[RESOLVED] How to display MAME control panel in GameEX AE

[ZekeZookeeper]

I have an arcade cabinet set up in a rental house. I need it to be as "dummy proof" as possible. AE is good for that purpose.

I am having a problem getting AE to display the control panel for certain MAME games, however. Robotron, specifically, refuses to display the controls for both joysticks. It only shows the left hand joystick.

I'm using the most recent control.ini file I could find (;;Controls.dat INI file Version=0.141.1, Time=2011-01-05 18:17:26, Generated by=SirPoonga), which shows Robotron's controls as:

[robotron]
gamename=Robotron (Solid Blue label)
numPlayers=2
alternating=1
mirrored=1
tilt=1
cocktail=0
usesService=0
miscDetails=The drivers in mame don't have a cocktail mode, but klov shows a cocktail cab, and the robotron drawing set shows two (cocktail) sets of dual joysticks.
P1NumButtons=0
P1Controls=Dual 8-way Joysticks+doublejoy8way
P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_UP=Move Up
P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_DOWN=Move Down
P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_LEFT=Move Left
P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_RIGHT=Move Right
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_UP=Fire Up
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_DOWN=Fire Down
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_LEFT=Fire Left
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_RIGHT=Fire Right

It appears GameEx is not recognizing the designation "P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT" as the other controller. This is especially confusing because it displays both controllers for Alien vs. Predator:

[avsp]
gamename=Alien vs. Predator (Euro 940520)
numPlayers=3
alternating=0
mirrored=1
tilt=0
cocktail=0
usesService=0
miscDetails=The default dipswitch is two player mode; you need to F2 into the game's service mode and change it to three player mode to play with 3 players.  Each character has special moves.
P1NumButtons=3
P1Controls=8-way Joystick+joy8way
P1_BUTTON1=Shoot
P1_BUTTON2=Attack
P1_BUTTON3=Jump (Dash)
P1_JOYSTICK_UP=Up
P1_JOYSTICK_DOWN=Down
P1_JOYSTICK_LEFT=Move Left
P1_JOYSTICK_RIGHT=Move Right

I've changed Robotron's "alternating" and "mirrored" parameters to those of AVSP's, and I've even copied all of AVSP's entry to the [robotron] entry in controls.ini just to see if I can get the second joystick to display labels, but GameEx's "View Controls" option still will not display the second joystick when I run Robotron.

GameEx is clearly pulling information from the controls.ini file, as the labels change when I change them in the file. Anyone have an idea how I can get the control panel to show both of Robotron's joystick labels? Thanks.

 

[RedDog]

I tested this on GameEx Arcade 15.52 and GamEx 15.52 and got the same results. The same occurs for Karate Champ as well.

My guess would be that the following parameters are not recognized when the control panel is generated:

P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_UP
P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_DOWN
P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_LEFT
P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_RIGHT
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_UP
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_DOWN
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_LEFT
P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_RIGHT

There aren't many games that use this sort of control scheme, so I can see why it may have been overlooked.

I've sent a message to Tom.

[ZekeZookeeper]

Thanks for confirming, RedDog. We'll see what Tom says.

[Tom Speirs]

This is fixed in 15.53. Now available.

Thanks.

[RedDog]

Lovely. Thanks Tom!

[tthurman]

Good deal

I haven't run into this issue but since I'm running AE it was bound to happen eventually.

Thanks!

[ZekeZookeeper]

Great! Thanks for looking into it and addressing the issue.

I ditched HyperSpin (and the dozens of hours I sunk into it) because, when I installed GameEx, it was immediately clear that the latter is far more user friendly. It's a bonus that Tom is willing to update so frequently. Thanks again.