Ipac2 player 2 Question?

caver01

@mattyl42 Game pad looks like a handheld gaming/joystick device to the computer you connect it to vs. keyboard mode which looks like a keyboard. In gamepad mode you define gamepad buttons and joystick moves, in keyboard mode you define keyboard keys.

MattyL42

@caver01 Does that make any difference to the way it works or feels? Can you still set up player two in the retro arch menu?
Thanks for the continued help

caver01

@mattyl42 I am a bad person to answer this because my IPAC is so old it does not have gamepad capability. However, if given a choice with a new one today, I would set it to keyboard. It responds the same, but I have heard people complain that controllers sometimes show up as a SINGLE gamepad device which can be harder to configure when the emulator does not see two devices. I think I remember reading that the gamepad mode on the IPAC makes it appear like separate devices, but I don't have any experience to confirm it.

As a keyboard, a single device is expected, and it's OK to split inputs among different players. That's the way emulators were built initially.

MattyL42

@caver01
Having a drama with this! I'm using the keyboard version of ipac2, rewired up everything. My button inputs are working fine (player jumps etc). My player 2 B (number 2 sw2 button) is still hitting the Tab menu in mame2010. Trying to play golden axe and every time player 2 jumps the Tab menu is displayed! Argh!

I've tried to unbind tab in the mame 2010 menu but it just adds more keys rather than delete them. Also tried running in 2003 but does not load...need to fix 2010.

Any suggestions? Please help lol

MattyL42

@mattyl42 it's keys S Q and W that seem to be bound/assigned in mame?

caver01

@mattyl42 When you say your Player 2 B button is still hitting TAB, are you saying you have a button for Player 2 wired to the “2 B” location on the IPAC? If so, you should retire them to the SW# locations. From what I can tell, all of the “A, B” locations on the IPAC are for administrative input in MAME (TAB-Menu, ESC-Exit, P-Pause, ENTER-Enter). If you are wired to the “A” or “B” then it makes perfect sense that it would bring up the menu in MAME, as it is probably generating a “TAB” key press which MAME will “hear” as raw keyboard input and bring up the menu.

MattyL42

@caver01 hey buddy, that's for the reply.
The a and b pins are all empty. I've wired the up switches 1-6. The IPac designated keys for my problem ones (2 player sw2 3 and 4) are S Q and W.

On the retro arch menu- when I enter them into the binds the are coming up correctly to the corresponding letters S Q and W . No mention of tab and the other 2 functions.

The problem seems to be my mame has those keys bound for sub functions...as i only get this in mame 2010 and 2003. The other emu's I don't have this problem. All my button inputs work ok. i don't know how to check and unbind them in mameany suggestions?

caver01

@mattyl42 for 2003 you could try this: go into your roms folder, find the mame2003 folder, then inside that, the cfg folder, and delete the default.cfg file plus any file for a game you are having trouble. Re-launch and see what happens.

This effectively resets the in-game mapping for mame2003.~~strikethrough text~~

spruce_m00se

if its any help, i suffered the same kinds of issue, I also thought i had bricked my ipac2 at one point, what I have done is simply set half the ipac as keyboard and half as a gamepad, then you can map both of them in the GUI,
I then have another gamepad connected to the system just to keep it happy.
I use the joystick selector tool to select the otehr gamepad as player one in all systems, the keyboard and player one controller can both work simultaneously, then I use the ipac gamepad as player two.
it more or less works, although not in PSX yet :(

MattyL42

Great advice, thanks fellas!

First, how do I access the location to delete the cfg date? I have a micro sd reader...can I do it from windows?

Second mapping player 2 as a controller is a good idea! How does retro arch react when you configure it initially? By that I mean plug in or configure input...with two? I will give this a try this week mate!

Third...im new to all this. I've not needed to use pcs much for years... can anyone recommend any reading on modifying the config values? Could do with learning a little more about retropie.

caver01

@mattyl42 hook up another keyboard and exit emulation station. Learn basic command line commands like how to change directories, how to copy and delete files, how to edit config files with sudo nano and so on. Getting a custom configuration to work well on the Pi is not trivial. You will need to learn some Linux. No easy way around that for some things. Read all of the Docs that you think apply to your build. They reference file locations and describe many of the details. If something is over your head, google it.

Seriously, this is how we all learned over the years and there are no real shortcuts. The Pi is an educational device after all, so consider that part of the fun journey.

spruce_m00se

I used SSh to do everything, I had used telnet back in the day with some google hacking etc, so it wasnt completely unknown for me, but I started life at windows 98, so no CLI for me except when I buggered and had to reinstal windows.

its a learning curve, but thats why we dont just buy the snes classic.
OWN the hardware, make it your own, learn how to use it and you will enjoy the ride,
funnily, almost everything I do at work has been learnt from home projects over the years, I make good money from having been down the learning road many a time :)

MattyL42

Hi Fellas yeah thanks I'm inspired now! I've learned how to back up the sd and I watched how to do an Ssh on you tube last night... so hope i get to the files I need to check out later. Think I will try doing it through commands too once it's all backed up and safe.

This mame 2003 config file I need to delete do I need to make an empty one after it's 'reset'

I used to be ok on Pc's but this was 20 years ago! My actual job title is Fine Cabinet maker so the practical side is more my skill. Cabinet is 98% working-software side is more challenging. Properly satisfying though playing on it. Playing most games on the player 2 side where possible.

caver01

@mattyl42 If you are deleting the default.cfg from inside the roms folder, (i.e. /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/mame2003/cfg/default.cfg or from the libretro folder as described at the beginning of this doc), you can safely remove these and MAME will re-build them from scratch. You cannot edit them anyway--only through the TAB menu do these files get created/modified. They are not human readable.

MattyL42

Thanks for the continued help...you guys are really awesome!

I mamaged to create an Ssh and used winSCP to visually check the directories but I couldn't find default.cfg file at those locations? Managed to find all my recent Rom cfg files and removed those. Ran a search for the whole sd card for default.cfg and found it relating to lr-mame2003 but with a different pathway(file had unreadable symbols) Removed that and rebooted.
I feel really successful in what I have learned the last few days but my S,Q,W keys are still bound!? I'm using a conventional usb keyboard tonight at home so the issue doesn't seem to be related to my iPac.

My next plan is to change the key definitions in winipac for the iPac board. My player 1&2 pin numbers sw7 & 8's are not used so I will try swapping these keys designations over.
S-L
Q-K
W-C
This will hopefully change the conflicting s q w keys to unassigned pins. L K C don't seem to have any adverse effects in mame. So this might be the solution. On the plus side I've learned heaps the last few days-never thought I'd be able to this stuff