Posted by Just Michael on 11, 2000 at 3:58 PM:
In Reply to: Re: i need a straight anwser please. posted by robert mcelwee on 11, 2000 at 7:23 AM:
: The best advice I can give you is to purchase a keyboard encoder (something like the ipac or hagstrom). Hacking a keyboard is something people used to do but have since found out is the wrong method to take. I myself purchased an old atari 2600 trackball to hack for my second mame cab. After destroying the trackball and two perfectly good mice (plus spending two days working on it) I have decided to spend the $80 (on a trackball with a ps/2 interface) and do it the right way. I can tell you I am very happy I never tried to mess with hacking a keyboard. Yes, it seems like buying something ready made is more expensive but how much is your time and frustration worth? Learn something from all of the other users on this board - we've all come to the conclusion that hacking a keyboard is the wrong way.
I don't think a keyboard hack is the wrong way for all cabs. For more than 1 player I would definitely recommend using an encoder though. I have an old Xevious cab with 1 stick and two "fire" buttons. The keyboard hack works great for these few buttons.