AdvanceMAME Device Drivers(1)

NAME
device drivers - AdvanceMAME Device Drivers

This file describes the video, sound, joystick, mouse and keyboard drivers used by the Advance programs.

VIDEO DRIVERS

  Types of Drivers
The video drivers can be divided in two different categories:
•   Generate drivers able to program directly the video board.
•   System drivers able to use only the available video modes.

  Generate drivers
This set of drivers is able to program directly the video board to always generate a perfect video mode with the correct size and frequency.

They always work in ‘fullscreen’ output mode and generally support only a subset of video boards.

To function correctly these drivers require a correct configuration of the ‘device_video_*’ options.

The ‘Generate’ drivers are always the preferred choice.

  System drivers
This set of drivers is able to use only the video modes available on the operating system.

They can work in ‘fullscreen’ mode, ‘window’ mode and ‘zoom’ output mode using the video board hardware acceleration to stretch the image. The default output mode is ‘window’ if you run the program in a window manager, otherwise the output mode ‘fullscreen’ is chosen.

Please note that these drivers generally need to stretch the image losing a lot in image quality and speed.

These drivers don’t require any ‘device_video_*’ options because they cannot control how the video modes are generated.

  Available Generate Drivers
The following is the list of all the video drivers supported.

  fb - Generate Frame Buffer video (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and is able to create video modes using the Linux Kernel Frame Buffer interface.

All clocks, all RGB bit depths are available.

This driver is able to use the Linux fb API to synchronize with the vertical sync of the video mode, but generally it isn’t possible because the low-end drivers don’t support this feature. Anyway, if you run the program as root it can use the standard VGA registers to detect the vsync. This is the major limitation compared with the svgalib driver.

To allow any user to run the program as root, you can use the following commands to change the executable permissions:

    chown root:root /usr/local/bin/advmame
    chmod u+s /usr/local/bin/advmame

To use this driver you must activate the Console Frame Buffer support in your Linux kernel.

This driver is not available in X (when the environment DISPLAY variable is defined).

The Frame Buffer device opened is ‘/dev/fb0’ and ‘/dev/fb/0’, you can change it setting the FRAMEBUFFER environment variable.

The generic Frame Buffer ‘vesafb’ driver cannot be used because it doesn’t allow the creation of new video modes. If it’s your only option you can use it through the SDL library.

  svgalib - Generate SVGA video (Linux) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in Linux and is able to use video modes obtained tweaking the hardware registers of the recognized SVGA boards using the SVGALIB library.

All clocks, all RGB bit depths are available. This driver is generally able to synchronize with the vertical sync of the video mode.

To use these modes your video board must be supported by a ‘svgalib’ driver listed in the ‘cardlinx.txt’ file. To use this driver you need to install the SVGALIB library version 1.9.x.

To use this driver you need to correctly configure the SVGALIB HorizSync and VertRefresh options in the file /etc/vga/libvga.config file. You must use a range equal or a bit larger than the range specified with the AdvanceMAME ‘device_video_clock’ option.

This driver is not available in X (when the environment DISPLAY variable is defined).

In the ‘contrib/svgalib’ directory there are various SVGALIB patches to fix some problems with recent video boards, and to work with systems with kernel 2.6 and udev.

  svgaline - Generate SVGA video (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and is able to use video modes obtained tweaking the hardware registers of the recognized SVGA boards.

All clocks, all RGB bit depths are available.

To use these modes your video board must be supported by a ‘svgaline’ driver listed in the ‘carddos.txt’ file.

This driver is completely independent of the VGA/VBE BIOS of your board.

  vbeline - Generate VBE video (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and is able to use video modes obtained tweaking the standard VBE (VESA) BIOS mode changing the hardware registers of the SVGA.

All clocks, all RGB bit depths are available.

To use these modes your video board must be supported by a ‘vbeline’ driver listed in the ‘carddos.txt’ file.

These drivers work setting a video mode using the default VBE2 services and tweak some hardware SVGA registers to modify the obtained video mode. The driver ‘vbe3’ is an exception. It requires the presence of a VBE3 BIOS to change the frequency of the desired video mode. Unfortunately the standard VBE3 services don’t support a resolution size change.

The resolution is changed modifying only the standard VGA registers. This hack may or not may works. Also the interlaced modes are only rarely supported by the various VBE3 BIOS because they are very rarely used in the standard PC monitors.

