MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat

Hmmm. I had a whole other reply ready, but scrapped it. Let me just start by saying, "it's complicated."

TL;DR I attached a cfg file for my Dualshock 3 with numeric keypad mapping that works for my favorite intv games, but I don't know how much use it'll be for you.

The Intellivision has a gawd awful control system. It sounds like it's better in every respect compared to any previous controller at the time: a keypad for entering data, multiple fire buttons, a 16-directional disc for finer control, ambidextrous. It was just uncomfortable to use, and the disc just seemed less responsive than using a joystick.

There are 31 inputs on one controller: 12 keypad inputs, 3 side button inputs (there are 4 side buttons, but the top-left and top-right are tied together), and 16-direction disc inputs. These inputs are hooked up to an 8-bit port on the sound chip. Think about that: 31 inputs hooked up to an 8-bit port. They came up with a pretty ingenious scheme to map all those controls down to 8-bits, but you also run into "ghosting", where pressing a combination of inputs look like another input altogether (see Space Hawk hyperspace bug, or the mte201 test cartridge controller test).

Because the keypad is used differently per game, it's difficult to come up with a generic scheme that just works. For example, some games use the keypad for entering numbers. This is how MAME is mapped by default, with the left hand controller mapped to your keyboard's numeric keypad. Notice how "1 2 3" is at the top of the Intellivision controller, but at the bottom of your keyboard's numeric keypad.

Other games used the keypad as essentially another directional input.

These games will not work very well with the default MAME mapping, because of the swapped "1 2 3" and "7 8 9" rows of the Intellivision controller keypad vs. your keyboard's numeric keypad.

You need game-specific mappings based on the overlay type, which as far as I know, MAME does not support for these system-based games.

All I can offer you is advice in setting up the controls. Have two intv mappings saved off somewhere: one for the logical layout (I want to press 1 on the keyboard's numeric keypad and that presses 1 on the Intellivision controller keypad, e.g. MAME's default mapping) and one for the physical layout (the top row of the keyboard's numeric keypad corresponds to the top row of the Intellivision controller keypad), and copy one of those over to cfg/intv.cfg folder before running a particular game. I believe there are front-ends out there that can handle these kind of per-game issues.

Now for the disc controls. 16-directions complicates things.

First the naming. The MAME UI precedes the left hand controller controls with "Left/" and the right hand controller controls with "Right/". All 16-directions are mapped by name, starting with Up and proceeding in clockwise order as follows:

1 Up
2 Up-Up-Right
3 Up-Right
4 Right-Up-Right
5 Right
6 Right-Down-Right
7 Down-Right
8 Down-Down-Right
9 Down
10 Down-Down-Left
11 Down-Left
12 Left-Down-Left
13 Left
14 Left-Up-Left
15 Up-Left
16 Up-Up-Left

You can go into MAME's UI, under "Machine Configuration", and choose the disc mapping per controller. Your choices are "Digital", which allows you to map all 16-directions to discrete inputs (up/down/left/right are mapped by default). "Analog" works well with analog controllers, like the Dualshock 3 thumbstick.

I wanted it to just work if you used an 8-way controller. It works, but it's a bit wonky. Pressing diagonally currently gets your character moving in a *somewhat* diagonal direction.

However, I also wanted to be able to map all 16-directions to discrete inputs. Some games have easter eggs that can only be activated by pressing one of these "in between" directions.

I'm submitting a patch that attempts to merge cardinal direction presses (Up, Down, Left and Right) into their true diagonals (Up + Left = Up-Left, Up + Right = Up-Right, Down + Left = Down-Left, and Down + Right = Down-Right). I was going to add another "Machine Configuration" disc mode, "8-way digital", but things are already complicated enough, so I attempt to use some simple heuristics to accomplish this.

If you're just looking to play games using an 8-way digital gamepad, set the "Machine Configration" to "Digital" for whichever controller you're mapping, then just map Left/Up, Left/Down, Left/Left and Left/Right for the left player controls (and/or Right/Up, Right/Down, Right/Left, and Right/Right for right player controls).

If you're looking to play games using an analog stick, like the Dualshock 3 thumbstick, set the "Machine Configration" to "Analog" for whichever controller you're mapping, then just map Left/X Analog and Left/Y Analog for left player controls (and/or Right/X Analog and Right/Y Analog for right player controls).

Easy, right? :-P

I attached a few cfg files for my Dualshock 3 controller mapping for left player controls. In "Digital" mode, you use the gamepad; in "Analog" mode, you use the left thumbstick. Copy one of these files to cfg/intv.cfg based on the type of overlay the game needs.

Pretty sure you'll need to make one on your own though for your controller.

Good luck!

H@P