Posted by Bill Lash on 31, 2001 at 3:20 PM:
In Reply to: Update on 4-way to 8-way changes to MAME (Jeoff, Derrick) posted by Tiger-Heli on 31, 2001 at 8:45 AM:
: The current MAME make it very easy to make an uncommanded direction change when you hit a diagonal.
: Jeoff's method makes it very hard to hit a direction change at all (you must be real precise).
: I believe the current MAME is better for most 4-way games with the possible exception of QIX.
: Playing Pac-Man with a PC joystick (sorry), I found that the pacman would often freeze in the corner instead of changing directions with Jeoff's control. I played with the standard MAME and did not have this problem. Then again, I had problems with the joystick sticking and the pacman not moving when commanded when I played the actual game in the arcades, so this is not strictly an 8-way sticks are no good problem.
Hmmm. I haven't tried the Jeoff's method yet, but the problem I usually have in MAME is that I'll be going along in one direction, and I'll move the joystick just a little, and pacman will stop. I assumed this was because MAME detected that I had both directions pressed, and would choose to send the new direction to the game. Since I was in the middle of the hallway, I couldn't go that way, so it would just stop. That lets the ghosts catch up real fast. I was never any good at pacman anyway.
As for donkey kong, are you sure that the joystick is supposed to be 4way? I seem to remember a time when donkey kong was hard to control in MAME, but I have played a lot of donkey kong in MAME version 36, and it reacts very well, and it is listed as an 8 way there. It could be that the donkey kong roms do their own 8way to 4way conversion that works very well for the game. I remember a time that if you moved the joystick up, and you weren't precisely under the ladder, you would just get stuck. I don't remember having this problem in the arcades.