MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: MAME games listed as having dial/trackball controls

> I have a question that I feel is either commonly asked once in a blue moon, or maybe
> I just have something misconfigured.
>
> I recently replaced a broken Oscar spinner with a SpinTrak and new OptiPac board. I
> also took this opportunity to update to MAME v0.150. I went through and listed all
> games that have trackball and dial (spinner) controls and started checking them out.
> For the life of me I cannot get Blades of Steel to work with the trackball, nor can I
> get Space Invaders 95 to work with the spinner. I think there are some other oddballs
> out there, but I figured I'd start with these two since they may be more common.
>
> I know some games require you to go into service mode and switch from joystick to
> spinner/trackball controls (Puzz Loop is one that comes to mind). But Blades of Steel
> and Space Invaders 95 do not work with analog controls and I don't see any service
> menu or DIP switch to change controls.
>
> From what I've read Blades of Steel was originally a trackball game. I cannot figure
> out why my trackball won't work with this particular game. Space Invaders 95 I can't
> find any information as to whether this game used a spinner or not.
>
> Anyone have any thoughts/experience here?

Well, I got my answer on both of these issues. Figured I'd share in case anyone else runs into this.

Regarding Space Invaders 95, it doesn't have dial controls. After reading around various forums, apparently the Taito boards supported dial controls, but never used them. That's why there's a ton of Taito games that show having dial controls but really do not use them. Space Invaders 95 is one of those games. Mystery solved on that and why completely random games are showing as having dial controls (like vertical shooters and soccer games).

Regarding Blades of Steel, the parent ROM does not use a trackball, even though the "listxml" says that it does. Version T "bladestl", which is the parent ROM, uses a joystick. You have to use one of the clones, Version L "bladestll" or Version E "bladestle", for the trackball to work.