MacMame mouse issues

[Graham Mitchell]

So, does anybody have problems using the mouse to emulate analog control using MacMame? So far I've only tried it with Ataxx, but my inability to play the game bums me out enough to prompt me to start a thread asking for help.

Essentially, the cursor darts around wildly, even when you're not touching the mouse, which prevents you from accurately selecting objects. Has anyone else had this problem, and has anyone heard of a way to fix it?

Thanks in advance, guys.

[norkusa]

Yeah, I used to have that problem. I'd try and play trackball games like Capcom Bowling and the ball would jerk around all over the screen and was impossible to play. Found out it was because I had a USB game pad plugged in at the same time. When I unplugged that, it worked fine. If you don't have a gamepad plugged in, try unplugging other USB devices and see if that does anything, or try plugging your mouse into a different USB port.

BTW, is there a decent UB Mac version of MAME out yet? MacMAME doesn't look like it hasn't been updated in at least a year and MAME OSX is real buggy. Both don't run games as fast as the PC version of MAME either.

[Graham Mitchell]

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

Yeah, the macmame sight basically was last updated in April, and the guy admits he hasn't done shit in the past year. As for comparing speeds, I was running mame on a P3 POS laptop that would only display the games in a micro-window because I had a shit video card (try playing arkanoid like that. You'll scream.) Now I can run Burning Force in full arcade speed in full screen mode, and I dare say it's actually BETTER than the real arcade machine if your setup permits. I'm not complaining one bit.

[Ze_ro]

BTW, is there a decent UB Mac version of MAME out yet? MacMAME doesn't look like it hasn't been updated in at least a year and MAME OSX is real buggy. Both don't run games as fast as the PC version of MAME either.
Unfortunately, there were some pretty deep video-related changes in MAME 0.107 that killed some of the MAME ports out there. For example, I used to be a big fan of XMAME for Linux, but the way the video processing was changed essentially made it impractical for them to do things the way they were. While MacMAME was apparently pretty slow to update even before, I believe these new changes have probably killed MacMAME for good.

I've since migrated to SDLMAME (http://rbelmont.mameworld.info/?page_id=163)... this port of MAME should work fine on Macs as well, though it doesn't have a front-end.

--Zero

[Lady Jaye]

Is it still Brad Oliver who ports Mame to the Mac? If so, the easiest way to reach him would be to post about it over at insidemacgames' forum. He's an active forum member there (although mostly to answer questions pertaining to Aspyr's products, especially those that he worked on), but I'm sure he could give good answers to questions about issues with MacMAME.

[kedawa]

There's no point even using MacMAME anymore. It's horribly out of date and finding certain ROMs, specifically CPS2 and NeoGeo games, for the most recent non-buggy version (0.96u4) is almost impossible.

MAMEOSX is the only mac port that is currently being maintained AFAIK, but it's not as fast as MacMAME, at least on G4 systems.

[XianXi]

Are you using an analog mouse or an optical? Someone said you can only use an analog, the optical is "erratic".

[Graham Mitchell]

Are you using an analog mouse or an optical? Someone said you can only use an analog, the optical is "erratic".

It's an optical, but the cursor moves erratically even when I'm not touching the mouse. Either way, taking the usb gamepad out fixes the problem. Strange.

[k8track]

I'm a MacMame user and haven't updated forever. I'm seriously considering getting a good, new PC with all the bells and whistles to be dedicated solely for MAME and other emulators, including MESS, which I never had luck even opening on my Mac.

If I get a monitor that rotates to a vertical position, I assume there's an easy way for vertically-oriented games to take advantage of that?

And I have a very important question that I think would be appropriate for this thread (I may have asked this before here, I know I did on Atariage): can someone recommend a good, analog, USB paddle that works perfectly with games like Arkanoid, Tempest, and other paddle games? I bought a Griffin Powermate a few years back for like $50 and it sucks for gaming as it's digital. What do you hardcore paddle gamers use?

[kedawa]

From what I've read, you pretty much have to build your own paddle or build an interface for an arcade paddle.

[norkusa]

There's no point even using MacMAME anymore. It's horribly out of date and finding certain ROMs, specifically CPS2 and NeoGeo games, for the most recent non-buggy version (0.96u4) is almost impossible.

MAMEOSX is the only mac port that is currently being maintained AFAIK, but it's not as fast as MacMAME, at least on G4 systems.

Bumping this old thread because I just tried out MAME OS X for the first time over the weekend and it's SOOOO much faster than MacMAME. Games that used to run at a snails pace in MacMAME (S.T.U.N Runner, T2, and Hard Drivin') all run at full speed in MAME OS X. It was even able to play Golgo 13, which I've been DYING to play ever since I've discovered the rom.

The only problem is that a lot of roms that used to work in MacMAME don't work in MAME OS X for some reason (older stuff like Chiller, Star Wars, Snow Brothers). Don't know why that is but I just go back to MacMAME if I want to play those.

[Graham Mitchell]

Bumping this old thread because I just tried out MAME OS X for the first time over the weekend and it's SOOOO much faster than MacMAME. Games that used to run at a snails pace in MacMAME (S.T.U.N Runner, T2, and Hard Drivin') all run at full speed in MAME OS X. It was even able to play Golgo 13, which I've been DYING to play ever since I've discovered the rom.

The only problem is that a lot of roms that used to work in MacMAME don't work in MAME OS X for some reason (older stuff like Chiller, Star Wars, Snow Brothers). Don't know why that is but I just go back to MacMAME if I want to play those.

I noticed the speed bump as well. My big gripe is that save states don't work any roms that I've tried so far. It states that "save states aren't officially supported for this rom", and crashes when I try to load one.

[norkusa]

I noticed the speed bump as well. My big gripe is that save states don't work any roms that I've tried so far. It states that "save states aren't officially supported for this rom", and crashes when I try to load one.

Really?!? That's strange. I didn't have any problems with save states yet. What roms are you using? I tried on T2 and a few others and it worked fine.

EDIT: I just messed around with save states on a few more games. It said "save state successful" but I also got the "save states not supported for this rom" message below it. The saves still loaded up fine for me though so maybe it just says that every time?

[Graham Mitchell]

Really?!? That's strange. I didn't have any problems with save states yet. What roms are you using? I tried on T2 and a few others and it worked fine.

EDIT: I just messed around with save states on a few more games. It said "save state successful" but I also got the "save states not supported for this rom" message below it. The saves still loaded up fine for me though so maybe it just says that every time?

Ataxx, Burning Force, and Arkanoid are the ones I remember. Not one of them worked so I stopped playing games that I would require save states for. Essnetially, I think I need to get windows running on this computer and see if that helps--unfortunately, the windows version may not allow me to run in fullscreen mode, which sucks.