problems with this approach


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Posted by scott oberg on November 02, 1999 at 17:06:58:

In Reply to: Sidewinder game pad hack for MAME? posted by Wes on November 02, 1999 at 16:40:18:

As I understand it, there is really only support for a combination of 12 discrete inputs from a game pad (4 directions, 4 directions, 4 buttons). In Pure DOS, I doubt that most sidewinder buttons are even recognized.

I was thinking kinda like you when I built my cab, and here's what I did: I used a gravis hack for player 1 (directions and 4 buttons), I then wired the critical 'non play buttons' (1,2,3, ESC and TAB). And to minimize the number of solder points I had to make, I wired 4 of the 8 player 2 buttons from at least one of the contacts for these buttons, since I'm not concerned about ghosting issues between non-play and play buttons. I then, rather randomly, picked discrete contacts until I had 4 other buttons. As it happens, these ended up being F4, /, Pad /, and 7, but it didn't make a difference. The whole thing only required about 20 solder points and I was done in half an hour. No ghosting problems whatsoever. Mind you, I've only got a 2 joystick/4 button setup, but I don't play SF, and I can't think of another game where it really matters.

: I am designing an arcade control panel. My original idea is to use the joystick port for 2 joysticks and 4 buttons (so I can have limited use of the panel in non-arcade games,) the serial port for a trackball, 2 spinners, and 3 buttons, and a keyboard encoder for other buttons. Then it hit me...

: Why not hack the MS Sidewinder game pad? You'd get the 2 joystick axes and 10 buttons. This would do away with the need for a keyboard hack (no ghosting problems, no keyboard splitter needed.) The panel would definitely have compatibility with non-MAME games. I could still have the trackball/spinners thru the serial port.

: the only drawback I can see...
: -Cost. Sidewinder pads are more expensive than $2 Gravis gamepads.

: The only other question I can come up with right now is...

: -I know MAME supports the sidewinder, but does it support 2 sidewinders at once? This would be really cool, I could have 2 separate control panels daisy-chained, each with joystick and 10 buttons, each with a spinner. Only one of them with a trackball (unfortunately.) Maybe even up to 4 joysticks chained?!? Even if this isn't possible, I might be able to use the Profile Activator, to have the joysticks mimic keystrokes for use with MAME.

: What do you guys think? The more I think about it this sounds like a really good idea.





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