[RESOLVED] Joystick works fine in gameex menus, but not in games, what have I done?

[Cret]

Hi guys - it's been a very long time since I could put any time into my cabinet due to kids and other commitments etc but I decided to begin meddling with it today again.

Now for the most part things worked fine in the past, but something weird is going on with the controls when I launch any roms.

In the GameEx menus, all directions of the joystick (P1) work fine to navigate, but when launching any of the roms they behave as if the stick is jammed in one specific direction, and moving the stick makes no difference.

I'm confused as to what I might have done since I've not changed anything I don't think, but it's a long time.

Any suggestions?

The hardware is hooked up through a PC Arcade controller mk2.

All connections & wiring seems to be secure and I've tried unplugging/plugging most things just in case, to no avail.

Sure this must be something really simple and dumb that I've done, but can't think why it's doing this offhand, so all suggestions are appreciated, thanks!

Jim

[Draco1962]

Welcome back! You may want to submit a copy of your log.txt and gameex.ini file so we may quickly assist you.

[Cret]

Thanks for the reply Draco

I've attached them as requested.

I've noticed that it doesn't do this fault on all games for some reason.

Example: I started Double Dragon just now and it controlled perfectly. No problem with stick movement in any direction.

Similar style game and different behaviour - Crime Fighter, my character runs straight to the top of the screen and cannot be controlled.

I played Darius and the spaceship automatically went to the top of the screen. Pulling the stick downmost had the effect of centering the stick normally would do.

In Afterburner, the plane automatically pulls down to the bottom of the screen and won't do anything else no matter what I do with the stick.

In the past, all these games had worked fine. I must have changed something but I can't figure what.

*Edit* for what it's worth, when i launch virtua keyboard and test all the joystick & butons, they all work perfectly to the corresponding key on screen, so I don't believe this is any sort of fault with the controller interface, but a settings based issue somehow.

I'd expect the virtua keyboard to be acting crazy if for instance it thought a control was being leant on, which is the effect that I basically get in the games.

I'd have guessed it was in the 'controls general' settings that TAB opens up in each game, but then double dragon would be doing the same.

What I also noticed was that in afterburner when I opened the control menu to check/set them if necessary, the stick initially is fine moving up & down the menu, but then something happens that makes it only go down in the menu. The same apples to the cursor keys on my keyboard.

Really scratching my head here but I bet it's something simple ultimately!

Many thanks for any suggestions.

log.txt

GameEx.ini

[Cret]

I've tried more games now in case this in any way helps (like if there's something that distinguishes working ones from ones that don't work).

Working ok:

Double Dragon

Peacekeepers

Mr Do

Pacman

Not working (controls behave as if joystick is jammed in a set direction):

Darius

Darius2

Afterburner

Gloc

Crime Fighter

I'll continue testing this for now, but hopefully someone can pick up on a blunder that might cause this.

Another observation I have made is that when pressing tab to open the menu in game, the up/down controls (whether cursor or joystick) function fine in working games, but in the faulty games, the menu controls (in game - NOT the GameEx menus) only go down and not up.

Additionally, I have already tried limiting the controls plugged in to just a single input source, and then varied this but I get the same thing on them all.

[Cret]

SUCCESS!!

I went round the machine again, double checking everything, and realised there was still a USB hub connected which supplies all the connections for various console joypads. Unplugged the USB feed to it from the motherboard and hey presto, everything is behaving just fine.

So the question for me now, is "Why was that USB hub causing a problem when it was previously ok?". Am wondering if I've connected an additional USB item and it's one too many perhaps?

*Edit* Ok, I removed everything from the hub and made sure it was ok itself, then one by one plugged all the adaptors back in and tested with a 'bad' game each time. They're all back in now, and it works fine, so I can only assume one of them wasn't connected quite right and was confusing things. Not sure why it only affected some games though.

[Draco1962]

Well, it looks like it was really simple ultimately! This is one of those head scratchers for sure that even the log files wouldn't quite tell us what is going on. I am not sure why controllers plugged into USB hub or the hub itself was behaving the way you described.

I know I have had problems with my Tankstick and a wired XBox S pad plugged-in at the same time. Turned out that there was a signal coming from the S pad that the left stick was ever so slightly forward (Helps to clean one's desk once in a while). When I removed the item that was hitting the stick, it centered and I was gold again. Others have reported similar things with a mouse attached.

I just want to mention that you have a pretty old version of GameEx installed (11.32). You may want to update that to the present version (12.98) as there have been many significant improvements since your version - one of them being integrated Steam support, global exit key fixes, Xpadder plugin support (to replace the need for some of the Xpadder-related Launch Before/Launch After custom .bat files). Also, our troubleshooting for items that turn out to be GameEx proper is limited with the older version as some issues are resolved by upgrading to the latest.

[Cret]

Thanks for the tip re' the gameEx version - I never even thought to look at that, but I realise now that it was ages ago when I initially installed and unlocked it. Since then the machine has been used for the occasional mariokart showdown with my mate, but not had time to really give it attention as such.

Do I need to do a clean install to upgrade to the new version and to pay again? I'd guess that I can't just update it as such but will have a look tonight if I get a chance.

Fresh install is fine if need be since I'm going to be building a new machine for it to run on, to give it a lot more power.

Will have to read up on whether everything will work on windows 7 or if it needs to be XP still.

Re' the fault I was having, I didn't actually have other controllers plugged in as such at the time. It was a double N64 controller adaptor, and a pair of PSX controller adaptors that were the culprit. I assume one just wasn't properly seated and was confusing the USB signals somehow.

[Draco1962]

You can just update it or download and install - your choice. No need to re-pay/re-register or redo anything. GameEx works wonderful with 7 and I recommend it. I, as does many others, use Win 7 Pro x64 and get great performance out of GameEx. Most 32-bit apps and emulators run fine under it as well.

[Cret]

That's great - many thanks for the tips. Will do the update and see what's different etc.

It'll be a trial run for getting new hardware and hopefully sorting out a neater installation as I've got duplicated files & folders all over the place at the moment and it doesn't make things any easier!!

Edited February 13, 2013 by nullPointer
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