Pause, exit, and config buttons?

[Dougmeister]

Have not played around with the dif't operating systems and frontends yet.  Downloaded "Fraggal's Mame Installer CD" from mame.how.to and hope to try that tonight.

From pictures I've seen of other control panels, most people do NOT have dedicated buttons for pause, exit, or config (i.e., the "TAB" button in Mame).  Are these somehow handled by the frontend?

[jfrizzell]

Depending on what you're using for your button controller, there may be "shift" functions available to give you additional keys.  Ultimarc's I-Pac for example allows shift functions to give you additional keys.  For example, if you hold down Player 1 Start (the shift key) and press Player 2 Start, this is by default "Pause".  These can all be customized of course using their programming software.

[SirPoonga]

I have a dedicated quit and pause button.  My pause button is my shift button.  If oyu goto my cabinet website I have a link to my ipac input programming.

I do load and save as a shift combo, same with tilde, tab, F2 and F3.

[Minwah]

I just have a pause button, which like SirP's is also shift.  The only shift function I use is Pause+P1 Start = Quit.

I personally don't like using the IPAC's P1 Start as shift as I have had that cause ill effects in-game (ie both players hit start and bang, half an hours gameplay gone).  I was surprised how many times this happens...

A GREAT thing to have is a wireless (RF) keyboard (& mouse).  You can do all the admin stuff without ANY hassle at all.  My one even allows me to adjust the volume (I only just realised that's what the big dial is for).  I suppose the only problem is where to store the keyboard for the majority of time when you're not using it...

[SirPoonga]

Heh, your wireless keyboard is convinient.  I want to get one.  I am glad I have readily available usb ports.  I use them all the time.

[Minwah]

Heh, your wireless keyboard is convinient.  I want to get one.  I am glad I have readily available usb ports.  I use them all the time.

Yeah I was very lucky with the wireless keyboard+mouse...it was my bosses (cost a lot new, Logitech) but he couldn't get it to work (he hadn't put any batteries in it!).  I bought it off him for

[Dougmeister]

Great idea on the wireless keyboard.

I have the KeyWiz, so I'll definitely be playing around w/ the shifting feature.

[REBIRTH]

I responded to your post in the main forum as well.  I decided to put dedicated puase/exit/config buttons on my control panel.  I use the IPac which allows for the shifting, but I just wanted to make it easier for people (and my kids) to use.  So now they just have to hit the red "escape" button to get out of a game instead of hitting a 2 button combo to do the shifting.  When it comes down to it, a button costs like $3 or something - I thought it was worth the $ and time to add a few more buttons for this.

[Minwah]

I responded to your post in the main forum as well.  I decided to put dedicated puase/exit/config buttons on my control panel.  I use the IPac which allows for the shifting, but I just wanted to make it easier for people (and my kids) to use.  So now they just have to hit the red "escape" button to get out of a game instead of hitting a 2 button combo to do the shifting.  When it comes down to it, a button costs like $3 or something - I thought it was worth the $ and time to add a few more buttons for this.

It certainly makes it easier for people to use, but looses a bit of authenticity imo.  I am always there when my cab is in use so for the moment I'm happy just explaining to people what to do - most people seem to pick it up pretty quick (I don't let pesky kids on it tho!)

[ErikRuud]

I have Pause, Advance, tilde, tab, enter, Load on my CP.
Coin 1 is the IPAC shift button.

Shift Pause is Exit.
Shift Advance is Reset.
Shift Load is Save.

I don't like to have admin functions assigned to the joysticks or player buttons. I do like having the the quit and reset functions shifted because it makes it harder to do by accident.

I have found that I really don't need to have dedicated buttons for tilde, tab and enter anymore.  I don't use tab anymore for configuring the inputs because I use the ctrlr files instead.  If I need to alter other settings, I can just pull out the keyboard.