Mame cabinet - emulate 4-way joystick?

Chefgon

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2009
Messages
24
Reaction score
0
Location
Sheffield Lake, Ohio
I just finished building a Mame cabinet using a Happ 8-way joystick. While that stick works fine for 90's games like Fighters, Shooters, and Beat-em-ups, it tends to cause lots of weird glitches in early 80s games like Pac Man and Donkey Kong.

Is there any way to set up Mame so that it can accurately use an 8-way joystick with 4-way games?

It seems like it's technically doable if you can set it up to only accept one directional input at a time. Ideally it should only accept the first direction it gets, and ignore any other direction input until that original direction is released. I didn't see anything in the settings, but I don't have a lot of experience with Mame so I might be missing something.

This machine is a little single-player table top machine and I intend to build a full size upright cabinet later this year, so if all else fails I could always convert the little one to have a dedicated 4-way hardware joystick for older games, but in the mean time it would be nice to be able to play a wider selection of games without the glitches.
 
Go to BYOAC forums, they have discussed that in depth. But I really don't think they have found an ideal solution if you are using a regular 8-way joystick.

I would recommend using a Happ Super joystick in 4-way mode. It performs well on 4-way games and will also hit the diagonals easily even in 4-way mode.

If you are looking for a software solution, I would recommend a Happ or a Williams 49-way joystick paired with a Groovy Game Gear GPWiz49:
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76_81&products_id=233

GGG and Ultimarc.com also sell switchable 4/8 way joysticks that do not need software. They can be a little pricey though.

Your quickest and cheapest solution would be using the Happ Super in 4-way mode. I have done many multi-game cabinets and have found the Happ Super to be the best solution for the majority of games.
 
Last edited:
in either the game's individual config or the general overall control config, define your up/down/left/right by also adding the NOT definition. I have done this to make ASSAULT and VINDICATORS quite playable with a single joystick.

ultimately:
UP = UP NOT UP/LEFT NOT UP/RIGHT
DOWN = DOWN NOT DOWN/LEFT NOT DOWN/RIGHT

etc.
the end result, the game only accepts the "pure" four directions.
if you push diagonal, you get no response.
i forget, at the moment, what you need to press to get the NOT
during configuration mode. (which is pretty damn important, isn't it)
 
in either the game's individual config or the general overall control config, define your up/down/left/right by also adding the NOT definition. I have done this to make ASSAULT and VINDICATORS quite playable with a single joystick.

ultimately:
UP = UP NOT UP/LEFT NOT UP/RIGHT
DOWN = DOWN NOT DOWN/LEFT NOT DOWN/RIGHT

etc.
the end result, the game only accepts the "pure" four directions.
if you push diagonal, you get no response.
i forget, at the moment, what you need to press to get the NOT
during configuration mode. (which is pretty damn important, isn't it)

Did you perhaps directly edit the config file? Let's see...

Ahh.

http://easyemu.mameworld.info/mameguidenew/mameguide-controlini.htm

explains the format and how to modify the file and where to put the NOT or ! to negate things. I'd set it up as close as possible first, then add the NOT clauses manually. That's probably the simplest way to do it.

And THANK YOU for mentioning this. I was never able to play assault in MAME because I didn't know about the NOT clauses. Now that I know, I can probably get it work.
 
Last edited:
Spend the money for an Ultimarc U360 joystick. Problem solved. Not cheap, but that was money WELL SPENT for me.
 
Ah, good point. Probably want the circular restrictor too. Without an added restrictor, the throw is quite long - good for analog games but not so good for 2/4/8 way games.
 
Sanwa JLF 8 way ball top sticks have a gate that can be taken out and flipped to 4 way for true LRUD corners. Playing even with an octagonal gate feels odd to me.
 
If the mechanical restriction on 4 way games is critical, you'd want to do something like that. However, if ease of use is paramount (e.g. you don't want to have to switch anything), then go with something like the U360. Believe me - kids, wives, guests do not want to be bothered with what 8 way and 4 way even means, much less which is used by a given game.
 
And if you do, get the heavy spring - it sucks with the default one...

+1. They are GREAT sticks for MAME. No worries about control scheme and they can handle pretty much anything - switch from Q*bert to Pac-man to Street Fighter seamlessly and with no problems.
 
Just a note, I think Groovy Game Gear has been sold out of the GPWiz49 for months. There's a note on the website mentioning a new version, but it's still vaporware as of now.
 
It seems like it's technically doable if you can set it up to only accept one directional input at a time. Ideally it should only accept the first direction it gets, and ignore any other direction input until that original direction is released. I didn't see anything in the settings, but I don't have a lot of experience with Mame so I might be missing something.

...pretty easy to do in hardware...
 
And if you do, get the heavy spring - it sucks with the default one...

But with this joystick to get mechanically limited motions via restrictor plates you need to physically move the plate around from 4 to 8 somehow, right?
 
Last edited:
Another vote for Ultimarc Ultrastik 360 with the heavier springs and circular restrictor. It has a builtin encoder too if you have 8 or less buttons per stick.
 
But with this joystick to get mechanically limited motions via restrictor plates you need to physically move the plate around from 4 to 8 somehow, right?

The design doesn't allow for easily switching back and forth between 4 way and 8 way mechanical restriction. You pretty much pick your restrictor and stick with it, relying on the software to be the restrictor on a per game basis.
 
The design doesn't allow for easily switching back and forth between 4 way and 8 way mechanical restriction. You pretty much pick your restrictor and stick with it, relying on the software to be the restrictor on a per game basis.

And how well does that work?

I'm not saying that sarcastically; I mean it as a real question.

In my mind not having it react to a diagonal direction on Ms Pac is good but the stick is still diagonal and not doing anything!
 
And how well does that work?

I'm not saying that sarcastically; I mean it as a real question.

In my mind not having it react to a diagonal direction on Ms Pac is good but the stick is still diagonal and not doing anything!

It's doing something. . since at it's heart it is an analog stick, it can tell exactly where you are as opposed to an 8-way-unrestricted stick where it only knows that you are in a diagonal. It can choose the nearest direction no matter where you are and works really well. Sped-up Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man plays extremely well on these sticks when set to 4-way mode, and that's even with a circular restrictor. (I actually prefer the circular restrictor over the 45-degree rotated square one on these sticks.)
 
Interesting -- I'll file this away then for consideration for my soon to come vertical MAME game.

Thanks!
 
Back
Top Bottom