Using spinner and trackball on Pi4 mame2003

mahoneyt944

@corminos the black and white mame menu
You can activate it with tab on a keyboard or L3 on a retropad. Or there's a core option to turn it on in retroarch.

corminos

@mahoneyt944
From that menu, I don't see any options for choosing the mouse index. I tried changing it from the retroarch menu, but that didn't seem to help either.

It is like mame2003 doesn't even know about mouse1, but advanceMame does.

Chupachups

@corminos if it can be useful, always connected to my RPI4, I have a transmitter key for wireless keyboard (with touchpad), a transmitter key for airmouse (for shooter games), a trackball and a steering wheel/spinner (mouse). In mame2003-plus I select index mouse 0-2-4-6 from retroarch input menu to choose which one to use. I would also like to set an index per game without having to change it every time.

I try never to disconnect them, to avoid recognition problems (and reboots of mame2003-plus or Retropie).

Everything works.
And I use trackball and wheel-mouse (and arcade joystick) on a USB hub inside joystick.

Mame2003 roms are ok with Mame2003-plus, so you can try with "plus" version.
I use it because actually i don't see no more the input configuration in tab menu in mame2003 (I don't know if it's due to an update and if it's wanted).

bollwerk

I was never able to get lr-mame2003 to work with a trackball or spinner, so I ended up using AdvanceMame. Maybe lr-mame2003plus will work better?

Chupachups

Before switching to mame2003-plus it also worked for me on mame2003. I don't think it changes much.

A year ago I had problems starting the mouse for first time.
Then I found a line to add manually to a configuration file:

on: \Opt\retropie\configs\all\retroarch-core-option.cfg

i put: mame_current_mouse_enable = "enabled"

I have now this line, and you?

@corminos have you tried with index mouse=2 in retroarch input config? I use 0 or 2 or 4 or 6 for my peripherals with 2 axis each one. I understood that 0 and 1 was to use 2 axis (one for player) if you have 2 spinners

Chupachups

2 spinner in 1 usb port, I meant

corminos

@chupachups

Both the spinner and trackball are plugged directly into the pi, so the mouse index should not change.

I found out that even though using the mouse indexes from /dev/inputs/mouse(x), the trackball was 0 and the spinner was 1, to get the spinner to work in a game, I had to go into the retroarch menu and set the mouse index to 2.

But I believe that the retroarch config is for all games, and not specific ones. I then read that I could override that by adding a file in the /configs/all/retroarch/config/MAME 2003/tron.cfg.
In there I put in
input_player1_mouse_index = "2"

But that didn't work either. But at least by using the mouse index of 2, I can get it somewhat working.

This video got me pretty far, even though he is using Mame 2010:

I'm going to try the suggestions for mame2003plus

YFZdude

@corminos said in Using spinner and trackball on Pi4 mame2003:

But I believe that the retroarch config is for all games, and not specific ones. I then read that I could override that by adding a file in the /configs/all/retroarch/config/MAME 2003/tron.cfg.

I've usually found that the best way to create the overrides (or remaps depending on which you need) is to use the RetroArch menu to save the override/remap file. It will place it and name it correctly for you.

I think for controls changes you probably need to save a game remap file rather than a game override file. Both overrides and remaps can be create per "core" or per ROM. In this case "core" would refer to the system (MAME, NES, Atari, etc.)

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroArch-Configuration/#core-input-remapping
This should be helpful but the instructions are for core rather than game remap. Adjust accordingly.

Chupachups

@corminos said in Using spinner and trackball on Pi4 mame2003:

...using the mouse indexes from /dev/inputs/mouse(x), the trackball was 0 and the spinner was 1....

I think is practically the device number

... to get the spinner to work in a game, I had to go into the retroarch menu and set the mouse index to 2....

I think is the axis number (if you have 3 mouse connected, you have 6 axis avaiable, from 0 to 5)

I am also interested in saving the correct mouse index for each mame2003 game.
But with override/mapping for game/core it's not very simple for noobs. For a game in lr-Flycast I was saving configuration in every way and every time time was always different from what I wanted!

I'll retry with YFZdude advice (although i don't know if remap game file also saves reatroarch mouse index number)

Chupachups

I have try with Quick Menu>Option and Quick menu>controls to create "game option file" and also save "remap game file" , without success.
I try 2 games, one with index mouse 4 (my mouse-whell) and one with index mouse 6 (my trackball).
Index mouse number not saved for each game. :(

However the index mouse number isn't in quick option menu (only other controls for each player=buttons).

I must set it every time i close one and launch the other.

PS: in quick menu>option there is the option for share the 2 axes of a mouse and create 2 spinners with just ONE usb mouse (and use mouse index 0 for player1 and mouse index 1 for player2)

YFZdude

@chupachups
I could not remember which of the two screens contained the mouse axis. I think my suggestion for remaps would only apply to items in the Quick Menu -> Controls. Since the mouse axis isn't in there it must be the override that is supposed to save it.

I think there have been reports of some settings not saving correctly as expected. I read someone was able to save settings by opening the retroarch menu from within Emulation Station and therefore no ROM was loaded. Might be worth a try if you haven't already.

EDIT: I can confirm that neither overrides nor remaps will save a mouse index setting for me either.