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Alternative section of BYOAC
Dave_K.:
Well I almost fell off my chair when I read Saint's latest updates. A new "Alternatives" section with (gasp!) console adapters!? Could this be true? Could BYOAC actually acknowledge the fact that people use consoles and not just Mame in their cabinets!?
Nope. Going to the section shows how to connect console joysticks to your PC! No bias towards PC/MAME arcade controls on this site I tell ya!
-Dave
(sorry for the sarcasm)
saint:
Well, actually the same old section that's always been there just cleaned up. There's no particular bias, the whole purpose of this web site was interfacing arcade controls to computers. That's the roots of the site (http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade_welcome.html)
That said, there have been stabs at a broader field of info... Such as this page: http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade_dreamcast.shtml ...
We can only document what we know or what someone submits however. If you have something you'd like to submit on hooking up arcade controls to consoles I'd be happy to put it up.
I'm curious what in particular you're looking for though. A lot of what's on the site applies to hacking game console pads for game consoles as well as using them for PCs... If you can hack apart a PSX pad then you can plug it into a PSX as well as a PC...
Anyway, we're always open to suggestions.
--- saint
--- Quote from: Dave_K. on August 13, 2002, 02:45:20 pm ---
Well I almost fell off my chair when I read Saint's latest updates. A new "Alternatives" section with (gasp!) console adapters!? Could this be true? Could BYOAC actually acknowledge the fact that people use consoles and not just Mame in their cabinets!?
Nope. Going to the section shows how to connect console joysticks to your PC! No bias towards PC/MAME arcade controls on this site I tell ya!
-Dave
(sorry for the sarcasm)
--- End quote ---
Dave_K.:
I know the roots of this site (I was there during the days of Dave's Video Game Classics board).
But times change, and when I got my Dreamcast in 99, I hacked it to my arcade cabinet and found a nice compliment to the classic gaming expierence. Since then I've made numerous suggestions to add a "console" section to this site. I even offered content for Dreamcast video hacking. The response (from Tom at the time) was that he was working on a Dreamcast page (you mentioned it below) and didn't need any more content. That page never got linked into the site (is it even linked now??).
So I guess I've had a small chip on my shoulder since then, and like to poke fun at "Build Your Own PC Controls" from time to time when people ask console questions.
Maybe if I get a free weekend, I'll try putting together some information again (as long as it really goes into the site this time).
-Dave
Howard_Casto:
Actually times don't change.....
Although there is a minority of people making console-based cabs, the best way to put mame in a cab is still via the pc. The dreamcast and others are still good for the very old classics, but are simply too puny to run any of the more modern arcade games. I'm not saying that it's a bad alternative, I'm just saying compared to a real pc the dc is a toy as far as emulation is concerned.
Now with that being said... the xbox might be the exception... it's specs are so similar to a pc's that mame and other emulators actually behave like they would on a 700 mhz pc. (The specs of the xbox.)
But anyway, taking all of that into account, what exactly would you suggest for a console section? There is currently only two methods to interface arcade controls to a console.
#1 hack a gamepad (which is already covered in the alternatives section and is pretty much universal to any controller.)
# 2 buy a x-arcade (which doesn't require any building and would be jsut a link)
Video hacking has never been a major topic here even though there is a monitor forum for troubleshooting. If you look on the monitors page it's mostly concering wiring a arcade monitor to the pc. I've never heard of anyone hacking the dc or any of the other systems to work on an arcade monitor and the tv/vga options are farily self-explanitory in thoses cases.
That was a rather stupid remark about hooking console joysticks to your pc. As I said the only way you can hook arcade controls to the console is to hack a pad (which is covered) and plug it in to the console. (i hope to god you can figure out how to plug in a controller)
I'm not trying to start a flame war but there are quite obvious reasons why those suggested topics aren't covered. I just wanted to point some of them out to you. Not to mention what saint said, namely if you don't write it, it can't be posted. What this tells me is there simply isn't enough interest in console cabs for people to actually write anything on them.
Dave_K.:
Howard, I think you are looking at this from the wrong perspective (or maybe my rants were not clear). My interest in using a console in a cabinet is certainly NOT for Mame emulation. And the point is that this site (properly named "Build your own ARCADE controls") shouldn't be restricted to interfaces for Mame/PC alone. Its about (more generically) recreating the arcade expierence at home. So why can't this apply to consoles as well?
Now with the advent of the (now defunct) Dreamcast, we were seeing MODERN arcade games ported to a console. And THIS made a perfect complement to the classic Mame expierence. This is what I ment by "times a changing", we now have more options to explore in regards to the home arcade expierence (besides just Mame). And I think a site such as this should be flexable enough to offer people a wider choice of arcade expierences.
Ok with that out of the way, I'll proceed to your other comments.
So you've never herd of anyone hacking a console to work on an arcade monitor? Are you serious!? :-) I've answered plenty of people (in the forums and through email) on this site about hacking the VGA box for 15khz output. And plenty of more BYOACers have hacked consoles into their cabinets! And do you think hacking the Xbox or Gamecube for VGA or RGB is easy...think again.
Ah...console pad hacking. Yes the old PSX pads are indeed just like most PC pads, and the hack is essentially the same. But the PS2, Xbox, Gamecube pads is a totally different story.
There have been lots of discussion on hacking analog controls. Are you saying nobody will be interested in this content?? Now before you bring this discussion down the rats hole of "console games with analog support don't translate well to an arcade panel", well I offer you this: most people don't care about playing every single console game on cabinets...but I sure would like to play VF4, Tekken 4, Soul Calibur 1 and 2, (and so on) on my arcade cabinet. Are you saying nobody else shares this interest? How about PJ ranting that he would like to play Grand Turismo 3 in his sit down cabinet? What kind of analog steering control options are their for consoles?
Ok I think I've pretty much made my case in that YES there is still a lot of interest in content on Consoles which would be a welcome addition to this site. If you go back and re-read my previous post, you would see that I indeed tried to submit content awhile back...and who knows if other people did also. The fact that nothing was ever posted to the site could have detered people from contributing further. So don't go writing this off as something nobody is interested in. Honestly Howard, I can't believe you would write such flame bait. Now lets kiss and make up, shall we? ;D
-Dave
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