iMAME released for iOS

[Ze_ro]

A big heads-up for anyone using iOS. iMAME has just been released on iPhone & iPad for free. Comes with a few free games

Technically, they didn't have the rights to distribute those "free" games... only the MAME website can legally distribute them... but whatever.

Also, if the iCade is a little too much for you, you might want to check out the iControlPad. It's substantially more portable, it's compatible with the iCade, and it's compatible with basically all cell phones.

--Zero

[norkusa]

So hey, Bed Bath and Beyond has the iCade on sale for $50 now. That's petty rad.

Thanks for the tip, just bought one today although I only have an iPhone 4S right now.

Buttons feel kind of cheap but those could be replaced easily, right?

[StealthLurker]

Thanks for the tip, just bought one today although I only have an iPhone 4S right now.

Buttons feel kind of cheap but those could be replaced easily, right?

A guy I know and some guy on the shoryuken forums changed the stick and buttons with Sanwa parts. You've got to do some sanding to expand the button and joystick holes. Depending on the parts you choose, it may not fit depth-wise and all sorts of other things. It's not simple plug n play swapping.

I compiled a list of parts needed to fully replace everything with high quality Sanwa parts (and any supplement parts in the process)... the cost exceeds the price of the iCade itself lol. But I plan to do it anyways. Just need to find the time. I believe there might need to be some desoldering to do also.

LL Quick Connect, .110" Insulated
LL 22 AWG Stranded Wire, Green
LL 8 Position Barrier Strip, European Style
Sanwa OBSF-30, 30mm Pushbutton, Black/White x2
Sanwa OBSF-30, 30mm Pushbutton, Black/Grey x2
Sanwa OBSF-30, 30mm Pushbutton, Black/Green
Sanwa OBSF-30, 30mm Pushbutton, Black/Yellow
Sanwa OBSF-30, 30mm Pushbutton, Black/Vermillion
Sanwa JLF-H Wiring Harness
Sanwa JLF-CD Shaft Cover Kit
Sanwa LB-45 Ball Top, Red
Sanwa JLF-TM-8T-SK Joystick

*soldering iron + solder
*various grit sandpaper or dremel tool

Here is the thread on shoryuken where they detail the process and parts for swapping of the controls:

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php...elated.131948/

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[Frankie_Says_Relax]

ooo, got my iPad2 in the mail today and spent the better part of the evening tooling around with iMAME. Great stuff.

A few games did NOT play nice with custom button mapping (they kept defaulting each button map to ENTER as soon as an alternate control button was pressed) ... and with iMAME's lack of physical keyboard you can't clear out/revert a control input to its default.

Thankfully it's very very easy to find all the auto-saved .CFG files in the iMAME>document folder by using iExplore, if you completely bork a control setting, quit iMAME, double tap your home button, kill the process, then plug into iExplore, go to the iMAME>docume folder and in each folder (iOS, iMAME, CFG, etc.) find any *.CFG file for the game that you screwed up and delete it, iMAME will revert it back to default inputs when you restart.

[megasdkirby]

If you have iOS 4.3.3 or similar installed...you are in emulator heaven.

[dgdgagdae]

I finally gave up completely on trying to map the buttons for Track & Field and Hyper Olympics. Other than that, sometimes I have to go through the mapping steps a couple of times to get it to work correctly, but usually I can get it. The mapping is just kind of wonky, it seems.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I finally gave up completely on trying to map the buttons for Track & Field and Hyper Olympics. Other than that, sometimes I have to go through the mapping steps a couple of times to get it to work correctly, but usually I can get it. The mapping is just kind of wonky, it seems.

THAT WAS THE EXACT GAME THAT I WAS HAVING TROUBLE WITH!!!

After deleting all the CFG files and defaulting back to the regular layout, I'm totally fine with the run buttons and the action button being in the lower right corner of the iCade.

[StealthLurker]

When you are in the button configuration menu and make a mistake mapping one button, you can set that button back to the default.

1. Move the joystick to the button you want to set back to default
2. Hit the enter button which allows you to modify the mapping for that button. So now it's waiting for input to establish a button mapping.
3. Now instead of hitting another button to map it to, hit the "exit" button on the screen.
4. It will ask if you want to quit the game, hit "yes". You will not actually quit the game. Pressing the exit button is equivalent to pressing the escape key on a keyboard. On standard MAME for the PC, pressing escape during button mapping clears all mappings. But in iMAME it sets the mapping back to default.

In older versions of iMAME4All (jailbroken version), clearing the mapping actually cleared all mappings for a particular button (no defaults). I preferred this... but now in newer versions of iMAME4All and in the current incarnation of iMAME, the clearing process only sets it back to whatever the default was.

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[Frankie_Says_Relax]

When you are in the button configuration menu and make a mistake mapping one button, you can set that button back to the default.

1. Move the joystick to the button you want to set back to default
2. Hit the enter button which allows you to modify the mapping for that button. So now it's waiting for input to establish a button mapping.
3. Now instead of hitting another button to map it to, hit the "exit" button on the screen.
4. It will ask if you want to quit the game, hit "yes". You will not actually quit the game. Pressing the exit button is equivalent to pressing the escape key on a keyboard. On standard MAME for the PC, pressing escape during button mapping clears all mappings. But in iMAME it sets the mapping back to default.

In older versions of iMAME4All (jailbroken version), clearing the mapping actually cleared all mappings for a particular button (no defaults). I preferred this... but now in newer versions of iMAME4All and in the current incarnation of iMAME, the clearing process only sets it back to whatever the default was.

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Awesome, good to know.

Unfortunately on Track & Field and Hyper Sports it automatically throws "enter" in as the selected button map selection as soon as you try to remap no matter what you do. It may be something that's coded into iOS MAME4ALL to deal with the rapid button presses expected in that game.

deleting the CFG's via iExplore is the way to go there.

[dgdgagdae]

Does anyone else have problems with analog controls in games pulling up and to the left? For example, in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back: my cursor is at the bottom (which means control pushing up) left of the screen. I can move it, but it goes right back. The same thing happens in Paperboy. He's always speeding up and going to the left, if I let go of the controls. This happens whether I'm using the on screen controls or my iCade.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Does anyone else have problems with analog controls in games pulling up and to the left? For example, in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back: my cursor is at the bottom (which means control pushing up) left of the screen. I can move it, but it goes right back. The same thing happens in Paperboy. He's always speeding up and going to the left, if I let go of the controls. This happens whether I'm using the on screen controls or my iCade.

Try increasing the analog dead zone to 6 in the app options and then tweaking the speed/sensitivity in the in-MAME settings (press start+coin to bring that menu up in game)

I've also found that in games like paperboy where the analog is an acceleration based yoke that pressing forward, backwards, left, and right for a few seconds tends to allow MAME to "calibrate" the dead zone properly. Thats how I avoid that death swing to the left in Paperboy anyway, and you can do that when selecting the street.

Ultimately tweaking the in game analog speed and sensitivity will make a world of difference tho.

[dgdgagdae]

Moving my joystick to all extremes worked, thanks. I didn't have to mess with anything else.