Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle

General Chat => Arcade Lifestyle => Topic started by: baritonomarchetto on June 27, 2011, 07:16:09 PM

Title: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: baritonomarchetto on June 27, 2011, 07:16:09 PM
Hi all,

i am trying to figure out how Pole Position (and Pole  Position 2) steering wheel works in MAME and in an original arcade. I know that the machine is equipped with an optical encoder (360°), not a pot, but in MAME it would be 100% compatible with a pot wheel if it wasn't for an autocenter effect that drives the machine straight even if the level of the joy is pressed. I am using MAME 0.106, maybe more recent versions are not affected by this problem.

 My questions are:

- can someone confirm this effect in real arcades? I mean, is it necessary to continuosly turn the steering wheel in order to keep the car turning?

- can someone confirm that pole position (or PP2) can run in newer versions of MAME with a joystick (pot hardware)?

thank you very much   ;D

Title: Re: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: jcp on June 27, 2011, 08:10:09 PM
Pole Position with a joystick : yuck  :P !
Title: Re: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: Etienne MacGyver on June 27, 2011, 10:54:28 PM
Pole Position with a joystick : yuck  :P !

no offence, but that was not the question  ;D
Title: Re: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: jcp on June 28, 2011, 12:00:51 AM
Etienne : hum, I spot the part 2 of the question ;D and it's no way for me  :spaceace:.

You can't have the real feeling of the machine without the right wheel, for example :

(http://img2.uplood.fr/free/iccf_bbunderwheel.jpg)
Title: Re: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: PunkRockCaveman on June 28, 2011, 11:16:20 AM
Hi.

I can only confirm, that it's necessary to continuosly turn the steering wheel in order to keep the car turning on the real machine, yes. The "autocentering" is a feature, not a bug. I can't answer the second question though. The only thing I know is, that you need an extra Mame-port to get the gear-shifting right. On the machine there is a micro switch, that is pressed for low-gear and released to switch in high gear (or vice versa ;)). In Mame you just toggel between gears with a button and (and that's most annoying) the gear-status (hi/low) is displayed all the time.

There was once a special Mame version for this problem ... I think it was ShifterMame or something ...
Title: Re: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: baritonomarchetto on June 28, 2011, 11:38:29 AM
Hi.

I can only confirm, that it's necessary to continuosly turn the steering wheel in order to keep the car turning on the real machine, yes. The "autocentering" is a feature, not a bug.

Thanks, this is exactly the info i was digging for (i never had the fortune to play an original machine  :'()

Quote
The only thing I know is, that you need an extra Mame-port to get the gear-shifting right. On the machine there is a micro switch, that is pressed for low-gear and released to switch in high gear (or vice versa ;)). In Mame you just toggel between gears with a button and (and that's most annoying) the gear-status (hi/low) is displayed all the time.
This is for sure: i have a MAME cab for racing games i am working on a special MAME port for  ;)... here is the link:

http://www.racermame.altervista.org (http://www.racermame.altervista.org)

I was planning to add PP and PP2 because they are very fun racers, but i will not since i wanna add games that can be handled by pot and opti wheels  :-\

Quote
There was once a special Mame version for this problem ... I think it was ShifterMame or something ...

ShifterMAME was abandoned at ver. 0.125. It' very slow being based on MAME versions > 0.106
Title: Re: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: kroustibat on June 28, 2011, 01:28:11 PM
interesting project baritonomarchetto... any plans to try to support shaking engine  for outrun & powerdrift cabs?
Title: Re: Pole Position compatibility with pot wheels
Post by: baritonomarchetto on June 28, 2011, 06:52:30 PM
[...]any plans to try to support shaking engine  for outrun & powerdrift cabs?

I am sorry but such a feature is not something i can implement  :'(