nullDC Keyboard Input Woes Hopefully Someone Else Has Been Here

[piratepowwow]

I have been trying to use GameEx as my one-stop shop and have been setting the emulators up for a couple weeks now, with mixed success.

For the past four days I have been trying to get a Dreamcast emulator running so I can play games like Soul Calibur and Gauntlet Legends with my arcade joysticks and buttons.

I got NAOMI working with Makaron, however I could never get Dreamcast to work with Makaron.

I could get nullDC optimized -r133 to run the Dreamcast games, but there seems to be no way to configure the controls to work with mame control defaults. (L shift L alt Space etc).

I have searched high and low, is there any way to get nullDC to work on a keyboard with the mame controls? I do have some wireless 360 controllers and a windows wireless receiver for them, but I would much rather use the arcade sticks.

Thanks

PS: I have tried Demul 55 64-bit, Demul 56 32-bit, nulldc 103, 104, 108, r133, makaron t12, makaron ex 3.0 and all have been failures for one reason or the other.

[Brian Hoffman]

Yes,

I have experienced your problems with NullDC. Also I have had problems in windows in general with mames default key mappings. If you press SHIFT repetadly it brings up sticky keys, this can be disabled but is a nuisance. Keys like Ctrl and ALT do funny things in various emulators becuase they are commonly used for hotkey assignments and shortcut keys.

It seems it always happens when a friend is over and we are in an intense button mashing game.

The fix is simple, remap your keys on your controller. If you use an IPAC it is simple to do. Avoid keys like CTRL,ALT,SPACE,ENTER if you can. As well as other special characters.

You will find that other emulators will not cause you problems, emulators like NULLDC that lets you assign but not use those keys will work and your overall experience will be better.

You may be able to so some key remapping via GX or AutoHotkey to also resolve this, but I found it easier just to bite the bullet and reconfigure my keys/emulators.

Brian

[piratepowwow]

Brian, nothing is simple when it comes to emulation! ;-)

Well I've got a 4-player setup with 14 "switches" per player. What are the chances I can use 56 keys on the keyboard and have nullDC support them all? If I only needed 40 keys for dreamcast with 4 players, what are the chances then? It becomes a trial and error nightmare of "does this key work with nulldc?" boot, fail, try again.

But it's a moot point anyway because I gave the 360 control pad a shot and turns out nullDC Dreamcast just does not run acceptably for Gauntlet Legends or Soul Calibur.

However, my NAOMI games run pretty well: Guilty Gear XX Reload, Marvel vs Capcom 2, ikaruga, and Capcom Vs SNK 2.

I'm using:

2.2ghz AMD Opteron 64 sock 939 (dual core)

2GB DDR-400

Nvidia 8600 GTS 256mb

on Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit

Thanks anyway for your input.

[Draco1962]

You could always just map to two sets of controls - that would give you more key options, just not 4 player (but, there again, some of the titles may be available for other systems you are emulating for 4 player without so many keys to be mapped). Gauntlet Legends had ports to Playstation and N64, for example. Not certain that the same could be said for Soul Caliber since it was orignally a Namco System 12 Arcade hardware port to the Dreamcast.

[Brian Hoffman]

Brian, nothing is simple when it comes to emulation! ;-)

Sure it is, yes. Your options are limited (except for MAME that allows for multiple keyboards)

Most games are single to two players. So assign those the best keys.

Next you have 3 and four player games. You have to pick and choose your battles. How many 4 player games in MAME use more than 4 buttons? It doesnt matter if your CP allows 15 buttons for each of the players.. You may never use them and do not need to assign them all.

Personally, I have struggled over the years to find a perfect balance of playability while still being able to use the majority of emulators. For me using Mames default mapping has caused more headaches than anything. This is why I recommended remapping your keys.

You will spend years tweaking, and re-tweaking your settings.. Trust me look at my join date..

I have a 4 player cab, and I never see the opportunity to play them. Granted your situation may be different than mine.

Good luck

Brian

I mean, if you want to get really crazy you can install PPJOY and GLOVEPIE and have your keyboard send joystick inputs. While its alot of work it may give you the latitude of using nonstandard keys for your configs.

[Circo]

I concur, this is a life choice more than a hobby, and I am sure that "join date" doesn't even begin to do justice to how long you have been messing with this stuff Brian. I know I for one trace my Emulation roots back to Nesticle in 97

[Brian Hoffman]

I concur, this is a life choice more than a hobby, and I am sure that "join date" doesn't even begin to do justice to how long you have been messing with this stuff Brian. I know I for one trace my Emulation roots back to Nesticle in 97

Yes you are very right. My first was also Nesticle, the testicle. On a tandy running dos/ win 3.1

There is a thread about that somewhere around here.

Brian