MAMEWorld Forums - Hardware - Re: Controller Input Not Always Recognized

> Hello, everyone.
>
> I have MAME32 .84u2, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Sabrent 12-button Joypad.
>
> I tried running it a week ago, and under the Tab menu, I'm unable to use the joypad
> to customize commands for the games, nor does the keyboard respond. I simply can't
> select anything on the menu. The "5" works for credit input and "1" works as start,
> but I cannot select characters or move. Oddly, MAME does recognize button input from
> the controller during the "Press any key to continue" intro screen. I have joypad
> input and mouse input both selected.
>
> Previously, I was able to use both the keyboard and the joypad to set up games
> without problems. This was last June on my laptop. Everything was transferred
> directly over to my new desktop PC, and MAME on the laptop still works perfectly with
> this controller. The one difference was that I used the controller for Steam games on
> the desktop PC prior to playing MAME, though I believe I have eliminated the Steam
> controller profile.
>
> On the off chance it's a system issue, I am having some problems with configuration
> on SNES9X and Fusion.
>
> Thank you in advance for any help with this issue.

Ignoring the MAME version for now, is the controller being disconnected? MAME always hates it when hardware randomly vanishes (I had it happen when my USB keyboard fell out after switching speakers from my amp to quieter desktop speakers).

The controllers not responding could even be a DirectInput issue, since that's what MAME and most likely the other equally-old emulators used to use for game controllers back in the day (Windows 10 is probably using Xinput by default which the old emulators most likely don't support).

As for MAME 0.82, there really is no reason to keep running it on anything newer than a Pentium 4 (even if it is a case of simply keeping the old emulators with the old ROMs without having to re-download them for the newer emulators).

Unless you're only interested in the same set of games that happen to run in 0.82u2, you're missing out on literally hundreds of games which have been properly emulated, added, redumped (replacing the bad ROM dumps) and/or promoted to working. Additionally, running a 32-bit version of MAME on a 64-bit system is kind of pointless, it's like running 16-bit Windows 3.1 programs on Windows XP when the install CD (or floppy disk, remember those?) also offered 32-bit versions of the exact same program.

Some examples of what's changed since 0.82:

Raiden 2 and DX working (along with other protected Seibu games), protected Gaelco games working (Seibu and Gaelco were both deemed "The Impossible" back then), Toaplan games with working sound, Bubble Bobble AI working properly instead of using guesswork (Taito C-Chips dumped and emulated), CPS2 emulation not needing XOR files, Tekken Tag Tournament working (as well as Tekken 1/2/3 of course), Namco System 22 working (and without sound hacks that required substituting a Prop Cycle ROM to get it to work) and not needing theoretical 10 GHz CPUs etc.