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

I believe your suggestion for a new feature is an old feature that's since been removed.

It was called "sticky keys". There's mention of it in MAME 0.37B14 (April 2001) readme.txt:

- 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]

Don't bother with the JoyPrimer link above; it's long dead, and even archive.org doesn't have it.

It looks like it was changed in MAME 0.57 (January 2002) src/inptport.c:

/* 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.
 */

And it was further tweaked in MAME 0.84u4 (July 2004), where it looks like it's remained mostly unchanged since.

There's also a (very) old conversation about it here, with some suggestions on key mappings that might help.

I was concerned about this when I started buying components for a cocktail cabinet, so I settled on joysticks with a rotating restrictor plate. With a pull and twist, the joystick goes from 8-way to 4-way mode, and back again. No need to even open the cabinet. See Mag-Stik/Mag-Stik Plus.

H@P

Edited by H@P (09/14/16 07:46 AM)