Retroarch MAME Config Files Locations - Trackball / Spinner Sensitivity easy editing

[azz09]

Hi, I am having no luck on this issue, hoping someone has gone through this. 

I am trying to use Retroarch with MAME but I am very close to doing MAME stand alone, it does not seem to work well with spinners and trackballs when it comes to sensitivity etc. 

For example - there is no way I can see through RA to say "hey I would like my default spinner key/joy speed to be 5 for all games" (That is a setting in MAME Analog Options via MAME menu)

SO, to achieve this I need to create cfg files for each game, which is fine, i dont have a huge collection. 

It seems to do this you open the game, then MAME menu, edit, then "Save Game-options file" from RA Quick Menu.
I can do that once, then duplicate .opt file for that game across other games. BUT, is that the only way?

At this point I might just use standalone MAME for racing / spinner / trackball games, just seems to be a pain to deal with RA when it comes to Spinner/Trackball fine tuning.

for the config files, found these folders with MAME config files, and then the game config files. But updating settings in Mame menu does not update cfg file, you must create the Game-Options file (I think)

LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch\config

LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch\config\MAME 2003-plus

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[DOS76]

I'd definitely suggest just using MAME stand alone for this controller scenario.

[Headrush69]

9 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

I'd definitely suggest just using MAME stand alone for this controller scenario.

Agreed and I think you'll find a default value for spinners isn't as helpful as you would think.

The values are incredibly different between games. (That's if you're trying to get realistic values to the original machines)

[azz09]

Thank you both, I will just use MAME stand alone for those. One more question - or 2

What MAME is best? Can I use 2003-Plus to match my ROMs? or maybe just 2003?

Will the config files be in folders like RA , as cfg files, or other?

 

Thanks!

[Headrush69]

1 hour ago, azz09 said:

Thank you both, I will just use MAME stand alone for those. One more question - or 2

What MAME is best? Can I use 2003-Plus to match my ROMs? or maybe just 2003?

Will the config files be in folders like RA , as cfg files, or other?

I don't use MAME in Retroarch, I just find it adds another layer of complexity I don't need and it doesn't really add anything. (MAME does bezels and has HLSL for shading).

I have a lot of different input devices on my cabinet and standalone MAME just handles it easier and can do things like split inputs between devices for a single game which is incredibly handy for some games.

(For example, on racing games I can use my steering wheel, but use the LED buttons on the cabinet still for things like view buttons in Daytona games. Another example is using my spinner and flight stick at the same time for Tron.)

MAME is always a moving target and you'll have to match your rom set with your MAME version, there is no best version. The nice thing about using the 2003-plus core in Retroarch is the rom set is fairly static and even though it's based on a much older mame source base, games in the set work well and you probably won't notice changes that newer versions may have. (Sometimes improvements MAME aren't always on screen noticeable, which is most important to the majority of end users.)

 Bottom line, if you you want to use MAME in Retroarch, I'd stick to 2003-plus and the latest core, don't mess with 2000, 2010 etc.