Is there any way to control DIP switches with keys or gamepad buttons? One particular ROM, Ridge Racer (Rev. RR3, World) uses DIP switches for the gearshift. That is a Big Problem, because it means there's no way to control the shifter when playing.

I'm not 100% sure whether this is an SDLMAME issue. Could be a bad ROM image, although MAME 0.138 says it is "correct." It seems really strange that the gearshift doesn't show up as a control like the others (steering, accelerator, etc.).

Also not sure where to ask about specific games. I can't find a forum where anyone's discussing this problem.

Seriously? No one knows anything? This game has been around for a long time. There has got to be a way to use the shifter.

The mapping is identical to stock MAME; you may have better luck asking the general user population on mameworld.info.

In general since Ridge Racer won't run perfect 60/60 on 99.9% of PCs it's probably not something that's really been looked into though.

I did, and there's now a lively discussion about providing for gearshifts in all sorts of racing games.

It seems MAME doesn't have a control type that works for all such games. That's partly due to the huge diversity in how racing games handle the shifter. Some (Hard Drivin', Race Drivin') use a 2-axis, 8-bit, analog device to represent the gearshift. Ridge Racer's gearshift doesn't work that way, and it's not clear MAME will get proper support for it any time soon. Oh well.