Joysticks?

Thread in 'Hardware' started by Poochy, 17 Oct 2007.

  1. Poochy

    Poochy Unregistered

    I'm starting to think I'm approaching the limits of playing on a keyboard a lot faster than I'm approaching the limits of my skill at TAP, so I'm thinking about maybe getting a joystick. So for those of you who play on joysticks:


    1. What are some good brands/models of joysticks that I could use with MAME? Technical complexity is not an issue, as long as I don't need anything soldered. However, I'd prefer something that's directly USB-compatible, although that's not a requirement. It also can't be ungodly expensive.

    2. Where can I buy a good joystick?

    3. Any other advice?
     
  2. mat

    mat

    reconsider the limits of your keyboard?
     
  3. Amnesia

    Amnesia Piece of Cake

    Ok it is not useless to remind this detail :


    Code:
        matt     poochy
    TGM  10:58     12:48
    TAP   S9       S7
    TAP   686      363
    
    
    Conclusion : You can improve a lot yet with the keyboard.

    But maybe matt has strange hands which allow him to play as good as a joystick player.. [​IMG]




    2nd detail, the fastest players on lockjaw play with a keyboad, and DIGITAL told me that seems impossible for him to do a "40 lines" under 40sec with a joystick..

    I remember I reached 436 in DEATH and S8 in Master mode with a D-PAD..One day I saw an arcade stick for XBOX, from gamester at 30, recently I saw 2 same models at 17 for each one..If you add 5 for the adaptator XBOX/USB (from IBAY) you can get a good joystick for a price under 30 today..

    But I agree this stick has not the same quality than a stick X-ARCADE at 80.


    And never think you have reached your limit on TAP [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    Unless you are blocked on the same records over 6 months

    (it is my limit [​IMG] )

    How many time I though I was finished..If you are blocked, try to improve your speed with this method :

    With the cheat :

    1 : train at DEATH 400 to improve your resistance.

    2 : train at DEATH 300 with the manual locking.


    Ask some advice to colour_thief about your technique, he helped me a lot few months ago about some optimized moves I ignored, that allowed me to open new gates and new way of improvement..
     
  4. "I'm starting to think I'm approaching the limits of playing on a keyboard a lot faster than I'm approaching the limits of my skill at TAP."


    Wow, really? How fast are you going? 300, 400tpm? [​IMG]
     
  5. Perhaps a more accurate statement would be that the keyboard is currently limiting him more than his skill? I know that's the case for me, since I just achieved 300 in Death with a D-pad on one of my first tries, whereas I've only maybe once made it that far in several weeks of playing on the keyboard.
     
  6. Amnesia

    Amnesia Piece of Cake


    [​IMG][​IMG]
     
  7. That was the case for me, I found myself blaming my keyboard more and more as I played.. that's when I finally decided to shell out for VSHG. Sure, my skills with the keyboard didn't transfer well over to the joystick at first, but suddenly it was alot more fun to play and eventually I started to improve beyond my previous limitations on the keyboard. It's hard work, but well worth it in my opinion.
     
  8. Poochy

    Poochy Unregistered

    Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. The main thing is, I find myself having a bit of trouble tapping stuff over quickly on a keyboard, plus I keep messing up on Zangi-moves and such because I end up pressing two directions at once, and TAP doesn't seem to accept diagonal input.


    In other words, I mean I feel like I could improve faster on a joystick than a keyboard, since I keep making input errors on the directional keys.


    Still, if matt can do that on a keyboard, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to keep trying on my keyboard.
     
  9. Is it the keyboard limiting you or is it MAME? Because in my game, I can easily get sub-55 on the first section in Master, even sub-54, but in MAME I'd be lucky to get even 58 seconds. Also I can consistently pull off moves in my game that almost ALWAYS get screwed up somehow in MAME, same goes for Texmaster.


    Death isn't as bad but once again, I consistently get faster section times in my game/Texmaster than in MAME.
     
  10. Poochy

    Poochy Unregistered

    Well, the keyboard is at least one of the factors. The problem is that I'll often try to press one directional key while still holding another, and the game doesn't seem to accept diagonal input. Here's an example of what happens:


    I hold DAS all the way to the left, then press down to manually lock a tetrimino. However, MAME registers it as a left-down diagonal because I don't release the left key until a split-second after I strike the down key. Thus, the piece doesn't manually lock. Then I hold the rotation for IRS for the next piece, but it rotates my current. By the time I realize this, it's too late and the piece has already locked, plus my error spills over into my input for the next piece. This gets worse when I try Zangi-moves and such, which require a rapid U-something-D sequence.


    In short, I think my problems stem from the fact that a keyboard's directional keys are an 8-way input (since holding two perpendicular keys works like a diagonal), but TAP is a 4-way game. I figured using a 4-way joystick would probably help.
     
  11. Amnesia

    Amnesia Piece of Cake


    Do you speak about the real TAP or heboris ?? [​IMG]
    Dawn..Otherwise I though we are only 2 with jago to get 54 in TAP.. [​IMG]
     
  12. He said he was talking about his own game.
     
  13. tepples

    tepples Lockjaw developer

    Can you set MAME to emulate the guide of a 4-way stick by disallowing inputs of two directions at once? Here's code from my own game that does this:

    Code:
     // If diagonal presses are disabled, ignore any changes
     if (!c->allowDiagonals
       && (keys & (VKEY_UP | VKEY_DOWN))
       && (keys & (VKEY_LEFT | VKEY_RIGHT))) {
      keys &= ~(VKEY_UP | VKEY_DOWN | VKEY_LEFT | VKEY_RIGHT);
      keys |= lastFrameKeys
          & (VKEY_UP | VKEY_DOWN | VKEY_LEFT | VKEY_RIGHT);
     }
    Or do the MAME developers consider emulation of the non-digital parts of the joystick itself "not our problem"?
     
  14. K

    K

    I was wondering if there a code or feature to force mame to display input on screen for .inp file ?

    If it is not natively supported, can on screen "very simple" (like fps display for example) display be implemented by a plug or something ?
     

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