MAME and Light Gun(s)?

[bkenobi]

FWIW, HK's method is how I got my guns working again. Supposedly (from reading a few threads at BYOAC), the newest versions of MAME will work with guns again, but I haven't tried it. Since I compile my own version of MAME anyway, I just used HK's approach.

[nullPointer]

This is more in direct response to the earlier posts in this thread, but I figured I'd let everyone know that AimTrak now has a recoil kit (PDF) available. <drool> The current kit is geared more towards the DIY set, but I'm betting that a fully assembled AimTrak version can't be too far off.

[Orlin]

I am sure many welcome the recoil kit for the AimTrak but i still like the EMS TopGun myself as the recoil also moves the top of the gun.

I used to one a topgun mark 2 and i never had any problems with it, i easy had it running in mame and its aiming was spot on, i was using it a lot and for the 6 months on owned it, i had zero problems with it

i only sold it has i decided to hold off my build. now that i am restarting my arcade setup i will be going for the topgun 3.

I always say, when it come to a arcade setup and light guns, it really so down to the user preference.

[bkenobi]

The problem is 2 fold.

1) Getting the gun to work. This can be challenging with the way MAME is built without having a raw interface if you are using older guns and drivers. If you use an AIMTRAK, this probably won't be an issue since you can tell it how you want it to appear in windows. No drivers, just an HID device.

2) Keeping the gun working. If you don't change anything, this is not an issue. If you update MAME periodically, then you might have problems. When I had things working, it was when things were left alone. As soon as I changed anything (seemingly), it broke the guns. They are currently working fine, but making changes to other things tends to break the guns from my experience.

[Stu1983]

Ordered my AimTrac and DIY recoil kit today. I'll let you all know how I get on when it arrives next week

[myonions]

Hi Guys

Bought a couple of Aimtraks.

Decent - I like them.

Have an issue in MAME whereby it just doesn't detect the side buttons as anything other that Button 0 - which is the trigger.

Therefore; some games like Operation Wolf that you need to use another button for grenades can't work as you fire them all of at the start.

Works fine on all games that just need fire and shoot off-screen to reload however and works fine in other Emus like Model 2 but I think that's because they just use the mouse and the gun emulates the left and right buttons just fine.

Anyone manage to fix this?

Here is my opwolfu.cfg:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!-- This file is autogenerated; comments and unknown tags will be stripped -->

<mameconfig version="10">

<system name="opwolfu">

<video>

<target index="0" backdrops="0" overlays="0" bezels="0" cpanels="1" marquees="1" zoom="0" />

</video>

<counters>

<coins index="0" number="81" />

</counters>

<input>

<port tag=":IN1" type="P1_BUTTON1" mask="1" defvalue="1">

<newseq type="standard">

GUNCODE_5_BUTTON1

</newseq>

</port>

<port tag=":IN1" type="P1_BUTTON2" mask="2" defvalue="2">

<newseq type="standard">

GUNCODE_5_BUTTON2

</newseq>

</port>

</input>

<crosshairs>

<crosshair player="0" mode="2" />

</crosshairs>

</system>

</mameconfig>

The line in Blue (GUNCODE_5_BUTTON2) was manually amended by me to try to change the function of that button (did say GUNCODE_5_BUTTON1) but it did nothing.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

[bkenobi]

When I configure my guns, the axis isn't always picked up correctly by MAME. Most of the time I find that it will pick up both x- and y-axis. The buttuns aren't a problem for me. When I do configure the guns (when the config breaks), I attempt MAME config and then find the mouse and keyboard or log in remotely to fix the config file. MAME holding the config is the problem I've always had with guns. For whatever reason, it drops the config for no reason I can determine.

[Stu1983]

Hi Guys

Bought a couple of Aimtraks.

Decent - I like them.

Have an issue in MAME whereby it just doesn't detect the side buttons as anything other that Button 0 - which is the trigger.

....

Any pointers would be appreciated.

I didn't have any problems with my AimTrak side buttons but I did have problems with off screen reloading not working in Lethal Enforcers, cursor would move to bottom left but seemingly wouldn't click.

It ended up being something set wrong in my mame.ini.

I deleted my mame.ini and created a new default ini

mame -cc

I then followed the guide on Ultimarc for setting it up properly and everything has worked fine since.

I had looked at my config file previously and thought it was all setup correctly but there must have been some setting somewhere that wasn't right.

Maybe this will help you too.

[Stu1983]

I've been working with Andy recently to fix a few bugs (mainly accuracy problems at 2.5+ meters and recoil issues) so it would be worth updating to the latest firmware as well.

[bkenobi]

IIRC, AimTrak only has 1 button enabled by default. You can use several more, but that might be something worth checking. There is a second header with more buttons, but the primary header and wiring bundle only includes the first button. If you bought a complete gun kit, this shouldn't be the problem.

[myonions]

Thanks - i'll try resetting mame.ini.

Lethal Enforcers is one that works perfectly for me!

It seems the side buttons do the right Mouse Button as this is how I configured them in the Aimtrak Software. It's fine with allgames where you reload off-screen just no others where you have extra commands - TIme Crisis, Op wolf.

All others are fine - Point Blank etc.

Cheers