Building my first cab + ipac

[j0eh4x]

Hello, i'm building my first MAME cabinet and will probably end up donating and using the game ex front end. I'm going to be using an ipac with two players. My question is will I need to configure Game Ex to work properly with the ipac, or will it work from the get go, can i set specific key bindings? Also i will have 6 buttons per player, 2 joysticks, 2 coin and 2 player start buttons. Will this be enough to navigate the game ex menus? will I need to install specific button for exiting the game and returning to the game ex front end? I'm very new to all this and dont even have the ipac yet so if someone could shed some light on this it would be great. I'm also planning on hooking this up so all of mame defaults will work.

[MrJimmy]

Hello, i'm building my first MAME cabinet and will probably end up donating and using the game ex front end. I'm going to be using an ipac with two players. My question is will I need to configure Game Ex to work properly with the ipac, or will it work from the get go, can i set specific key bindings? Also i will have 6 buttons per player, 2 joysticks, 2 coin and 2 player start buttons. Will this be enough to navigate the game ex menus? will I need to install specific button for exiting the game and returning to the game ex front end? I'm very new to all this and dont even have the ipac yet so if someone could shed some light on this it would be great. I'm also planning on hooking this up so all of mame defaults will work.

Hi j0eh4x, great minds think alike, I'm on the home run with my first cabinet build... I've just registered GameEx to remove the nag screen yesterday, Just do it now it's that cheap and my far the best FE I've tried (I've tried three in detail, the others all let me down badly).

I've retrofitted a Windows 7 PC into a 1979 Asteroids clone cocktail cab, I have an IPAC in place with exactly the same controls as you (2 joysticks, 6 buttons each, 1 and 2 player starts, 2 coins) and it is enough as you can hold 1 player start button in to gain 'shift' controls for menu etc. The IPAC has more inputs for more buttons, add them if you can - it's always handy to have them for one hit pause, menu etc. but not needed.

That said, I'm struggling with my IPAC programming and assigning matching controls in GameEx / MAME, but I'm not yet ready to post for help, maybe in a few reboot's time

You need to give any FE a good amount of effort to get the config right for you. hope this helps.

[Draco1962]

j0eh4x - Welcome to the GameEx forums! I am sure that there will be plenty of advice coming your way. Usually best to have the hardware you need and ready to go rather than attempt to troubleshoot prior to any issues. GameEx has many of the features ready to go but will require some additional tweaking when you are at that step.

MrJimmy - Welcome and well said! We'll be here when you are ready!Let us know if you get stumped along the way.

[simbamame]

I to use the IPAC-2 in my custom built home made cab and it works fine, you will need to config the ipac but ultimarc supply it all on disk you just install and your ready to wire your buttons and sticks up,and use the ultimarc configure panel to assign the keys to the buttons/sticks once that is done you can configure the emulator/s and GameEX threw GameEx's wizard and as draco said help is available here as soon as you need it, but once you have the I-Pac i doubt you`ll need it as its really simple to sort, i have my joystick 2 set to scroll threw games a page at a time will left and right increase and decreases the volume, you can also assign different maps for different emulators for example ive justed installed a fruit machine, p1 starts the reels coin 1 puts money in and i have 4 buttons on p1 for the reels to hold/nudge and the buttons for player 2 is gamble/collect/hi/low all set via GameEx's advance config.As for exit normally ESC exits so i have a button programmed to do that. I dont use a keyboard on my cab anymore.

[MrJimmy]

thanks Draco!