Help With Act Lab Guns in Mame

[TeutonicDarkness]

 Hello,


 I really hope someone out there can help me with
setting up 2 Act Lab guns in Mame.

Yes.. I had Read all documentation on ACT lab site including
the .PDF you can download.

I have tried setting them up with Mame 121
and also 0.104u6 The special version from
Act Labs website.



The only way I even know they work is I can use them
to play the PC Game House of the Dead.



Any ideas?
please....

Really want to play Terminator, Area 51, etc.



Thanks,

[Silver]

You have to setup mame to use lightguns. Try having a look at this:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mame_Lightgun_Setup




PS: I'm afraid you will struggle to play Terminator 2 with Actlabs guns. T2 actually used positional joysticks disguised as guns in the arcade, and expects you to be able to fire constantly will moving the gun over the screen. This is usually impossible with Act labs guns as they are designed to work by flashing the screen when you fire.

There are some workarounds by having a constantly bright screen but I imagine this will fail on T2 with all the black backgrounds. You need something like the LCD Topguns to play T2 more correctly.

[TeutonicDarkness]

You have to setup mame to use lightguns. Try having a look at this:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mame_Lightgun_Setup


PS: I'm afraid you will struggle to play Terminator 2 with Actlabs guns. T2 actually used positional joysticks disguised as guns in the arcade, and expects you to be able to fire constantly will moving the gun over the screen. This is usually impossible with Act labs guns as they are designed to work by flashing the screen when you fire.

There are some workarounds by having a constantly bright screen but I imagine this will fail on T2 with all the black backgrounds. You need something like the LCD Topguns to play T2 more correctly.

 Yeah I knew T2 had joysticks.. but I cant get any other games
to work either... I have tried dual mouse, dual lightguns,
both dual mouse and dual light guns,
just cant get any setting to work in any version
of Mame?


As said before have them somewhat working for House of
the Dead ... I'll for example start off with player 1 lightgun,
then midgame the same gun switches over and controls
player 2 ... Thus locking me out of being able to
futher use player 1.

Cant get both guns to register at the same time..?

Don't know whats going on...?
The test program shows both guns fire OK!

I'm clueless what do I do ...excluding the option
of buying another Brand of lightgun?



Any help would be appreciated...


Thanks,

[TeutonicDarkness]

 Thought I would add in the bit that when I go into
configuring Mame by Tab that Mame does not register
any buttons or movement from the lightgun.


I have to manually edit the CFG file and then games
like Area 51.. I can fire but that's it!


All the configuring tips for configuring Lightgun Analog X,
Lightgun Analog y are just pointless If Mame can't
detect it Natively anyway right?



Please tell me someone out there has found out how
to use this in ... at LEAST 1 Mame game!

[Silver]

assuming you can control the mouse in windows with your gun (in act labs case, the mouse moves to where you point when you fire)...


edit mame.ini so that you have:

mouse  1
multimouse 1
verbose 1

Then start mame, go through tab, and follow instructions in the link I gave above to select the Gun X and Y for that game...

[TeutonicDarkness]

assuming you can control the mouse in windows with your gun (in act labs case, the mouse moves to where you point when you fire)...


edit mame.ini so that you have:

mouse  1
multimouse 1
verbose 1

Then start mame, go through tab, and follow instructions in the link I gave above to select the Gun X and Y for that game...

 Yes it works in Windows OK.
I just tried this again in Mame no luck...

yes all those settings where allready there except
verbose 1


When I go to set Analog X is just doesn't register in
Mame and hangs indefinitely until I close it.


Any other ideas here?


* On a side note I bit the bullet and
ordered 2 topguns.

I would still like to be able to use
the Act Labs for a few Mame Games.



Thanks,

[Silver]

Have you done the bit where you fire at the left hand of the screen, then hit enter to enable an input to "analog X" move to the right hand side of the screen on the same vertical level and fire again?

[TeutonicDarkness]

Have you done the bit where you fire at the left hand of the screen, then hit enter to enable an input to "analog X" move to the right hand side of the screen on the same vertical level and fire again?

 Yes... I tried but as I said it never registers either gun
I never get Mouse 3 X ,
or Mouse 3 Y for vertical

Only either one of my actual mouse will register under
the input screen.. but not the Act Lab guns?

The (only way)
I can even get it to show up under
the input this game tab is:
 
manually entering
everything in the .cfg


There claim for Mame compatibility appears
COMPLETELY false!

[Dustin Mustangs]

Actlabs has a test utility on their site for download.  Have you tried that?  If not, I suggest you start there.  If you can't get them to work right in that, you will have no luck anywhere else.  In fact, if they don't work in that, and you double check they are hooked up correctly, they are either broken or for whatever reason are not able to work on your computer.  You might also try different usb ports at this point.  I have found certain devices are picky about where you plug them in. 

Just so you know, these guns do work in mame.  I have two of the older two player versions (the ones that look spacey) and they work fine in mame when set up according to the instructions on the actlabs site.  The only real problem I had was getting my player two gun to correctly  do an off screen reload.  Seems silly to me, but for this to work you need to have both p1 and p2 gun's switch in the middle position.  If that was in the instructions I missed it but eventually found out it worked like that through a late night of trial and error.


Good luck.

