Minimum input for MiSTer/JPAC in a JAMMA cabinet.

[massatari]

What do you think is the minimum amount of buttons/input that would be needed to run a MiSTer to JPAC setup in a JAMMA cabinet? obviously the joystick would have to navigate the menu page but say you were limited to a pacman machine for example, where the player only has a joystick and a set of p1/2 buttons. Is that enough for a workable UI/UX? Keeping in mind that the JPAC offers the concept of a shift key.

 

[MikeHartman]

Depends on what you want to play. You can get by with F12, directions (4 way) and a fire/enter button. If it were me, I would keep the cab original for the game and wire up a usb plug in the coin door to hook up a keyboard for any menu stuff.

 

[massatari]

Depends on what you want to play. You can get by with F12, directions (4 way) and a fire/enter button. If it were me, I would keep the cab original for the game and wire up a usb plug in the coin door to hook up a keyboard for any menu stuff.

I should have said, have to keep the cab all original. no funny stuff. So the F12 would have to be mapped to one button, OR a shift combo. and an enter. Sounds like you're describing a donkey kong type layout.

 

[MikeHartman]

Are you looking to play one game primarily? If so, use the original control panel and then use a wireless keyboard for any menu activity. You can try to map one if your buttons or a shift combo to F12, but that would have downsides. Personally, I program it to boot straight to a game and then use a wireless keyboard to access anything else.

 

[massatari]

Are you looking to play one game primarily?

I think maybe 4-5 games would be the target for this. Keeping with the same input schema and orientation. Ideally if this were going in a gameroom, I'd want users to not have to know a ton of commands to be able to play and select from a small list. I see a lot of ppl using the wireless keyboard but I wouldn't want that to be part of the user experience. I don't know that MiSTer would be the best option for this although the hardware emulation is very good in some cases. Looking for ideas in this thread because I'm not seeing anything in my experience that I could use. Thanks for replying.

 

[MikeHartman]

No problem. MISTER lacks a front end, so the experience might be a bit "wonky" for the users for switching games. That being said, once you set it up, you really would only need directional buttons and a select button (which can probably match the fire button). F12, which brings up the menu will be your issue, but you might be able to set that up as a "shifted" command using a combination of buttons/directions on the control panel. Good luck. I've used my MISTER in some of my cabinets to load single games, but never as a multi-game.

 

[massatari]

I've used my MISTER in some of my cabinets to load single games, but never as a multi-game.

This is where i"m at with it as well and I agree on the wonky-ness. Wondering if it's worth the effort to try and multigame. When it boots and autoloads it's great. You can use a title screen image as the wallpaper while the menu loads your core. So it's somewhat immersive. I haven't played with the 'load last core' any faster than the 10 second timeout. But once it's up it's good.

 

[MikeHartman]

This is where i"m at with it as well and I agree on the wonky-ness. Wondering if it's worth the effort to try and multigame. When it boots and autoloads it's great. You can use a title screen image as the wallpaper while the menu loads your core. So it's somewhat immersive. I haven't played with the 'load last core' any faster than the 10 second timeout. But once it's up it's good.

I've got mine set to just auto load Galaga with no delay. It shows the MISTER menu for a split second, but it gets to the Galaga boot screen sequence (tiles) before the CRT warms up, so it feels totally authentic (except for the ship explosion sounds being off - don't get me started on that one...).

 

[massatari]

I've got mine set to just auto load Galaga with no delay. It shows the MISTER menu for a split second, but it gets to the Galaga boot screen sequence (tiles) before the CRT warms up, so it feels totally authentic (except for the ship explosion sounds being off - don't get me started on that one...).

LOL. I know exactly what you're getting at. Did you drop the timeout to 0? I saw 10 sec was the lowest in the config.

 

[MikeHartman]

LOL. I know exactly what you're getting at. Did you drop the timeout to 0? I saw 10 sec was the lowest in the config.

I'm pretty sure that you can just remove the timeout command and it goes to zero.

 

[Zeosstud]

alt-f12 brings up a list of available games and enter selects a game.. and you can modify the .ini to boot into the last core played.. So having 5 games available would be possible without modding anything, just use the jpac, and wire the coin rejects to these 2 things..