Mayflash dolphinbar and AdvanceMAME 1.4

BGallagherLA

@fdrslegs As of now, this light gun setup only works in AdvMame. Can't get it to work on NES, SMS or SNES quite yet.

PiDad

I have the dolphin bar interacting with advmame, but the cursor is all over the place, whizzing to the sides all the time. Someone who has got it working well, please could you post your advmame.rc file?

BGallagherLA

@PiDad I never had this happen with my setup. I just have a Wiimote (with a cheap plastic gun mount) that is paired to the Pi through Bluetooth, and the DolphinBar plugged into one of my USB ports. Are you using the AdvMame 1.4 emulator? While there are some games i just cant get to work (probably because of wrong romeset, or other issues), the games that worked, worked right away, with no calibration/configuration needed.

Febbweiss

@PiDad It happens sometimes. I think it's due to the switch on sequence... In this case, I reboot my bartop and switch on the wiimote and after that, I launch the game.

mediamogul

@Febbweiss

It happens sometimes.

I've noticed that this behavior is highly affected by how close you stand to the sensor. I find that I have to stand 6-8 feet away before it behaves reliably. Using the Wiimotes with an actual Wii was always the same way, as it was designed to work best from the sofa. If this is the case here, an alternative is to stand as close as you want and place the sensor further beyond your bartop.

Febbweiss

@mediamogul You're right. It happens when I'm working on my bartop, so very close... Not when I play, so away from it...

mediamogul

@Febbweiss

I also have a set of AimTrak guns and they work in a similar way. I have to stand at least 4-6 feet away using them on my cabinet.

PiDad

Thanks all, will try, the machine is in a busy room so is difficult to stand too far away!
Was it just plug and play for you all?
For myself, not sure why, but I did have even worse performance from the wiimote (reversed axes etc), but much improved when I tweaked the advmame.rc file. That's why I was asking, I wonder if someone could share theirs.
Many Thanks!

mediamogul

@PiDad

plug and play

I've lost all understanding of the phrase. It has, however, been replaced with the phrase "infinitely expandable".

Rettron

So I found a solution to the issue of the dolphin bar only supporting only one wii zapper in mouse mode(mode 2). I bought a second dolphin bar and set it up like the first one, then synced a second controller and mapped it in the mame menu (hit tab while in mame game). It works perfectly as a second player after I followed this gentleman video

. In short I have to wii zappers functioning as light guns for Mame advance 1.4 on Retropie. It seems to slow down game even more and tends to over work my power supply (flashing 4 colors in top right of screen), but me and the wife were able to play through Area51 and some older ones. Sadly Time crisis and other 3d shooters like it are virtually unplayable because of the limitations of the PI.

mrmartin79

Hi Everyone, I wanted to clarify the correct steps for the Dolphinbar/wiimote gun setup.

Setup AdvMame 1.4
Add "gun" games to advmame folder
Reboot Pi
Plug dolphinbar usb into Usb port
Select mode 2 on dolphinbar
Press pair button on dolphinbar
Press Red pair button in battery bay on wiimote
Start Advmame 1.4 game Lethal Enforcers
p1 crosshairs move around but trigger and wiimote buttons dont work

At this point should everything be working?
Or do i need to pair the wiimote directly to the RetroPie as well?

In Advmame, using keyboard i can access config menus and set coin and start buttons to wiimote buttons 1,2 but when i try to config the trigger or A button it doesnt register with Mame.

I think i'm close but could use clarification on the last bits.

Thanks in adavnce!

Marty

BGallagherLA

@mrmartin79 First thing, it should be mode 1 on DolphinBar. Second, you also have to pair the Wiimote to the on-board Bluetooth in your Pi, if you have a Pi 3. If you have a Pi 2 (like I do), you need a Bluetooth dongle. You also have to set the default emulator to AdvMame 1.4 by pressing a button when the grey box comes up before a game starts.

I'm also using a keyboard, but only for the Select/Insert coin (5) and Start (1) buttons, but one of these days I should get around to mapping those to my Wiimote.

