Re: Let the hacking begin.

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: Torgo, : Well said, : Anything that the mind can conceive is possible. : I just get very frustrated not knowing how it : is all done. There is not too many(if any) totally : complete control panels with all that is mentioned : above. When can we see some of your stuff in action?, : I'm dying to see how and what you are doing.It can't : be all that much of a secret. When will I see all possible : controls simulated into a cabinet..is basicly what I'm looking : for...then it would all be done...until then, : it is not finished. : Thanks for you time, : Jerky : : : Well you're right about one thing...all those things have been done. There's really no mystery to any of your questions. The answers to all of them can be found right here on this board so I won't go into great detail here, but I'll answer them briefly and you can do the rest of the research. Trust me, all the info you need is already here. So... : : 1. dual trackball support. : : I'm sure you couldn't have missed the thread about three threads down about Andy's new version of Optimame. If you have not checked out Optimame yet, from the questions you ask, it sounds like you should. And pay attention to Andy's posts about updates. He's been updating it frequently, and every time he does, there's a new super cool feature that solves one of the puzzles that all of us here have been trying to figure out. Best yet, the features added seem to always arrise out of a request made on this board. Anyway, Dual mouse/trackball support will be in the next release, which I assume will be in the next few days, but we'll see. I can't tell you how many posts on all the Mame & "build your own..." message boards I've seen about that one, and now Andy's gone and done it. : : 2.light guns : : A while back, there was a post about Light guns from a well know computer game manufacturer. I checked out there web site, and the page said that the guns, which looked pretty slick and pretty dorky (huh? slick AND dorky?) did mouse emulation (control the mouse pointer with the gun). So in theory there's no reason they would not work with any emulator that uses mouse input to control the gun crosshair (yes, MAME). I have not heard reports of anyone actually buying them, though. Scan the board, and you'll find the link to the site. : : 3. steering wheels and peddles : : This is one that Andy and I have banterred about overly long, and once again I have to direct you to Optimame. Steering wheels can be done the same way as spinners, i.e. an optical device that controls the x or y axis of the mouse. This kind of Steering wheel is just a spinner with a REALLY big knob. You could hack a mouse for its guts and figure out how to attach it to a steering wheel or you could buy one premade from Happ Controls. They can also be made using potentiometers if you want to have a wheel that does not spin infinately in both directions. Which method you use depends on the game you want to play. Super Sprint and Pole Position for example had a free spinning wheel but Outrun had a limited turning radius. There are several web sites that describe how to build your own wheel that have been discussed on this board. Again scan the board to find the links. This one was in a thread between Andy and I. Once you have multiple wheels however, or even A wheel and an analogue pedal you will need Optimame to be able to use them together. : : Which brings us to pedals. You definatelly asked the $50 question here; Pots or buttons? Again, it depends on the game you want to play. Some games had gas peddles that were just on/off switches and some had analogue controls (pots) which gave you varying amounts of gas. I Chose pots because I like to play Windows racing games, and they all use analogue input for gas. Also even if you use peddles with pots in 'em on games in MAME that originally had microswitches, you just push all the way down on the peddle, and that registers as "On". You'll want to use 100k ohm pots on both your peddles and steering wheel (if you use pots for your wheel) if you can. I actually ended up using 50k ohm pots for my peddles because that's what I had lying around, and they work pretty well. : : Once you've built or bought your wheels and peddles, you wire them to the joystick port (well, to a cable that connect to the joystick port, to be more accurate.) You can wire up four pots and four buttons to a joystick port, and can find the chart that shows what pin connects to what pot/button, again, on this board, and again in a post from Andy Geez from when I was asking about the same thing a several weeks back. You can then use Optimame to define exactly what each pot controls. : : You really should scour this board and definately read every word of the FAQ. All your questions will be answered. Well maybe not ALL of them, but your gonna have to come up with something a little more obscure to stump this board. : : -Later : : Optimame make Torgo happy, but when will it let Torgo sleep?

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