Cant map buttons in HAMSTERBALL & VirtuaTennis?!?

[daveg2000]

Hey all.

I am incorporating Hamsterball (Friggin awesome game)
and Virtua Tennis (PC Version)
into my cab and am having some suprizing results...

Virtua Tennis:
I go into the config file, and set the player1 controls....
Player 2 controls (tab) is greyed out and I cant select it
to assign more keyboard buttons to (on the 'ol IPac)

Hamsterball:
I thought you could actually play 4 player 'Party Games'....?
I go to the config screen... all you can choose from is Mouse/Trakball, Keyboard, Computer or Off.

You cant configure which keyboard keys are used
by which player?!?!

[AceTKK]

Virtua tennis is very annoying to set up.  Basically, the game won't allow two players to both use the keyboard.  Players 2,3,4 have to be controlled with a gamepad or joystick.  There is software floating around out there that emulates gamepad input using a keyboard; try running a search on Virtua Tennis and you'll find all the info.

-Ace-

[daveg2000]

Just another reason for me to get my Dreamcast hooked up.
What the heck are the programmers thinking...?

Any more info on these gamepad emus would be great....

[Lilwolf]

Is Hampsterball worth the register price?

I have a trackball controlpanel and thought it might be worth it.  But seems a bit expensive for something I might never get around to playing.

Anyone?

And does it go well on a cab with a trackball and a few buttons only?  (need <enter> or <esc> or anything?)

[daveg2000]

Is Hampsterball worth the register price?

I have a trackball controlpanel and thought it might be worth it.

[ErikRuud]

I have hamster ball and I love it.

However setting it up for four players is a pain.

There can only be one player using the keyboard.
There can only be one player using Mouse/Trackball.
There can only be two players using Gamepads or Joysticks no matter how many game pads you have hooked up. I had bought four gamepads just for this game.


They may fix this if they ever get around to realeasing a new version.

[daveg2000]

I'm going to try this program

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA016823/joytokey/english.html

to try to get the keyboard working for the other 2 players.
(as separate joysticks...)

That way for 4 player games, we ALL can play on the control panel!



Thanks for the leads guys!

[namedos]

Lilwolf,
I think it is worth it.  I really liked marble madness when I was a kid and the graphics and game play are a ton of fun with Hamsterball.  We tried the demo and really enjoyed it so the registration fee was worth it to us.  Replay value has been good for both me and the kids.

My only complaint is that you really need to use the trackball to enjoy the game in my opinion as the keyboard loses something.  Only one player can use the trackball so we end up playing the same level several times to see who can get the fastest time.  Playing fields are varied and quickly become challenging.

[daveg2000]

My only complaint is that you really need to use the trackball to enjoy the game in my opinion as the keyboard loses something.

[jelwell]

I'm going to try this program

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA016823/joytokey/english.html

to try to get the keyboard working for the other 2 players.
(as separate joysticks...)

That way for 4 player games, we ALL can play on the control panel!



Thanks for the leads guys!

Actually, I think you want to go the other way. You want to fake a joypad, not fake a keyboard:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,10778.msg86775.html#msg86775

It's like I was looking for this and then everyone else was too.

And yes, Hamsterball is *amazing*.
Joseph Elwell.

[daveg2000]

Thx Jelwell.

I downloaded the .exe and looked through teh instructions
further down the thread (because of virtua tennis problems)
and the program and the instructions dont seem to match
up.. is there a newer .exe for the instructions that are given later
in the thread?

[jelwell]

Thx Jelwell.

I downloaded the .exe and looked through teh instructions
further down the thread (because of virtua tennis problems)
and the program and the instructions dont seem to match
up.. is there a newer .exe for the instructions that are given later
in the thread?

I was just pointed to this program today, so I haven't had time to test it. I'll post an update after I get a chance to play around with it.
Joseph Elwell.

[daveg2000]

http://home.tiscali.se/edterhaar/picjoy/

This seems to be the part of the program I missed
while downloading... You need the PPJoy DRIVER program.
After installing this, it installs the devices to your computer....

I'll play more with this tonight.
(Unless I drink too much at our bowling banquet... haha)

[daveg2000]

Okay.. I'm stuck...

