Using 2 separate sticks/buttons for non-cocktail build

[jedimasta]

I've just broken down a cocktail build into a portable unit that puts the players next to each other a la a Street Fighter cab. I've gone through and set all my roms to use the stand up cab mode to prevent flipping when it's player 2's turn, but by doing so the emulator ignores the 2nd player controls so, for example, 2 people playing Dig Dug have to use the same joystick, swapping back and forth between turns instead of being able to use their own stick and buttons. Later games like Street Fighter work just fine, but it's the older 80's games that get me frustrated.

I get that they were likely never meant to work like that, but perhaps there's a tweak I'm just not aware of that will let player 1 use joystick 1 and player 2 use joystick 2.

For the record, I've confirmed that both the general input and game specific input settings have the keys/buttons assigned properly.

[Malenko]

you can map player 2s controls to mirror player ones, but that will allow one player to mess with the others controls. Other than that, I have no idea how to do what you want to do.

[jedimasta]

That option crossed my mind too, but knowing my friends the way I do, a fist fight would would quite likely erupt. 

[Malenko]

That option crossed my mind too, but knowing my friends the way I do, a fist fight would would quite likely erupt. 

Then path of least resistance is to switch ppl playing with player 1's controls.  If you find a better solution, definitely post it here.

[jedimasta]

Will do.

[NickG]

One solution to automate this feature for many hotseat games is to setup and launch AHK scripts which will watch for the player 1/2 cues (flashing 1up/2up, fullscreen "Player 1" / "Player 2" screens, etc), then have AHK pass sendkey if your emulator or whatever supports it, or have it launch another application to remap or pass the keys in software.  Switching circuitry activated via serial commands passed from AHK is another possibility if you are the geek like me.  Example of how to setup the screen analysis in AHK:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=117395.0

[lamprey]

Mame doesn't allow you to set the screen rotation "per mode" does it? Meaning, leave the normal rotation for player one. Then rotate it appropriately for player two in flipped mode..?

If it did, then you could leave the games in cocktail mode and maintain two sets of controls. But, it's probably just easier to configure mame to use both sets or wire them to the same inputs