If your video board isn’t supported by any drivers and you don’t have a VBE3 BIOS you can try installing a software VESA BIOS like the SciTech Display Doctor.

  vgaline - Generate VGA video (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and is able to use video modes obtained tweaking the hardware registers of the standard VGA.

Only the standard VGA pixel clocks 6.29, 7.08, 12.59, 14.16 MHz are available. Only 8 bit color modes. Only 64 kBytes of video memory.

This driver supports also text modes with pixel clocks 12.59, 14.16, 25.17, 28.32 MHz.

This driver is completely independent of the VGA BIOS of your board.

  svgawin - Generate SVGA video (Windows) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in Windows NT/2000/XP and is able to use video modes obtained tweaking the hardware registers of the recognized SVGA boards.

All clocks, all RGB bit depths are available.

To use these modes your video board must be supported by a ‘svgawin’ driver listed in the ‘cardwin.txt’ file.

To use this driver you need to install the included SVGAWIN driver. Please read the ‘svgawin.txt’ file carefully.

This driver is experimental. At present it’s only tested on Windows 2000 with a GeForce 2 board. It may not work will all the other boards.

  Available System Drivers
The following is the list of all the System video drivers supported.

  sdl - System SDL video (Linux, Windows and Mac OS X)
This driver works in Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and is able to use video modes reported by the SDL graphics library.

It supports all RGB bit depths available and the YUV mode.

The output in the YUV mode is generally accelerated, and can be used to scale the video output to an arbitrary size. You can enable this feature with the ‘-device_video_output overlay’ option.

You can change some options of this driver using the SDL specific environment variables described in the contrib/sdl/env.txt file.

  slang - System sLang text video (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and is able to use current terminal text mode from the Linux sLang library.

  curses - System curses text video (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and is able to use current terminal text mode from the Linux ncurses library.

  vbe - System VBE video (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and is able to use video modes reported by the VBE BIOS.

SOUND DRIVERS

  Available Drivers
The following is the list of all the sound drivers supported.

  alsa - ALSA sound (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it uses the ALSA sound library.

  oss - OSS sound (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it uses the OSS sound library.

  sdl - SDL sound (Linux, Windows and Mac OS X)
This driver works in Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and it uses the SDL library.

It isn’t able to use the hardware volume control of the sound card. The volume changes are simulated reducing the sample values.

It isn’t able to precisely control the amount of bufferized samples. This means that it may add a small latency on the sound output.

You can change some options of this driver using the SDL specific environment variables described in the contrib/sdl/env.txt file.

  seal - SEAL sound (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and it uses the SEAL sound library with some specific changes for MAME.

The source patch and the library source can be downloaded from the MAME site:

    http://www.mame.net/

  allegro - Allegro sound (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and it uses the Allegro library.

  vsync - VSYNC sound (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and it uses the VSync sound drivers from the VSyncMAME emulator.

More info is in the VSyncMAME page:

    http://vsynchmame.mameworld.net/

INPUT DRIVERS

  Available Keyboard Drivers
The following is the list of all the keyboard drivers supported.

  event - Kernel Input-Event interface (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it uses the new style input-event interface of the Linux kernel.

It supports more than one keyboard at the same time.

You can change console with ALT+Fx. No other hotkeys are available. The hotkeys can be optionally disabled.

For an emergency keyboard restore you can use the emergency Linux SysRq key. Check:

    http:///usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt

Leds control is supported.

  raw - Kernel keyboard (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it uses directly the Linux kernel keyboard interface.

It supports only one keyboard.

You can change console with ALT+Fx and break the program with CTRL+C. No other hotkeys are available. The hotkeys can be optionally disabled.

For an emergency keyboard restore you can use the emergency Linux SysRq key. Check:

    http:///usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt

Leds control is supported.

  sdl - SDL keyboard (Linux, Windows and Mac OS X)
This driver works in Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and it uses the SDL library.

It supports only one keyboard.

You can change some options of this driver using the SDL specific environment variables described in the contrib/sdl/env.txt file.

In a Window Manager environment you can switch to fullscreen pressing ALT+ENTER.

Leds control is not supported.

  svgalib - SVGALIB keyboard (Linux) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in Linux and it uses the SVGALIB library.

It supports only one keyboard.

