4-way vs. 8-way joystick questions

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Posted by =-JacK-= on September 24, 1999 at 12:29:41:

First thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my post yesterday. I feel lucky to have ya'll as a resource for my little obsession (er...hobby). I'll have a revised design incorporating a lot of your suggestions up soon.

Secondly can someone help me understand 8-way joysticks in MAME?

I looked at the 8-ways at Happ and see that they have just 4 microswitches. In MAME the 8-way games have button mapping for just 4 keys (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT).

1.Am I right to conclude that MAME interprets a simultaneous LEFT and UP keypress as "left diagonal up"?

2.If so, does it follow that an 8-way joystick presses two microswitches at a time?

I've been using a couple of old Pac Man red ball 4-way sticks on my stand-alone controller since MAME V.29 with no gameplay problems. Until now I assumed the MAME documented the games with 8-way input but that the diagonals were not used because of the lack of mapped inputs.

BOTTOM LINE QUESTION: What benefit does an 8-way joystick offer over a 4-way one in MAME?

Follow Ups:

Re: 4-way vs. 8-way joystick questions Matt B. 9/25/99 (1)
- Re: 4-way vs. 8-way joystick questions Michael Bobroski 9/25/99 (0)
Clarification needed... Cablouie 9/24/99 (1)
- Depends on the joystick, some have actuator, some don't (txt) Jon Warner 9/24/99 (0)
Try this Jon Warner 9/24/99 (1)
- I'll try that...Thanks Jon and Ace (NT) =-JacK-= 9/24/99 (0)
Re: 4-way vs. 8-way joystick questions Ace 9/24/99 (0)

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: First thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my post yesterday. I feel lucky to have ya'll as a resource for my little obsession (er...hobby). I'll have a revised design incorporating a lot of your suggestions up soon. : Secondly can someone help me understand 8-way joysticks in MAME? : I looked at the 8-ways at Happ and see that they have just 4 microswitches. In MAME the 8-way games have button mapping for just 4 keys (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT). : 1.Am I right to conclude that MAME interprets a simultaneous LEFT and UP keypress as "left diagonal up"? : 2.If so, does it follow that an 8-way joystick presses two microswitches at a time? : I've been using a couple of old Pac Man red ball 4-way sticks on my stand-alone controller since MAME V.29 with no gameplay problems. Until now I assumed the MAME documented the games with 8-way input but that the diagonals were not used because of the lack of mapped inputs. : BOTTOM LINE QUESTION: What benefit does an 8-way joystick offer over a 4-way one in MAME?

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