Bliss-Box one adapter for it all

[ulao]

Hey guys, I have found myself coming to this forum a lot in my googling. There seems to be a lot of talk and interest for usb adapters and old school controllers. I figure some of you may dig this a bit.




Main page http://spawnlinux.dyndns.org/Bliss-Box/
Forums http://blissbox.freeforums.org/
Compatibility http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tGD-U_eW1Rc7rNyqkpgJuIg&output=html

As this project is mainly a hobby, there are a lot of customized requests.


If you have any questions feel free to ask.

FYI Version 1 was mainly for controller buttons and sticks. Version 2 is be for things like  mempaks and rumble. Otherwise, Version 1 supports every aspect of the controller possible. For example there is a method for PSX pressure, saturn 3d controller works, and all switches do what they should.

Features
    *  Auto Pause, most controllers have an auto pause when the controller is unplugged. When you are in the middle of a game and your fried, wife, or otherwise clueless parter trips over your cord resulting in NO GAME CONTROLLER, the game will pause Wink

    * Auto Detect, no switches needed. The Bliss-Box will detect the controller. The Bliss-Box is Out of the Box ready. Nothing need, no drivers, wiring, or setup. Plug in the controller, then the Bliss-Box, and you are done.

    * Upgrades. The chip is designed to be upgraded via the neogeo connector. If you know how to use an avr-isp you can do this on your own, otherwise it requires shipping to be upgraded. For avr info see the technical page.

    * Full emulation, each controller is fully emulated unless otherwise stated. For example psx2 pressure sensitive buttons work! Version 1.0 of the Bliss-Box did not indented to support rumble or mem pack reading. This is planned in 2.0 (see 2.0 notes in "what is new new" section)

2.0 is also available but only in beta. You can request 2.0 if you like but understanding its beta. It does encompass all working 1.0 features.  

*Auto Pause Detection, In addition to auto pause with 2.0 you can switch controllers in the fly. When you unplug, for example, a Saturn controller you can then choose any detectable controller and plug it in. The Bliss-Box will auto detect this controller and resume functionality without a flinch by the user. Very few controllers are not detectable. For example the Atari, Intellivision are not detectable, most others are.

* Global button mapping, In addition to the auto detection all buttons are laid out the same to mach common set ups. For example the snes y, b, x, a, are mapped like the neo-geo a, b, c, d, So that when you swith from one to the next you use the controller in the same manner. Both left most buttons ( snes:Y or neo:A ) are mapped to the emulator the same. Obviously some choices had to be made. See this spread sheet for details. Open to suggestions

* Force Feedback, Yes vibration ( rumble ) is supported in 2.0 with no drivers required. It was developed for a windows system and may or may not work on the ps3, linux or mac ( just never been tested). The following controllers support rumble: DreamCast, Nintendo 64, Playstation 1,2, and Game Cube

*UDLR mode, This mode will map all Up,Down,Left,Right buttons to the corresponding analog movements. So that you can switch to digital in the game and back out at any time. To do this you press shoulder left, shoulder right and the pause button all at once. To exit, press the same.

[mgb]

Thats a very cool little device. I like how you have options of less ports for those who may not want all of them.

[VanillaGorilla]

Good Idea; but..... The build quality puts me off at the price being asked. For $150 I expect something of an industrial grade quality. It would need labeling for each input, and all of the inputs should be on a single surface, preferably within a common mounting or installation form factor. It just looks very 'breaky'. I wouldn't let a kid near it thats for sure.

[ulao]

VanillaGorilla, yeah that is the only draw back.

It costs the price of 3 cars to have it professionally built. However this argument has gone on and on. The rebuttal is simple. Its open source, you can build it yourself. Or you can buy a $35 board and just twist your own wires together ( many people do this ). Your not paying $150 for the design, your paying to have some one build and cut the plastic box for you. Any fool can do this, its just very time consuming. So yes its $150 for my time because generally people are too lazy to do it them selves. It can take up to a week sometimes, but I think about 24 hours to make. And that only $6.25 an hour

No one has cars to sell for these fabrication companies, I dont know how people do it, I guess grants? Its the one thing stopping it from being sell-able. I have now contacted 30 companies most just turn the nose up. Though if anyone does know of a company that will build a design for a reasons price I will gladly give away a box ( or work something out). I was able to get Seeed studios to make the board, they wanted $100 up front and charge me a 1$ per board ( at bulk ). Now that is reasonable.

[EVEGames]

ulao,

HUGE thumbs up on this product
and thank you for bringing it to this forum.  I think you will do some good business here.  I like your style, I like the way you split out the price on a per-controller basis, and I like how you give the technically inclined among us plenty to work with on your Technical Info page... Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, man! What a goldmine.  Any ETA on Version 2, with Atari paddle support?

P.S.
It seems you mangled those links pretty good in your initial post, the first one resolves to "http://www."http.com//spawnlinux.dyndns.org/Bliss-Box/%22".  Might want to take a look at that.

- EVEGames

[ulao]

Hey EVEGames, thx so much for the kind words. Yeah those links were gummed up? all fixed up.

BTW: shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 2.0 is complete. Though do to adhering to the GPU, you have to be part of the beta team to get it. So far there are no major issue, bugs pop up here and there so beta will remain for quite some time. In order to release this I need to finalize it. So if you are interested in 2.0 there is no reason not to be a beta member as you will have access to the latest 2.0 versions. So its really the same thing, minus the wait and plus the beta.

To get 2.0: Simply, register on the forums and submit your request in the beta request thread
http://blissbox.freeforums.org/what-to-become-a-beta-tester-for-2-0-t61.html
Then order you box to your liking and request 2.0 beta instead of 1.0. You can always flash 1.0 at any time and then go back to 2.0 for more beta testing. So its a win win. BTW: paddles are working really well I'm now able to play arkanoid in mame for the first time with paddles ( the right way )