MESS & Bally Astrocade

[rdagger]

I have MESS v.104 and I've installed the ROM's for the Bally Astrocade, which I own.
Everything works except the controllers.  The Bally joysticks has pots that allow you to rotate the joystick handle  clockwise/counter-clockwise in addition to  8-way play.  The rotary feature is used in games like Breakout to control the paddle or racing games to control the steering.   The MESS input options allows me to specify the joystick left, right, up, down and trigger, but does not give any settings for rotation.  I've tried my mouse and my Sidewinder, but I can't get the rotation working.

[juggle50]

Was going to reply but saw they just answered you on the mess post.

[rdagger]

Was going to reply but saw they just answered you on the mess post.

The answer did not work.  Any other suggestions?

[juggle50]

Unfortunately no, I was going to look in the documentation for mess to see if it said anything.  Keep nagging Belmont though.  He sort of knows everything about MESS

[juggle50]

Actually,

This is probably not an ideal solution, but you can create a new key codes profile in your I-pac software (if you are using an ipac) and set the left and right joystick to Z and X and save that profile under a different name.

Obviously this is a pain because before you play Bally Astrocade you have to load the new profile  to your ipac and it will only interface with the joystick not the mouse, but at least you will be able to play it on your cab.

I have several different Ipac profiles that I use for PC games that won't allow mapping.

[rdagger]

Somebody pointed out that if you turn off the "USE NEW GUI" feature under Miscellaneous options, MESS gives you the MAME controls interface when you press Tab.  This is much easier to use.  I got football working with my LS-30's and I was playing Clowns with my Tornado spinner.  The analog settings are just as messed up as they are in MAME.  This means you have the same problems with the rotary joysticks that you have in MAME with games like Ikari Warriors.  Still Football seems to work well after spending an hour messing with the analog settings.

[juggle50]

Cool,

Do you pretty much have to set the sensitivity to 250.  I know that is what you have to do for araknoid in Mame

[rdagger]

Cool,
Do you pretty much have to set the sensitivity to 250.  I know that is what you have to do for araknoid in Mame

I had the sensitivity around 120, digital speed at 10 and autocenter 0.  That seemed to work the best with my rotary interface for Football.  I have never been able to get Arkanoid working right with my Tornado in MAME.  It works better with my trackball.