Left Alt key causes games to pause? Help!!

mamejay · February 18th, 2008

Hello Everyone,

Great forum you have here. I am new so please be kind. I have just discovered ePSXe and it is awesome. I have set it up in my cabinet and its works perfectly except for when you hit the left alt key (Which happens to be button 2 for controller 1) it pauses. I have checked the key configurations under the plugin and it is not set to this. I have tried to change the pause key but the game pause from the newly configured key and the alt key/2nd fire button.

This is a little annoying as I have a heap of emulators configured and I don't want to have to rewire the button to another key on the keyboard encoder.

Anyone have any ideas?

BTW I am using Pete's D3D Driver 1.76 plugin

Squall-Leonhart · February 18th, 2008

ALT is a system key in Windows, pressing alt raises the File Menu. you'll have to map it elsewhere.

mamejay · February 18th, 2008

Is there anyway of disabling this? Any ideas?

**jonc2006** · February 18th, 2008

probably through a registry hack of some sort but this takes more effort than its worth imo.

mamejay · February 18th, 2008

I am up for a reg hack. Why is this only happening for this emulator?

Is it possible to compile your own ePSXe with those keys disabled?
I know that mame32 and other windows emulators have these keys disabled

Hard core Rikki · February 18th, 2008

Quote:

Is it possible to compile your own ePSXe with those keys disabled?

...... no, for 2~3 reasons...

Quote:

I don't want to have to rewire the button to another key on the keyboard encoder.

is using the CTRL key instead not possible like, at all ?

mamejay · February 18th, 2008

The control key is already being used. I am using a ipaq keyboard encoder that uses the default mame keys which are ctrl, left-alt, space, shift, z and x.
I have already found out how to change it in windows registry changing the scan code mapper values. I am just looking for the value for the alt key and all should be good.
Anyone know how to do this?

Did a work around. The keyboard encoder I used has an interface to remap keys. Changed it there and away I go.

Squall-Leonhart · February 20th, 2008

MAME.. ERK,
your on your own. it has a default setup for a reason, that it works perfectly fine with.

mamejay · February 20th, 2008

Squall-Leonhart why you say ERK?

Is there some stigma with MAME? I would love to here any comments you may have...

Squall-Leonhart · February 20th, 2008

no, you really don't.

Really.

**mudlord** · February 20th, 2008

Quote:

I would love to here any comments you may have...

You would love to murder me on what I have against MAME....Paratech pretty much did..

mamejay · February 20th, 2008

I am getting lost here with all this talk.
So what you are saying is that you have a grudge against an emulator that works well, is fully configurable, emulates all the original classics that made the gaming industry what it is today.
And I would love to hear comments and not just 4 words stating what I do or do not want to hear.

**mudlord** · February 20th, 2008

Quote:

So what you are saying is that you have a grudge against an emulator that works well, is fully configurable, emulates all the original classics that made the gaming industry what it is today.

In English, yes. I have several major grudges against MAME as a whole.

Best to take the questions to PM, as some of my comments will make MAME fanatic's blood boil.

Better yet, I'm making a blog entry, when its done, feel free to post your views.

Code Monkey · February 24th, 2008

Back to the issue at hand, I make it a practice to avoid using system keys for any hotkey (without an expected combination....CTRL alone is not good, but CTRL-A is better) to avoid problems like this. MAME has this disabled for the very same reason, so all I can say is to remap the keys and get used to using a different key format than you already do generally, and leave system keys such as ALT and CTRL out of it, and especially don't use the F(x) keys for anything common, especially not in ePSXe.

I have no idea why you despise MAME so much, and I'd love to know why, but I won't get into that here.....

I have answered a similar question on another forum a while ago, for someone who actually had ALT, CTRL, and DEL in their button configuration, and then wondered why the program restarted his machine "at random"...

...go figure...

mamejay · February 24th, 2008

Thanks Code monkey. I reconfigured my IPAC keyboard encoder so now there are no system keys configured to anything.