[TeutonicDarkness]

Actlabs has a test utility on their site for download.  Have you tried that?  If not, I suggest you start there.  If you can't get them to work right in that, you will have no luck anywhere else.  In fact, if they don't work in that, and you double check they are hooked up correctly, they are either broken or for whatever reason are not able to work on your computer.  You might also try different usb ports at this point.  I have found certain devices are picky about where you plug them in. 

Just so you know, these guns do work in Mame.  I have two of the older two player versions (the ones that look spacey) and they work fine in Mame when set up according to the instructions on the actlabs site.  The only real problem I had was getting my player two gun to correctly  do an off screen reload.  Seems silly to me, but for this to work you need to have both p1 and p2 gun's switch in the middle position.  If that was in the instructions I missed it but eventually found out it worked like that through a late night of trial and error.


Good luck.

 Yes Everything is fine in the test utility, Windows,
House of The Dead, PC Games,etc
I have followed the instructions on the Act Lab site to the Tee.

I tried different usb ports, different Mame version, etc.
Tried switching gun position 1 and 2.


What Can I do if Mame simply doesn't regiter input
Under Light gun X Analog, Light gun Y Analog tab?


While I do have Some top guns on order...

I want these working very badly.
I plan on using Topguns for My laptop/Game console;
using Act Labs on my Desktop computer.

Please if You have any ideas and are willing to help
would love to hear back from you!




Thanks,

[Silver]

What Can I do if Mame simply doesn't regiter input
Under Light gun X Analog, Light gun Y Analog tab?

If the Actlabs are working in windows (you should be able to shoot icons to select them on your desktop) then the only thing stopping them working in mame is the mame configuration.

Mame does not actually know they are lightguns, it just sees a extra mouse. Setting up the Topguns to work in mame is no different to setting up the actlabs USB guns (except you don't need to fire with the topguns to pass the X/Y co-ordinate).

[Dustin Mustangs]

I would agree but he is also having problems with pc lightgun apps like hotd.  Something else is wrong here, possibly in addition to some mame issues. 

[Silver]

Yes Everything is fine in the test utility, Windows,
House of The Dead, PC Games,etc
I have followed the instructions on the Act Lab site to the Tee.

I just read this bit which sounded like mame is the only problem, but yes the issues with HOTD further up the thread sound a bit odd.

Even so - if you can get the mouse cursor to move in windows, you will be able to get inputs to move in mame.

[TeutonicDarkness]

Yes Everything is fine in the test utility, Windows,
House of The Dead, PC Games,etc
I have followed the instructions on the Act Lab site to the Tee.

I just read this bit which sounded like mame is the only problem, but yes the issues with HOTD further up the thread sound a bit odd.

Even so - if you can get the mouse cursor to move in windows, you will be able to get inputs to move in mame.

 I had Figured out HOTD problem.. Everything works now
100% there.

I realize it has to be Mame...
but what else is there to check?


 I had Tried Several different versions of Mame both
command line and Mame Plus, I even Tried the Guns out
on my Laptop... Had exactly the same effect!


No Matter What I try Analog is not detected in Mame
only the 2 buttons.


I'm way past the point of fusrtation...

[Dustin Mustangs]

Try starting with my ini.  Use the mame version from the actlabs site as they say to, both switches in middle position.

Code: [Select]

### mame.ini ###

### Frontend Related ###

### Windows path and directory options ###
rompath                 roms
samplepath              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       artwork
snapshot_directory      snap
diff_directory          diff
ctrlr_directory         ctrlr
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              800x600
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

### 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
high_priority           0

### Windows sound options ###
audio_latency           1
# wavwrite              0

### Input device options ###
mouse                   1
joystick                1
lightgun                0
dual_lightgun           0
offscreen_reload        1
steadykey               0
keyboard_leds           1
led_mode                ps/2
a2d_deadzone            0.300000
# ctrlr                 <NULL> (not set)
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 ###
artwork                 1
use_backdrops           1
use_overlays            1
use_bezels              0
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



[TeutonicDarkness]

Dustin,


 Thank you VERY MUCH!

I dropped your ini file in the Mame directory and
it immediately accepted input under Analog!


I think I need to possible recalibrate the gun or
maybe even adjust my monitor setting.

But it is Working!



Next Question.....
Is there a way to remove the remove the Nag Screens on
this version of Mame? ( A source file maybe that can be patched?)


Ahh well its just AWESOME using the guns in Mame!


Don't know what was wrong in my ini but you are
a life saver.....



Thank You,



[edit]Also for the record Terminator is working quite nicely![/edit]

[Dustin Mustangs]

You have to recompile mame to get rid of those nag screens.  I haven't done this yet, but it is next on my to-do list.  I think I am going to use this:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71845.0

[TeutonicDarkness]

You have to recompile mame to get rid of those nag screens.  I haven't done this yet, but it is next on my to-do list.  I think I am going to use this:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71845.0

 Yes I have recompiled my regular Mame version 119.
You need however the source ...( I would guess?)
for this "special version" also the required diff file.

Neither one have I have available on The Mame homepage
or else where...


I know you can get rid of the type OK/ move joystick
by the ini.

I want to get rid of the White boxes and the warnings.

It would be nice if someone out there did have the source
and required diff files... and would chime in here...