Here are my thoughts on WMMT 1 and 2 for when we get to a point that others are able to utilize what I'm putting together here:
The shifter on this game is so different than what's on an ID1-3/OR2 cabinet. It's a 6-position, 4 switch shifter. Think of it kind of like an 8-way joystick driven by 4 switches. Thought it's not self-centering. It stays in whatever gear you put it in.
Up-Left is First
Down-Left is 2nd
Up is 3rd
Down is 4th
Up-Right is 5th
Down-Right is 6th
There's not an effective way to play this game in manual transmission mode without a different kind of shifter. Many other cabs just have a 2-position self centering shifter.
The only way I could think to make that work would be to come up with some code that translates the 2 position shifter movements into the 6-position, but that's not something I'm interested in taking on. First off you'd have to let the I/O know that it's time to activate the code. And then you'd have to tell it when to deactivate/reset. If you ended a race in 6th gear and a new race starts, the I/O will have no idea it needs to go back to neutral or 1st... plus you won't have any way to hang out in neutral while drifting. I just don't think it would be worth the hassle. Might as well play it in automatic mode.
I've actually got a pair of shifters from WMMT and will eventually have 2 driving cabinets with these installed along with a 2-way shifter for other games. I'm designing my I/O to have an extra header just for wiring in this shifter.
For anyone else looking to get into WMMT and have a dedicated shifter for it, I'm thinking a simple 8-way joystick could do it. You'd just need to keep your hand on it to keep it in gear, and you'd be lacking a gate to keep the positions relatively locked in, but I think it could work.
In my limited play with the 6-way shifter, it's so much more fun than the 2-way shifter method of changing gears in ID3!
I know this may seem silly for others but I myself have a ID2 cab. I have added Mario Kart and had to create an 'Item' button with the help of friendly folks on this forum. Avoiding adding unnecessary holes in the cabinet dashboard, I have this button on a breadboard and am still figuring out where to place this button. With that being said, I have also added 6 additional buttons on the breadboard for WMMT1/2 shifting for testing. It's a bit daunting to pick which button to shift to but it works for testing purposes when I load up WMMT2. A custom 6 gear shifter with a gate to lock that position sounds like a cool project but one must walk before running.Anyways, as I type this, I just thought about a state machine that might be able to shift to and from a previous gear given the current gear. But I'm just thinking out loud right now and I think this in itself is another project.
The gear state machine you're talking about could be handled by the I/O, but it gets a little complicated when the I/O doesn't know that a race as ended.
Like if you ended a race on 6th gear, how would it know to reset? Or do you think it would be acceptable to have to down shift on your own at the beginning of the next race?
From a coding perspective, managing the states isn't that hard. You'd just keep track of current gear and switch to the next/previous based on the movement of the 2 way shifter.
I was thinking a challenge would be throwing it in neutral. I guess using a 2 position, maybe before changing states, it goes to neutral. So say I'm in 5th and want to drift in neutral. I shift down on the shifter and go neutral. Shift up goes back into 5th, of shift down again goes to 4th.
So the sequence would be as follows with each hit of the 2 way shifter:
Neutral
1st
Neutral
2nd
Neutral
3rd
Neutral
4th
Neutral
5th
Neutral
6th
I wonder if that would work well and still be fun. There's a bit of a pause before a new race starts, and IIRC it tells you to put it into 3rd gear before the race starts (i.e. It's a rolling start, not a start from a stopped position)... maybe that would be manageable.
