Alien 3 The Gun + A-PAC

LuKa · Feb 8, 2019

Hey guys,

I'm banging my head against a wall with this one. I have a Alien 3 The Gun cab that unfortunately has a dead PCB but the rest of the cabinet works fine. So I threw a PC in there and it runs Alien 3 The Gun via MAME. I have both guns hooked up to a A-Pac (https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/a-pac-analog-digital-dual-gamepad-interface.html) and they work but I have one issue. They track nicely on the screen after I had played with the dead zone etc but the issue is if a gun is aimed to the maximum top or bottom or the screen, the cross hair warps to opposite Y location. I have calibrated the guns/joysticks in windows Game Pad settings and I even tried going through the Alien 2 The Gun service menu to calibrate the guns. Turning left or right is fine it just seems to be with up or down.

Any ideas guys?

Cheers

twistedsymphony · Feb 8, 2019

I've never got analog gun controls to work well as an analog device in MAME.

MAME really just doesn't handle analog data well for mapping to a screen position.

the best solution I can think of would be to use some piece of software to convert the analog data to a mouse position and then use the mouse position as an input in MAME.

I've heard that GlovePIE can do this (it's a tool for using Wii Remotes in Windows), but I've never got around to testing it personally.

LuKa · Feb 9, 2019

Thank you twistedsymphony I'll start looking down the analog to mouse route.

Zebra · Feb 16, 2019

I have a Gunblade / LA Machine Guns gun which I use with mame through an Apac. It is essentially the same gun as Alien 3 minus 1 button. Mine works perfectly in Mame Alien 3 and every other fixed gun game. I also have Op Thunderbolt and Gen X guns hooked up and working perfectly.

If you are having an issue with one of the axis, and you have really calibrated properly, then there is a physical problem with your set-up. Check for shorts on all the cables. It could also be a problem with one of the pots. Try switching them and if the problem shifts to the other axis then you will know what the issue is.

If you have recoil hooked up then make sure to remove the diode box from the motor power cable. It caused awful problems on mine before I removed it.

Also, try using the other side of the Apac to see if it is a problem with the particular screw terminal in the board. And... try a different USB port. Teleporting crosshairs is sometimes caused by too little power.

All calibration is done in Windows. Don't try to use any of the in-game calibration menus. Check that only one control for each axis is selected in mame. They also offer analog Up and Down controls but these should be blank. I.e. Select them and press esc.

When calibrating in Windows, check that the gun is dead center before starting, then aim around the edge of the screen. Don't leg go of the gun until you click finish on the calibration.