I have the Virtal Joysticks active.
I got ONE stick to work, in hamsterball, but not in Tennis.
I tried adding a 2nd joystick to the system, which appeared
to be detected by my system.
My issue is that I cannot for the life of me get more
than one controller configured.

Meaning that when I am in the configure screen,
I can setup VirtualJoystick1, then when I drop-down to
VirturalJoystick2, the SAME settings are there.  If I override
these settings and put in what I want for VirtualJoystick2,
I can switch back over to Joystick1, and my original settings
are gone... and Joystick2's settings seem to be active for all joysticks.
I can just keep going back and forth.

Hamsterball does detect 2 joysticks being there, but only one
is active.  (Which would be the last joystick I put settings in for....)

What am I missing here?

Oh... and a side note.... I cant get viruta tennis to detect a joystick
for the life of me... 

[rchadd]

Is Hampsterball worth the register price?

I have a trackball controlpanel and thought it might be worth it.

[DreamWeb]

Once you've installed the virutal joysticks in your system...  (2 axis and at least 8 buttons).  Make sure that you have ppjoykey.exe running when you run the vtconfig.exe program.  It should then allow you to reassign the keys.  You have to have ppjoykey.exe running ALWAYS when you run Virtua Tennis.. or your second controller won't work.

This works fine.. but it's a pain when trying to run VT from mamewah (or other FE).  Is there a program that'll launch ppjoykey.exe automatically for me at the start of the game (I think Mamewah can handle this part) and then stop the program upon exit (that's the tough one)

good luck!

d

[jelwell]

Holy cow! This just worked *soooo* well. I had to install the whole PPJoy package, not just the one exe. But hot damn.

Anyways, I have to have 2 of these PPJoyKey programs running in the background. One for each player. No big deal. I'll probably look into writing a batch file to start and stop PPJoyKey automatically from Mamewah, but not until next week. This weekend is Coachella! woooo!

Joseph Elwell.

[DreamWeb]

I would lovvvvvvvve to get a copy of that batch.

That would be incredible.

My batch writing skills are -zero-.  So, please, if you do decide to do this.. please share it around!!

thanks!  And have fun with "coachella" (what??)

d.

[jelwell]

I would lovvvvvvvve to get a copy of that batch.

That would be incredible.

My batch writing skills are -zero-.

[jelwell]

Here's the basic idea:
I use XYNTService to create a Windows Service
Use a batch file to start and stop the service.

Here's my XYNTService.ini:

[Settings]
ServiceName = GamePadEMU
ProcCount = 2
CheckProcess = 0
[Process0]
CommandLine =C:\Program Files\Parallel Port Joystick\PPJoyKey.exe .\gamejoy1.ini
WorkingDir = C:\Program Files\Parallel Port Joystick
PauseStart = 1000
PauseEnd = 1000
UserInterface = Yes
Restart = No
[Process1]
CommandLine =C:\Program Files\Parallel Port Joystick\PPJoyKey.exe .\gamejoy2.ini
WorkingDir = C:\Program Files\Parallel Port Joystick
PauseStart = 1000
PauseEnd = 1000
UserInterface = Yes
Restart = No

Download the XYNTService.exe and run (in the command line) "XYNTService -i" in the directory where you saved the above ini file.

Open Window's Control Panel. Look in "Administrative Tools" for "Services". Find the "GamePadEmu" service and double click on it. Change "Startup type" to "Manual". Click on "OK" to close the window. Now you're all done with the Services/Control Panel stuff.

Notice that I saved my PPJoyKey ini files in the same directory as the executable. Notice that I have 1 process for each "gamepad".

The Batch file:

NET START "GamePadEMU"
"E:\Program Files\BattleRaper2\BattleRaper2.exe"
NET STOP "GamePadEMU"

You'll have to ask google what Battle Raper 2 is.

In MAMEWAH i set:

emulator_executable

[jelwell]

Fixed, I edited my comment above.

By the way. I believe the XYNTService website requires registration to download. But the application is free to distribute, so you can grab it here:

http://www.singleclick.com/~jelwell/arcade/XYNTService.zip

Joseph Elwell.

[DreamWeb]

Thanks, Jelwell!  I'll give this a go when I get home this evening and let you know how it went!

[DreamWeb]

Jelwell!  That worked wonderfully.  Thanks for sharing such an effective tip!

d.