Help with Bartop Button Mapping, Coin Button

maschine · 9 Mar 2021, 18:48

Hi folks,

I am setting up a bartop, with a two-player button layout:

So far, I have wired everything and configured via ES, according to this scheme. Please note that port number X on the two controller boards is indicated by J1_X or J2_X, respectively.

For arcade gaming, I would like to have a dedicated Coin-Button (the white one in the middle). I have assigned this button in the ES controller config as Right Thumb. When I enter the ingame MAME menu, for some reason, I cannot assign the coin function to this button, as it is not recognized upon pressing it. Other buttons, such as the default Select button, seem to work.

Any help is much appreciated. I am also open for any suggestions to improve the button configuration. Many thanks.

mahoneyt944 · 9 Mar 2021, 19:38

@maschine

which emulator are you using? On

maschine · 9 Mar 2021, 19:49

@mahoneyt944 I am using lr-MAME2016

mahoneyt944 · 10 Mar 2021, 01:03

@maschine I don't use this emulator but I can say mame can be picky about coinage. Some games share the coin slots for both players and others have dedicated player slots. So mapping a single coin button may not be ideal for all games. Why not use the select button for coinage for each player? Select doesn't really have any other mame usage anyhow.

steptoe · 3 Oct 2021, 08:51

Assuming LR-MAME2016 uses the same configs as MAME as its compiled for the PI it should be exactly the same, then you need to change the controller configs for MAME itself

You'll need a keyboard attached to your PI, start any game and press the TAB key in any game you've loaded, then choose "Input General" from then drop-down list that should appear and this should show the player list

Choose "Player 1" or "Player 2" and then scroll down the next huge drop-down list of ALL controls and button assignments for that player. In this list is the coin button, which for "Player 1" defaults to the "5" button and "Player 2" the "6" button. click on this and choose the button you now want

You will have to leave this drop-down-list and then choose "Player 2" and change that coin button. I'm not sure if you can change the coin button to one button for BOTH players as my set-up is per player coin

This changes the defaults for all systems and should now do what you want. Configs are automatically saved when you quit the menus, unless you choose cancel

maschine · 3 Oct 2021, 13:24

@steptoe Thank you for your detailed advise. Actually, I have already tried to map the coin button this way, but without success. For some reason, the emulator does not recognize a button, when it is configured as left/right thumb in the ES controller setup. I have now re-configured this button as left trigger and I can now assign it to coin in the MAME menu.

maschine · 10 Mar 2021, 13:23

@mahoneyt944 Sure that would work. But it would be a pity not using this beautiful button on this cab. ;)

mitu · 10 Mar 2021, 14:27

@maschine You can map the button to Select - in additional to the one you already have.

maschine · 10 Mar 2021, 14:37

@mitu Oh really, that would be fantastic! I thought ES controller config only allows for single mappings. I will give that a try.

mitu · 10 Mar 2021, 14:40

Well, yes, but you may be able to use RetroArch to add a new button with the same mapping. If that fails, you can add it to the controller's configuration file.

maschine · 3 Oct 2021, 16:36

@mitu Thank you, I have checked it out. Also the retroarch GUI does not allow for double mappings. There are quite some controller configuration files. Which one do I have to edit? Or maybe hard wiring two buttons to the same port is the better option for novices like me. :)

Question in short: How do I map two different physical buttons to a single function?

mitu · 10 Mar 2021, 18:07

@maschine You could do that with un-used button on the RetroPad to your button (for instance L3) and then you can map it to Coin 1.

But I think you already have the L3/R3 buttons assigned, so that won't work.

maschine · 10 Mar 2021, 18:52

@mitu Why not going for this solution. I can leave L3/R3 unconfigured. That should do the trick. Thanks.

maschine · 3 Nov 2021, 09:37

Just a quick update, and maybe a helpful suggestion for others.

I ended up hard-wiring button pairs in parallel and attaching them to the same port :

Controller 1 (numbering according to the above diagram)
J1_8 and J1_5 => left shoulder
J1_9 and J1_4 => right shoulder
J1_7 and J_11 => select
J1_6 and J1_10 => start

Controller 2
J2_6 and J2_8 => select

Thanks to everybody for help!