Help with Johnny5 and a SlikStik Classic controller

[Q*bert]

I've searched for an answer, but haven'y been able to find one.

I have a SlikStik controller and am trying to set up Johnny5.

Everything works great (thanks Howard!) except the key mappings don't seem to be picked up from my sliktik.cfg file.

Everything seems to be coming from the std.ini file.

I set the ctrlr option in Johnny5 "Viewer Options" to "slikstik", "slikstik.cfg", or "c:\mame\ctrlr\slikstik.cfg" but none of these makes a difference.

Any ideas on how to get my slikstik.cfg picked up?

[Howard_Casto]

Well is slickstick also the ctrlr you have define in your mame.ini?  J5 oly goes by that manual setting if it can't find a mame.ini.  Also understand that the default layout for j5 probably does not reflect the keys used for a slikstick controller, you'll have to either modify it or create a new one. 

[Q*bert]

Apparently J5 doesn't like the fact that I have my roms stored in a directory other than roms under the mame directory.

I'll keep working on it...

[Howard_Casto]

Ok I tried my own setup with the slikstik ctrlr file and it did just fine, so it isn't an issue with the file. 

In your mame.ini you should have these settings set in this way:

ctrlr_directory ctrlr
ctrlr slikstik

Your roms directory has nothing to do with j5, although if your ini file is corrupted (in other words you used improper syntax in some way) then it could have trouble reading the ini file in general.  I don't see how, but hey, it could happen. 

[Q*bert]

Sorry if I am somehow being a dufus, but with ctrlr_directory and ctrlr set as above, mame works properly, but J5 shows an error message of "Run-time error '52': Bad file name or number".

I also tried a fully qualified path...  Mame still works fine but J5 errors the same.

I have gotten everything to work by replacing the contents of std.ini with info from a pre-0.83 mame slikstik.cfg.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
 

[Howard_Casto]

Well you haven't posted anything for em to be able to tell. 

Post your mame.ini tell me what version of mame you are using... ect

[Q*bert]

More details on my setup:

I'm running mame 1.05 and Johnny5 2.6 beta. 

Mame.exe is in "C:\EmuMame\Mame\" and J5 is in "C:\Johnny5\".

I am using the latest available for d/l classic "slikstik.cfg" (v1.2 for mame v 0.86+ - dated 8/28/04) and it is stored in the "C:\EmuMame\Mame\ctrlr\" directory.

Johnny5->Options->Viewer->ctrlr is set to "slikstik"
Johnny5->Options->Viewer->Path to Mame is set to "C:\EmuMame\Mame\"

My mame.ini is as follows:
== start of mame.ini =======================================================
### mame.ini ###

### Frontend Related ###

### Windows path and directory options ###
rompath                 C:\EmuMame\Data\roms
samplepath              C:\EmuMame\Data\samples
# inipath               <NULL> (not set)
cfg_directory           cfg
nvram_directory         nvram
memcard_directory       memcard
input_directory         inp
hiscore_directory       hi
state_directory         sta
artwork_directory       C:\EmuMame\Data\artwork
snapshot_directory      C:\EmuMame\Data\snap
diff_directory          diff
ctrlr_directory         ctrlr
comment_directory       comments
cheat_file              cheat.dat

### Windows video options ###
autoframeskip           1
frameskip               0
waitvsync               0
triplebuffer            0
window                  0
ddraw                   1
direct3d                0
hwstretch               1
# screen                <NULL> (not set)
cleanstretch            auto
resolution              auto
refresh                 0
scanlines               0
switchres               1
switchbpp               1
maximize                1
keepaspect              1
matchrefresh            0
syncrefresh             0
throttle                1
full_screen_brightness   0.000000
frames_to_run           0
effect                  none
screen_aspect           4:3
# mngwrite              <NULL> (not set)

### Windows Direct3D 2D video options ###
zoom                    2
d3dtexmanage            1
d3dfilter               1
d3dfeedback             0
d3dscan                 100
d3deffectrotate         1
d3dprescale             auto
d3deffect               none
# d3dcustom             <NULL> (not set)
# d3dexpert             <NULL> (not set)

### Windows misc options ###
sleep                   1
rdtsc                   0
priority                0

### Windows sound options ###
audio_latency           1
# wavwrite              <NULL> (not set)

### Input device options ###
mouse                   0
joystick                0
lightgun                0
dual_lightgun           0
offscreen_reload        0
steadykey               0
keyboard_leds           1
led_mode                ps/2
a2d_deadzone            0.300000
ctrlr                    slikstik
paddle_device           keyboard
adstick_device          keyboard
pedal_device            keyboard
dial_device             keyboard
trackball_device        keyboard
lightgun_device         keyboard
digital                 none

### Mame CORE video options ###
norotate                0
ror                     0
rol                     0
autoror                 0
autorol                 0
flipx                   0
flipy                   0
gamma                   1.000000
brightness              1.000000
pause_brightness        0.650000

### Mame CORE vector game options ###
antialias               1
translucency            1
beam                    1.000000
flicker                 0.000000
intensity               1.500000

### Mame CORE sound options ###
samplerate              44100
samples                 1
sound                   1
volume                  0

### Mame CORE misc options ###
validate                0
artwork                 1
use_backdrops           1
use_overlays            1
use_bezels              1
artwork_crop            0
artwork_resolution      0
cheat                   0
debug                   0
# debugscript           <NULL> (not set)
# playback              <NULL> (not set)
# record                <NULL> (not set)
log                     0
oslog                   0
skip_gameinfo           0
bios                    default
# state                 <NULL> (not set)
autosave                0

### Configuration options ###
readconfig              1
verbose                 0
== end of mame.ini =======================================================

[Howard_Casto]

two things stand out, but I don't know if this is the cause:

Your ini path is commented out, set it to "ini" and make sure you have an ini folder (even if it's blank). 

Go ahead and close up your paths (c:\emumame\data\roms\ , not c:\emumame\data\roms ).

I surely hope you mean mame 0.105 and not 1.05 because there's no way j5 is gonna support a version that old. 

[Q*bert]

two things stand out, but I don't know if this is the cause:

Your ini path is commented out, set it to "ini" and make sure you have an ini folder (even if it's blank). 

Go ahead and close up your paths (c:\emumame\data\roms\ , not c:\emumame\data\roms ).

I surely hope you mean mame 0.105 and not 1.05 because there's no way j5 is gonna support a version that old. 

I tried setting the inipath and closing the paths and still get an error 52 message as above.

and yes, I did mean 0.105...

Very frustrating, but I still can modify the std.ini and get it to work beautifully otherwise.

Thanks for your help Howard. 

[Q*bert]

OK, now this is weird... 

I used mame's -cc option to recreate the mame.ini file and Johnny5 now finds the slikstik.cfg file and works perfectly.

I visually compared the new ini file to the old one I posted earlier and I can't see any difference.  Unfortunately I didn't save the old ini file or I'd do a filecompare and see of there was some odd data in there.

[Howard_Casto]

OK, now this is weird... 

I used mame's -cc option to recreate the mame.ini file and Johnny5 now finds the slikstik.cfg file and works perfectly.

I visually compared the new ini file to the old one I posted earlier and I can't see any difference.  Unfortunately I didn't save the old ini file or I'd do a filecompare and see of there was some odd data in there.

My best guess.... you used a tab in your ini instead of spaces.  I thought I put in code to strip those out, but that might not be the case.  Mame doesn't particularly like tabs either (thus why they are gone in your new ini), it just deals with them better.