Mame controller config 4 player cabinet question.

[matamian]

Hey guys. Wondering if there's a way to set up a separate controller config for 2 and 4 player games. I want my two 6  button setups to be set as p1 and p2 for all 2 player games but also have them set as p2 and p3 in all four player games. This is to make sure four player games have the correct player position per controller. 

I know that I can edit the config per game but that would take forever. Is there a way to set a config file thar would apply to all 4 player games? 

 

Thank you. 

[Headrush69]

You can set up specific stable ID controller files and pass this file to mame on startup to change the order.  MAME stable ID documentation

A couple of things you still have to worry about:

• Making sure button order between your different controllers  matches up. If one controller has a A B C D arrangement, but the other has B A D C, you'll have to still individually change games.
• Since you'll have to set a custom launch command, you'll have to do that for all the games needed. You might be able to use playlist and bulk edit to make it easier.

25 minutes ago, matamian said:

This is to make sure four player games have the correct player position per controller. 

I'm not 100% sure I understand what you mean here.

What and/or how are your controllers different for player 1 and player 2 in 4 player games? Need to know more information as using your 6 button controllers as player 1 and player 2 and than the other controllers as player 3 and player 4 is obviously a lot easier and pretty much little work. Just not getting the reasoning. ☺️

[matamian]

7 hours ago, Headrush69 said:

You can set up specific stable ID controller files and pass this file to mame on startup to change the order.  MAME stable ID documentation

A couple of things you still have to worry about:

• Making sure button order between your different controllers  matches up. If one controller has a A B C D arrangement, but the other has B A D C, you'll have to still individually change games.
• Since you'll have to set a custom launch command, you'll have to do that for all the games needed. You might be able to use playlist and bulk edit to make it easier.

I'm not 100% sure I understand what you mean here.

What and/or how are your controllers different for player 1 and player 2 in 4 player games? Need to know more information as using your 6 button controllers as player 1 and player 2 and than the other controllers as player 3 and player 4 is obviously a lot easier and pretty much little work. Just not getting the reasoning. ☺️

Thank you for your reply. Sorry my explanation was pretty bad. 

My 6 button setups are at the center of my control panel. To the left and right of those joysticks are two 4 button setups. Naturally I'll configure my mame general input with the two 6 button setups as player 1 and 2 for fighting games and etc. With that general setup a lot of 4 player games have an assigned character/life bar to a specific player. For example, player one in tmnt is Leonardo, all the way to the left on the control panel. With my setup, Leo's life bar is all the way to the left but is controlled by the middle left joystick.  

I'm probably being to crazy about this. Normally I just go into a game I'm about to play and edit the config but I'm putting something together for a friend that probably won't be able to do that. 

Thanks again for the info. I'll look into further. 

[Headrush69]

That makes much more sense now, thanks.

Are you arcade joysticks seen as joysticks or do they use a encoder like an iPac and are mapped to  keyboard inputs?

[matamian]

8 hours ago, Headrush69 said:

That makes much more sense now, thanks.

Are you arcade joysticks seen as joysticks or do they use a encoder like an iPac and are mapped to  keyboard inputs?

They are joysticks with individual encoders. 

[Headrush69]

4 hours ago, matamian said:

They are joysticks with individual encoders. 

As long as they appear as joysticks, using the custom controller file to set the joystick order should work.

[tkssitch]

On 8/21/2022 at 12:23 PM, matamian said:

Hey guys. Wondering if there's a way to set up a separate controller config for 2 and 4 player games. I want my two 6  button setups to be set as p1 and p2 for all 2 player games but also have them set as p2 and p3 in all four player games. This is to make sure four player games have the correct player position per controller. 

I know that I can edit the config per game but that would take forever. Is there a way to set a config file thar would apply to all 4 player games? 

 

Thank you. 

Here is what i do.  I run a 4-player cab with player position going 1,2,3,4.  And with 2 or 3 player setup my controls go  3,1,2,3.  With that setup i have my player 1 and 2 in the center of cab and for those few 3 player games (Battletoads,Double Dragon 3 etc..), they can play on either side. This is how i do it.

1) set up 2 mame emulators  specific for 2 player cab and one for 4 player cab. (I just put those in the launchbox/emulator folder, I can't remember if that folder was there already or if i had to create it myself)

2)set up your controls in both emulators as you normally would.

3)add those emulators to your launchbox.  I believe its in tools>manage emulators.  also don't check or say yes to make those your default arcade emulators, we will handle that later.  

4)assuming you have your playlist categories setup from adding your roms in, go to playlist categories and you should see "2 players" and "4 players"   

5) start with 2 player but you can also just do this to All arcade games as well so make your single player games are set on the same mame setup as your 2 player.  But select either 2 player or all arcade games, and select all the listed games *Ctrl+A*  (to make this easier to do i change the view to just "list")  right-click the highlighted area and select "Bulk Edit"

6) You should have a wizard screen pop up and a pulldown bar.  click the bar and scroll to emulators, and set "value" to your mame running 2 player setup.  and that is it for 2 player or All games if you choose that method.

7) 4 players repeat same process, goto 4 players in the playlist categories, select all games,right-click,Bulk edit, except this time pick the mame set for 4 players.  and that is it.

After that the games will automatically go to the mame setup for the choosen roms.

Side note, some 4 player games will not out the gate be set to 4 players or 3 players to 3.  I think one of the Capcom D&D is this way and BattleToads as well. but fix is simple, just "tab" your keyboard to goto the menu and change the dipswitch to 4players from whichever it was set to. 

 

Hope that helps some.  

 

This can also be done with FBNeo pretty much the same expect it requires a different kind of tinkering in the controls section for retroarch.