February 18th, 2008	#1 (permalink)
mamejay Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne Posts: 7	Left Alt key causes games to pause? Help!! Hello Everyone, Great forum you have here. I am new so please be kind. I have just discovered ePSXe and it is awesome. I have set it up in my cabinet and its works perfectly except for when you hit the left alt key (Which happens to be button 2 for controller 1) it pauses. I have checked the key configurations under the plugin and it is not set to this. I have tried to change the pause key but the game pause from the newly configured key and the alt key/2nd fire button. This is a little annoying as I have a heap of emulators configured and I don't want to have to rewire the button to another key on the keyboard encoder. Anyone have any ideas? BTW I am using Pete's D3D Driver 1.76 plugin Last edited by mamejay; February 18th, 2008 at 12:37.

February 18th, 2008	#2 (permalink)
Squall-Leonhart VBA-M Team Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 5,785	ALT is a system key in Windows, pressing alt raises the File Menu. you'll have to map it elsewhere. __________________ TechZone3K \| NGOHQ \| Post Impact Productions READ THE NGEmu/EmuForums Rules of Conduct

February 18th, 2008	#4 (permalink)
jonc2006 Mod of Douchebagness™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: USA MD. Posts: 6,298	probably through a registry hack of some sort but this takes more effort than its worth imo. __________________ Antec 900/Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W/eVGA 780i SLI/Windows XP Media SP2 & Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1/Intel Core 2 Duo E8400@3.0Ghz/eVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB/Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer/Corsiar XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2/Dual WD Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM HDDs The Official jonc2006™ Emotion Chart. Courtesy of PCXL-Fan after he tried to steal my identity on Steam because I am so awesome. Official jonc2006™ Fan Club Official jonc2006™ Trophy Collection

February 18th, 2008	#7 (permalink)
mamejay Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne Posts: 7	The control key is already being used. I am using a ipaq keyboard encoder that uses the default mame keys which are ctrl, left-alt, space, shift, z and x. I have already found out how to change it in windows registry changing the scan code mapper values. I am just looking for the value for the alt key and all should be good. Anyone know how to do this? Did a work around. The keyboard encoder I used has an interface to remap keys. Changed it there and away I go. Last edited by mamejay; February 19th, 2008 at 12:33. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

February 20th, 2008	#8 (permalink)
Squall-Leonhart VBA-M Team Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 5,785	MAME.. ERK, your on your own. it has a default setup for a reason, that it works perfectly fine with. __________________ TechZone3K \| NGOHQ \| Post Impact Productions READ THE NGEmu/EmuForums Rules of Conduct

February 18th, 2008	#3 (permalink)
mamejay Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne Posts: 7	Is there anyway of disabling this? Any ideas?

February 18th, 2008	#5 (permalink)
mamejay Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne Posts: 7	I am up for a reg hack. Why is this only happening for this emulator? Is it possible to compile your own ePSXe with those keys disabled? I know that mame32 and other windows emulators have these keys disabled

February 20th, 2008	#9 (permalink)
mamejay Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne Posts: 7	Squall-Leonhart why you say ERK? Is there some stigma with MAME? I would love to here any comments you may have...

February 20th, 2008	#10 (permalink)
Squall-Leonhart VBA-M Team Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 5,785	no, you really don't. Really. __________________ TechZone3K \| NGOHQ \| Post Impact Productions READ THE NGEmu/EmuForums Rules of Conduct

February 20th, 2008	#12 (permalink)
mamejay Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne Posts: 7	I am getting lost here with all this talk. So what you are saying is that you have a grudge against an emulator that works well, is fully configurable, emulates all the original classics that made the gaming industry what it is today. And I would love to hear comments and not just 4 words stating what I do or do not want to hear.

February 24th, 2008	#14 (permalink)
Code Monkey GameShark H4xxorz Elite Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Seattle WA Posts: 39	Back to the issue at hand, I make it a practice to avoid using system keys for any hotkey (without an expected combination....CTRL alone is not good, but CTRL-A is better) to avoid problems like this. MAME has this disabled for the very same reason, so all I can say is to remap the keys and get used to using a different key format than you already do generally, and leave system keys such as ALT and CTRL out of it, and especially don't use the F(x) keys for anything common, especially not in ePSXe. I have no idea why you despise MAME so much, and I'd love to know why, but I won't get into that here..... I have answered a similar question on another forum a while ago, for someone who actually had ALT, CTRL, and DEL in their button configuration, and then wondered why the program restarted his machine "at random"... ...go figure...

February 24th, 2008	#15 (permalink)
mamejay Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Melbourne Posts: 7	Thanks Code monkey. I reconfigured my IPAC keyboard encoder so now there are no system keys configured to anything.

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