MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Configuring a 8-way joystick to work better as a 4-way by mapping alone in MAME (suggestion for new feature)

Hi. I have an 8-way joystick that I want to configure to work better in some 4-way games, like Ghouls n' Ghosts. What I found that I can currently achieve in MAME is:

#1

Using the 'NOT' statement to ignore diagonals inputs altogether, however, this doesn't work great in practice. It actually kinda sucks when you accidentally hit an diagonal and there's no input.

#2

Again, by using the 'NOT' statement, you can make 'up/right' act as just 'right'. And 'up/left' as just 'left'. Same with 'down' instead of 'up'. However, although this is slightly better than simply ignoring diagonals, it's not perfect. I'll explain below why.

#A better solution (suggestion)

The best solution would be if MAME could figure out when a specific key, which is part of a key combination, is pressed first and threat it as an unique input.

For example, 'right + down' should be able to make a character duck down. But 'down + right' should be able to make a character move to the right instead of ducking. This would seem to be the most logical setup in practice if it could actually work like this. However, even if MAME will display the first key pressed in a combination, it actually seems to ignore the order completely, unfortunately.

The short version:

MAME doesn't seem to care which key is pressed first in a combination. Eg. 'right + down' is treated the same as 'down + right'. This is unfortunate because it would otherwise allow you to setup a 8-way joystick to work much better in 4-way games without ignoring diagonals inputs.

I've also discovered that some 4-ways games, like Timber, seem to already work in the exact way that I described using a 8-way joystick. It seems to be a much more sensible approach than simply ignoring diagonals. If MAME supported key combinations by order of the inputs then games such as Ghouls n' Ghosts could work as well as Timber and others with an 8-way configuration.

It currently makes too good sense to me not to implement such a feature. At least, I can't see why it shouldn't be technically durable.

If I did something wrong and MAME can actually figure it out, let me know what I might have done wrong. If there's an alternative solution then please share it. Thank you.

*also posted on /r/MAME

Edited by hippox89 (09/13/16 01:11 PM)

- Changed 4-way emulation on a 8-way joystick to "sticky" mode. This makes
Lady Bug and other 4-way games more playable.
Explanation here: http://www.rentrondesign.homestead.com/JoyPrimer.html
[Jeoff Krontz]

/* If joystick is pointing at a diagonal, acknowledge that the player moved
* the joystick by favoring a direction change. This minimizes frustration
* when using a keyboard for input, and maximizes responsiveness.
*
* For example, if you are holding "left" then switch to "up" (where both left
* and up are briefly pressed at the same time), we'll transition immediately
* to "up."
*
* Under the old "sticky" key implentation, "up" wouldn't be triggered until
* left was released.
*
* Zero any switches that didn't change from the previous to current state.
*/