You can change console with ALT+Fx and break the program with CTRL+C. No other hotkeys are available. The CTRL+C hotkey can be optionally disabled. The ALT+Fx hotkeys are always enabled.

For an emergency keyboard restore you can use the emergency Linux SysRq key. Check:

    http:///usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt

Leds control is not supported.

  allegro - Allegro keyboard (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and it uses the Allegro library.

It supports only one keyboard.

You can break the program pressing CTRL+C, CTRL+BREAK or ALT+CTRL+END.

Leds control is supported.

  Available Joystick Drivers
The following is the list of all the joystick drivers supported.

  event - Kernel Input-Event interface (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it uses the new style input-event interface of the Linux kernel.

It supports more than one joystick or light-gun at the same time.

For USB devices this driver doesn’t require any configuration. It’s able to autodetect all the present hardware.

This driver is also able to correctly report the type of devices found. You should for example expects to have the gas pedal mapped on the gas control of the game.

It can also be used with some custom devices connected at the Parallel Port. Details on how to build these custom interfaces are in the file:///usr/src/linux/Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt file.

It has a special support for the ACT Labs Lightgun to fix the wrong behavior of the light-gun when shooting out of screen.

The joysticks are searched on the /dev/input/eventX devices.

If you have a gameport joystick, the Linux Kernel Joystick driver may prevent a correct video vsync if the joystick polling is too slow. Generally it results in a missing frame every 5-10 seconds.

  raw - Kernel joystick (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it uses directly the Linux kernel joystick interface.

It supports up to 4 joysticks at the same time.

The joysticks are searched on the /dev/jsX and /dev/input/jsX devices.

If you have a gameport joystick, the Linux Kernel Joystick driver may prevent a correct video vsync if the joystick polling is too slow. Generally it results in a missing frame every 5-10 seconds.

  sdl - SDL joystick (Linux, Windows and Mac OS X)
This driver works in Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and it uses the SDL joystick interface.

It supports more than one joystick at the same time.

You can change some options of this driver using the SDL specific environment variables described in the contrib/sdl/env.txt file.

  svgalib - SVGALIB joystick (Linux) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in Linux and it uses the SVGALIB library.

It supports up to 4 joysticks at the same time.

The joysticks are searched on the /dev/jsX devices.

If you have a gameport joystick, the Linux Kernel Joystick driver may prevent a correct video vsync if the joystick polling is too slow. Generally it results in a missing frame every 5-10 seconds.

  allegro - Allegro joystick (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and it uses the Allegro library.

It supports only one joystick.

Details on how to build the Parallel Port hardware interfaces for SNES, PSX, N64 and other pads are in the Allegro sources.

  lgrawinput - Light Gun (Windows XP)
This driver works in Windows XP and it support lightguns using the Windows mouse interface.

It supports more than one lightgun at the same time of the following types:
•   SMOG Lightgun (http://lightgun.splinder.com/)
•   Acts Labs Lightgun (http://www.act-labs.com/)

The lightgun is automatically calibrated before every use. You must move the lightgun over the whole screen every time the program starts or changes video mode.

  Available Mouse Drivers
The following is the list of all the mouse drivers supported.

  event - Kernel Input-Event interface (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it uses the new style input-event interface of the Linux kernel.

It supports more than one mouse at the same time.

For USB devices this driver doesn’t require any configuration. It’s able to autodetect all the present hardware.

For serial mouse you must use the ‘inputattach’ system utility to attach the serial line at the event interface. Generally this utility is available in the joystick calibration package of your distribution. In this case it’s probably simpler to use the ‘raw’ mouse driver.

The mice are searched on the /dev/input/eventX devices.

  raw - Serial mouse (Linux)
This driver works in Linux and it communicates directly with the configured serial mice. It also supports USB mice using the Linux mousedev module which maps mice to the /dev/input/mouseX devices.

It supports more than one mouse at the same time.

To use this driver you need to configure correctly the device_raw_* options to specify the mouse types and the mouse devices.

  sdl - SDL mouse (Linux, Windows and Mac OS X)
This driver works in Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and it uses the SDL mouse interface.

It supports only one mouse and only two axes.

You can change some options of this driver using the SDL specific environment variables described in the contrib/sdl/env.txt file.

  svgalib - SVGALIB mouse (Linux) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in Linux and it uses the SVGALIB library.

It supports only one mouse.

