INSTALLATIONThe picture below shows wiring of the maximum number of pots, ie 4pots. It also shows an example 4 switches. Note that not all four potpositions need to be used for pots. You can connect buttons instead toany input. The direction of the pot control depends on the wiring ofthe two outer connections on the pot. If the pot works "backwards",then swap these over. Note Mame can also be configured to reverseanalog control directions.
The "Start1" input changes the selected buttons to the shiftedset, buttons 13-28 in Windows.This behaves in exactly the same way asthe I-PAC shift button. All the other inputs are ordinary buttons.
ALTERNATIVE CONFIGURATION WITH A STANDARD DIGITALJOYSTICKIf you are not using analog controls, but using a regular micro-switchjoystick, simply connect the 4 joystick switches to UP, DOWN, LEFT andRIGHT in the same way as the I-PAC boards.
The button assignment is shownbelow, which is a screen capture from Control Panel, Game Devices in Windows.Open Control Panel, Game Devices. You will see two A-PAC Gamepad devices shown.Select each one and check for correct operation. The top one in the list is theplayer 1 side, the lower one is player 2. This capture below shows the displayfor
ONE SIDE of the board , ie one gamepad device.The button display for the other device is identical.
The above controlsare duplicated for the Player 2 side of theboard
Calibration
If you are using controls which don'tcover the entire range of travel of the pot, you will need to calibrate thecontrol. All you need to do is click on "ControlPanel", "Game Controllers", and then highlight the upper or lower entry for "A-PACInterface", and follow the instructions. This will ensure that a full movementof the control device corresponds to a full movement in the game.
"Trick" Calibration.You might want to calibrate so that ananalog control produces full movement in the game over a small movement of thecontrol. You can easily do this. During the calibration process, when it asksyou to move the control to the limits of movement, if you only move it to, forexample 50% of the travel, this will be logged as the full-travel position, soyou will get a full game movement over 50% of the actual control motion.
Other SettingsMAME has a setting for "JoystickDead Zone". This is useful when you are using an analog control in a digitalgame, as you can tweak the "travel" of the control, ie how far you have to moveit before it registers as an emulated switch press.
Using with MAMETo use this device with MAME,all you need to do is enable joystick support in MAME.INI. The play buttons andjoysticks are then automatically assigned in MAME because this device is seenas two gamepads which MAME expects. You may need to assign COIN and STARTbuttons. If you start with a digital (switch) joystick and then re-wire to ananalog stick, there is no need to change any settings.
FAQs