Mame joystick problem

[Petey09]

Hey guys,

I'm finally down to the final tweaks on my first arcade cabinet and I'm running in a probable problem. I say "probable" because I'm not sure if it supposed to behave like it does.

In MAME, the problem occurs when I'm playing asynchronous 2 players game like pacman, arkanoid, donkey kong, etc. Whenever it is the second player's turn, I can only control with the first player joystick. The second joystick does nothing. I have 2 U360 plugged in via USB and they are working great with all other multiplayer games where both players are playing at the same time (Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, etc). Also, when I configure the keys for each game, the keys for each player's directions are clearly pointing to Joy1 for player 1 and Joy2 for player 2 and they were set manually, so MAME clearly recognizes the second joystick.

At this point, I have no clue what the problem is and I'm starting to consider that this is just how old game like pacman work.

Anyone has an ideal what's happenning and if it's fixable?

Thanks!

[the_gamer]

Maybe take some look at the arcade machines:
http://www.gamingrebellion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/PacManArcade.jpg
http://coinopdoc.com/images/games/arcade/Donkey%20Kong/Donkey%20Kong%20%20Arcade.JPG

Think why they are asynchronous and…  I don't have any clue

[EssexMame]

The Pacman arcade was just one joystick, players took it in turns and used the same joystick (player 1 stepping aside for player 2's go) and so on. Ditto DK. Arkanoid was 1 spinner so likewise. They are playing as it was intended.

You can set the controls for joystick 2 for those games seperately (in the ini directory for pacman.ini, dkong.ini and the like - or via the mame TAB menu) to control the same as player one but it's not ideal. Player 1 can override player 2 when they are playing by leaning on their buttons/joystick accidentally (or indeed on purpose to turn player 2 the opposite way to where they want to go, killing them off and winning the game!)

Best is to play it as intended - use player 1 only and alternate players on the same controls.

[PL1]

The reason that the P2 controls don't work is because the Dip Switch setting is set to "Upright" instead of "Cocktail".

A DK upright cab has a single joystick and jump button -- during a 2-player game, players would take turns using the one stick and button.



A DK cocktail has a stick and button on each side (note the instruction sticker above the monitor) -- during a 2-player game, the screen orientation and controls would alternate between the players sitting on opposite sides.



If you want Player 2 to be able to play from their joystick in "Upright" mode, you can map the controls to accept inputs from both sticks/buttons at all times. (See EssexMame's post above for the down-side of this approach.)

To do that for "P1 Up":
 * Highlight "P1 Up" in the "Input (this Game)" menu
 * Press Enter
 * Press Escape (sets input to "none")
 * Press Enter
 * Press P1 joystick up  (sets input to "Up")
 * Press Enter
 * Press P2 joystick up  (sets input to "Up or R")

Repeat this process for the rest of the P1 inputs.

If you make a mistake or want to go back to the default setting:
 * Press Enter
 * Press Escape (sets input to "none")
 * Press Enter
 * Press Escape (returns input to default setting)

In closing, please tell me you aren't thinking about playing . . .  Arkanoid . . .  with a joystick??!!??   


Scott

[yotsuya]

Best is to play it as intended - use player 1 only and alternate players on the same controls.

^^^ This.

[Petey09]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Exactly what I though so I guess I'll just play the way it was meant to be played! 

In closing, please tell me you aren't thinking about playing . . .  Arkanoid . . .  with a joystick??!!??   

Hehe don't worry. I have a spinner just for this game. I was just referring to joystick for the pacman example