To use this driver you need to configure correctly the SVGALIB mouse support in the file /etc/vga/libvga.config file.

  allegro - Allegro mouse (DOS) [OBSOLETE]
This driver works in DOS and it uses the Allegro library.

It supports up to 2 mice at the same time using the special ‘optimous’ driver present in the ‘contrib/’ directory.

  rawinput - Raw input interface (Windows)
This driver works in Windows XP using the raw input interface.

It supports more than one mouse at the same time.

For any mouse up to two axes, one wheel and five buttons are supported.

This driver is the preferred choice for Windows XP.

Please note that this driver is not intented to be used in a window environment. The application takes the control of the mouse and doesn’t allow to switch to other applications. It’s mainly intented for a fullscreen environment.

  cpn - CPN custom driver interface (Windows)
This driver works in Windows 2000/XP using the custom CPN mouse driver.

It supports more than one mouse at the same time.

For any mouse up to two axes, and three buttons are supported.

The CPN mouse driver is available at:

    http://cpnmouse.sourceforge.net/

and in the ‘contrib/cpn’ directory. Check the ‘install’ and ‘unknown’ files for install instructions.

Please note that this driver is not intented to be used in a window environment. The application takes the control of the mouse and doesn’t allow to switch to other applications. It’s mainly intented for a fullscreen environment.

VIDEO DRIVERS CONFIGURATION
The following are the video configuration options available for all the programs.

  Common Configuration Options

  device_video
Selects the video driver to use.

device_video auto | (DEVICE[/MODEL])+

Options:
    auto Automatic detection of all the available drivers (default).

The order of detection:
    DOS svgaline, vbeline, vgaline, vbe.
    Linux svgalib, fb, sdl, slang, curses.
    Mac OS X sdl.
    Windows svgawin, sdl.

Options for Linux:
    svgalib SVGA generated graphics modes with the SVGALIB 1.9.x library.
    fb SVGA generated graphics modes with the Linux Console Frame Buffer.
    slang Text video modes with the sLang library.
    curses Text video modes with the ncurses library.
    sdl SDL graphics and fake text modes.

Options for Mac OS X:
    sdl SDL graphics and fake text modes.

Options for DOS:
    svgaline SVGA generated graphics modes.
    svgaline/nv3_leg SVGA legacy driver for nVidia boards. If the new driver doesn’t work try this one.
    svgaline/savage_leg SVGA legacy driver for S3 boards. If the new driver doesn’t work try this one.
    vbeline VBE generated graphics modes.
    vgaline VGA generated text and graphics modes.
    vbe VBE graphics modes.

Options for Windows:
    svgawin SVGA generated graphics modes with the SVGAWIN included library. To use this driver you need to install the ‘svgawin.sys’ driver with the ‘svgawin.exe’ command line utility.
    svgawin/nv3_leg SVGA legacy driver for nVidia boards. If the new driver doesn’t work try this one.
    svgawin/savage_leg SVGA legacy driver for S3 boards. If the new driver doesn’t work try this one.
    sdl SDL graphics and fake text modes.

Please note that to use the utilities ‘advv’ and ‘advcfg’ you must at least select a graphics and a text video driver. The available text video drivers are ‘vgaline’ for DOS, ‘slang’, ‘curses’ for Linux and ‘sdl’ for Windows.

You can force the detection of a specific model of video board adding the name of the model driver after the driver name using the ‘/’ separator. For example to force the ‘vbe3’ model detection of the ‘vbeline’ driver you must specify ‘vbeline/vbe3’.

To get the list of all the available models try using the ‘help’ model name. A short help will be printed.

Please note that forcing a specific video driver is discouraged. Generally you don’t need it.

For a more complete description of the drivers check the previous ‘VIDEO DRIVER’ section.

Example to enable the ‘vbeline’ and the ‘vgaline’ drivers with auto-detection for DOS:

    device_video vbeline vgaline

Example to force the ‘vbeline/vbe3’ driver and the ‘vgaline’ driver for DOS:

    device_video vbeline/vbe3 vgaline

Example to enable the ‘fb’ and ‘slang’ driver for Linux:

    device_video fb slang

  device_video_output
Select the output mode.

device_video_output auto | window | fullscreen | overlay

Options:
    auto Automatically chosen (default).
    window Use a window display.
    fullscreen Use a fullscreen display.
    overlay Use a YUV fullscreen overlay using the video board hardware acceleration to display and stretch it. This mode is available only in some environments, like xv in X Window and DirectX in Windows. The specific color format used is YUY2.

  device_video_overlaysize
Select the favorite horizontal size to use with the ‘overlay’ output mode. The program selects the nearest available video mode.

device_video_overlaysize auto | SIZE

Options:
    auto Use the size of the current video mode (default). If not available tries 1280x1024.
    SIZE The user favorite horizontal size.

