Thread Title should have been "Arcade Joystick to USB adapter" :S Hi, I tried to use the search, but havent found what I was looking for. I have this cabinet. The screen and the power supply are dead and I thought of making my own MAME machine with it, using a Linux and/or Windows version of "Groovy arcade" for example. (Except someone would recommend me another MAME version, because I want to go with "xi mo" or "mini pac") : I found the cheaper xi mo : http://www.xin-mo.com/ And the pricier mini pac : https://www.ultimarc.com/minipac.html Anyone of you uses these or can share his experience with one of these ? Maybe got another advice ? The machine I have is this one : http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/need-help-identifying-a-arcade-pcb-board.62495/ Id say I go for the "cheap" xi mo 1st, if not adviced otherwise. It should work fine with MAME live CDs ? And as it smells of smoke, where would one buy "new buttons and joysticks" that would fit to this machine except on ebay ?
Just throwing this out there, but I used one those: https://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html With my senior project to design a drone controller via WiFi and it worked very well. The software is straight forward and you can change the key inputs to anything you want. Plus, all of those buttons you have pictured are just +5v/Ground cables. If you use the I-pac, then no special software would be required as it just send keyboard keys as input. We used a Raspberry Pi and it worked very well. You could also use Retro-Pi to power the cabinet.
Yep, the I-Pac gets recommended a lot. Another way would be to get some random cheap USB controller (or two) and connect the arcade hardware to the contact pads on the controller. That's what I'm using for my current setup. It may look a bit ghetto inside the case but works perfectly. Buttons/sticks can be had on lots of chinese sites, e.g. on AliExpress - They're available separately, and also in kit form, often with an I-Pac-like device included.
Already 1 month passed and Im still cleaning the cabinet, ordered new T-Moldings, installed a screen and a laptop. 1 more question. IPac says its programmed for MAME already. So if I attach the "Coin" button cables to the "blue W button" it will simply send the "insert coin" command to MAME ? I cant seem to find "coin buttons" on ebay, so I have to buy a transparent one and create a coins decal ?
I might have a spare decal I had made for mine for coin and player 1 and player 2 buttons. Where abouts are you?
I would assume the MAME is just looking for a certain bit (high or low) from which is changed when coins are inserted. I would assume it should work out of the box. This may help: https://www.ultimarc.com/ipac2.html
Germany here. Ah I see. Does ipac/minipac or its cheap derivates also work with all emulators (SNES & Co.) and with Windows games as well ?
Sorry if I sound stupid, but if I start up a SNES emulator and it asks to press a key for "UP" in the settings and I move the arcade joystick UP...IPAC "assigns" a key from the keyboard (as well), lets say "E" instead of showing "JOY UP", like it shows when you have a simple USB Pad attached ?
So, by default the ipac has keys assigned to the inputs that are printed on to the board itself. You can change these by using the software from their website. This way, if you press "up" on the joystick it CAN be "up" on the arrow keys OR it could be "E" or "4" or "]" etc... Its whate ever you would like it to be. Hope this helps answer your question.
You have remember that you are mapping to keyboard strokes. Now, you probably could change what is being displayed on the screen, but you would need to do that in the emulator. Because the computer is just looking for the interrupt from the ipac/keyboard input.
Sure no problem. You can also think of it like this: Joy Stick/Buttons -> Ipac (Translates input to keyboard strokes) -> Emulator (Translates keyboard strokes to virtual console) Example: "Up" on Joy Stick -> Arrow "Up" -> Up = "JOY UP". The translation from keyboard to emulator should be able to be done in the emulator settings under controller.
