Configuring mame

[chadtower]

Okay, I just bought the CustomArcade (http://www.snipercade.com/ca/index.htm) from Ron. I'm playing around with mame, figuring out the best way to set this puppy up. Since this controller is a keyboard emulator, that's where this discussion is going.

From what I can tell, mame has the default mappings for each key, but you can specify a <controller>.ini, which is then overridden in part by a <game>.ini (if it exists), yes? Is this correct?

Let's work with the example of the two games ms pacman and berzerk. With the current config, berzerk is great. Mspacman is very hard to play. My theory is that berzerk is an 8wayjoy game and mspacman is a 4wayjoy game... so since I'd rather default to 8wayjoy, would I create a 4wayjoy ini file for mspacman to override the controller ini?

I know, this is kind of rambling... but I'm trying to figure all of this out and the docs in the mame zip file aren't hugely friendly.

[RCorcoran]

I would highly recommend using the built-in 4-way controller for all Pac-type (or maze) games. Just press TAB in MAME, and then map the 4-way UDLR and away you go. Trying to play any Pac-type game on an 8-way is a nightmare as you don't get the crisp turns required for grouping...

That's my recommendation anyways. :)

[chadtower]

That's actually what I was looking for, but I guess I don't know quite enough about mame's config to know what you said... is one of the joysticks on that board 4way only? I was going to try and use mame's cascading controller inis to remap the joysticks for mspacman and any other 4way game.

[RCorcoran]

On the CD, I included pictures with descriptions of the controllers.

Each "normal" bat is an 8-way
Each "tulip" is an 8-way
The red Ball is a dedicated 4-way. In MAME, press TAB, then Controls for this game (or something like that).

Find UP, press enter then push UP on the Red Ball. This will map UP on the Red Ball to UP in MAME. Do this for each of the 4 directions and you're good to go playing Pac-type (maze) games with your new CA controller.

Hope this helps. :)

[Anonymous]

Hey how much was that controller? It's got almost everything I want (missing a trackball).