This option has effect only with the ‘overlay’ output mode.

  device_video_cursor
Select the mouse cursor mode.

device_video_cursor auto | off | on

Options:
    auto Automatically choose (default). The cursor is enabled in window modes, and disabled in fullscreen modes.
    off Always off.
    on Always on, only if the video mode support it.

  Generate Configuration Options
The following are the common video configuration options available for all ‘generate’ video drivers, i.e. all the video drivers with the exception of ‘sdl’ and ‘vbe’. The ‘sdl’ and ‘vbe’ video drivers simply ignore these options.

  device_video_clock
Specify the monitor frequency range in term of horizontal and vertical clocks. This option is MANDATORY. Generally these values are specified in the technical page of your monitor manual.

device_video_clock PIXEL_CLOCK / HORZ_CLOCK / VERT_CLOCK [; ...]

Options:
    PIXEL_CLOCK Pixel clock range in MHz. The lower value is the lower clock generable by your video board. The higher value is the video bandwidth of your monitor. If you don’t know these values you can start with ‘5 - 100’ which essentially enable any video mode.
    HORZ_CLOCK Horizontal clock range in kHz.
    VERT_CLOCK- Vertical clock range in Hz.

For any range you can specify a single value like ‘60’ or a range of values like ‘50 - 60’. For multistandard TVs and monitors you can use more clock specifications separating them with ‘;’.

For example:

    device_video_clock 5 - 50 / 15.62 / 50 ; 5 - 50 / 15.73 / 60

Check the ‘install.txt’ file for examples and other information.

  device_video_modeline
Define a video modeline. The modeline format is compatible with the format used by the Linux SVGALIB library and by the XFree Window system.

device_video_modeline Name CLOCK HDE HRS HRE HT VDE VRS VRE VT
    [-hsync] [-vsync] [+hsync] [+vsync] [doublescan] [interlace]

Options:
    Name Name of the video mode. You can use the quotes ’‘ for the names with spaces.
    CLOCK Pixel clock in MHz
    HDE HRS HRE HT Horizontal ‘Display End’, ‘Retrace Start’, ‘Retrace End’, ‘Total’
    VDE VRS VRE VT Vertical ‘Display End’, ‘Retrace Start’, ‘Retrace End’, ‘Total’
    -hsync -vsync +hsync +vsync Polarization mode.
    doublescan Doublescan mode.
    interlace Interlaced mode.

Examples:

    device_video_modeline tweak320x240 12.59 320 336 356 400 240 \
        249 254 262 doublescan -hsync -vsync

  device_video_format
Select the format of the video modes to create. You can insert more than one of these option.

device_video_format HCLOCK HDE HRS HRE HT VDE VRS VRE VT

Options:
    HCLOCK Horizontal clock in Hz
    HDE HRS HRE HT VDE VRS VRE VT Like the modeline option

When a new modeline is created, AdvanceMAME uses a linear interpolation of the two formats with the nearest horizontal clock.

The default value of this option is for an Arcade 15 kHz monitor:

    15720 0.737 0.075 0.074 0.113 0.916 0.012 0.012 0.060

and for an Arcade 25 kHz monitor:

    25000 0.800 0.020 0.100 0.080 0.922 0.006 0.012 0.060

and for a VGA 31.5 kHz monitor:

    31500 0.800 0.020 0.120 0.060 0.914 0.019 0.004 0.063

Which one of these defaults is used depends on the setting of the ‘device_video_clock’ option.

  device_video_singlescan/doublescan/interlace
Limit the use of certain features.

device_video_singlescan yes | no
device_video_doublescan yes | no
device_video_interlace yes | no

Options:
    yes Permits the use of the feature if the low-end driver allows it (default).
    no Disable completely the feature.

  device_color_palette8/br8/bgr15/bgr16/bgr24/bgr32/yuy2
Limit the use of some bit depths. If you known that the program doesn’t work well with a specific bit depth you can disable it.

