Stargate - Control Panel

Yep :) I downloaded it, but haven't watched it yet. How do you plan on interfacing the Stargate CP to the laptop? An IPAC or something?
 
Yep :) I downloaded it, but haven't watched it yet. How do you plan on interfacing the Stargate CP to the laptop? An IPAC or something?

Great question. I haven't settled yet on what route to go. The biggest concern is input lag. playing Stargate in MAME106 has keyboard input lag. For example when I press inviso it takes a full second sometimes for the inviso to engage, that completely alters the reactive nature of inviso rendering it useless for me. So I'm hoping I can clear up that lag issue too with a USB interface like in the tankstick. I was going to hack a usb tankstick and run wires in parallel from the buttons on the tankstick to the buttons on the Stargate controller then mount an external flat panel right in front of the control panel on a table or something ghettorific like that. What would be nice is a usb interface with open wires that could just connect right up to the Stargate control panel. Ultimarc might make what I'm looking for.
 
Funny. Before I made my Stargate "real", I had it as a dedicated mame and hacked the CP to an ipac to a boat anchor computer running only USB and I did not have any lag issues at all. I did have to play with frameskip because the computer was so old but the game worked perfect, even emulated the "bog downs" that are part of playing intense Stargate. Sounds like an encoder issue, make sure you always plug the ipac directly to the computer and if possible, use PS2, I think it's a tiny bit faster than USB.
 
Right on, Always glad to see a fellow Stargate player. I think the problem I'm having in Mame Stargate has something to do with the number of buttons (keypad keys) that can be pressed simultaneously during gameplay. If I hold down any 3 keys such as thrust/fire/up then none of the other inputs(keypad keys for inviso, reverse, etc...) work until one of the 3 being held is let up. So it appears that my laptop running mame106 and Stargate somehow has a 3 key pressed at the same time maximum and once 3 keys are pressed it renders all the other controls inoperative durring the game... nice.

So I'm hoping that 3 key phenomena won't be the case with a usb tankstick for inputs instead of the laptop keyboard.
 
I'm running a Defender and Stargate on a pretty old computer (933mhz Pentium 3) and don't really perceive any lag, although I'll also admit I'm not that great a player. The one difference is that I'm running an older version of MAME (.86) and I know that won't work for you if you're doing wolfmame recordings.

I built this because I couldn't find a decent Defender for sale locally. Still gets a lot of play! In the first pic, I hadn't shimmed down the stick to the proper height yet.
 

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Wow, those are CLEAN customs! Really nice craftsmanship. Thats cool you made Defender and Stargate. I was thinking about doing something similar. I just need good controls to enjoy the game and really put up a score.

How did you interface the controls to the MAME PC? IPAC or something? Actually Stargate was ported better in earlier versions of mame. I noticed the goofiness in 106 right off the bat, but TG only accepts scores for 106. bummer.
 
Yes, I used an IPAC connected via USB. I was originally going to use an actual 2 way stick but fudged at the last minute and went with a Sanwa. I have it set up to play Defender, Stargate and Strike Force as well as some Defender bootlegs like Defense Command.

I also have a few other ROM's on it, it plays one and two button games fine using the Thrust and Fire keys. Make sure to post pics of your project!
 
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