MAME development: lr-mame2003 Updates

ward614

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to post a request for a software change, but here I go.

I would like to request that changes be made to how game pad input is read for games like Pac-man and Donkey Kong which traditionally used 4-way joysticks.

Right now using any controller other than a specific 4-way joystick makes it easy to miss turns as diagonal inputs are treated as blank. I think it would be great if these games could instead take the most recently pressed cardinal direction as the way to move. This would greatly improve performance of a number of widely popular classic games.

I don't know if you want to take this up or not, but here it is regardless.

caver01

@ward614 Nobody would disagree with your logic from a playability standpoint, but think about this carefully. The emulator is software attempting to perfectly mimic the original game hardware. Nothing in the original game hardware is aware of modern d-pads, or all of the options we future users might try to use for controllers.

To put it another way, if you are using real arcade hardware to control the emulator, the answer to this problem is easy--place a restrictor plate around your joystick so only the cardinal directions are available. In essence, do exactly what was done on the original arcade cabinet.

Now, I realize, this is the smart-ass answer, as it does not address the fact that most of us want more universal playability--we want to play PacMan one minute, and then Street Fighter the next--on the same joystick.

Simply said, it's not the job of an accurate emulator to accommodate the wrong hardware. Having said that, there are potential ways around this. One has to do with drivers. If you use a gamepad, you can apparently configure the xbox driver to work like a 4-way joystick. I understand this works surprisingly well, and it may be exactly what you are asking for. I cannot use it because I use a keyboard interface which I guess is a problem with this driver. However, that layer is better suited to address this.

I wish there was a better answer than this, but I know we all share your pain in this regard.

ward614

@caver01 Thank you for your well crafted response. I was definitely only thinking along the lines of playability with my idea and had not considered the implications for emulation accuracy.

I will also need to take a closer look at using xboxdrv as I seem to recall that the 4-way configuration was a "always on" or "always off" alteration which leaves much the same issue of being able to freely switch games.

Any thoughts on something like a toggle in the options menu that would allow it to be turned on and off? That way playability could be increased without sacrificing the ability to precisely emulated each game.

caver01

@ward614 You will have to find the thread, but much has been written about per-game xboxdrv configurations, and with pre/post launch scripts now, we can do just about anything with respect to toggling something on or off.

arcadez2003

From what i understand certain Midway T-unit games can lack performance when using rp1 / 2, this may be of some help in that regard a Williams sound core from MAME61
which includes two speedhacks which will significantly boost the fps in the following games..........

High Impact Football
Judge Dredd
Mortal Kombat : Y-Unit and T-Unit Versions
Narc
NBA JAM
NBA JAM TE
Smash TV
Terminator 2
Total Carnage

I've stripped out the DCS code from this to avoid compile conflicts with dcs.c, apart from that all the code should match up with MAME78 and as a result should just drop into
the MAME2003 libretro sources, obviously when using older code in a newer src some testing will be needed for all the affected games these drivers are linked to Williams sound....

mcr68.c
midtunit.c
midyunit.c
williams.c

Williams sound with speedhacks
[url]https://www.sendspace.com/file/qrngln[/url]

darknior

@gamez-fan Woaw thanks to share your work on PI :)

MrJordaaany

Hey is anyone else having issues with mame2003 not running some games after a handful of updates from a stock 4.3 image?

I have about 150 handpicked mame games running on mame2003 and in the last update or 2 I've had about 8 games that don't work anymore and I keep discovering more.

I've raised a thread here:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/14529/help-retropie-4-3-some-mame2003-roms-not-working-after-update/14

And @gamez-fan does seem to think it might be something he did when working on updates for mame, but I want to know if anyone else has had issue? I haven't seen alot of posts or threads about it yet is all.

pjft

@mrjordaaany I suppose part of it is that not everyone updates their setup that often, since if something isn't broken why chance making it break? :)

As such, don't take the silence as "it's only you" but rather "not that many people have updated yet, and on top of that tried out the same ROMs as you".

MrJordaaany

@pjft It's more a pain I can't roll back easy. I going to have to do a fresh 4.3 install. But I agree, shit ain't broke so should have stayed with it :)

arcadez2003

This post is deleted!