device_color_palette8 yes | no
device_color_bgr8 yes | no
device_color_bgr15 yes | no
device_color_bgr16 yes | no
device_color_bgr24 yes | no
device_color_bgr32 yes | no
device_color_yuy2 yes | no

Modes:
    palette8 Palettized 8 bits mode.
    bgr8 RGB 8 bits mode.
    bgr15 RGB 15 bits mode.
    bgr16 RGB 16 bits mode.
    bgr24 RGB 24 bits mode.
    bgr32 RGB 32 bits mode.
    yuy2 YUV mode in the YUY2 format.

Options:
    yes Permits the use of the bit depth if the low-end driver allows it (default).
    no Disable completely the bit depth.

  device_video_fastchange
Enable or disable the fast video mode change. If enabled the current video mode is not reset before setting another video mode. The reset isn’t generally required, but some limited DOS video BIOS need it. So, the fast change is disabled for default.

device_video_fastchange yes | no

Options:
    yes Enable the fast video mode change.
    no Disable the fast video mode change (default).

  vbeline Configuration Options
The following are the common video configuration options available only for the ‘vbeline’ DOS video driver.

  device_vbeline_mode
Select which ‘vbe’ mode to use when generating ‘vbeline’ modes.

The use of this option is discouraged, it’s present only for testing.

device_vbeline_mode smaller | bigger | ...

Options:
    smaller Use the biggest ‘vbe’ mode contained in the ‘vbeline’ mode (default).
    bigger Use the smallest ‘vbe’ mode which contains the ‘vbeline’ mode.
    smaller_upto640 Like ‘smaller’ but not bigger than 640x480.
    bigger_upto640 Like ‘bigger’ but not bigger than 640x480.
    320 Use always the 320x240 mode.
    400 Use always the 400x300 mode.
    512 Use always the 512x384 mode.
    640 Use always the 640x480 mode.
    800 Use always the 800x600 mode.

  svgaline Configuration Options
The following are the common video configuration options available only for the ‘svgaline’ DOS video driver.

  device_svgaline_skipboard
Selects how many board skip in the video card detection. If you have more than a video card on your system you and the wrong one is used you can force to skip an arbitrary number of video boards.

device_svgaline_skipboard 0 | 1 | 2 | 3

Options:
    0 Don’t skip any board (default).
    1 Skip 1 boards.
    2 Skip 2 boards.
    3 Skip 3 boards.

Examples:

    device_svgaline_skipboard 1

  device_svgaline_divideclock
Divide the pixelclock using the VGA sequencer. It should help to support lower pixel clocks on some boards.

The use of this option is discouraged, it’s present only for testing.

device_svgaline_divideclock yes | no

Options:
    yes Divide the clock by 2.
    no Don’t divide the clock (default).

  svgawin Configuration Options
The following are the common video configuration options available only for the ‘svgawin’ Windows video driver.

  device_svgawin_skipboard
Selects how many board skip in the video card detection. If you have more than a video card on your system you and the wrong one is used you can force to skip an arbitrary number of video boards.

device_svgawin_skipboard 0 | 1 | 2 | 3

Options:
    0 Don’t skip any board (default).
    1 Skip 1 boards.
    2 Skip 2 boards.
    3 Skip 3 boards.

Examples:

    device_svgawin_skipboard 1

  device_svgawin_stub
Selects how the driver uses the Windows graphics.

The use of this option is discouraged, it’s present only for testing.

Options:
    none Don’t use the Windows graphics support.
    window Create a stub window before setting the video mode.
    fullscreen Create a stub fullscreen window before setting the video mode (default).

  device_svgawin_divideclock
Divides the pixelclock using the VGA sequencer. It should help to support lower pixel clocks on some boards.

The use of this option is discouraged, it’s present only for testing.

device_svgawin_divideclock yes | no

Options:
    yes Divide the clock by 2.
    no Don’t divide the clock (default).

SOUND DRIVERS CONFIGURATION

  device_sound
Specify the sound-card.

device_sound auto | none | DEVICE

Options:
    none No sound.
    auto Automatic detection (default).

Options for Linux:
    alsa ALSA sound interface.
    oss OSS sound interface.
    sdl SDL sound interface.

Options for Mac OS X:
    sdl SDL sound interface.

