Default Input Mapping for MAME2014 (and newer) is wrong

hello, i have noticed odd input mapping on some games.

first i have to say that all 6-Button 2D Fighters and all Neogeo games i tried runs perfectly well and the input mapping for the buttons is set in Mamecore same as in FBA and plays perfectly fine with Controllers of nearly all kind!

But most other games i tried (mainly Games with 3 Buttons like Shoot em Ups, Run 'n Guns, Beat em ups) are mapped wrongly. it seem that all buttons are swapped or somewhat… (btw: sorry for my bad english)

i have noticed that “bug” on many games like Golden Axe 1+2, Super Gem Fighter Minimix, Die Hard Arcade, Radiant Silvergun, Soukyugurentai, Gradius 4, Deathsmiles…

here an Example for the default Button Mapping on a 3-Button Game:

Double Dragon 2 [with Xbox360/One Pad Layout in mind]

at default is set to:

Arcade-Button #1 is set to “B” [RIGHT BUTTON] (Punch/Kick to Left)

Arcade-Button #2 is set to “A” [LOWER BUTTON] (for Jump)

Arcade-Button #3 is set to “Y” [UPPER BUTTON] (Punch/Kick to Right)

The “X” [LEFT BUTTON] is unused

I Think it should be like this:

Arcade-Button #1 is set to “X” [LEFT BUTTON] (for Punch/Kick to Left)

Arcade-Button #2 is set to “A” [LOWER BUTTON] (for Jump)

Arcade-Button #3 is set to “B” [RIGHT BUTTON] (for Punch/Kick to Right)

“Y” [UPPER BUTTON] unused

Or an alternative Mapping following the 2D-Fighter Button Layout (can be nice for 6-Button Pads, Cabinets and Arcade Sticks)…

Arcade-Button #1 is set to “A” [LOWER BUTTON] (for Punch/Kick to Left)

Arcade-Button #2 is set to “B” [RIGHT BUTTON] (for Jump)

Arcade-Button #3 is set to “R” (for Punch/Kick to Right)

“Y” + “X” unused

And for 2- Button Games like DoDonpachi, Gunlock, Final Fight or Tutles in Time are the Buttons mapped incorrectly, too!

here an Example for the default Button Mapping on a 2-Button Game:

DoDonpachi [with Xbox360/One Pad Layout in mind]

at default is set to:

Arcade-Button #1 is set to “B” [RIGHT BUTTON] (for Fire)

Arcade-Button #2 is set to “A” [LOWER BUTTON] (for Smartbomb)

I Think it should be like this:

Arcade-Button #1 is set to “X” [LEFT BUTTON] (for Fire)

Arcade-Button #2 is set to “A” [LOWER BUTTON] (for Smartbomb)

Or an alternative Mapping (can be nice for 6-Button Pads, Cabinets and Arcade Sticks)…

Arcade-Button #1 is set to “A” [LOWER BUTTON] (for Fire)

Arcade-Button #2 is set to “B” [RIGHT BUTTON] (for Smartbomb)

I wonder all Mame-games were mapped better by default (maybe similar to the default Mapping Layout of the FBA-Cores - theese good default mappings try to matching the original arcade button layout as good as possible and this is a big deal i think).

Thanks to the RA-Team and keep up the great work please! :slight_smile:

Have you seen this thread in the Development forum? 6/8 button Arcade Cabinet/Fight Stick RetroPad layout

I wonder if these are the same issue, or how dankcushion’s proposal would affect your issue?

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take a closer look at my examples. i think what they are mean in that threat is more an request not a issue…

but maybe the whole “MAME on Retroarch”-thing is beating up my reporting-skills slowly… :slight_smile:

I wonder if all the mess with my beloved arcade games is gone someday.

Uh, your description is quite confuse, do you have a xbox or nintendo joypad in mind? Take a look at https://wiki.libretro.com/index.php?title=RetroPad

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sorry if seems bit confusing but i really can’t explain it much better (i am from germany and learn englich only few years at highschool - long time ago)

on the issue-description above i have an xbox 360/one layout in mind. and the text in brackets behind the Buttons says the actual position.

maybe you could play some Double Dragon 2 or Deathsmiles for understanding better what i mean.In thoose games the incorrectly default input-layout destroys the basic-gameplay very much as you will see… (or simply compare it to default mapping-layout in Standalone Mame and FBA Core with same games)

If I understand shakalakka correctly, they’re saying that the default mappings for many games in the recent MAME cores are not mapped correctly to the RetroArch joypad abstraction. Some specific titles are mentioned earlier in the the thread.

shakalakka is using the example of how this maps to the literal buttons on their XBOX 360/One just as a concrete example.

