Oh my goodness. Almost ALL of the games that I play in mame are remapped.

All you need to do is open the tab menu during a game. Select "this game" or whatever and redo the controls be selecting the option, hitting "enter" and pressing the desired control(s) to map to.

Give  it a whirl.

I see, you do it ingame, not by editing some config file.
Cool!, I'll give it a whirl

Anyone knows if johnny5/CPViewer takes any customization into account? I'd hate for them to display the wrong info.

[eyal8r]

Hmmm- here's the problem- I hit tab during the game, and nothing happens. Is there another way to access the ingame configs?
Thanks
D

[bloodyviking77]

You must have inadvertently changed the default key allocation for "UI-menu"

default.cfg contains your default keymappings.

either delete it  or open it up and check what you've changed it to!

[Minwah]

Hmmm- here's the problem- I hit tab during the game, and nothing happens. Is there another way to access the ingame configs?

ctrlr file(s) are the way to go...

I recently made entries in my cabinet ctrlr file for (AFAIK) all the 'diagonal' joystick games:

Q*Bert,
Faster, Harder, More Challeneging Q*Bert,
Q*Bert Qubes
Congo Bongo,
Tylz,
Inferno.

I use a J-Stik and it works really well

Oh, I can post this part of my ctrlr file when I get home if anyone wants to see it...

[SirPoonga]

BTW, do this mapping, then get OscarControl's Q*Bert restrictor plate