Options for DOS:
    seal SEAL automatic detection.
    seal/sb Sound Blaster.
    seal/pas Pro Audio Spectrum.
    seal/gusmax Gravis Ultrasound Max.
    seal/gus Gravis Ultrasound.
    seal/wss Windows Sound System.
    seal/ess Ensoniq Soundscape.
    allegro Allegro automatic detection.
    allegro/sb10 Sound Blaster 1.0.
    allegro/sb15 Sound Blaster 1.5.
    allegro/sb20 Sound Blaster 2.0.
    allegro/sbpro Sound Blaster Pro.
    allegro/sb16 Sound Blaster 16.
    allegro/audio Ensoniq AudioDrive.
    allegro/wss Windows Sound System.
    allegro/ess Ensoniq Soundscape.
    vsync/sb Sound Blaster.
    vsync/sbwin Sound Blaster (Windows).
    vsync/ac97 AC97.
    vsync/ac97win AC97 (Windows).
    vsync/gusmax Gravis Ultrasound Max.
    vsync/gus Gravis Ultrasound.
    vsync/audio Ensoniq AudioDrive.
    vsync/wss Windows Sound System.
    vsync/ess Ensoniq Soundscape.

Options Windows:
    sdl SDL sound interface.

  alsa Configuration Options

  device_alsa_device
Select the alsa output device.

device_alsa_device DEVICE

Options:
    DEVICE Output device (default ’default’).

Other possible choices generally are ’hw:0,0’ for using the frequency and format chosen directly by the hardware, or ’dmix’ for allow concurrent access to other applications at the audio card.

Example:

    device_alsa_device dmix

If you want to configure the ALSA library to remap the ‘default’ device to the ‘dmix’ device for all the applications, you can create the ‘.asoundrc’ file in your home directory with the following content:

    pcm.!default {
        type plug
        slave.pcm dmixer
    }
    pcm.dmixer {
        type dmix
        ipc_key 1024
        slave {
            pcm hw:0,0
            period_time 0
            period_size 1024
            buffer_size 16384
            rate 44100
        }
        bindings {
            0 0
            1 1
        }
    }
    ctl.dmixer {
        type hw
        card 0
    }

Note that the suggested ‘.asoundrc’ on the ALSA web site has a lower ‘buffer_size’ value (4096). For AdvanceMAME a bigger buffer is required.

  device_alsa_mixer
Select the alsa mixer device.

device_alsa_mixer DEVICE

Options:
    DEVICE Mixer device. The special ’channel’ value is used to adjust the volume changing the samples instead of using the card mixer. Other values like ‘default’ are used to select the ALSA mixer. (default ’channel’).

  sdl Configuration Options

  device_sdl_samples
Select the size of the audio fragment of the SDL library.

The use of this option is discouraged, it’s present only for testing.

device_sdl_samples 512 | 1024 | 2048 | 2560 | 3072 | 3584 | 4096 | 6144 | 8192

Options:
    SAMPLES Number of samples of an audio fragment (default 2048 in Windows, 512 otherwise).

Lower values can be used to reduce the sound latency. Increase the value if your hear a choppy audio.

INPUT DRIVERS CONFIGURATION

  device_keyboard
Selects the keyboard drivers.

device_keyboard auto | none

Options:
    none No keyboard.
    auto Automatic detection (default).

Options for Linux:
    event Linux input-event interface.
    svgalib SVGALIB keyboard interface.
    raw Linux kernel keyboard interface.
    sdl SDL keyboard interface. This driver is available only if the SDL video output is used.

If you are using the SDL video driver you must also use the SDL keyboard driver.

Options for Mac OS X:
    sdl SDL keyboard interface.

Options for DOS:
    allegro Allegro keyboard interface.

Options for Windows:
    sdl SDL keyboard interface.

  device_joystick
Selects the joystick driver.

device_joystick auto | none | DEVICE

Options:
    none No joystick (default).
    auto Automatic detection.

Options for Linux:
    event Linux input-event interface.
    svgalib SVGALIB joystick interface.
    raw Linux kernel joystick interface.
    sdl SDL joystick interface.

Options for Mac OS X:
    sdl SDL joystick interface.