My understanding of this thread is that not only is the current default mapping unintuitive, it’s also different than the way the default inputs are mapped playing the same games via other cores. Based on this understanding, it would be an issue for each of the affected MAME cores rather than a libretro/RetroArch issue per se.

It may not be directly related to the Development thread I linked, but because it also deals with MAME core input mapping, the process to fix this in on the core end would be pretty similar.

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great, i think you did understood me to 100% correctly! :slight_smile:
have moved it to the Development category now (or where it make sense to place it better ?), Thank you very much for your excellent german-english-mess-reading-and-translation-skills :smiley: maybe you can check my issue on your own setup at times… ?

We have had some practice during all of your excellent testing of my playlist and mame category apps! I know you are very thorough with your bug reports.

Edit: It’s so much easier to test MAME 2014 with Lakka now.

My top priority is to get lightgun devices that use absolute coordinates working with RetroArch, but as soon as I get that done I’m glad to help document this issue next.

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For Double Dragon 2 (ddragon2), we should follow what other games do, like Dynasty Wars (dynwar). Retropad layout in mind (Nintendo layout):

…X – Jump

…Y…A – Punch / Right Kick

…B – Punch / Left Kick

We may change ddragon as well

this layout makes it hard to press Jump and Left Attack same time…

i think its better use a cabinet-oriented layout (with B for Jump, Y for Left Attack and A for right Attack [Nintendo Style Buttons])

Pic of Arcade Controll Panel …

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So, for ddragon2:

…X

…Y*…A – Punch / Right Kick

…B – Jump

.* Punch / Left Kick

I liked this design, and it follows others beat 'em up with B as Jump


For ddragon:

…X

…Y*…A – Punch

…B – Jump

.* Kick


Should we change altbeast too? It resembles ddragon case

There’s nothing wrong with them, if you like buttons mapped to retropad Y and B, use FB Alpha I guess.

Final Fight and others Beat 'em up are usually: A for Attack, B for Jump. FB Alpha is like that if you choose “Control scheme = arcade”, if it’s = gamepad, then Y = Attack, B = Jump

Hopefully there will be an arcade/gamepad switch for the MAME cores too if I understand what’s going on in the other thread.

FB Alpha has some issues too, which MAME does better ihmo, see https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/issues/102

Take a look at https://github.com/libretro/mame2014-libretro/pull/55

sorry. that i’m not able to explain it further. But MUCH Thanks to all, for your attention and help in this case.

for now, i stick with FBA and mainly Standalone-Mame (just to play games). But i will try around with RA-Mame sometimes later again. wish you a nice weekend !!! :slight_smile:

Hey, @shakalakka, sergiobenrocha2 has just fixed Double Dragon, Altered Beast, and Dynasty wars based on your report:

Your explanation is working well for those titles. If you have other games to report for MAME 2014 please do.

Based on looking at that PR I feel like I can create this kind of fix for MAME 2014 myself now, although I do prefer it if a more experienced developer like @sergio-br2 is involved :slight_smile:

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You just need to include a new section for your game, swap some buttons, and compile to see if it works, don’t need to be experienced at all :stuck_out_tongue:

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the titles i have listed were all only examples. I think that there are MUCH MUCH more (for me it seem nearly all beside the Neogeo and SF-like Capcom games). But if other people think there is nothings wrong with the mappaing for all games in generally it can only be something wrong with my input-setup/configs or myself…

on 2-button Shoot em Up Games i noticed that the Buttons are swapped (on my setup at least?!) simply throu pressing constantly the wrong button (smartbomb) at first :slight_smile:

for 3-button games … just played deathsmiles and double dragon 2 for being sure there is something messed up with the button mappings :slight_smile:
I will say i have only compared it to my personal intuition and the FBA-core if possible or standalone mame. maybe viewed a cabinet-panel. but nothing great!

I think (if my system is correctly) there its something wrong with the Standard-Mapping for games that are not “hand-corrected” manualy.
Mame has a very accurate (arcade layout matching) Keyboard Mapping wich is great for 99,9 % of the games out of the box. For my standalone Mame i just hooked up these keyboard-keys to my arcadesticks and Controllers, an exclusion/correction here and there and voila… most games plays very much like the originals input-wise. Without setting up each one seperatly or play with “cryptic” mappings…

i wonder these mame default button layout can be used in Retroarch-Mame, too - instead of using an very own layout… but that only my opinion to this.

Btw, there are some games that it’s not possible to assign default buttons, like Super Monaco GP (smgp) and After Burner II (aburner2). You have to change them in the MAME osd screen

See https://github.com/libretro/mame2014-libretro/issues/27

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