You are in fact close. Just need to pair the Wiimote to Bluetooth, that should be it.

mrmartin79

@bgallagherla Thanks for that advice! I paired the wiimote via the RetroArch>Bluetooth settings and got Lethal Enforcers running to the point of fun! However, it only works with Mode 2 on the dolphinbar.. it did not work with mode 1 for me.
Also, I had to map button 1 > trigger pull but after that I wasted an hour. My wife didn't appreciate how many quarters this saved.

Several other questions I have not see on the forum yet:

When I'm in Advmame and hit Tab to setup controls the select bar scrolls unless I balance the wiimote just perfectly. Is there anyway to prevent this? Its a real pain to try and balance the wiimote while using the keyboard to get to the correct control area.
advmame-1.4.rc should contain all the changes I make while in the Tab menus but changes don't seem to save. I have reset the permissions on the .rc file to 777 and will try again but not sure if this is a different issue ? I would like to set default controller configs for all advmame games since I am only using advmame for lightgun games.

Alright, now to get more of these roms working! So far DuckHunt and LE1 worked for me.

Best!

BGallagherLA

@mrmartin79 Glad you got it working! Strange about mode 2 though, always worked on Mode 1 for me, but I've heard others have to change theirs to 2. I have about 50 games that work with this setup.

As for the balancing act, it is quite the pain, but I guess i've just gotten used to it, and/or learned how to balance it well. As for the advmame-1.4.rc... I honestly have no clue about all of that.

Anyway, someone asked for my list of working gun games in AdvMame earlier so here are the ones I have got working. I actually added a bunch more last night, but many don't seem to be working - though that's probably a romset/rom issue more than anything. Still, a good rule of thumb is the older the game, the better chance it will work. Others have said they have Area 51 working, but it has yet to work with me, and many games with 3D graphics seem to be too much for the Pi. Also I have a Pi 2, so that's prob another issue. Anyway here's my gun game list as of now.

Alien 3
Bang!
Beast Busters
Blood Bros. (Set 1)
Born To Fight
Bubble Trouble (Japan, Rev C)
Cheyenne
Chiller
Clay Pigeon (Version 2.0)
Crackshot (Version 2.0)
D-Day
Dragon Gun
Ghost Pilots
Ghoul Panic
Laser Ghost (World)
Last Bronx
Lethal Enforcers (11/19/92)
Lethal Enforcers II
Lethal Justice
Line of Fire
Lord of Gun (USA)
Mad Dog McGree
Mechanized Attack
NY Captor
Narc
Ninja Assault
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Polict10 (Police Trainer)
Riot
Shootout
Showdown
Space Gun
Steel Gunner
Terminator 2
The Tin Star
Under Fire
Vs. Duck Hunt
Vs. Freedom Force
Vs. Gunsmoke
Vs. Hogan's Alley
Wanted
Who dun It
Zero Point
Zero Point 2
Zombie Raid

mrmartin79

@bgallagherla did you have to configure controls for each game? I know some have slightly different control schemes like Operation Wolf's 2nd button but just wondering what is typical.

Is Mad Dog McGree via Dosbox?

HurricaneFan

@bgallagherla Is there any romset that has House of the Dead or Time Crisis working?

BGallagherLA

@mrmartin79 Nope. All of then worked with the crosshairs moving and the trigger button working without any configuration or calibration. The only one i had to map a button for was Operation Wolf and (i think Operation THunderbolt too), since there is an extra button for the grenades. If you dont map the Wiimote's "A" button to that, then it basically makes both the trigger and grenade button as one button - i.e. you fire all your grenades first right away, before using your regular bullets. But for the rest, its just the trigger and that worked automatically. And I use my keyboard for Select/Insert Coin (5) and Start (1) although I should map those to my other Wiimote buttons.

Re: Mad Dog, i dont know, i have Dosbox games but haven't tried any light gun games on that yet.

BGallagherLA

@hurricanefan Time Crisis technically works but it's SUPER laggy, not even worth it. I think it was the same for HOTD. Games with more advanced graphics like that seem to not mesh well on a Pi, but would probably run nicely on a PC setup, etc.

Febbweiss

@mrmartin79 Yes, Mad Dog works well via Dosbox.

Febbweiss

@bgallagherla I tried HOTD and Virtua Cop but there were no 3D graphics even on my PC. I think these roms don't work because of dumps and 3D libraries (no OpenGL support).