Options for DOS:
    allegro Allegro automatic detection.
    allegro/standard Standard joystick.
    allegro/dual Dual joysticks.
    allegro/4button 4-button joystick.
    allegro/6button 6-button joystick.
    allegro/8button 8-button joystick.
    allegro/fspro CH Flightstick Pro.
    allegro/wingex Logitech Wingman Extreme.
    allegro/sidewinder Sidewinder.
    allegro/sidewinderag Sidewinder Aggressive.
    allegro/gamepadpro GamePad Pro.
    allegro/grip GrIP.
    allegro/grip4 GrIP 4-way.
    allegro/sneslpt1 SNESpad LPT1.
    allegro/sneslpt2 SNESpad LPT2.
    allegro/sneslpt3 SNESpad LPT3.
    allegro/psxlpt1 PSXpad LPT1.
    allegro/psxlpt2 PSXpad LPT2.
    allegro/psxlpt3 PSXpad LPT3.
    allegro/n64lpt1 N64pad LPT1.
    allegro/n64lpt2 N64pad LPT2.
    allegro/n64lpt3 N64pad LPT3.
    allegro/db9lpt1 DB9 LPT1.
    allegro/db9lpt2 DB9 LPT2.
    allegro/db9lpt3 DB9 LPT3.
    allegro/tgxlpt1 TGX LPT1.
    allegro/tgxlpt2 TGX LPT2.
    allegro/tgxlpt3 TGX LPT3.
    allegro/segaisa IF-SEGA/ISA.
    allegro/segapci IF-SEGA2/PCI.
    allegro/segapcifast IF-SEGA2/PCI.
    allegro/wingwarrior Wingman Warrior.

Options for Windows:
    sdl SDL joystick interface.

For the ‘allegro/psxlpt*’, ‘allegro/db9lpt*’, ‘allegro/tgxlpt*’ drivers you can see the source file ‘advance/dos/jalleg.c’ for instructions on how to build the lpt interface. See also the Allegro library source distribution.

  device_mouse
Selects the mouse driver.

device_mouse auto | none

Options:
    none No mouse (default).
    auto Automatic detection.

Options for Linux:
    event Linux input-event interface.
    svgalib SVGALIB mouse interface.
    raw Direct serial communication.
    sdl SDL mouse interface.

Options for Mac OS X:
    sdl SDL mouse interface.

Options for DOS:
    allegro Allegro mouse interface.

Options for Windows:
    sdl SDL mouse interface.

  raw Configuration Options

  device_raw_mousetype[0,1,2,3]
Select the type of the mouse.

device_raw_mousetype[0,1,2,3] auto | DEVICE

Devices:
    auto Auto detection. It works only sometimes, generally it’s better to manually select the type.
    pnp Plug And Play serial (3 buttons).
    ms Microsoft Mouse serial (3 buttons).
    ms3 Microsoft Intellimouse serial (3 buttons).
    ps2 PS/2 (3 buttons).
    imps2 Microsoft Intellimouse PS/2 (3 buttons).
    exps2 Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer PS/2 (5 buttons).
    msc Mouse System.
    mscgpm Mouse System compatible with GPM.
    mman Logitech MouseMan.
    mm Logitech MM series
    logi Logitech old protocol.
    bm Bus Mouse.
    spaceball Spacetec SpaceBall (6 buttons).
    wacomgraphire Wacom Graphire tablet/mouse.
    drmousee4ds Digital Research double-wheeled mouse.

The Linux mice under /dev/input/* are always of type ps2, imps2 or exps2.

Examples:

    device_raw_mousetype[0] ps2
    device_raw_mousetype[1] ms

  device_raw_mousedev[0,1,2,3]
Select the mouse device to use.

device_raw_mousedev[0,1,2,3] auto | DEVICE

Options:
    auto Automatically map to /dev/mouse or /dev/input/mouseX.
    DEVICE Complete path of the mouse device.

Examples:

    device_raw_mousedev[0] /dev/input/mouse0
    device_raw_mousedev[1] /dev/ttyS2

  lgrawinput Configuration Options

  device_lgrawinput_calibration
Select the type of calibration of the lightgun.

device_lgrawinput_calibration auto | none

Options:
    auto Automatically calibrates the lightgun before every use. You must move the lightgun over the whole screen every time the program starts or changes video mode (default).
    none Never calibrates the lightguns, but it assumes that the returned values are already scaled in the range 0 - 65536.

COPYRIGHT
This file is Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005 Andrea Mazzoleni.