MAME/ultimarc setup help

kstillin

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Hey-

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon looking at someone's MAME setup. Although I made some progress, it still wasn't fully functioning when I left.

Where can I go for all the basics on this stuff? arcadecontrols.com has some stuff, but not easy to search through.

The guy had a small controller board that I assumed was a ipac, but it may have been one of those u-hid cards. It also may have been a bootleg, because I don't recall ultimarc markings. It did have two rows of double headers, but didn't look exactly like the u-hid images on the site. Older version?

Also, it was a Windows setup and there was some WinIpac program that I was able to map some joy/buttons with.

My thoughts are that some of his problems are due to mismatches between what the ipac(?) controller is spitting out and what MAME is expecting. It was a little hard to navigate around without being able to read all the text clearly. Even with a 25" arcade monitor, the resolution/focus sucked for making out small text. I tried a computer monitor in there, but it said it couldn't sync that low.

I've read on some other forums that the ipac has a default mapping that should work well with a default MAME mapping. Any ideas how to restore both to defaults?

Oh- and even if the ipac/uhid board was a bootleg, the Ultimarc software seemed to be able to program it. Maybe it WAS marked u-hid, but I had never heard of this and was expecting to see some Xpac markings..

any pointers to setup info appreciated.

K
 
The winipac and macipac apps have a "reset to default" selection to restore the ipac to original settings. The ipac is completely configurable. But the default settings are very useful and usually there's no reason to change the default settings.
A dead giveaway about an ipac is how each connection is LABELED! Not numbered/lettered. So you never guess what wire is going to what mame control. A simple example is how #5 is coin in mame and is labled as such directly on the ipac itself, no guessing and no extra configuring. The shift commands set the ipac apart from the crowd. You can access all config functions with only cp buttons and the joystick, you never need to touch a keyboard to get to TAB or ` settings! the Ipac is the Cadillac of keyboard encoders and I've tried several.
If you have very specific questions and problems, byoac is the way to go but you need to be very concise with you problem and the answer you are looking for.
 
Bring another computer with you and use remote desktop. You are right, it is painful on the arcade monitor. You should be able to find out what you need to know from Ultimarc's website. There is a lot of information there. You can also change the inputs in MAME through the tab menu. That would probably be an easy way to do it. Just assign the sticks and buttons for each player, and you are done.
 
Are you aware of the Tab key menu in MAME? Before even messing with the keyboard encoder, you can hit Tab and there is an option to either re-map buttons for one game or for all.
 
A regular computer monitor may have helped. You can't read small text on a slightly non-focused arcade monitor.

Yes, I know about TAB and setting input keys for all games or THIS game, but it didn't seem to take. Do you know if the ultimarc software spits out a .cfg file or something that I can throw into the mame or config directory?

One other issue was for the ENTER key- I kept trying to set the UI SELECT key to one of the button presses on the control panel, but it wouldn't work. I should try to go back with a viewable monitor and a six pack and mess with it some more...
 
I'm no help here really, but just thinking it would be great if there was a simple diagram with a few different configurations for easy MAME set ups. It took me forever to get set up with what I wanted for my MAME rig using google and forum searches...
 
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