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Renamed to: Two player Ikari Warriors

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miles2912:
Just got up and looked at my mini-pac.  One trackball AND one spinner.

Don

Kremmit:
I believe the trackball and spinner inputs on the MiniPac are both linked to the same mouse, and moving one disables the other- so you can't have the trackball and spinner active at the same time. 

This is exactly the same as what you get on an Opti-Pac, each spinner input is shared with a trackball input.  There's just two of each, instead of one.

You could probably get away with the Mini, if you don't mind sharing optical inputs.  Use Kelsey's DPDT switch trick to interface the rotary joys to the same inputs as the trackball, and hook the spinner to the MiniPac's spinner input.

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/DPDTswitch.shtml


In answer to your other question, you are correct, as long as you are using a MiniPac (or OptiPac, or OptiWiz, or mouse hack) you don't need the expensive USB or PS2 trackball.  The cheaper one is fine.  The "Golden Tee" trackball is usually the cheapest one.  I wouldn't order direct from Happ, Divemaster or Ponyboy can get most of their stuff cheaper than you can buy it direct.

Farmboy90:
So will two players be able to play Ikari warriors for example?  If I understood the above correctly, the mame will only allow one mouse device to be active.  So how can two players play at the same time?  I use two player Ikari Warriors as an example because that would be the two rotary devices at same time.

I did see the thread about multiple mice in the new beta MAME.  But aside from that, how are people doing this now (without analog mame)?

Kremmit:

--- Quote from: Farmboy90 on March 13, 2006, 12:21:32 am ---So will two players be able to play Ikari warriors for example?
--- End quote ---

Yes!


--- Quote ---If I understood the above correctly, the mame will only allow one mouse device to be active.
--- End quote ---

Sort of.  You know MAME is getting multiple mouse support, and you know about Analog+.  The limiting factor in your case isn't MAME, it's the MiniPac, which only supports one mouse.


--- Quote ---So how can two players play at the same time?  I use two player Ikari Warriors as an example because that would be the two rotary devices at same time.
--- End quote ---

Two rotary devices does not necessarily equal two mice.  A basic mouse has an X-axis and a Y-axis.   One controls horizontal movement, the other controls the vertical.  Your trackball uses both axes, but a spinner or rotary joystick only uses one axis. Hence, you can connect two rotary joysticks to one mouse; one on the x-axis and one on the y-axis. 

If you go this route, the spinner would also be connected to the x-axis of the same mouse, and whenever the spinner is active, the trackball and the rotary functions of the joysticks would be disabled.  When the trackball is active, the spinner and rotary functions are disabled.  When the rotary joys are active, the trackball and spinner are disabled.  But there's hardly any games where that would cause you any trouble.

miles2912:
This has actually been a criticism of the pac line.  If for example you are playing arkanoid and at the end of a round you take a breather and for some reason the trackball moves, your spinner is disabled for a bit.  You have to wait untill you can 'reactive' the spinner and go on with the game.  I thought the inactivity period is 5 seconds but am not 100% sure.  I went with a USB spinner and a traditional trackball hooked up to my mini-pac so that this is not a problem.


Don

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