I cannot get the select button (coin) to work in mame

[Cousin Vinnie]

I have an Atari fight stick and every emulator On my raspberry pi (Genesis, nes, arcade, Atari 7800 etc) Works perfectly except for MAME. I can get the buttons to do just about anything, but it will not recognize the select button (coin) after the game started. It also cannot recognize the select button as a hot key, either. I’ve tried remapping Buttons through retroarch and emulation station and no dice. Any ideas? 
 

 

[DragonGrafx-16]

You have to bind controls in MAME itself and on many games with the game loaded (machine settings and not global). Though I use MAME on my PC and not through another emulation program. 

[Cynicaster]

Hook up a keyboard and the joystick to the Pi, open any game in MAME.  Hit TAB on the keyboard to bring up the built-in MAME menu.  Select "Input General."  Here you will see a list of controls and how they are mapped.  Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the control you want to map (e.g. P1 Coin for adding a credit for player 1).  Once highlighted, press ENTER.  MAME is now waiting for you to press the button/key you want to assign to the selected function.  

 

"Input General" means that these button assignments will apply to all games.

 

If you want game-specific mappings, select "Input This Game."  Any settings entered here will supersede the general ones when that particular game is loaded.  

 

 

[Cousin Vinnie]

15 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

Hook up a keyboard and the joystick to the Pi, open any game in MAME.  Hit TAB on the keyboard to bring up the built-in MAME menu.  Select "Input General."  Here you will see a list of controls and how they are mapped.  Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the control you want to map (e.g. P1 Coin for adding a credit for player 1).  Once highlighted, press ENTER.  MAME is now waiting for you to press the button/key you want to assign to the selected function.  

 

"Input General" means that these button assignments will apply to all games.

 

If you want game-specific mappings, select "Input This Game."  Any settings entered here will supersede the general ones when that particular game is loaded.  

 

 

Tab is not working either- but only MAME. The select and start buttons work for every other system. Super puzzled.

[Cynicaster]

4 hours ago, Cousin Vinnie said:

Tab is not working either- but only MAME. The select and start buttons work for every other system. Super puzzled.

Was it ever working? 
 

Something must be wonky in the config files and it’s possible to accidentally goof these up so that they create problems like this (ask me how I know).  
 

You could try FTPing into your Pi, go to the mame directory, and delete the config file “mame.ini”

 

Then go to the /cfg folder and delete the file “default.ini” if it exists.  
 

These files will be automatically regenerated when you start mame again but they will revert to all “factory default” key mappings.  If your TAB menu doesn’t work after this then I’m at a loss.. are you sure the keyboard works?  

[Cousin Vinnie]

34 minutes ago, Cynicaster said:

Was it ever working? 
 

Something must be wonky in the config files and it’s possible to accidentally goof these up so that they create problems like this (ask me how I know).  
 

You could try FTPing into your Pi, go to the mame directory, and delete the config file “mame.ini”

 

Then go to the /cfg folder and delete the file “default.ini” if it exists.  
 

These files will be automatically regenerated when you start mame again but they will revert to all “factory default” key mappings.  If your TAB menu doesn’t work after this then I’m at a loss.. are you sure the keyboard works?  

It was working...

yes- it works for all computer games, and the tab works too. Just the mame games are jacked

[mr_me]

Assuming you're using Retropie, which version of Mame are you using.  Retropie has lots of different Mames, some use Retroarch controls, some standard Mame controls, some both.

[Cousin Vinnie]

1 hour ago, Cynicaster said:

Was it ever working? 
 

Something must be wonky in the config files and it’s possible to accidentally goof these up so that they create problems like this (ask me how I know).  
 

You could try FTPing into your Pi, go to the mame directory, and delete the config file “mame.ini”

 

Then go to the /cfg folder and delete the file “default.ini” if it exists.  
 

These files will be automatically regenerated when you start mame again but they will revert to all “factory default” key mappings.  If your TAB menu doesn’t work after this then I’m at a loss.. are you sure the keyboard works?  

This worked. Thank you so much. 

[MrMaddog]

On 4/6/2022 at 9:32 AM, Cynicaster said:

Was it ever working? 
 

Something must be wonky in the config files and it’s possible to accidentally goof these up so that they create problems like this (ask me how I know).  
 

You could try FTPing into your Pi, go to the mame directory, and delete the config file “mame.ini”

 

Then go to the /cfg folder and delete the file “default.ini” if it exists.  
 

These files will be automatically regenerated when you start mame again but they will revert to all “factory default” key mappings.  If your TAB menu doesn’t work after this then I’m at a loss.. are you sure the keyboard works?  

 

On 4/6/2022 at 10:08 AM, Cousin Vinnie said:

It was working...

yes- it works for all computer games, and the tab works too. Just the mame games are jacked

 

I highly recommend keeping a backup copy of default.ini after making your own custom controls, because MAME easily messes it up.  Like if I accidently start MAME without having a gamepad plugged in, then it erases all joystick inputs making it keyboard only again.

 

Probably goes the same with each MESS console/computer .ini file you make as well...