What's the latest on Wiimotes?

[Jamesbeat]

I'm thinking about getting some light guns, and I stumbled across some posts where people were talking about using Wiimotes.
This sounds like a great (ie cheap!) idea, but most of the posts seemed to be by people who were having problems getting them to work.

All of these posts were old, so I'm thinking that this probably means that either everyone has given up on them, or that they now work fine and are thus not newsworthy.

Have the problems been ironed out, or are Wiimotes just not worth bothering with?

[Rabidgamer]

I too was looking to use a wiimote as a gun. My understanding is it works as a mouse so I'm not sure if 2 players will work.
I have a bluetooth usb adapter, sensor bar and a wiimote gun holder coming from China (looks like a Glock) so I should find out soon hopefully.
Just need to rewire the sensor bar to run off USB power first.

I guess a quick test would be to get light gun games working nicely with a mouse first and then the wiimote should handle it.

[drventure]

Mame can handle inputs from 2 (or more) mice simultaneously so that shouldn't be a problem

The main issue I had (as of several years ago) was pairing. With a Wii, wiimotes pair effortlessly. But no matter what I did, getting a wiimote to pair easily with a PC just never happened. It always took an insane amount if "fiddling" to get it going.

And that was +every single time+ I wanted to use a wiimote.

Maybe it's better now? But I haven't dug into it lately.

[Vigo]

Howard Casto did a lot of work on the Wiimotes with glovepie to figure out how to use them as lightguns, and wrote some utilities to help make it work well with mame. With all that has been keeping me busy lately, I haven't had a chance to personally try it out yet, but I would check these threads out.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,122143.msg1296242.html#msg1296242

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,122350.msg1298765.html#msg1298765

[WindDrake]

I use Howard's scripts with two Wiimotes and the "Buckshot" Shotgun lightgun shells. Works great.

[Jamesbeat]

That's encouraging

I'm really hoping that I can go the Wiimote route. The alternative seems to be a pair of Aimtraks, and they are pretty expensive compared to Wiimotes.

It seems that most of the trouble is caused by the fact that the Wiimote is bluetooth. What a pity there isn't a wired version.

I'm going to trawl ebay for a cheap Wiimote to experiment with.
If I can get it to work, I may even go so far as to use Windows for my Mame cab.

Rabidgamer, do you have a link for those gun shells that look like Glocks?
I'd like 1911s, but Glocks would be my second choice, and considering the shape of the Wiimote would actually make more sense.

[drventure]

I was the opposite. Using a completely wireless wiimote for a controller just seems way more "natural" than using an aimtrak and having to deal with a cord.

I'm going to have to check out Howard's scripts too. I also believe it has a lot to do with which bluetooth stack you end up using, but I'm not sure.

[Jamesbeat]

I absolutely agree with you that wireless would be nicer to use, but most of the difficulties seem to be brought about by the bluetooth connection.

What I meant was that I would rather deal with a simple, reliable wired connection than a flaky bluetooth one.
I read all sorts of stuff about problems with pairing (or keeping them paired), and if there was a wired version available, I think we'd probably all be using Wiimotes by now.

[Rabidgamer]

I ordered these (2 pack) http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6203209733.html

If you look in the wii guns section there is a wide selection. some that look like 1911's or shotguns or hold a nunchuck,etc. I figured the Glock looking one was good since the top is square and the wiimote is square.
The same ones can probably be found on ebay or amazon since they all come from China,etc.

[Jamesbeat]

Hmm. The grip is the wrong shape for a Glock, but it's close enough. Thanks for the link

[drventure]

I was really intrigued by this one

http://www.penguinunitedstore.com/products/Wii-Crossfire-Remote-Pistol.html

All in one unit. A little black paint and I think it could look quite nice.

A bit pricy, but not exorbitant

[Jamesbeat]

It looks ok, but at that price you're getting into Aimtrak module territory.
If I was going to spend that much, I'd buy Aimtrak modules and be done with it.

[drventure]

True, but aimtraks are wireless. That's the main thing the wiimote approach has going for it.

[drventure]

Also, to get a nice shell, you'll need to spring for both the wiimote and the shell. Considering that, that 39$ for the crossfire is still a bit more, but not much.

[arcadepcnut]

Also, to get a nice shell, you'll need to spring for both the wiimote and the shell. Considering that, that 39$ for the crossfire is still a bit more, but not much.

I have two of the older crossfires that work with the motion plus. you cant beat them. they look "arcadey" and they don't look like a wiimote. the new ones that are for sale now are inferior and don't work with the motion plus and are buggy. or is that vice versa. whichever new or old that works with motionplus is the version you want

[Jamesbeat]

True, but aimtraks are wireless. That's the main thing the wiimote approach has going for it.

I'm assuming that's a typo and that you meant to say that Aimtraks are not wireless?

I'm a little torn. I know that wireless (if it can be made to work reliably) should be better in theory than wired, but real arcade guns have stout armored cables, so wired guns would feel more authentic.

I'm kind of on the fence about which I would prefer on my cab.

[drventure]

Yeah. Sorry. I meant wired

I know what you mean about the armored cables though

If I was building a dedicated gun cab, I'd seriously consider gettin some armored cabling like that. Bonus is you can't loose the guns!

Like every thing else in this hobby, a lot of it comes down to personal taste

[drventure]

Also, to get a nice shell, you'll need to spring for both the wiimote and the shell. Considering that, that 39$ for the crossfire is still a bit more, but not much.

I have two of the older crossfires that work with the motion plus. you cant beat them. they look "arcadey" and they don't look like a wiimote. the new ones that are for sale now are inferior and don't work with the motion plus and are buggy. or is that vice versa. whichever new or old that works with motionplus is the version you want

Could you post some details of your setup (Bluetooth dongle, software, scripts etc). Definitely interested!

[nitrogen_widget]

Probably a silly question, but what about a modded Wii with SDLMame?
Can you use the wiimotes as guns natively in that situation?

I can get a wii with a dead optical drive cheap for homebrew and was wondering if anyone had gone this route.

[drventure]

I'm guessing a lot of the gun games are newer type games that require a decent amount of horse power to emulate. The Wii isn't a particularly fast processor.

But hell, doesn't hurt to try!

Replacing the DVD drive in a wii is pretty easy (just keep up with all those dang screws!)

I'll have to check out SDLMame. It'd certainly be good for older roms, in any case.

[nitrogen_widget]

I've read it uses .134 romset.
but, not sure how powerful a wii is in terms of performance in mame.

[Jamesbeat]

I've read it uses .134 romset.
but, not sure how powerful a wii is in terms of performance in mame.

I imagine it's pretty decent for classic games, but a lot of shooters are relatively recent, so the Wii would probably not have the necessary grunt.