defender controls hack: 8 way joy/3 buttons (now with source patch)

[TheShanMan]

I discovered that at one point defender had a "cheat" that allowed an 8 way joystick to control thrust and reverse, eliminating the need for those buttons (I guess it's not a cheat in the cheat.dat sense, but I've seen it referred to as a cheat). It looks like Aaron Giles removed it back in the 0.80's some time. Do I understand this right? Are there any patches out there for adding it back in, much like the hiscore patch? Or any other way to accomplish this?

EDIT: I have created a patch file from examining mameuifx's source code. Here it is if anyone else is interested. I've only tried this with 0.126 and 0.127. If you attempt this with any other versions please report back what version and if it worked.

[Ginsu Victim]

Just map em. I was using a version of MAME at the time that used the older control setup, so I didn't realize the difference when answering.

[TheShanMan]

Not possible. There is no "move left" and "move right" input. In the past I've mapped reverse to left and right on the joystick, and that is actually kind of confusing. Say you're moving right, and then you push the joystick to the right. Now you're moving left. You could probably get used to that, but I'm after a more intuitive interface, and my understanding of that old cheat is exactly what I'm after. I could push the joystick left a bunch of times and I wouldn't toggle back and forth between left and right.

[TOK]

This was eliminated in a version of MAME, though I can't remember which. I have my main horizontal cab running .84, and I'm pretty sure that supported joystick directions for reverse and thrust.

[TheShanMan]

Well unless there's a patch for recent versions, maybe I'll revert to an old version just for defender. Or maybe I'll diff Aaron's changes so I can figure out what needs to be put back in for a patch to recent versions. Anyone interested in a patch?

[jban4us]

This might be sacrilege, and I know you have to give up the "arcade feel", but have you thought about trying the 2600 port of defender? I built a defender panel based off of the measurements in this thread, but before that I had never played defender in an arcade (before my time ). As a kid I played a 2600 at my grandparents house every time I was there; defender was my favorite game. I still find myself trying to use the stick to go left and right when playing in mame.

[Tafoid]

Well unless there's a patch for recent versions, maybe I'll revert to an old version just for defender. Or maybe I'll diff Aaron's changes so I can figure out what needs to be put back in for a patch to recent versions. Anyone interested in a patch?

There is a build that put in this hacked control scheme .. MAMEUIFX.  I'm sure one could use the source from that for their private builds.

http://mame32fx.altervista.org/home.htm

[TheShanMan]

Thanks Tafoid! I just diff'ed it with the official mame 0.127 source, and there is actually very little to it. I look forward to trying this out.

[u_rebelscum]

This might be sacrilege, and I know you have to give up the "arcade feel", but have you thought about trying the 2600 port of defender? I built a defender panel based off of the measurements in this thread, but before that I had never played defender in an arcade (before my time ). As a kid I played a 2600 at my grandparents house every time I was there; defender was my favorite game. I still find myself trying to use the stick to go left and right when playing in mame.

Sacrilegious!!!    I loved that game as a kid.  I killed at it; once my parents left to go shopping while I was playing, and said I had only one more game before I had to stop playing.  They returned over an hour latter and I was on the same game.  After that I rarely stopped by dieing; my parents would kick me off before I lost all my lives.

At the same age, the arcade version killed me in minute.  (<-- Notice no 's'  )

[NOP]

Do I understand correctly that defender could then be played with an 8way stick and 3 buttons?  My god, that's exactly how many available controls I have on my machine...

If only that wasn't a horizontal game.

This gets me thinking about how many other games can be faked like this.  I did asteroids with a joystick on my machine already.  any others?

[TheShanMan]

I created a diff file and added it to the first post if anyone is interested.

[TheShanMan]

The 0.127 patch didn't work for 0.126, so I fixed that and uploaded a separate 0.126 patch. See first post.

[bent98]

Does that patch work with command line mame or just UI? I would like to try it out and if it requires a new .diff for mame command line can you make one as well for 127?

[TheShanMan]

Shouldn't make any difference which one you build. I built command line though.

[specfire]

Hello,

Sorry for reviving such an old thread, however, I am seeking help using this control hack.

Rather than recompile, I am just using MAME v.84, as that was the last release to include the hack (Aaron Giles removed it in v.84u6.)

I can't figure out how to set up the controls to use this hack?  Does anyone have any advice on how this hack is supposed to work?

Thanks!

[specfire]

Just a quick update. 

I compiled mame version 127 using the diff and it all seemed to work without errors.  The TAB listing for Input (this game) is the same as the normal build but adds P1 Left and P1 Right, currently mapped to the cursor left and right keys but they don't do anything in the game.

 

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong or what I should be doing?

Thanks!

[adder]

if u get stuck perhaps see here:
(ps. last post in the thread contains patch for current mame versions)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108813.msg1155082.html

[specfire]

Thank you very much for that link!  I'm only now getting back into mame from over 6 years ago, so I have missed quite a bit.

edit.  I can't get Derrick's patch to work on v.141 without errors, however, frl's edit of Derrick's patch for v.151 worked perfectly. 

[D_BIZZZZ]

Apologies for messaging on a very old topic, but I love this patch and oddly have only just discovered it,
I can finally play one of my favorites on my 3 button and also get my kids involved how to play it.

Unfortunately on my arcade cab I run MAME 0.124 ,, but none of the patches here work.
I don't want to use mame version over 0.124 because that knocks out the resolution for games like frogger

Would anyone care to share a 0.124 patch for defender controls, or could you tell me what I would need to do to get it to work on 0.124
is it just a case of modifying a couple of lines on the williams.c

any help is most appreciated

Thanks
DB