X-Arcade adapter I-Pac idea...

[Cameronj]

Hey guys,
I was just thinking about the X-Arcade console adapter coolness and had an idea...

Could you use one of these adapters with an I-Pac?
I am assuming that the X-Arcade controller sends key presses out the interface and the console adapter takes the keypresses and applies them to the relevant console control. If you were to make a cable that could connect an I-Pac to one of the adapters and you set the IPAC up to send the same key presses that the X-Arcade does, couldn't this work?? (assuming you had the right pinout)

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Cameron

[abrannan]

AFAIK, that's not the way it works.  I believe the way it work is that the x-arcade adapter send out the right signal line for the adapter that's plugged into it (You only need 6 lines for two controllers, I think), which leaves you three pins to denote which controller is plugged in (for a total of 8 possible controller cable choices).  What you would need is for I-Pac or KeyWiz to output to a 9 pin connector, which you could hack up your controller cords to.  You'd also need to change the programming on the I-Pac or KeyWiz to output a different signal depending on the controller that's attached.  Which would essentially make it an x-arcade adapter.  It's sort of the reverse of the JUMP interface:

http://www.dreamcliff.com/personal/daniel/jump/index.html


But then again, I could be wrong.

[Cameronj]

Yeah I see your point. You are probably right.  

I wonder what it would take to make a device that took signals from one of the common interfaces and converted it to output signals for different consoles?

Thanks for the reply.

Cameron

[AndyWarne]

This would not work because the X-Arcade does not use keyboard protocol between the panel and the interface.
I have never been personally very excited about the idea of an X-Box interface for two reasons, one because I am not into consoles and also because there would be limitations as the X-Box uses analog controls. But I have had masses of requests for this and so have designed one anyway. It is only on the test bench stage at the moment.

[Cameronj]

Cool!
Well I'm sure you will have a lot of customers. Will the interface only be for Xbox or other consoles as well?

Cameron

[slicer_d]

Hey Cameron I dont know how technically inclined you are but if you really really want to build a single box that would play on multiple consoles you could use an old printer serial switch I have seen quite a few that have 4 ports so you could do any combination of 4 consoles like PS2 XBOX Dreamcast and GC but you would have to hack all 4 contollers and then run your buttons into the switch box then select which controller you want to use.

That would give you the option to use 4 different systems but it would also leave you with four controller cables hanging out the back of your stick.  I guess if you built it with a latch you could store the extras inside.  Or you could make each one into a 9 pin serial connection and then detach and atach whichever cable you wanted to use.  Or if you realy wanted to get fancy you could get a 4 port, 9 pin, serial cable selector and run all the cables through that.  That way you would have only one port coming out the back but you would still have to switch the clable for each console so I dont know if thats really worth it.  But then all you would have to do select the console and attach the cable in the end with all the controller hacks it might cost you a couple of bucks but it would still probably be cheaper then a X-ARCADE and have better controlls.

Of course all this is just theory I'm only assuming that these serial cable selectors dont ruin the voltage or any thing.  But I would assume that as long as you get an old manual one it should work.  You could also make the conroller 2 player as well because the printer serial switches have like about 24 maybe 27 pins cant remember but that should give you enough to do a start select capcom 6 button layout and two joysticks for each player.  Of course this would take twice as many controllers making it quite a bit more expensive but if you shop around a be thrifty it should still be cheaper then the X-arcade.

Well that was long I might do this over winter break I know I going to build something it just bepends on how involved I want to get.

Hope that gives you some ideas
Slicer_D