Posted by LuSiD on 25, 2000 at 3:42 AM:
In Reply to: Trackballs and spinners: Optical vs. keyboard posted by Ohso on 25, 2000 at 2:25 AM:
: I am building my first MAME cabinet and was wondering if anybody has found a way to support MORE THAN TWO trackballs. I know that people have successfully used two (one ps2 and one serial interface) but have yet to see three or four done.
: I have seen Stephan Hans' keyboard interface for spinners and assume that this could be extended for use on trackballs (i.e. two axis versus one). This seems much cleaner than having multiple mouse interfaces, but I have a concern about using the keyboard for such things...
: Have you ever noticed that using the keyboard in a game of Arkanoid or Tron you can not move as fast as you can with a true optical device like a mouse?
: Does anybody know exactly why this is or if it can be compensated for when using the keyboard? If this can be overcome then using three or four trackballs should be feasible.
Running a trackball through the keyboard port won't work well. A keyboard can only tell the game that you have moved left or right. A spinner or trackball can also tell the game _HOW FAR_ you moved. MAME gets this info from the mouse or joystick driver. When you use keyboard controls in mame for a game that should be using analog controls the HOW FAR is a fixed amount that can be adjusted in mame's onscrean config. (i.e. in Arkanoid: Analog Controls -> Dial Key/Joy speed)
You can use 2 trackballs independently if you use Optimame.
I have 3 mouse devices running, but they are not independent. I have the trackball (ps2), Spinner (com1), and the IR keyboard's built-in mouse (com2).
What someone needs to do is design a custom analog control interface so we can plug trackballs & spinners straight into the printer port or something and teach mame to read them from there.