Tracker and Spinner playable in MAME with KEYBOARD?

[kcoops]

Hi, just wondering if tracker and spinner games are playable without trackers and spinners (in MAME). I've played a few now and they seem to work OK, or am I completely missing certain options/controls that only tracker/spinner can provide?

Thanks.

[bkenobi]

Basically all analog controls can be controlled via a digital input. If you look at the MAME controls (hit 'TAB' and find the control), you will see 3 items for each analog input. For example look at trackball x. You will see Analog Trackball X, Inc Trackball X, and Dec Trackball X. If you don't have an analog device to control this, you just need to set the Inc and Dec fields to a digital control. You can then fine tune these controls FOR EACH GAME within MAME. I don't recall what it's called, but there is a menu that sets sensetivities for each of these. I believe that digital input is tweakable, but I know analog input is. Check it out and see if it improves things.

[Tempest]

Hi, just wondering if tracker and spinner games are playable without trackers and spinners (in MAME). I've played a few now and they seem to work OK, or am I completely missing certain options/controls that only tracker/spinner can provide?

Thanks.

You aren't going to have the "control" with a keyboard, that you would have with a trackball, and spinner. I am having a hard time trying to explain it... If you use your keyboard, you can only move at a given rate of speed, and the only way to move slower would be to tap the keys. With a trackball, or spinner, you can vary the speed of your movement based on how fast you move the control.

If I had to play Tempest with a keyboard, I wouldn't play it...

[kcoops]

You aren't going to have the "control" with a keyboard, that you would have with a trackball, and spinner. I am having a hard time trying to explain it... If you use your keyboard, you can only move at a given rate of speed, and the only way to move slower would be to tap the keys. With a trackball, or spinner, you can vary the speed of your movement based on how fast you move the control.

If I had to play Tempest with a keyboard, I wouldn't play it...

I agree. Have you tried playing Arkanoid with keyboard? It's hair pullin' annoying.

[bkenobi]

It's the same problem with Ikari Warriors and the rotary control. MAMEdevs implemented the rotary controls for mechanical rotary switches as a button that you hold down for a certain period of time to rotate a number of turns. The correct way would have been to implement a single click (no matter how long you hold it) moves one turn. The result is that if you try to play Ikari, you will be VERY frustrated with vanilla MAME. You can get the correct response with the use of MAME Analog+, but it hasn't been updated in a LONG time (0.96 is the most recent). I have been off and on trying to incorporate the code from Analog+ into the current version of MAME, but haven't gotten it working yet.

In case anyone cares, the reason this is non-trivial is that MAME changed controls and a lot of coding related to it in v0.116 (or so). Thus, the code can't be compared to a current version and simply updated... If anyone out there is good with working with MAME source and wanted a project....