Anyone use Pinnacle Game Profiler with MAME games?

[SleepDoc]

Just wondering if anyone here uses Pinnacle game profiler software to allow a game controller to control MAME games instead of a keyboard. I know GameEx has some built-in support for keymapping, etc., but I'm using Pinnacle to play my PC Games that do not natively support an XBox 360 wireless controller, and it works perfectly. My only issue/question is: how to get an individual Pinnacle game profile for a specific MAME game. Pinnacle auto-launches a specific profile when it "sees" the executable file of a PC game run. However, MAME games do not have an executable, and I don't want the same Pinnacle profile for ALL of the MAME games; I'd like to individualize for each game. Any idea how to do this? Anyone already done this?

[bkenobi]

You may have to use an older version of MAME or custom compile the current version to even use Pinnacle. The current input system doesn't really like programs sending inputs to MAME. Just thought you should check into whether it will work prior to investing a bunch of time.

[Tempest]

If pinnacle profiler does work with Mame, then basically, you want to go into the Mame UI by pressing the tab key, and change individual settings for each game. To do the same thing en masse, you can use CFG Magician to map Mame games any way you want to. Click on My signature for the link.

[SleepDoc]

  On 5/19/2010 at 8:51 PM, Tempest said:

If pinnacle profiler does work with Mame, then basically, you want to go into the Mame UI by pressing the tab key, and change individual settings for each game. To do the same thing en masse, you can use CFG Magician to map Mame games any way you want to. Click on My signature for the link.

I see . . . instead of making Pinnacle conform to each MAME game, make each MAME game conform to a standard MAME Pinnacle profile.

[bkenobi]

Yes, that's usually how people do it. MAME is set up to have a standard set of inputs and then overrides for certain games/categories/software companies/etc...

[Geronimo]

You can also setup a controller "inside" MAME, with MAME functionality, by editing "ctrlr" files. The system is quite powerful and flexible and allows setting specific configs for specific games (by ROM name). You can basically map everything the way you like it, including UI commands and hotkeys.

Here's a simple example cfg for my 360 controller i made a long time ago:

<mameconfig version="10">
	<system name="default">
	<input>
		<port type="UI_CONFIGURE">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_TAB OR JOYCODE_1_BUTTON9 JOYCODE_1_BUTTON1</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="UI_ON_SCREEN_DISPLAY">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON9 JOYCODE_1_BUTTON2</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="UI_LEFT">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_LEFT OR JOYCODE_1_LEFT OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_L</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="UI_RIGHT">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_RIGHT OR JOYCODE_1_RIGHT OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_R</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="UI_DOWN">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_DOWN OR JOYCODE_1_DOWN OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_D</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="UI_UP">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_UP OR JOYCODE_1_UP OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_U</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="UI_SELECT">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON1</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_JOYSTICK_RIGHT">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_RIGHT OR JOYCODE_1_RIGHT OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_R</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_JOYSTICK_LEFT">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_LEFT OR JOYCODE_1_LEFT OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_L</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_JOYSTICK_DOWN">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_DOWN OR JOYCODE_1_DOWN OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_D</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_JOYSTICK_UP">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_UP OR JOYCODE_1_UP OR J1_HAT_SWITCH_U</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_BUTTON1">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON1</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_BUTTON2">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON2</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_BUTTON3">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON3</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_BUTTON4">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON4</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_BUTTON5">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON5</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="P1_BUTTON6">
			<newseq type="standard">JOYCODE_1_BUTTON6</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="START1">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_1 OR JOYCODE_1_BUTTON8</newseq>
		</port>
		<port type="COIN1">
			<newseq type="standard">KEYCODE_5 OR JOYCODE_1_BUTTON7</newseq>
		</port>
	</input>
	</system>
</mameconfig>

[Tempest]

Ctrlr files are good for some things, but If you want to map a bunch of seemingly unrelated individual games, you really do want to checkout CFG Magician. It can map 1000's of games in a few minutes.